What is the brief history of Nanjing Purple Mountain?

Purple Mountain, also known as Zhongshan, is located in the eastern suburb of Nanjing. It was once called Jinling Mountain, Shan Jiang Mountain, Beishan Mountain and Shenlie Mountain. Purple Mountain is the highest peak of Ningzhen Mountain, 7 kilometers long from east to west and 3 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of about 20 square kilometers. The mountain is curved, and the arc mouth faces south. The northern peak of the ridge is the turning point, and the eastern part is southeast, ending at Ma; The western section runs southwest and enters the city near Taipingmen. The remaining veins intermittently extend westward to Fuguishan and Jiuhuashan, ending in the Arctic Pavilion. There are three peaks in Zijinshan Mountain, the main peak is in the middle, named Beifeng, with an altitude of 448.9 meters. The east wind is called Xiaomaoshan, with an altitude of 365.8 meters; Xifeng is called Tianbaoshan, with an altitude of 244.5 meters.

Purple Mountain has undergone great changes. As early as1300 million years ago in the late Triassic, it used to be a sea. After the seawater receded, a continental basin appeared for the first time. At that time, the climate was dry and hot, and the iron contained in the sediments rusted and turned red, so the Triassic rocks on the north slope were purple. At the end of Triassic, the crust moved again, the ups and downs around the basin increased, and swift streams appeared. Later, the intense crustal movement caused the rock strata in Zijinshan area to be squeezed by pressure, resulting in strong uplift and fracture. Since then, it has stood upright from the ground, forming a dangerous situation from south to north. The south slope is gentle, with many springs and trees; Due to years of weathering and erosion, the topsoil gradually falls off, revealing hard gravel, which looks majestic and steep.

In the Warring States period, Purple Mountain was called "Jinling Mountain", and in the Han Dynasty, it was called "Zhongshan". At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liling County ordered Jiang Zhui to be injured, died in Zijin Mountain, and was buried here to build a temple. Sun Quan named Jiang Hou and changed Zhongshan Wei to avoid his grandfather's anonymity. According to legend, in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang passed through Moling (now Nanjing) to observe the mountains and rivers in Jinling in order to unite with Wu to resist Wei. When he saw the mountain range headed by Purple Mountain winding in the southeast like a black dragon, and the mountain range in the west perched on the rocky mountain by the river like a tiger, he blurted out: "Zhongpan, Shi Hu perches." It vividly summarizes the dangerous terrain of Nanjing.

At the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when Yuan Di crossed the river, he found that the peaks of Purple Mountain were often surrounded by purple and golden clouds, so it was called Purple Mountain for short. This natural phenomenon was deified by people at that time, which may be related to the need to stabilize people's hearts in the early Eastern Jin Dynasty. In fact, this purple-gold cloud is caused by the purple-gold light emitted by the red-purple shale widely exposed on the northern slope of the mountain under the sunlight. In the Southern Dynasties, because Zhongshan was in the northeast of Jiankang Capital, it was also called "Beishan". During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was buried in Dulong House at the southern foot of Zhongshan, so Zhongshan was renamed "Shenlie Mountain", and the "Shenlie Mountain Monument" carved by Jiajing for ten years still exists today.

Purple Mountain is a strategic fortress for military strategists, a place where emperors and generals choose graves, and once a Buddhist shrine. Therefore, there are many scenic spots on the mountain, such as Toutuoling Park Park, Taohuawu, Linggu Temple, Sunlinggang, Ming Mausoleum and Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. Purple Mountain is now the main scenic spot in Nanjing.