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Mount
Tiecha lies in the Man Minority Autonomous Region,120 kilometers
east of Benxi City, Liaoning Province. It is part of branch ranges
of Changbai Mount. Layers upon layers of steep hills and peaks rise
in emerald verdure. Winding vanes and brooks bring active eternal
vitality to the fairy land. Thus comes the poem, "Seemingly
all beauty and spiritual influence has been endowed to the fairy
land, who can deny that it is a relationship of fate that brings
us to the heavenly mountain area."
Mount Tiecha has a very long history, and in
the ancient book The Romance of Immortal Title Conferring(1567-1619)
has the records in detail. In 1630, Guo Shouzhen, the No.8 generation
disciple of Taoism Longmen school, came and took residence in the
mount summit caves and began his Taoist practice there. In the later
days, under his leadership, his disciples built a variety of temples
and houses in large number. Nuerhachi, the founder of Qigong Dynasty,
once settled in one cave to rest, in his way to conquer the outside
world.
Mount Tiecha is an ancestral place for the development
of Taoism in northeastern China. Many legendary stories now circulate
among average people in the mountain area. The Long Eyebrow Li Immortal
is a famous one. He went to Mount Tiecha from Sandong Province and
settled down here beginning practice many years. Eating nothing
and drinking no water when facing stone wall in the Babao Cave,
he continued to practice as a hermit, complexion changing and eyebrow
becoming longer and longer.
Taoist priest Guo was also famous for his supernatural
abilities after many years of practice in the summit cave.
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