Lingyun Mountain
Lingyun Mountain Scenic Area is composed of three major parts: the Lingyun Mountain Taoist Culture Tour Area, the Baishan Buddhist Culture Tour Area, and the Tushan Confucian Culture Tour Area. The main attractions include the Sanqing Hall, the Natural Reclining Buddha, and the Zhenwu Palace, among others. The Lingyun Mountain Scenic Area features a unique topography with the Azure Dragon on the left, the White Tiger on the right, the Vermilion Bird in front, and the Black Tortoise in the back. It has continuous mountain ranges and towering forests, offering natural scenery with the characteristics of being 'majestic, strange, perilous, and secluded'.
2The Sanqing Hall is a symbolic Taoist building, named for the statues of the Three Pure Ones of Taoism housed within. The original hall's construction date is unknown, but records of renovations during the Ming and Qing dynasties exist. It was demolished at the beginning of the liberation to build the Laojun School and government offices, and the current main hall was rebuilt on the original site in 2001.
3Every year, from the first to the third day of the third lunar month, the Lingyun Mountain Taoist temple holds a grand Taoist banner-raising ceremony, which is large-scale and known among the people as 'March 3rd, Pilgrimage to Lingyun Mountain'. During the ceremony, salt, tea, rice, and other grains are packed into five small bags, wrapped in consecrated paper, and then tied to the ends of five long ropes hanging below the banners, raised to the clouds in the sky. More than ten Taoist practitioners who have attained the Way participate in the ceremony after days of bathing, burning incense, and purifying their speech. They form an array and ascend the altar to worship the heavens, chant to the ancestor Zhenwu, pray for salvation and relief from calamities, and seek the response of heaven and earth. The long ropes twist and entangle into an intricate knot that cannot be undone, which is believed to predict the fortunes of the year.
4Xianyin Bridge is said to be the place where Zhang Sanfeng, the founder of Tai Chi, wandered through northern Sichuan and practiced Tai Chi on Lingyun Mountain. The tranquility of Lingyun Mountain, along with the trickling sound of water from the mountain top, made this Tai Chi master feel as if he had entered a fairyland. His poetry reflects his state of mind: 'The spiritual beauty of Shu's mountains belongs to Lingyun, where water and woods are clear and far from worldly dust; amidst the smoke of nine peaks, phoenixes cry, and the sound of immortality is unheard in the mortal world.'