Relic pagoda of Longxing Temple

Relic pagoda of Longxing Temple

The relic pagoda of Longxing Temple is located in Pengzhou City, Chengdu. There are seven ancient pagodas with odd levels, which is related to the theory of yin and Yang in ancient China. Many images and activities of Buddhism also use odd numbers to express the meaning of quietness, heaven or auspiciousness. Therefore, it is customary for the tower to be built in a single layer, with seven levels as the standard layer, because there is a saying that "saving one's life is better than building a seven level pagoda". Longxing Temple Pagoda has 17 storeys, which is the most ancient pagoda in China.

A brief introduction to the pagoda

Standing on the central axis in front of the heavenly king hall in Longxing Temple in Pengzhou City, the tower of Longxing Temple shows the magnificent momentum of early Buddhism and the superb skills of the working people. It's a 41.5-meter-high square brick tower with dense eaves. It's a wonderful landscape with the old tall city walls and tall cypresses. In the works of poets and painters, its image often appears, which brings people artistic enjoyment. Visitors from other places come here to see its style.

Historical records

It is said that Asoka king of the Peacock Dynasty in the ancient Indian state of mogatuo? After Sakyamuni died more than 200 years ago (about 272-226 BC), he divided the relic into 84000 pieces and built 84000 pagodas around the world on the same day for worship. Among them, 19 relic pagodas have been built in China, and Yizhou has four. Longxing Temple is one of the oldest pagodas in the world.

In the 1930s, ye Jilan, who wrote "why the broken pagoda of Pengxian County in Sichuan didn't completely collapse" (published in Oriental Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 17, published in the 17th year of the Republic of China), claimed that Longxing pagoda was built in King Mu of Zhou (947-928 BC).

In 1878, when LV tiaoyang, a native of the Qing Dynasty, majored in Peng county annals, according to the August of the first year of Xianfeng, there was a man who stole the rosefinch on the top of the tower, holding a copper bell at the mouth of the finch. On the top of the bell was engraved Jiazi Nian Zhi Gong, who was made on the 18th roof, and his younger brother Huang's jiuniangshi. He also found that the eaves and horse tongue of the tower had the word "Datong 2nd year". From then on, it was designated as the beam tower.

After the collapse of the southeast and southwest corners of the pagoda on February 14, 1923, a large number of castings were obtained. Under the lotus seat of a Buddha statue, there was the inscription "Xiao yanzao, Yizi (i.e. disciple) in the second year of Datong"; there was also a bronze casting, with a square watch in front, a gold shop below, and the words Datong on the edge of the gold shop. Therefore, it is believed that the ancient pagoda was built by Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty, and there is also a folk saying that Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty built it by gambling with the famous monk Baozhi Zen master overnight.

In recent years, architecture and Archaeology experts Zhang Yuhuan and Lin Xiang have successively made field investigations. Based on their hollow tubular structure, architectural style and brick shape, and combined with literature argumentation, they believe that it was built in the Dazhong period of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (847-860 years), while the brick, eaves horse, rosefinch bell and other relics of the Liang Dynasty's Dakong temple were used in the construction of the tower.

Because Longxing Temple Tower is built on the soft alluvium of the plain, yellow mud with low bonding performance is used in the construction of the tower The mortar and brick are tomb bricks of different sizes and thicknesses. There are pattern bricks such as geometry, coins, couplet walls and yunfen of Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, and precious pattern bricks of Sui Dynasty. Among them, there are only three floors stacked with bricks, which are hollow as bamboo, and lack of transverse tension. Therefore, the integrity is poor. In case of earthquake, the tower body will swing greatly, and the tower will be arranged in a straight line up and down Because of the damage of many earthquakes, He Dong collapsed to the northeast corner in the late Ming Dynasty. It was also said that Zhang Xianzhong, the leader of the peasant uprising, tried to shell down here in order to consolidate the new political power of the Great West. In the middle of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the tower became worse and worse. It is a strange phenomenon that every time it goes on for more than ten days. On the sixth day of may in the fifty first year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong (June 1, 1786), due to the impact of the Moxi earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 in Luding, the damage was even deeper. The central part of the area split vertically, forming a situation of two peaks standing side by side. It has been known as "Tianpeng pagoda" for a long time, and has become one of the wonders of Tianfu. Yue Zhonghuang, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi Province at that time, wrote a poem about the North Tower. There are some good sentences such as "the separation of power in the tower" and "the first wonder of Yongzhen Tianpeng". By 1922, the southern half of the area had collapsed. As the original tower body shrinks gradually from level 10 or above, the remaining corner of the adduction curve is particularly prominent. When you look far away, it looks like a hanging bow in the sky, and you are nearsighted as if you are soaring into the sky. Whenever the sun goes down, the shadow of the broken tower of Longxing is reflected in the Tianchi Lake, which is just like a jade stick pointing to Xiaohan. People sit in the hanging tower beside the pool, have a cup of tea, listen to the sound of frogs in the pond, watch the reflection in the water, and enjoy themselves. This is the origin of "frogs look at the North Tower, jade pen points to Tianchi" praised by scholars for many years.

