Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak (Nanyue 南嶽) in Medieval China. By James Robson. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009. xx, 506 pp. $49.95 (cloth).

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

Power of Place has much to offer anyone who is interested in Chinese religious history. James Robson employs a place-based methodology, suggesting that a focus on the history of a religious site rather than on the categories of Buddhism, Daoism, or Confucianism can lead to fresh insights. To this end, the book examines the religious history of the mountain Nanyue (the Southern Sacred Peak), one of Five Sacred Peaks in the imperial cult, from antiquity into the Five Dynasties period (907–60). The most important source for Power of Place is the twelfth-century Nanyue zongshen ji (Record of the Collected Highlights of Nanyue), which relates the history of Buddhists and Daoists on Nanyue. Following this source, Robson's study focuses on Buddhism and Daoism, and much of the book reads like a series of essays on Daoist and Buddhist religious activity on Nanyue through the ages.The book has two main parts, the first titled “Situating Nanyue,” and the second, “The Daoist and Buddhist Histories of Nanyue.” In the first part, Robson discusses the history of sacred peaks in China in general and the designation of “Nanyue” to specific mountains. The title of Nanyue shifted among several mountains before finally coming to rest on Hengshan in Hunan. Clearly, the concept of a Southern Sacred Peak was a portable one, and events associated with religious figures at one Nanyue location were readily transferred to Nanyue at another.As Robson shows, correct location was understood to be crucial for the efficacy of religious practice. Both Wang Lingyu (?–512), a Daoist practitioner, and the famous early Tiantai figure Huisi (515–77) received direct advice from divinities to go to Nanyue in order to reach their full spiritual potential. But, Robson notes, it takes a spiritually powerful person to recognize sacred ground, just as the presence of such persons in the past and present greatly contributes to the sacrality of a place.The second part explores specific Buddhist and Daoist religious lineages, people, and sites associated with Nanyue. Robson presents us with a wealth of information, naming well more than a hundred people, and he convincingly demonstrates the importance of Nanyue for Daoism and Buddhism. Clearly, place itself could be an organizing principle for religious figures, and an interesting discussion details the legends about the Nine Perfected of Nanyue, understood as a distinct set of Daoist sages but not bound by lineage or a specific Daoist tradition. Rather, Robson argues, it was their association with Nanyue that gave them a collective identity. Later, he discusses an unusual list of Eighteen Eminent Monks of Nanyue, many of whom can be associated with Tiantai Buddhism, but, like the Nine Perfected, are linked by place rather than lineage or teaching.Nanyue is neither a Daoist nor a Buddhist mountain, but a numinous, powerful site understood to offer ideal conditions for any religious practitioner. Severe antagonism between traditions did erupt at times, typically in competition over sites of special sacred power. Robson discusses how Huisi enraged Daoists on Nanyue after he built two monasteries on what had been Daoist sacred ground. Huisi prevailed after the emperor sided with him, and, in the end, the Daoists offered Huisi several hundred mou of land. Although not specifically noted by Robson, one must assume the Daoists gave up their land under considerable duress.At other times, Robson sees “harmonious religious mixing,” such as when Huisi vowed to attain immortality so that he could be present for the coming of the Maitreya Buddha, or in the Daoist flavor of the famous Cantong qi (Harmony of difference and equality) by the Chan monk Shitou Xiqian (700–790). However, these monks' exposure to Daoist ideas probably came through written works rather than personal interactions. On the other hand, there is evidence for close relationships between Buddhists and Daoists, as seen in the 677 stele commemorating the renovation of a Daoist monastery that included eight Buddhist monastics among the donors. It may have been especially at this level, below the elite represented by Huisi and Shitou, that Buddhists and Daoists interacted within a shared religious worldview, and one might have wished for more discussion of this kind of exchange.Power of Place is a weighty and almost encyclopedic work, and Robson convincingly and eruditely illustrates the value of an in-depth study of a religious site. One hopes that other scholars of Chinese religious history will be inspired to engage in a similar locality-based approach.