岱 (Dài): another name for Mount Tai (泰山)…

Meanings

1 another name for Mount Tai (泰山) in Shandong
2 (also written 岱宗 or 岱岳) the Eastern Sacred Mountain
3 (rare) Chinese surname Dai

Characters

岱

dài

Mount Tai (literary)

Examples

岱宗夫如何？齐鲁青未了。

Dài zōng fú rúhé? Qílǔqīngwèiliǎo.

What is mighty Daizong (Mount Tai) like? — across Qi and Lu its green is unbroken. (Du Fu, 'Gazing at Mount Tai')

登岱观日出是历代文人的一大愿望。

Dēng Dài guān rìchū shì lì dài wénrén de yīdà yuànwàng.

Climbing Mount Tai to watch the sunrise was a great wish for scholars throughout the ages.

Tips

culture

岱 is the classical literary name for 泰山 (Tài Shān, Mount Tai), the easternmost and most revered of China's Five Sacred Mountains (五岳, wǔ yuè). Emperors performed the 封禅 (fēngshàn) imperial sacrifice here. Du Fu's 望岳 ('Gazing at Mount Tai') opens with 岱宗 — knowing the name unlocks the line.

history

The name dates to the 《尚书》 (Book of Documents). 岱宗 (Dàizōng, 'ancestral Dai') marks Mount Tai as the 'patriarch' of the sacred mountains — the place where the eastern sun returns each morning.

Components

radical

山 shān

mountain

Bottom mountain radical, three peaks. Anchors 岱 as a mountain name — specifically Mount Tai in Shandong, the eastern of the five sacred peaks, where emperors performed the 封禅 sacrifice. The radical is literal: this character exists only to name a mountain.

phonetic

代 dài

to replace; generation (here phonetic)

Top 代 supplies the sound — exact dài. The person-and-spear picture of 代 contributes only sound here. 岱 is an alternate name for Mount Tai (泰山), the most sacred of the five great mountains, and the phonetic component just locks the reading.