• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.31
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• pp.173-202
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• 2011

Hierophany, according to Mircea Eliade, is a natural manifestation of the initial sacred. Through hierophany, profane objects and sites transform their qualities and then they themselves become sacred. People in traditional societies, in an attempt to reenact the initial hierophany, tried to perform consecrating rituals to replicate the first moment of the initial hierophany, at the same time and site. This article focuses on the concrete sites of hierophany. In ancient China, we can see specific sites that manifest the sacred such as Kunlun(崑崙), Jianmu(建木) and zongmiao(宗廟). Kunlun has the characteristics as the Cosmic Mountain that is the realm of the gods that tiandi(天帝) built as his center on the Earth, and it bridges Heaven and Earth. Jianmu joins Heaven, Earth, and the underworld like a Cosmic Tree or Pillar. It can be stated that zongmiao, the royal ancestral temple, functions as the Center of the World, the axis mundi, in which religious human beings express their desire to live in a sacred site, and in which they can regain their initial purity of spirits by communicating with the gods and ancestors. These three are the sites of manifestation of the sacred in China.