Mount T'ai

Similarly, Mount T'ai, the chief of the sacred mountains of China, which has been an object of veneration and worship for over four thousand years. A road rises to the central peak, the highest of three, which "seems like a stairway to the skies, for there are near six thousand steps of hewn stone, each fifteen feet in length, leading upward."

1887, Hampden C. DuBose, “Mountains, Islands, and Festivals”, in The Dragon, Image, and Demon; or, The Three Religions of China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, page 274

The worship of the sun, moon, and planets was, doubtless, brought from Chaldæa, where, according to Sir H. Rawlinson, the temple of the seven spheres, built about 1100 B.C., was dedicated to the seven planets, and coloured with the colours attributed to them by the Chinese. Mount T'ai, to the north of the town of T'aian in Shantung province, has the epithet of ‘honorable’ attached to it, being the most famous of the mountains of China, and burnt sacrifices are offered at the T'ai altar to Heaven by the Emperor of China in the second month of every year.

1894, Herbert J. Allen, “Ssŭma Ch'ien's Historical Records. Introductory Chapter”, in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London: Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, page 272

In the second month of the year, he made a tour of inspection eastwards, as far as Mount T'ai (in modern Shantung), where he presented a burnt offering to God, and sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers.

1906, Herbert A. Giles, “The Ancient Faith”, in Religions of Ancient China, London: Constable and Company Ltd.

The Feng and Shan were probably the state rituals in premodern China imbued with the most momentous religious and political symbolism. Traditionally held at Mount T’ai 泰山 and a nearby hill in modern Shantung 山東, the rituals represented a confirmation of the ruler’s receipt of the Heavenly Mandate.

1994, Chen Jo-shui, “Empress Wu and Proto-Feminist Sentiments in T’ang China”, in Frederick P. Brandauer, Chün-chieh Huang, editors, Imperial Rulership and Cultural Change in Traditional China, Seattle; London: University of Washington Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 83