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Show 714 The National Geographic Magazine A Robed Attendant Stands Watch in the Jade Emperor's Court Taoism recognizes many gods. One of these was & 12th-century physician, Chang Yu Huang, who cured his sovereign. After Chang's death the grateful ruler deified him. As the Jade Emperor, he became supreme in the Taoist pantheon. One of the mountain's scrawny mongrels is fed by the helmeted guide. on him and have stated that the storm was Nature's punishment of a usurping autocrat. Yet there is a gentle touch in the emperor's "thank you" to the sheltering tree, which he honored with the fifth degree of mandarin rank. A broken stone kept in the Tai Temple bears an inscription believed to be his, the oldest on Tai Shan. For sheer conspicuousness, no other memorial equals that of the Manchu Emperor Chien Lung, the Wan Chang Pei, or Tablet of a Hundred Thousand Feet (page 707). The title speaks in decidedly round numbers, whether it refers to the size of the tablet or its height on the mountain. A large upright surface on a high cliff has been covered by a poem of the emperor's composition, cut in characters each one meter square. The emperor wished the world to remember that he had climbed Tai Shan. The poem has weathered considerably, but the smooth background shines out as a panel of light, easily visible from the plain. A better and more m o d e s t memorial is that of Chien Lung's son, Chia Ching, who caused to be planted along the Pan Lu 22,000 pine trees. I passed a memorable day in their shade, painting a view of the many hundred remaining stairs abruptly rising through the last chasm to the South Heavenly Gate. Pilgrims ceased to chatter as they put forth full strength for the last climb of several hundred s t e ep steps without a break. We heard only the shriek of hawks circling above and the tom-tom of a hermit in some high cleft. The red walls and yellow-tiled roofs of the south-facing Heavenly Gate, to which we had looked up during four hours of travel, were a reality now. Sinking on a bench in the shady portal, I discovered a huge figure of Kuan Ti, god of war, sword in hand, glaring down the stairs at the struggling pilgrims. Perhaps he is a sort of St. Peter guarding the Gate of Heaven, but at least he let me pass with other sinners. He is a popular hero, for there are in all seventeen shrines to him on the Way or in Taian. The Profile of Tai Shan But the journey is not over. There is the long ridge, gently rising to the east precipice, which marks the strong profile of Tai Shan as seen from the plain. There are weather-beaten stone huts and strongly built temples |