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From the mountain road outside the south wall of Qixia Temple to the East, you can see the relic tower. The relic pagoda was built in the first year of Renshou (601) of Sui Dynasty. It was first a wooden pagoda and later destroyed in the Huichang period of emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty. The existing tower was built by Gao Yue and Lin Renzhao in the Southern Tang Dynasty.

The tower is made of white stone, with five floors and eight sides, and is about 18 meters high. There are reliefs on the outer wall of the tower, which are vivid and vivid. The story of Sakyamuni becoming a monk is engraved on the tower base.

Qixia Temple relic pagoda

synonym

Relic pagoda (Nanjing Qixia Temple relic pagoda) generally refers to Qixia Temple relic pagoda

Qixia Temple relic tower is located in the east of Qixia Temple at the foot of Qixia mountain, Qixia District, Nanjing city. It is a Buddhist stone tower in the Five Dynasties period and the largest relic tower in China.

The overall structure of Qixia Temple relic pagoda is compact, with beautiful carvings, octagonal five eaves, and 15 meters high. It is an important practice to study the architecture of the Southern Tang Dynasty. It is a masterpiece of Chinese pagoda art, and is a very rare dense eaves Pagoda in the south.

The relic pagoda of Qixia Temple was built in 483, the first year of Yongming in the Southern Qi Dynasty. It was rebuilt in 601, the first year of Renshou in the Sui Dynasty. It was originally a five story square wooden pagoda. The existing stone pagoda was rebuilt in the Southern Tang Dynasty (937-975). In 1988, the State Council of the people's Republic of China announced it as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

building structure

The relic pagoda of Qixia Temple is of dense eaves type, with five levels and eight sides. From bottom to top, it is divided into three parts: the tower base, the tower body and the tower brake, with a height of 18 meters, all built with white limestone. The tower has three floors, and from bottom to top are the base, xumizuo and yanglianzuo. The plane of the base is carved with dragon, Phoenix, fish and turtle patterns swimming in the sea and auspicious clouds, and the side is carved with pomegranate and phoenix patterns. The upper and lower parts of xumizuo are carved with lotus, pomegranate, lion and Phoenix on the side, octahedron on on the waist part in the middle, semicircular corner columns on the eight corners, figures of Li Shi and Li long on the columns, and Sakyamuni's "eight phases into Tao" on the columns.

There are three layers of lotus petals on xumizuo to support the tower. The tower has five floors, each of which has a far-reaching eaves. The eaves are curved, carved with lotus shaped round tiles and double lips dripping water, and the back is decorated with a faucet. The first floor is about 3 meters high. The flying image is carved on the stone with the eaves lifted. The wooden pillars are carved on the corners of eight sides. The pillars are set with an appendix. The statues of Manjusri and Puxian are respectively embossed in the middle of the East and west sides. The stone gates are carved on the north and south sides. The gate pillars are engraved with scriptures. The other four sides are carved with a statue of the king of heaven. The height of the second floor is about 1 meter, and the height of the upper floors is reduced layer by layer. Without a door, two arched niches are carved on eight sides of each floor, and a sitting Buddha is embossed in the niches. There are five layers of Tasha, each with lotus carving. This kind of dense eaves tower with pedestal is the earliest example of the existing stone tower.

The tower is well preserved, only part of the eaves and block stones are damaged by falling. In 1930, Liu Dunzhen, an architect, presided over the maintenance, redesigned the tower brake (the original brake was destroyed), and repaired the damaged part of the base. In 1950's, according to the style of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the base stone railings were restored, and lightning protection facilities were installed; in 1970's, iron fence was added.

Value status

The relic pagoda of Qixia Temple changed the way that the dense eaves Pagoda in Tang Dynasty only had a low plain platform foundation. It absorbed the modeling method of some small pagodas in Tang Dynasty. Under the pagoda, xumizuo was used as the base, and on the base, there was a flat seat with a lotus on it, which created the trend of gradually gorgeous dense eaves Pagoda in the future.

Qixia Temple relic pagoda is not large in size, each eaves are carved from the whole stone, the overhanging eaves are deep, only the convex line foot is carved under the eaves, not the bucket arch, and the column Fang carving is simple and nodal. The overall balance, including the stout pagoda, is very appropriate. Although it still imitates the shape of wood structure architecture, it does not lose the nature of stone and the graceful demeanor that the small pagoda should have, so it has high artistic value. The stone surface of Qixia Temple Pagoda is full of relief carvings, which are the best carvings of the Five Dynasties.

Address: Qixia mountain in the northeast of Nanjing

Longitude: 118.95661354065

Latitude: 32.151053873067

Chinese PinYin : She Li Ta