Records of the Great Dred Grotto-Heaven 大涤洞天记

Formerly titled Illustrated Gazetteer of Dongxiao, it was jointly compiled by Deng Mu, a hermit in the early Yuan Dynasty, and Meng Zongbao, a Taoist Priest of Dadi Mountain.

The original work consists of six volumes, with a hand-copied edition in the collection of the Sun Yangzeng family in Zhejiang, cataloged in the Geography section of the Historical Department in Abstracts of the Four Treasures of the Library. When the book was reprinted by Taoist priests in the early Ming Dynasty, it was abridged and revised into three volumes, retitled Records of Dadi Grotto Heaven, and included in the Genealogy and Records category of The Dongshen Section in the Daozang.

Records of the Great Dred Grotto-Heaven

Dadi Mountain is located in present-day Yuhang County, Zhejiang Province, where the Dadi Grotto lies. According to legend, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once built an imperial palace and altar in front of the grotto. In the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Taoist priest Pan Shizheng built Tianzhu Abbey here by imperial order; it was renamed Dongxiao Palace in the fifth year of the Dazhong Xiangfu reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty (1012). Since the Tang and Song dynasties, numerous practitioners have cultivated the Dao here, and Taoism regards it as the "Dadi Grotto Heaven", one of the seventy blessed lands.

This book details the exquisite mountains and rivers, deep and seclusive caves and grottoes, the historical evolution of palaces and abbeys, the extraordinary figures, as well as the traces of immortals and saints roaming and enlightening the world, and the beautiful literary records by virtuous talents on Dadi Mountain. From it, one can see the general appearance and history of Dadi Grotto Heaven. The original work is divided into six sections: Palaces and Abbeys, Mountains and Rivers, Caves and Grottoes, Historical Relics, Figures, and Stone Inscriptions, while the Daozang edition omits the Figures section.