Zhuozhou Twin Towers

Shuangta is a landmark historical building in Zhuozhou, a famous historic site to the south of Beijing, and a skyline within 20 Li. The twin towers have accumulated nearly a thousand years of ancient civilization in Zhuozhou, showing their own long history and cultural heritage and colorful cultural features. The shape of the twin towers is beautiful, and there are many praises from literati in the past dynasties. The "twin towers" is one of the eight scenic spots in Zhuozhou, and there is also a beautiful legend of "sister-in-law repairing the tower" among the people. The Yunju Temple Pagoda adopts even number instead of odd number, which makes the domestic Buddhist circles, cultural relic circles and architectural experts have not yet understood the mystery. It also reflects the historical value, artistic value and scientific value of the two pagodas.

Zhuozhou Twin Towers

Zhuozhou twin towers, a landmark building of Zhuozhou ancient city, is located in the northeast corner of the old city of Zhuozhou (now under the jurisdiction of Tianqiao street of the Twin Towers Office). Both towers are relic towers, facing each other from north to south. The south tower is called "zhidu temple tower", and the North Tower is called "Yunju temple tower".

The two pagodas are named after the temple, but I don't know when the temple was destroyed. There is only one pagoda left, which is collectively known as "Zhuozhou twin pagodas".

The beginning of the construction

Zhuozhou twin towers, the landmark of Zhuozhou ancient city, is located in the northeast corner of Zhuozhou City. It is under the jurisdiction of Tianqiao street, Twin Towers Office. The south tower is called "zhidu temple tower", the North Tower is called "Yunju temple tower", and the two towers are named after the temple. However, the two monasteries were not known when they were destroyed. There is only one pagoda left in each of them, collectively known as "Zhuozhou twin pagodas".

The two towers are octagonal brick Pavilion style relic towers, 300 meters apart from each other. The south tower, with a height of 44 meters, was first built in 1031. The North Tower, with a height of 56 meters, was built in 1092, the eighth year of Liao Da'an. The characteristics of the double tower era are obvious, which is quite the architectural style of Liao Dynasty and has a certain influence in China.

Construction background

In the Liao Dynasty, Zhuozhou was the southern border of Liao state, facing off with the Northern Song Dynasty across the Baigou river. The Qidan people advocated Buddhism, and the Liao Dynasty was a period of building pagodas. Youyun area, which Zhuozhou belongs to, is a Han inhabited area in Liao state. This area has frequent cultural exchanges with the Northern Song Dynasty, and the shape of pagodas is naturally different from the traditional area of Liao state.

The period of building twin pagodas (1031-1092) was also the period of building Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Dingzhou (1001-1052). It can be said that Dingzhou was the northern important town of Song Dynasty, while Zhuozhou was the southern important town of Qidan. Dingzhou built an 11 storey pagoda, Zhuozhou built two together is also 11 storey pagoda, two confrontation. The Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Dingzhou is also known as "material enemy pagoda" because it can climb the pagoda to have a look out, while the twin pagodas in Zhuozhou can also climb the pagoda to have a look out, which has the function of "material enemy".

North and South towers

Zhidu temple tower is a Xumi type tower base with brick carvings of musicians and auspicious animals. The outer shape of the five storey tower is the same. The East, South, West and north sides of the tower are divided into three rooms by octagonal columns, with a ticket door in mind. The southeast, northeast, southwest and northwest sides are also divided into three rooms by columns, with broken edges and blind windows in mind. Iron bells are suspended at each corner, and the Tasha is white and round.

The tower is hollow, with chambers on the first and fifth floors. The center of the tower on the first floor is a dome, and the painted patterns of tuanlong in Liao Dynasty are intact. From the second floor to the fourth floor, there is a single ring outer wall, and the buttress goes up through the center of the tower. In addition to the ticket doors on all sides of each floor, there are also many ventilation openings, which are connected with the climbing stairs by small narrow ladders.

Layout structure

The external form of Yunju Temple Pagoda is basically the same as that of zhidu Temple Pagoda, but the South pagoda is slightly strong and majestic, and the North pagoda is slightly tall and more beautiful and symmetrical. The Tasha of the North Tower is also thinner and longer, which is called Jiaoye baopingcha.

The structure of the tower is different from that of the south tower. It is a double ring wall and central column structure. That is to say, there is still an octagonal wall in the tower, and a central tower column is set in it. A sandwich corridor is formed between the tower column and the inner ring wall, and the stairs are folded up in the inner corridor. The fifth and sixth floors are not built with central columns because of the small area inside the tower. There are also many ventilation and lighting openings in the tower leading to the outside of the tower, but because of the existence of the central column, the inside of the tower is much narrower and darker. On the fifth and sixth floors, you can have a panoramic view of the ancient city of Zhuozhou.

Zhuozhou twin towers are the few existing brick towers of the Liao Dynasty in China, which completely imitate the wooden pavilions with fine workmanship. The internal structure is sleeve type, and each layer of the tower is equipped with octagonal corridors.

On June 25, 2001, Zhuozhou twin towers, as an ancient building of Liao Dynasty, were approved by the State Council to be listed in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection list.

Devastated

According to historical records, the twin towers were repaired to varying degrees in Liao, Jin, Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the 16th year of the Republic of China, during the Jin Feng war, the south tower was shelled, resulting in partial deformity of the east wall. During the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the top of the tower collapsed, the tower cracked, and the damage intensified after years of rain erosion; the North Tower was also seriously damaged due to years of disrepair.

