Guanghui temple tower

·The temple was first built in the reign of emperor Zhenyuan of Tang Dynasty (785-804), but the construction of the pagoda was later than that of Jin Dynasty. The upper part of the pagoda is decorated with various complicated flowers, which looks like a huge bouquet. It is one of the few existing pagodas with the most peculiar shape and the most beautiful decoration.

·Mr. Liang Sicheng once called it "the lone product in China".

Guanghui temple tower

Guanghui Temple Pagoda, also known as Duobao pagoda. Located in Hebei Zhengding County Shengmin Street East Gaofu above the original Guanghui temple.

In 1961, it was listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council. Huata is composed of main tower and subsidiary tower, all of which are built with brick. The four corners of the bottom layer of the main tower are each attached with a fan hexagonal pavilion shaped small tower. The small tower encircles the main tower, with staggered height, primary and secondary dependence, exquisite and gorgeous, and magnificent.

Cultural relics protection

Guanghui temple tower

It is located in the east of South Street, Zhengding County, Hebei Province. In April 1933, Liang Sicheng investigated and photographed the tower. In 1984, he carried out comprehensive surveying and mapping. After natural and man-made destruction, the temple has disappeared and the pagoda has been badly damaged. The central body of the main tower and a part of the attached tower are still visible, but their surface layout and structure are still clear. The pagoda is unique in shape, different in structure, scientific in design and structure, and exquisite in craftsmanship. All of them are masterpieces of ancient architecture, and are isolated examples of existing pagodas in China. In 1961, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Guanghui Temple Pagoda, also known as "Duobao pagoda", was built in the period of Zhenyuan of Tang Dynasty (785-804), but the construction of the pagoda was later than that of Jin Dynasty. It is the most distinctive and richly decorated Pagoda in China.

Documentation

According to the literature, the pagoda was rebuilt many times in Tang Dynasty, Jin Dading and Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the past, many scholars thought that the pagoda with this structure was not found in Tang Dynasty pagoda, and it should be built when the temple was rebuilt in Jin Dynasty. However, from the perspective of the whole structure and remains, except that the top of the tower was rebuilt in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, although the first to third floors were repaired by later generations, the basic components and modeling method should be that of the first year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty. The tower is 40.5 meters high and is a three story octagonal pavilion type tower.

The first floor plan of the tower is octagonal, and a single-layer hexagonal tower is built at the four corners to form a pavilion style suite; the front of the tower body and the front of the tower are opened with circular arches, and under the eaves are brick brackets. The second floor is octagonal in plane, with a door on each of the four facades, with false lattice windows beside the door; the other four sides are set with mullions and false lattice windows; the bucket arch of the tower body supports the eaves of the tower.

The third tower body began to shrink, with only one side door on the front, and the other three sides were false doors. Above the third layer is the conical tower, which is decorated with Buddha statues and various animal images.

On top of that are octagonal eaves and pagoda brakes, which are already dilapidated. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the incense of Guanghui temple was very prosperous. Emperor Qianlong went to the temple many times to offer sacrifices to the Buddha, visit the pagoda, and inscribed a plaque on it, saying "miaoguang performing religion". Today, only the pagoda stands, but the temple has long gone. (State Administration of cultural relics)

It was built in Tang Dynasty

Guanghui temple, one of the eight ancient temples in Zhengding, was built in the Zhengyuan period of Tang Dynasty (785-804 AD). Because only one Huata remains in the temple, it is also called "Huata Temple". Huata was first built in Tang Dynasty and later destroyed. It is a relic of Jin Dynasty and has a history of more than 800 years.

From the modeling point of view, it belongs to the type of flower tower. The important feature is that the upper part of the tower is decorated with various complicated flowers, which looks like a huge bouquet. This kind of pagoda was formed in the song, Liao and Jin Dynasties, and almost disappeared after the Yuan Dynasty. There are only a dozen existing pagodas in China. Zhengding pagoda is one of the few existing pagodas with the most peculiar shape and the most beautiful decoration. In 1961, it was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit by the State Council.

Huata is an octagonal pavilion style flower tower, which consists of two parts. The main tower is a four story tower, standing in the middle, about 40.5 meters high. A small hexagonal pavilion shaped tower is built in each corner of the bottom floor to encircle the first and second floors of the main tower, with the main and secondary nestling. This shape also has the meaning of King Kong throne tower, which gives people the feeling that the shape of the whole tower is full of changes. Confused with errors and omission, the main body of the main tower is the essence of the whole tower. The flower shaped tower occupies about 1/3 of the whole. It engraving lions, elephants, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, animal heads and heavenly kings and so on, with eight octagonal vertical lines.

Today, Huata stands in the antique historical and Cultural District of Zhengding ancient city, hidden in the scattered houses, graceful, graceful, full of vicissitudes and gorgeous, just like a three-dimensional poem, which interprets the calm and exquisite of the ancient times, and describes the present life of the historical and cultural district.

Brick structure

The Huata of Guanghui temple is composed of the main tower and the subsidiary towers, all of which are built with bricks. The four corners of the bottom layer of the main tower are respectively attached with a fan hexagonal pavilion shaped small tower. The small tower encircles the main tower, with staggered height, primary and secondary dependence, exquisite, gorgeous and spectacular. The main tower is a pavilion type building, with a height of 31.5 meters, which is divided into four layers. Under the eaves of each layer, there are gorgeous brick and wood like brackets. The first to third floors are octagonal in plane, with brick brackets in the middle of the bottom floor and a gate in the north.

