Little wild goose pagoda

The small wild goose pagoda, namely "Jianfu Temple Pagoda", was built in the Tang Dynasty. In the long years, the little wild goose pagoda has withstood more than 1200 years of wind and rain and more than 70 earthquakes. It has experienced three times of separation and closing in history. The earthquake occurred in Shaanxi Province in 1487, the 23rd year of Chenghua in Ming Dynasty. After several decades, another big earthquake made the original rift "divine". Then there were two such phenomena.

The small wild goose pagoda is quiet in the environment, now located in the Xi'an Museum. In the temple, there is a huge iron bell cast in the Ming Dynasty three years (1192). The bell was cast in this * three year (1192), the bell button was double shaped, and the inscription on the clock was about 1000 characters, mostly by the spell. The sound of the bell is loud, and the "morning bell of the wild goose pagoda" is also known as one of the eight scenic spots in Guanzhong.

Little wild goose pagoda

Xiaoyan pagoda, also known as Jianfu Temple Pagoda, is located in Jianfu Temple of anrenfang (now the southern suburb of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province) in Chang'an city of Tang Dynasty. It was built in the reign of Jinglong of Tang Dynasty, and is an important symbol of Chang'an city of Tang Dynasty. The small wild goose pagoda and the ancient bell in the bell tower of Jianfu temple are called "morning bell of wild goose pagoda", which is one of the eight scenic spots in Guanzhong. It is an integral part of Xi'an Museum and a national AAAA scenic spot.

Xiaoyan pagoda is a typical work of early Chinese square brick Pagoda with dense eaves. It has 15 floors and 13 floors. It is 43.4 meters high. It is a beautiful pagoda. It is a Buddhist architectural art heritage of the Tang Dynasty. Buddhism was introduced into the Central Plains and integrated into the Han culture.

On March 4, 1961, the small wild goose pagoda was announced by the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units

. On June 22, 2014, at the 38th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting held in Doha, Qatar, the little wild goose pagoda, as a site of "Silk Road: road network of Chang'an Tianshan corridor" jointly applied for World Heritage by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, was successfully included in the world heritage list.

Historical evolution

The origin of the name

The little wild goose pagoda and the big wild goose pagoda are two important landmarks of Chang'an, the capital of Tang Dynasty. The small wild goose pagoda was always called "Jianfu Temple Pagoda" in Tang and Song dynasties. The name of "small wild goose pagoda" is related to "big wild goose pagoda".

In the third year of Yonghui reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (652), the imperial court funded the construction of a pagoda in the West courtyard of dacien temple in Chang'an, which was used to house Xuanzang's scriptures brought back from India. This pagoda is called the wild goose pagoda. In the first year of Jinglong (707) of emperor Zhongzong of Tang Dynasty, a small pagoda was built in Jianfu Temple by the famous Daoan lawyer and the palace people. Later, in order to distinguish the two pagodas, the pagoda of Ci'en Temple was named "big wild goose pagoda", while the pagoda of Jianfu temple was similar to and smaller than the big wild goose pagoda, so it was named "little wild goose pagoda", which has been handed down to this day.

Architectural history

The little wild goose pagoda was built during the reign of emperor Jinglong (707-710) in the middle of Tang Dynasty. It was built to store Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist pictures brought back from Tianzhu by Yijing, an eminent monk of Tang Dynasty. The small wild goose pagoda is a part of Jianfu temple, but the pagoda is not in Jianfu temple at that time, but opposite to the temple gate. The tower yard is located in anrenfang, across the street from Jianfu temple gate in Kaihua square. During the war in the late Tang Dynasty, Jianfu temple was destroyed repeatedly, and only the little wild goose pagoda was preserved.

According to the records in the Yuanyou period (1086-1094) of song zhezong, Jianfu temple had moved from the original Kaihua square to the courtyard of Anren square, and became a whole with the little wild goose pagoda. In 1116, a believer who called himself "the old man in the valley" vowed to repair the small wild goose pagoda, repair the severely weathered eaves and corners of the pagoda, and whitewash the pagoda. Up to now, traces of whitewash can be seen on the pagoda.

Jianfu temple and Xiaoyan pagoda were repaired many times in Ming and Qing Dynasties. There were five large-scale renovations in Ming Dynasty, which basically retained the previous pattern. In 1426, the first year of Xuande reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, Shao sijimengqin, a monk of weihongjue temple in Xining, Shaanxi Province, went to Jianfu temple to live and sit. Seeing that the temple was deserted, he made a vow to rebuild it. After the completion of the overhaul in 1449, Yingzong begged for the name of the temple. The plaque of "chici Jianfu Temple" is the imperial pen of Ming Yingzong. In 1487, an earthquake occurred in Xi'an and the body of Xiaoyan pagoda cracked. Later, when the tower was rebuilt, a layer of brick was laid at the bottom of the tower, but the cracks in the tower body were not repaired (the cracks caused by the earthquake were repaired only after a renovation in 1965). Xiaoyan pagoda has 15 storeys. In 1556, the 34th year of Jiajing reign of emperor Shizong of Ming Dynasty, two storeys on the top of the pagoda were destroyed by the earthquake in Huaxian county. There are 13 storeys now.

