Between the years 1412 and 1418 Emperor Yongle of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) constructed of a massive Daoist architectural complex dedicated to the Daoist deity Zhenwu on Mt. Wudang in Hubei province. When Yongle took over Mt. Wudang, the mountain range was already filled with temples dedicated to Zhenwu. These temples had been built a hundred or so years earlier by Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) priests, but by the early Ming the structures had fallen into disrepair. Emperor Yongle’s motivation to reconstruct the temples stemmed from his belief that Zhenwu had aided him in his usurpation of the throne a decade earlier. Yongle not only rebuilt dozens of temples to Zhenwu on Mt. Wudang in the new architectural style of the Ming court, including one cast in bronze for the summit of the mountain, he also sponsored the production of steles, gazetteers, woodblock prints, and painted handscrolls in order to record Zhenwu’s “auspicious responses” to his construction project. In this lecture I will investigate the many ways in which Yongle’s architectural contributions to Mt. Wudang were promoted through these various mediums. I argue that Yongle was successful in rebranding the sacred site of Mt. Wudang as a product of his own creation, despite the fact that he relied almost entirely on the preexisting temple configurations and meanings when constructing it.

Image: Detail of Taiheshan Rui Tu, early 15th century