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Mount Heng, Nanyue, the southern peak of China's Five Great Mountains, is formally linked to three religions in this atlas: Taoism, Buddhism and Chinese Folk Religion, all three links carrying no further comment at the religion level. Its own description does not need the links to differentiate them. It names an actual building that does the work instead.

A Physical Diagram, Not a Metaphor

"The great temple at the foot, Nanyue Damiao, is the largest ancient building complex in the province, and is laid out so that Taoist and Buddhist establishments occupy the courtyards on either side of a central axis belonging to the state cult, a physical diagram of how the three arrangements coexisted rather than merged." Three religions counted on its own links; three institutions given a literal, physical position on the ground, in one building, by the people who built it.

Where To Read More

• Mount Heng (Nanyue)Chinese State Religion SitesThe mountain itself; its own great temple is built so its floor plan diagrams the coexistence of all three
• TaoismChinese (Philosophical-Religious)Occupies one side of the temple's central axis
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)Occupies the other side of the temple's central axis
• Chinese Folk ReligionPolytheistic (Folk)The third counted religion, corresponding to the state cult the temple's own central axis belongs to