In the Qing Dynasty, Jianfu temple was repaired many times, and the largest one was in 1692. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Sutra house and Nanshan gate were also built.

After the revolution of 1911, Jianfu temple was occupied by the army for a long time from 1926 to may 1949. The little wild goose pagoda also became a military headquarters. By the time the Kuomintang troops left Xi'an, the underground palace of the little wild goose pagoda had been filled with rubbish.

Architectural structure

Architectural form

Xiaoyan pagoda is a brick Pagoda with dense eaves, which is composed of underground palace, base, body and eaves. The body of the pagoda is square and of blue brick structure. It was originally 15 meters high and about 45 meters high. During the great earthquake in 1556, the top of the tower was destroyed by two stories, and there are now 13 stories. In 1989, the total height of the tower was 43.395m, the length of the bottom side was 11.38m, and the ratio of height to bottom side was 100:26.

The base of the little wild goose pagoda is a brick platform. There is a gate in the north and south of the base of the pagoda. The stone door frame is full of exquisite Tang Dynasty line carvings, especially the images of heaven and man's support on the lintel, which are of high artistic value. The brick gate outside the north gate on the ground floor is close to the tower, which was added in the Qing Dynasty. On the south side of the tower base is the Shimen square of the Qing Dynasty, with "Wanhui zhanen" engraved on the South forehead and "Bu Er FA men" engraved on the North forehead.

There is an underground palace under the base, which is a vertical cave. Above the base is the tower body. The bottom layer of the tower body is tall. The height and width of more than two layers decrease gradually. The higher the tower is, the more rapid it is. It is natural and round, so the overall outline presents a beautiful rolling brake.

The body of the small wild goose pagoda is single walled and hollow. There is no column on the wall of the pagoda. On the tower body, there are overlapped cornices. The eaves are made of bricks on each layer of the tower body. The eaves are made of overlapped bricks with water caltrop teeth between them. Under the eaves on each layer of the tower body, there are diagonal teeth bricks. The north and south of each floor are provided with doors to provide light and ventilation.

architectural style

On the first floor of the little wild goose pagoda, the north and south door openings are opened for entrance and exit. The north and south door frames are made of bluestone, and the stone lintel is engraved with decorative patterns with typical Buddhist meanings, such as supporting heaven and man, vines, auspicious clouds, and Jialing Pinjia, reflecting the artistic style of the early Tang Dynasty. Feitian was originally the God of song and dance and entertainment in ancient Indian mythology, and later absorbed by Buddhism into the eight gods of Tianlong, becoming a common decorative theme in Buddhism. Auspicious cloud pattern is the romantic product of the combination of fairyland, ideal and reality, and it is the aesthetic feature of ancient decorative patterns. Jialing Pinjia, also known as "miaoyingniao" in Buddhism, has a beautiful voice, which is as graceful as a song. In Buddhist classics, its song is often compared with the miaoyingniao of Buddha and Bodhisattva.

These decorative patterns, closely related to Buddhism, are exquisitely carved and smooth in lines. They take the beating curve as the basic composition of the patterns, and embed foreign themes into the traditional Chinese aesthetic concepts, making them integrated and gradually become an important part of the traditional Chinese patterns. These decorative patterns are also one of the embodiment of the cultural characteristics of the Silk Road in the xiaoyanta heritage area.

Originally, in the bottom of the small wild goose pagoda, there was a large eaves shed with brick and wood structure around the body of the pagoda, which was called "winding waist". In the era of the Jin and Yuan wars, the "waist entanglement" was destroyed.

underground palace

During the period of the Republic of China, an underground palace was found in the middle of the base of Xiaoyan pagoda, but there were no relics and precious scriptures recorded in historical records. Therefore, some archaeologists speculate that in addition to the obvious "Ming Palace" above the ground level, there should be other "dark Palace" hidden under the small wild goose pagoda.

Cultural relics

Tang Zunsheng building

Located in the courtyard of "Huajing" in the southeast corner of Xiaoyan pagoda, the Buddhist sutra building of Zunsheng in Tang Dynasty was carved in the second year of Huichang (842) of emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty. It was originally established by Liu shining, a resident of Pengcheng County in Tang Dynasty, for his late mother. The building is made of stone, octagonal, covered with a lotus bead top and a square base with two niches on each side. The front of the building is engraved with the Sutra of Buddha's top reverence and the Sutra of ten pure lands of Buddha's wish.

The height of the building is 126.3 cm. The block is a cuboid, 62 cm long, 59 cm wide and 27 cm high. Each side of the octagonal building is 11.2-12.5 cm wide. The head plate is 68 cm in diameter and 18.5 cm in height. It is 61 cm in diameter and 14.5 cm in height. The top of lotus pearl is 25.5cm high. Except for partial damage, the Jingchuang is well preserved as a whole. It is identified as a class II cultural relic by the appraisal committee of Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of cultural relics.

The treasure of this sutra building lies in the relief music playing picture of its base. They play a number of tricks, playing elegant music. In the upper part of the building, there are two layers of Huagai, each of which is decorated with eight dragon heads of different shapes, representing the eight divisions of Tianlong. There are eight niches between the two canopies

Chinese PinYin : Xiao Yan Ta