Chongwen tower

Chongwen tower is located in Chongwen middle school, 10km southeast of Jingyang County, Shaanxi Province. Standing on the North Bank of Jinghe River, it is the tallest brick tower in China. Chongwen tower is one of the best preserved brick towers in China. Chongwen tower has a long history and is now a key cultural relic protection unit at the provincial level. Chongwen tower was built about 360 years ago in the 21st year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1593 A.D.), with one floor built every year and completed in the 33rd year of Wanli (1605 A.D.). Chongwen pagoda has 13 storeys, which is a brick pagoda of pavilion type. Its plane is octagonal and its height is 83.218 meters. It is designed according to the ancient architectural principle of the eight trigrams hanging top. Each floor is covered by the eight trigrams hanging top. Chongwen pagoda is built with green bricks from the bottom to the top. All the towers are octagonal in shape, with a bottom floor of 9 meters on each side and a total of 72 meters around. Chongwen tower has four windows on each floor and four niches on the outside of each floor. The stone Buddha statues of Ming Dynasty, standing or sitting in the niches, are very delicate and vivid. Inside the second floor is a metal standing Buddha statue. The bottom floor is of double eaves type, and the south facing tower gate is engraved with the word "Chongwen pagoda". From the inside to the top of the tower, you can visit the inside and outside of each floor. Castle like battlements are built around the top floor. If you climb the tower on a sunny day, you can see Xi'an, Huayue and Lishan. Every year on the 23rd and 24th of the first month of the lunar calendar, there is a very busy meeting for the masses to climb the tower.

Chongwen tower

Chongwen pagoda, located in Chongwen pagoda scenic area of Jinghe new town, Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province, stands on the North Bank of Jinghe River. It was built in 1591, the 19th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty. It was initiated and presided over by Li Shida, the Minister of Jingyang, and constructed by craftsmen in Zhenjiang, Nanjing. It is the highest brick Pagoda in China.

Chongwen tower is a pavilion type brick tower, with an octagonal plane, a total of 13 floors and a total height of 87.218 meters. It is designed according to the ancient architectural principle of the eight trigrams hanging top, and is built with green bricks from the bottom to the top. Chongwen tower is one of the best preserved brick towers in China.

Chongwen tower has a long history and is now a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Historical evolution

Chongwen tower, a key cultural relic protection unit in Shaanxi Province, is located in Chongwen Tower Scenic Area, Chongwen Town, Jinghe new town, Xixian new district.

Chongwen tower, built in 1591, was initiated and presided over by Li Shida. It took 19 years for the construction to be completed in 1608.

Chongwen tower, with 13 floors, is 87.218 meters high. According to the ancient architectural design principle of the eight trigrams hanging top, the base to the top of the tower are all made of green bricks, which are octagonal in shape, with a bottom edge of 9 meters long. The bottom floor is of double eaves type, and the four characters "Chongwen pagoda" are engraved on the south facing tower gate. The highest level is the castle tower stack, with copper gourd top. In 1979, eight bronze statues of Buddha, Bodhisattva and heavenly king were found on the top of the pagoda. They are lifelike and vivid, and are treasures of the Ming Dynasty.

Inscriptions

According to the inscriptions in the records of the permanent residents of the iron Buddha Chongwen Pagoda Temple, the pagoda was built to encourage the students of Jingyang, Sanyuan and Gaoling counties to study hard. It was first built in 1591 and took 19 years to complete. The person who built the pagoda was Li Shida, the Minister of the Ministry of punishment of the Ming Dynasty and a native of the county.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was also a large-scale Buddhist temple, the iron Buddha Temple. However, in the later Hui uprising, the iron Buddha Temple was destroyed, leaving only the Chongwen pagoda and the Shanmen site in the south of the pagoda. During the cultural revolution, the Chongwen pagoda was destroyed again, resulting in the incomplete Buddha statues at the bottom of the existing pagoda. For more than 400 years, Chongwen tower, like a spectator of history, stands majestically on the Bank of Jing River, witnessing the change of history and accompanying the people who were born and grew up here.

Architectural design

Chongwen tower, the whole body of the tower is all built with green bricks, belongs to the pavilion type, a total of 13 floors. Each side of the bottom floor is 9 meters long and the perimeter is 72 meters. The base of the tower is xumizuo, and its body is octagonal. There are four characters "Chongwen pagoda" engraved on the south facing tower gate. There are four doors and four niches on each floor of the tower. In the niches, there are stone Buddha statues of Ming Dynasty with different shapes and vivid shapes.

There are brick steps in the tower, which can zigzag up to the top of the tower. The eaves of each tower have several layers of huge bricks folded and extended to form a waist eaves platform more than one meter wide for tourists to tour. Each layer of bucket arch, brick eaves and rafters are assembled with special ground bricks, and the tenon and mortise are closely connected. There are various patterns of brick carving, which is very spectacular. Wind chimes are hung on each corner of the eaves. In the morning and the moon, wind chimes tinkle, adding charm to the ancient pagoda.

The castle style battlements are built around the top floor. When the weather is fine, visitors can look out from the battlements and inspect all directions. They can see the magnificent scenery of the eight rivers around Chang'an and Lishan in the evening. They can also see the Jing and Wei rivers.

