SHANTUNG— CHINA'S HOLY LAND 



235 



Drawn by R. M. Parker 

 SKETCH MAP OF SHANTUNG, CHINA'S HOLY LAND 



The area in black is the territory of Kiaochow, to the west and beyond the limits of which is 



the town of the same name. 



ing this approach to the city of Taian, at 

 the foot of Tai Shan. Taian can now 

 be reached by rail, on the line running 

 from Tientsin to Pukow, on the left bank 

 of the Yangtze opposite Nanking. 



According to Chinese records, Tai 

 Shan was the "Holy Mountain of the 

 East" and was visited and prayed to as 

 a god by the patriarchs and monarchs of 

 the hoariest ages. Certainly its sacred- 

 ness was a well-established doctrine in 

 the earliest historical times. It is men- 

 tioned in the Shu King (Book of His- 

 tory) as where Shun sacrificed to heaven 

 B. C. 2254. It is accordingly celebrated 

 for its historical as well as its religious 



associations. The monarch was supposed 

 to visit it every five years, or at any rate 

 once in his reign. 



The ascent in the early days must have 

 been far more arduous than it has since 

 become. Probably only the most active 

 potentates ventured to pay their devo- 

 tions at the summit. The redoubtable 

 Ch'in Shih-huang, builder of the Great 

 Wall and unifier of China, did so 200 

 B. C, and left two obelisks to commem- 

 orate the fact, one at the top and one at 

 the bottom of the mountain. 



A hundred years after Ch'in Shih- 

 huang, the Emperor Han Wu-ti planted 

 cypress trees a few yards to the east of 



