T'IEN-T'AI MOUNTAINS

also spelled Tientai Mountains, Chinese (Wade-Giles) T'ien-t'ai Shan, or (Pinyin) Tiantai Shan, mountain chain in eastern Chekiang province, China. T'ien-t'ai is also the name of a mountain in the chain. The range forms the northeastern extension of the great Hsien-hsia Mountains in southern Chekiang, which form the watershed between the Ling River and the Ou River, draining into the east coast of Chekiang, and the Yin River, the Ts'ao-o River, and rivers of the Ch'ien-t'ang River system, draining to the west and eventually to the north coast of the province. The mountains are rugged, with individual peaks reaching 3,300 to 4,000 feet (1,000 to 1,200 m). The mountain known as T'ien-t'ai (Heavenly Terrace) comprises a system of peaksT'ung-pai, Fou-lung, Ch'ih-ch'eng, and, the highest, Hua-ting, which reaches 3,727 feet (1,136 m). From a very early period the T'ien-t'ai mountain chain was considered holy; in early times it was associated with Taoism. Many well-known Taoist adepts and masters lived there until the 11th and 12th centuries. Its fame, however, is associated not with Taoism but with Buddhism. According to tradition, the first Buddhist community was founded there in 238251, but the renown of T'ien-t'ai began when the monk Chih-i settled there in 576. When the Sui dynasty (581618) unified China in 589, Chih-i played an important role in giving religious sanction to the new regime and was greatly honoured by the Sui emperor. After Chih-i's death in 597, his disciples, under imperial patronage, made T'ien-t'ai a major cult centre. The best-known temples established there were the Kuo-ch'ing, Ta-tzu, Tien-feng, Huo-kuo, Wan-nien Pao-en, and Kao-ming. Eventually there were 72 major temples as well as a great number of cloisters and shrines on the mountain, and it became a major centre of pilgrimage both for Chinese and for Japanese Buddhists. It also gave its name to one of the major schools of Buddhist teaching, T'ien-t'ai, perhaps better known under its Japanese name of Tendai. Many of the temples still remain, although the influence of the T'ien-t'ai school in Chinese Buddhism did not survive the 13th century. A good deal of building was subsequently done in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in the 17th century in particular the T'ien-t'ai area produced a number of prominent Buddhist scholars.