The scale

Chongwen pagoda has a copper basin at the top of the pagoda. Under the basin, there are eight bronze Buddha statues of different types. Unfortunately, the copper basin was broken and stolen in the drought in Guanzhong in 1929. The small bronze Buddha statues were dug up by local children in 1980 to sell copper. Fortunately, they were found and redeemed by the county cultural unit. They are now in the Museum of Jingyang County. Several evergreen cypress trees were planted at the top of the tower, but they are no longer there. The 13th floor, the top of the tower, is covered with a copper gourd about 5 meters high, which is quite magnificent.

Chongwen pagoda is octagonal in form instead of the typical square Pagoda in Tang Dynasty, and all the holes are of rolling arch type. Its level height and magnificent posture are comparable to the big wild goose pagoda in Xi'an dacien temple. "The floating picture goes into the blue clouds, and the Wei River flows far and near." "If you don't use a column for a long time, who will rebuild it. Cut the top, stab the blue sky, and make a hat of misty clouds. Breathing the sound of wind and rain. Ten li Chang'an city is only a corner. Looking down at the color of the sky, we can be afraid and mourn. " These popular poems describe the majestic and elegant demeanor of Chongwen pagoda.

festival activities

Chongwen pagoda Festival, also known as "Jingyang pagoda Festival", starts on the 15th of the first month of each year. Many customs are performed during the pagoda Festival, such as tower climbing, gongs and drums, dragon and lion dance, bamboo and horse stilts, acrobatic performance, setting up stage to see a play, and chasing rabbits on the beach. Merchants, sellers and visitors from all counties in Guanzhong are busy. It is said that since the completion of Chongwen pagoda, there has been a pagoda meeting every year except during the period of war and social change, which has a history of more than 400 years. It is a traditional festival custom of the local people and an indispensable folk activity of the people in Jingyang, Sanyuan and Gaoling. On the 23rd day of the first lunar month, the local villagers have a saying that they will let the animals rest for a day, and then go to Chongwen tower to catch up with the meeting, and people from a hundred Li radius will also go to play.

Chongwen tower was announced as the first batch of key cultural relics protection units in Shaanxi Province on August 6, 1956. With the deepening of reform and opening up and the western development strategy implemented by the Party Central Committee, Chongwen tower is also constantly opening to the outside world. Chongwen tower will stand in the northern center of Xi'an with a new attitude.

The origin of pagoda

There are different opinions on the origin of Chongwen tower. The most credible is that in the late Tang Dynasty, Chongwen pagoda was built in memory of Li Chaowei, the author of the biography of Liu Yi. Li Chaowei (766-820), a native of Longxi (now Dingxi City, Gansu Province), was named Chongwen. In his later years, he lived in baofangli (now Chongwen town), Ruian Township, erhetan, Jingyang County. Chongwen pagoda of Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Huazhou earthquake in 1556. When it was rebuilt in 1591, it was still named Chongwen pagoda. The temple also follows the original name of "Chongwen Pagoda Temple" in Tang Dynasty.

Building pagoda and prospering culture

It is said that before the Ming Dynasty, there were not many literati in Jingyang. Li Shangshu was superstitious in geomantic omen and asked for advice from geomantic omen masters. According to the investigation of feng shui masters, there is a Bijia mountain in the northwest of Jingyang (the rugged mountain and Beizhong mountain are like a Bijia mountain). There is a Bijia mountain without a pen, so the literature is not prosperous and the officials are not prosperous. A Wenfeng tower (symbolic pen) should be set up in the southeast. So Li Shangshu built this tower for his hometown. Wang Zheng, a scientist as famous as Liang Qichao; Zhang Fu, a teacher of Xianfeng and Tongzhi emperors of the Qing Dynasty; Bai Yanhu, a native of chengdongguan, Jingyang County; Yu Youren, a Chinese educator and calligrapher; Yang Fengxuan, a famous educator, Wu Mi, a master of Sinology, Feng Runzhang, a founder of the left wing League, he Huixuan, a calligrapher, Zhang Boxiu, a pioneer of new culture; Bai Zhigang, Lei Xuyan, a modern writer, and Li Liyan, a contemporary writer Ruobing and others are all from Jingyang.

Related allusions

It is said that Qianqian, the favorite concubine of Wanli, the twelfth emperor of the Ming Dynasty, died. The emperor heard that her spirit had drifted to Penglai Island, so he passed on to Li Shangshu, the Ministry of industry, and asked him to build a "Wangxian pagoda" twenty miles away from Beijing. Li Shangshu is from Jingyang County. The resident officials have not returned home for more than 20 years, and they often miss their hometown. Today, I'm very happy to hear that I'm going to build a tower 20 miles away from Beijing.

Busy with his wife and daughter on the way in the starry night. After returning to his hometown, the Minister of Shang Shu raised money for the construction of the pagoda in Yuzhou and Yuxian, and immediately began to select the site and clear the foundation. When people nearby heard that Li Shangshu had built a tower for Jingyang, they were all happy and vying for donations. In dozens of villages in the south of Jingyang County, brick kilns were built (later called kiln Square), and some villages specially built a tower to grind rice noodles (later called Mozi Village). Within a few days, craftsmen came one after another. At the time of stone transportation, the book of Shang was declared to Beijing, which changed "Jing" into "Jing" by mistake, causing Wanli's anger and being beheaded.

When the news reached his hometown, none of the people in Jingyang did not shed tears for Shangshu. At this time, some of the craftsmen said, "now that the book of history has been killed and a river bank has been built with bricks and stones, it's better to build a memorial tower for the book of history." We all gather in Shangshu village. You and I want your wife to make up her mind. Shangshu has a daughter

Chinese PinYin : Chong Wen Ta