Wudang has been regarded as the dwelling place of Taoist divinities since the seventh century, when a nationwide drought threatened industry and the lives of the populace. Tang Emperor Taizong ordered the magistrate of Junxian County (present-day Danjiangkou City) to conduct rituals entreating the Wudang immortals to send rain. Those present told of the five dragons that soared to the heavens following which, to the jubilation of the whole country, came a life saving deluge. Gratitude moved local inhabitants to build the Five Dragons Temple on Wudang.

Wudang Mountain was where Zhenwu (or Xuanwu) - one of the four Taoist gods of the four points of the compass -- was believed to have attained immortality. Zhenwu was god of the north and also regarded as the rain deity. The four Taoist gods of the North, South, East and West were originally equal in rank, but this changed in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) when Emperor Yongle, named Zhu Di, came to power.

Wudang's Exaltation by Emperor Yongle

Zhu Di became the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty after usurping his nephew's throne. Originally the Prince of Yan, his official function at his posting in Beiping (present-day Beijing) was to guard the country's northern frontier. There were more than 20 such enfeoffments in the early Ming Dynasty. Their princes, Zhu Di among them, cultivated political and military power with the intent of seizing the throne. Emperor Jianwen succeeded his grandfather, founding Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. He felt threatened by these princes posed, and upon his succession, wiped out the five weakest. Aware that his own hopes of being emperor might soon be dashed, Zhu Di took pre-emptive action. The southern expedition he launched on the pretext of dispelling bad influences that beset the young emperor effectively banished Jianwen, but where he fled to remains one of Chinese history's unsolved mysteries.

As Zhu Di's mutiny amounted to regicide, he was tormented with worry that his missing nephew, the erstwhile emperor, might one day reappear with an entourage of political enemies. In anticipation of this contingency, the newly crowned Emperor Yongle built the Forbidden City, effectively moving the Ming capital from Nanjing to Beijing. He also resolved to build Taoist temples on Wudang Mountain in order to attenuate his reputation as an evil usurper. Zhu Di believed that the rise of the Ming Dynasty and his accession to the throne were the result of divine intervention. He chose Wudang Mountain as site for the temple believing that he was a reincarnation of Zhenwu, god of the north, and declared his imperial omnipotence as a mandate of heaven. The many temples Emperor Yongle built on Wudang Mountain were his means of securing divine protection.

In 1412, while construction of the Forbidden City was underway, the emperor dispatched 300,000 artisans and military and civil builders to Wudang. Their task was to create a Taoist Imperial Palace - a massive project in which the emperor invested the tributes and taxes from nine affluent southern Chinese provinces. Thirteen years later, 33 clusters of Taoist temples, pavilions and bridges, including the Gilded Hall and the Taihegong, Qingweigong, Zixiaogong, Chaotiangong, Nanyangong, Huilongguan, Longquanguan, Fuzhenguan and Yuanheguan temples, had been built along the contour line of a 70-km path from downtown Junxian to the Tianzhu Peak.

At one time there were 400 temples, administered by 10,000 or so monks, on Wudang Mountain. The complex covered a 1.6 million sq m area -- twice that of the Forbidden City. Emperor Yongle personally monitored the Wudang project. He took great care to ensure that the Taoist principle of respecting the laws of nature in all phases of construction was upheld. Building materials were transported from elsewhere to avoid disturbing the natural symmetry of Wudang's woods and rocks, and the emperor saw to it that buildings blended naturally and aesthetically with their environs. He bestowed on Wudang the title of "No. 1 Mountain under Heaven" and elevated Zhenwu, god of the North, to the status of All Mighty -- the highest divinity in the Taoist pantheon.

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