The pagoda of Longxing Temple has been destroyed by nature and man-made. Although it is on the verge of collapse, it is still safe after the Diexi earthquake in Songpan in 1933 and the Nanping earthquake in 1976. However, with the passage of time, especially on May 1, 1981, six floors were demolished by a mental patient surnamed Su, leaving only 18.74 meters high. It has lost its former style, and the foundation of the tower has cracked. The ancient tower is on the verge of collapse.

In the winter of 1940, master Nenghai (vice president of China Buddhist Association after liberation) came to Peng to lecture

He was deeply distressed to sweep the remnant pagoda. He resolutely vowed to rebuild it. He set up the "Preparatory Committee for rebuilding the relic pagoda of Longxing Temple in Yizhou". He raised money in Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places. He built four kilns in Taiping temple in Xinxing township of the county, and fired special bricks for building the pagoda. In Longxing Temple, a model tower was built to explore the experience of building the tower. The main tower is 12.33 meters high and the four small towers are 5.11 meters high. In 1986, Buddhist believers raised funds to decorate the pagoda. The pagoda was decorated with 844 Buddha statues. President Zhao Puchu inscribed the name of the pagoda "Longxing relic pagoda". Erdeni, the Panchen Lama, inscribed "Sakyamuni Buddha without auspiciousness" in Chinese and Tibetan respectively. It has been listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Chengdu.

In 1978, after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with the reform and opening up, the prosperity of the country, the happiness of the people, the party's religious policy, the promotion of Buddhist culture, the unity of the broad masses of religious people, the consolidation and development of the patriotic united front, Sichuan Province Buddhist monks Kuan Lin, Bian Neng, Longlian, Qingding and Longxing Temple Abbot Zheng Cheng monk and other mountain elders jointly wrote a vow to rebuild Longxing tower, completed the construction The unfinished business of Nenghai. It is approved by the majority of Buddhists and people from all walks of life, and also received the attention and support of the local party and government departments. In 1992, Pengxian people's government officially approved the Buddhist Association's self financing construction with Pengfu Letter No. 86. The Chengdu Municipal Bureau of culture also approved with the document No. 40 of chenghuifa (1992), in order to eliminate the danger of collapse and improve the urban landscape, and agreed to demolish the old pagoda of Longxing and rebuild the new one. On May 25 of the same year, a committee for rebuilding Longxing relic Pagoda in Pengxian County, Sichuan Province, was established in Chengdu Manjusri academy, with master Qingding as its chairman and Haishan, Zhenyi and Zhengcheng as its vice chairman. Zhao Puchu, President of the National Buddhist Association, was invited as its honorary director. He highly praised the Committee and thought that building a new pagoda was a good thing as well as a major event. He first offered 50000 yuan to support it. The reconstruction Committee has an office, a finance group, a general affairs group, a supervision group and other agencies, and Zhengcheng has been responsible for a large number of tower building affairs. On December 31, 1992 (the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month), Longxing Temple began to be demolished and rebuilt, which was undertaken by the fourth company of the fifth Metallurgical Construction Engineering Company of China.

On March 26, 1993, Pengfu Letter No. 25 of Pengxian people's government agreed that the new tower, after completion, belongs to religious property and belongs to the county Buddhist Association. As a place for religious activities, the county Buddhist Association is responsible for the use and management. Afterwards, the United Front Work Department and other nine departments formed the coordination leading group for tower construction, which was responsible for coordinating and solving the relevant issues in tower construction. It is planned to build a tower base of 2390 square meters with a compensation of 300000 yuan for the preliminary work of building the tower. After more than a year's preparatory work, the seventh plenary meeting of the tower building committee decided to hold a foundation laying ceremony in front of the relic tower in Longxing Temple at 10 am on April 19, 1994 (the ninth day of the third lunar month). More than 10000 people from all walks of life at home and abroad attended the foundation laying ceremony. Leaders from Sichuan Province and Chengdu City attended the ceremony to congratulate, dig earth and lay the foundation. They prayed for the auspiciousness of the pagoda. Ten days of Dharma meeting and Buddhist activities were held.

According to the national urban planning, the new tower was designed by Sichuan Architectural Design Institute with the characteristics of reflecting the Buddhist architectural style. According to master Nenghai's imitation of India's Calcutta Bodhisattva tower, the remnant tower was demolished and reinforced with reinforced concrete to close the underground palace. The construction of large Longxing pagoda was started. It consists of one main tower and four corner towers, which are divided into tower base, tower base and tower base The body and top of the tower. The whole tower foundation is 30 square meters square, with more than 7000 cubic meters of deep earth excavation and reinforced concrete pouring, covering an area of 900 square meters and 10 meters thick. In order to ensure durability and wear resistance, marble pavement is used for tower base floor, with the specification of 600mm × 600mm × 80mm. The body of the pagoda is square and cone-shaped, small at the top and large at the bottom. The shape of the pagoda is majestic, straight and solemn. The four corners of the pagoda conflict and soar, implying the profound connotation of Buddhist culture.

The main tower is 81 meters high, with five towers inside

Chinese PinYin : Long Xing Si She Li Bao Ta