Great Emperor of the Central Peak

Zhongyue Dadi is one of the Five Great Mountain Deities and the principal deity enshrined at Mount Song in Henan Province, designated in Daoist cosmology as the Sixth Minor Grotto-Heaven. According to the Yunji Qiqian (Seven Bamboo Tablets of the Cloudy Satchel), the Lord of the Central Peak wears a yellow-silk robe, a yellow-jade Taiyi Crown, and bears the Seal of Divine Ancestry and Yang Harmony; he governs land, mountains, rivers, the essences of the Five Soils, and all matters pertaining to ancestral temples and state sacrifices to the soil and grain deities. Residing at the Centre, he harmonises the four directions, and among the Five Great Mountain Deities, his rank is supreme. Empress Wu Zetian ascended Mount Song and conferred upon him the title Shenyue Tianzhong Huangdi (Divine Mountain Emperor of the Celestial Centre)—the sole mountain deity among the Five Great Mountains ever granted an imperial title during the Tang dynasty. Emperor Zhenzong of the Song dynasty later elevated him to Zhongtian Chongsheng Di (Honoured Sage Emperor of the Celestial Centre). The Zhongyue Temple in Dengfeng was first constructed during the Qin dynasty and remains the largest temple complex among the Five Great Mountains; situated on the same sacred mountain as the Shaolin Monastery and the Songyang Academy, it stands as a historic confluence of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.