Names and variants
- Simplified
- 福地
- Traditional
- 福地
- Other names
- Fu Di, Blessed Lands, Blessed Grounds, Blissful Lands
- Pinyin
- Fú dì
- English
- Fudi
Overview
In its Daoist sense, fudi belongs to the geography of immortal dwelling places. The source associates these places with famous mountains, perfected beings and locations where the Dao was attained. These are features of the religious understanding of a place, not promises made to every visitor.
The seventy-two blessed grounds form a named group alongside the grotto-heavens. The terms are frequently used together, but fudi should not simply be treated as another word for a cave. Its definition concerns a blessed place associated with immortals.
The word also has a broader history outside that formal group. Dictionaries record its use for pleasant or peaceful places, and as a description applied to Daoist or Buddhist religious establishments. Such usage does not by itself establish that a place is one of the seventy-two.
Context therefore determines the appropriate reading. In a discussion of Daoist sacred geography, fudi names a religious category; in ordinary or literary language, it may express appreciation for a place where life is happy or tranquil.
References
- [1]Dictionary of Daoism