Five Mountains - Gogaku

A collective term for the five great mountains seen in ancient Chinese beliefs. Refers to the Dongyue Mountain Taishan (Shandong Province), the Nanyue Mountain Hengshan (Hunan Province), the Xiyue Mountain Huashan (Shaanxi Province), the Beiyue Mountain Hengshan (Shanxi Province), and the Zhongyue Mountain Songshan (Henan Province). Worship of mountains and mountain gods has been seen in China since ancient times, but gradually central mountains that became famous objects of worship were born. At first, there were four mountains to the east, west, north and south as seen in the Yao Code in the Book of Shang, but in the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu performed a ritual on Mount Song with the five elements as a background, and after that, they were consolidated into five mountains, and in 61 BC under Emperor Xuan, national rituals on the five mountains were established. While the Zhongyue, Dongyue, and Xiyue mountains have remained unchanged since their original locations, the Nanyue mountain was moved from Tianzhushan in Anhui Province to Hengshan in the late 6th century, and the Beiyue mountain was moved from Hengshan in Quyang County, Hebei Province to Hengshan in Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province at the end of the 15th century.

[Funakoshi Akio]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国古来の信仰にみられる五大名山の総称。東岳泰山(たいざん)（山東省）、南岳衡山(こうざん)（湖南省）、西岳華山（陝西(せんせい)省）、北岳恒山(こうざん)（山西省）、中岳嵩山(すうざん)（河南省）をさす。中国では古くから山岳・山神の崇拝がみられたが、しだいに著名な崇拝対象となる中心的山岳が生まれた。初めは『尚書(しょうしょ)』堯典(ぎょうてん)にみられるように東西南北の四岳であったが、漢代に五行思想を背景として武帝が嵩山を祭祀(さいし)してからほぼ五岳として固まり、宣帝の紀元前61年五岳の国家祭祀が確定した。中岳、東岳、西岳は当初から変わっていないが、南岳は6世紀末、安徽(あんき)省の天柱山から衡山に、北岳は15世紀末、河北省曲陽県の恒山から山西省渾源(こんげん)県の恒山に移された。

［船越昭生］

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