Imagining Nanyue: A religious history of the Southern Marchmount through the Tang dynasty [618--907]

This dissertation concerns the religious history of the Southern Marchmount [Nanyue] (or Hengshan) through the end of the Tang dynasty (618--907). The aim of the study is twofold: to situate Nanyue within the context of other mountain cultic sites; and to provide a detailed history of its role within the imperial cult, Daoism, and Buddhism. The main text that is used is the Collected Highlights of the Southern Marchmount [Nanyue zongsheng ji], a mountain monograph included in both the Buddhist and Daoist canons.;The first chapter provides a methodological introduction to the dissertation by situating the study of sacred geography (or "place studies") and local history within the field of religious studies. The prospects and limitations of those approaches are discussed in relation to the study of Chinese sacred space.;Chapter Two discusses the formation and transformations of the two main Chinese mountain classification systems: the five marchmounts and the "four famous mountains" [sida mingshan].;Chapter Three address the history of the movements of the Southern Marchmount. The title "Nanyue" was applied to at least three different locations between the Han and Sui dynasties. That chapter also explores the implications of those moves for the maintenance of imperial rituals and the mobility of myths.;Chapter Four provides an introduction to the physical layout of the site and the types of myths that were mapped onto the terrain. The last five chapters are all concerned with aspects of Nanyue's Daoist and Buddhist religious histories. Chapters Five and Six are concerned with the pre-Tang and Tang Daoist history of the site, which is approached through the lens of the Short Record of Nanyue [Nanyue xiaolu] and the Biographies of the Nine Perfected of Nanyue [Nanyue jiu zhenren zhuan]. A history of Lady Wei and the female Daoist cults at Nanyue are the subjects of Chapter Seven. Finally, Chapters Eight and Nine detail the Buddhist history of the site from early pre-Tang figures such as Huisi (515--577) up through its role within Chan, Pure Land and Vinaya developments in the Tang dynasty.