Description
Book SynopsisThroughout history, Mount Tai has been a magnet for both women and men from all classesemperors, aristocrats, officials, literati, and villagers. This book examines the behavior of those who made the pilgrimage to Mount Tai and their interpretations of its sacrality and history, as a means of better understanding their identities and mentalities.
Trade ReviewProbably no one understanding of why the mountain mattered would have been shared by all the pilgrims Dott describes. But all visitors would have been aware that people unlike themselves shared the view that this particular place mattered, and that visitors over the centuries had deposited many different layers of meaning. They would have recognized themselves as part of an ‘us’ for whom Taishan was a crucial site. Understanding that ‘us’ remains an important task for scholars who want to probe the mountain’s significance or paint a general picture of late imperial culture. Scholars interested in either task will benefit greatly from reading this book. -- Kenneth Pomeranz * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *
