ABSTRACT
Nanshan si was the first Chinese Buddhist temple to reestablish a shengguan ensemble at Wutaishan after the Cultural Revolution. This monastery lies just south of Taihuai, perched on a hill covered with birch trees and wildflowers. In the 1990s, Qu Yannan and Han Jun described Nanshan si as the only Chinese Buddhist monastery in Wutaishan to maintain a shengguan ensemble and to perform rituals in the local style Monks at Zhenhai si, a smaller and less famous Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhist monastery, also perform shengguan music. This monastery was built in a pine forest five kilometers south of Taihuai in the eighteenth century. Each of these monasteries uses the shengguan ensemble in different ways, taking advantage of the ritual, political and economic benefits of instrumental music to different degrees. One of the most popular selections is "Dabei zhou", a mantra for gaining the blessings of the bodhisattva of mercy Guanyin.