In the war of Zhuozhou in 1927, Fu Zuoyi of Jin army fought fiercely with Wang Zhiyou of Fengjun who occupied Zhuozhou for two days and one night to seize Zhuozhou City. Later, Fengjun leader Zhang Xueliang personally surrounded Zhuozhou City and shelled the ancient city. When Fengjun detected that Fu Zuoyi was commanding the battle in the south tower, he bombarded the south tower with cannons. One shell destroyed the southeast corner of the top of the south tower, one shell did not sound after hitting the south tower, and another exploded in the chamber of the cannon. Fengjun thought that the twin towers were protected by Buddha, so they stopped shelling. Fu Zuoyi stayed in Zhuozhou City for three months, but he had to go down because he ran out of ammunition and food. At that time, the prosperous markets in Zhuozhou City turned into rubble and scorched earth, killing and injuring more than 1600 soldiers and civilians.

Fu Zuoyi held back more than 50000 Fengjun troops for three months with less than 10000 people in isolation, which played an important role in the Jin army's invasion of Beijing and Tianjin and the acceleration of the collapse of the "Angou military government". Fengjun besieged Zhuozhou with heavy troops, used the most modern heavy artillery, aircraft and tanks at that time, cooperated in the air, ground and underground, and even used poison gas blatantly, which made the "Zhuozhou war" the most important battle in the warlord war in the early Republic of China, and also a prominent example of urban offensive and defensive campaign in the history of modern war. The battle of Zhuozhou made Fu Zuoyi famous in the first World War.

When the south tower was repaired in 2001, the unexploded shells were found. Martial law was imposed on the twin towers, and the surrounding people were evacuated. When the shells were taken out of the tower, it was found that it was 50 cm long and 50 Jin heavy. It was a daily made 100 mm smooth bore shell with a lethal radius of 55 meters. It had not yet failed and was in danger of explosion at any time. Shell experts transported it to Juma River for detonation. After the shell was safely removed, the repair work was restarted.

Repair and restoration

In 2001, the State Administration of cultural relics, Hebei Provincial Bureau of cultural relics and Zhuozhou Municipal People's Government jointly funded the restoration of zhidu Temple Pagoda. The project was completed in the second half of 2004. At the same time, it started to repair Yunju temple tower, and the main project of the two towers was completed in 2006.

On November 6, 2010, the thousand year old zhidu Temple Pagoda and Yunju Temple Pagoda in Zhuozhou were restored and completed. The famous scenery of "double pagodas" reappeared in the world.

Shuangta Qingyan

It is said that on a sunny day, you can always see a few wisps of green smoke at the top of the twin towers, which is called "sunny smoke of the twin towers". It is one of the eight scenic spots in Zhuozhou.

There is a poem to prove that "the monument is still from the Jin and Liao dynasties, the double pagodas are forced to make nine nights, the Buddha fire is unknown, the bell is silent, and the smoke is blowing with the wind." Another way of saying "twin towers with fine smoke" is that in a sunny and windy day, the twin towers are just like wisps of green smoke curling up on the blue sky. There are indeed people who have seen it, especially during the Tangshan earthquake. According to experts, not long ago, Changli Pagoda in Hebei Province was also smoking. At that time, people climbed to the top of the pagoda and copied samples from the green smoke. They learned that the component of the smoke was a small insect called "rice wheat mosquito". It liked to live in groups on the top of tall objects, especially in hot weather. These insects are concentrated in one place, circling up and down. From a distance, they look like wisps of smoke The reason why Zhuozhou Twin Towers smoke is also a natural phenomenon!

Yang, a Qing Dynasty man, praised the poem "Yunju temple's two pagodas": "the golden crow opens its wings in vimo palace, and the book comes out of the White Pagoda in the clouds. The seven silver plates are built on Biyu, and the sky is full of double hibiscus. "

Legend of Twin Towers

My sister-in-law repaired the pagoda

There is a beautiful legend about the construction of the twin towers in Zhuozhou: Xiao Tianzuo and Xiao Tianyou were reincarnated as two evil dragons in the Liao Dynasty and died in the northeast of Zhuozhou City. The two graves became two sea eyes, and the black water flooded seven villages and eight villages. The goddess in the sky, the two immortals of Auntie and sister-in-law, will build two pagodas to keep Haiyan at bay. My sister-in-law built the North Tower and my sister-in-law built the south tower. At the fourth watch of genius, the fifth floor was repaired. At this time, the sister-in-law's child cried, so she had to feed the baby. When the chicken crowed, the sister-in-law finished repairing the sixth floor, and finally put the needle on the top of the tower. And sister-in-law, a chicken call flustered God, copied the cover of the pot in the top of the tower. Therefore, the North Tower is one story higher, the spire is a needle cone, the south tower is one story less, and the top of the tower is round. Therefore, the twin towers are also called "sister-in-law towers".

A dialogue between the king and the minister

There is also a legend that when Qianlong went down to Zhuozhou, he saw the twin towers from a long distance, and there was a golden rape field outside the city. Qianlong gave Liu Yong a couplet: "the yellow flowers in the suburbs are like gold nails on the ground", while Liu Yong wrote the following couplet: "the twin towers in the city are like jade cones on the sky"

historical value

Shuangta is a landmark historical building in Zhuozhou. It is a famous historic site south of Beijing and a treasure of China. It is deeply loved by Zhuozhou people

Chinese PinYin : Zhuo Zhou Shuang Ta