Flat seats are set on the second and third floors. In addition to the arched gate on each front, there are also inclined lattice false windows and square niches carved on each side. On the third floor, the flat seat is very large, and the body of the tower is significantly reduced. On the corner of the eaves, there are carved statues of Rex to support the fourth floor of the tower. The plane of the fourth layer is slightly circular and looks like a cone. This is the main part of the tower, and also the essence of the tower. Its height is about 1/3 of the tower's height.

Two stone Buddhas are worshipped in the cone-shaped inner eaves tower room. The outer eaves are centered on eight sides and octagonal vertical lines, interlaced with painted figures of Bodhisattvas, Hercules, animals, lions, elephants, pavilions and so on. The themes are extensive, the composition is novel, the arrangement is orderly, and the workmanship is exquisite. Among them, the animal models are the most vivid. Fierce lions, fierce elephants and leaping frogs are all vivid and vivid. The fourth layer is like a group of sculpture art group, colorful and dazzling. The upper end of this layer is carved with brick acorns and ponies, covered with octagonal pavilion style eaves, and then crowned with octagonal zanjian shaped Tasha. Stairs are set on the first to third floors of the tower. In the hot season, visitors can feel the cool wind when they climb the third floor flat seat.

The tower is composed of the main tower and the auxiliary tower. It sits on the same square abutment. The overall plane is octagonal. The width of the four front faces is 6.2 meters, and the width of the four inclined planes is 3.5 meters. The main tower is in the center, and the auxiliary towers are built on each of the four inclined planes. Between the main tower and the auxiliary towers is an inner corridor with a width of 1.36 meters. Attached to the top of the pagoda was originally decorated with a small pagoda, which has disappeared. Below it is a single-layer flat hexagonal pavilion shaped suite. Each slope of the suite has carved broken lattice windows. There are brick columns at the corners of each side, and the columns are equipped with appendix and bucket. The main tower is composed of four inclined walls with circular arches in the middle and single eaves.

Layout inside the tower

The main tower is an octagonal, 4-story Pavilion style, with a residual height of 33 meters. The north wall of the first floor opens to the door, and there is a stone step in the middle to the South Gate of the second floor. Under the eaves, there is a bucket. Outside the second floor, there is a secondary step circle (flat seat), with three bays on each side. The form of expression is that the careful Bay is a square door, and the secondary Bay is a square lattice or hexagonal lattice window. There is a ground under it. There is a round column foundation, and the window is carved with barrier plate and column core.

The eaves and columns support the double roof, and the five pavilions are used to support the rafters and fly to the roof. The top of the tower chamber is a cross shaped covered caisson. There is no secondary step on the third floor, and the roof on the second floor supports the large petal and lotus octagonal flat seat. There are eight corner columns on eight sides, with land and circular column foundation. The front side is built with square gate made of bluestone, and the rest are set with false gate and inclined square lattice ridge window. On the column, there are also five paving buckets, each with an inclination of 60 degrees. Only one layer of appendix is used between the first and third layers of the column. The pagoda is connected with an octagonal pyramid on eight sides and carved with tiger, lion, elephant, dragon, Buddha, Bodhisattva and other images. The method is to build the inner tube with bricks, carve it slightly, and then mold it with clay. The top layer is a steep octagonal zanjian. Under the eaves, a Pu Bai Fang is used above the forehead. The Fang intersects at the top of the corner, and the angle is 45 degrees. The head is made into an inclined plane. Chacan, the existing eight petal Yang rosette. In front of the north wall of the three storey pagoda, there are two stone Buddha statues of Sakya Duobao, on which the inscription of Emperor Taizong's birthday in the second year of Zhenguan is engraved. On the frame of the South Gate on the third floor, there are lines carved in the Tang Dynasty, and inscriptions of visitors in the Song Dynasty on the surface.

After 1949, the damaged part of the lower part of the tower was repaired and supported, and the surrounding walls were built. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty came here twice to worship the Buddha, to view the scenery in the pagoda, and to write poems. Guanghui temple is also called Huata Temple because of its inherent Huata. According to Zhengding County annals in the first year of Guangxu, the temple was built in the Zhenyuan period of kangdezong (785-805 AD), and was repaired in the middle of Ming Dynasty. In the late Qing Dynasty, temples were destroyed and only pagodas survived. According to the structure of the pagoda and the ink of the sixth year of Zhenglong (1161) on the inner wall of the first layer, it is inferred that the pagoda is a relic of the Liao and Jin Dynasties. The Huata of Guanghui temple is not only the most beautiful representative of China's Huata, but also the most exotic and ornate one among China's brick pagodas because of its huge colorful wall sculpture with simple and magnificent shape. It is no exaggeration to say that Huata is a rare treasure in China.

geographical position

Guanghui Temple Pagoda is located in the original Guanghui temple on the East Gaofu of Shengmin street in Zhengding County, Hebei Province. Today, only the pagoda stands, and the temple has long since disappeared.

Chinese PinYin : Guang Hui Si Hua Ta