Boating Zen master tower

Boating Zen master tower

Located at the site of Baoguo temple in the northwest of Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province, the pagoda of boating Chan Master was founded in the second year of Changqing of Tang Dynasty (822 AD). It is one of the well preserved pavilions in China. It is a typical example of round Tang pagoda. The inscriptions on the pagoda have their own characteristics, which are arranged vertically from left to right. They are rare in China and have high artistic value, reflecting the outstanding wisdom and extraordinary creativity of the ancient Chinese working people. On June 25, 2001, it was announced as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

historical origin

On June 25, 2001, the State Council announced the pagoda as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. It is located in Sibei village, 5km northwest of Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. On the site of Baoguo temple, the temple was destroyed early, and the ancient pagoda survived alone.

The boating Chan Master pagoda has a history of more than 1200 years. It is the spiritual bone pagoda of the boating Chan Master. It is one of the main buildings of Baoguo temple in Tang Dynasty. On the site of Baoguo temple, the temple was destroyed early, and the ancient pagoda of boating Zen master survived alone. Boating was a Zen master of Baoguo temple in Tang Dynasty. After his death, he built a pagoda to worship him.

Cultural relics protection

According to the TA Ming, Quhuan was built in the second year of Changqing (822 A.D.).

(the pagoda of boating Chan Master is on the site of Baoguo temple in the southeast of Beiqu village, Daqu Township, 5km northwest of Yuncheng City. It is a brick Pagoda with peculiar structure and beautiful circle. It is a key cultural relic protection unit at the provincial level.

Boating Zen master tower was built in the second year of Changqing of Tang Dynasty (822). According to the stone inscriptions of the pagoda, the Anyi people of the Tang Dynasty, Quhuan, were brave in the army, made many achievements in war, and served as the official to the inspector. In order to accumulate Yinde, he returned to his hometown, bought more than 20 mu of land, built a 15000 square meter Baoguo temple, and invited a monk named "boating Zen master" to be the abbot of the temple. He became close friends with him and often played chess late into the night. Because Qu Huan's family was far away from the temple, and it was inconvenient to visit friends when playing chess, Qu Huan built a villa in the north of the temple.

This boating Zen master was the grandson of Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. He died in 822, the second year of Changqing of Tang Dynasty. In memory of this good friend, Qu Huan recruited skilled craftsmen to build this dignified and beautiful tomb tower in the cemetery where the boating Zen master was buried. Quhuan returned home in his later years and settled down here. Later, it developed into a village, which is now called sibeiqu village.

Layout structure

The tower of boating Zen master is about 10 meters high. Its structural plane is round, and its facade consists of three parts: the top, the body and the base. The height of each part is about one third of the total. The base of the tower is cylindrical and made of brick. On the platform is xumizuo, with lotus leaf points carved between the waist and the upper and lower owls, and decorated with diamond patterns. The round body of the tower is divided into eight rooms with square brick columns. A small door is opened in the south, and the threshold, vertical cheek and forehead are all carved with stone. The upper part of the hexagonal inner room is a stacked caisson, in which there is a small square hole, and a small room on the hole goes directly to the top of the tower. On the north side, there is a small chamber It is embedded with stone inscriptions 1 meter high and more than 70 cm wide, which describes the life of the boating Zen master and the process of building the pagoda.

There are four rows of bricks on the shoulders, and four broken vertical lattice windows on the four corners. The upper string is made of Chunti on the top, the lower string is made of Xinzhu on the bottom, and the lower column is installed. It is similar to the square column of Xi'an Dayan Pagoda. The upper and lower waist strings of the windows are made of Chunti, Xinzhu and Lijia, which are very similar to Dunhuang eaves.

From the appearance point of view, the eaves of the pagoda are stacked layer by layer. The pagoda is built on the top of the banana leaves and the covering bowl. The shape is simple and elegant, and the carving thickness is the same. It is a typical example of the round Pagoda in the Tang Dynasty, which has high historical and artistic value.)

Tower shape

The foundation of the tower is a cylindrical brick structure, which is slightly divided from the bottom to the top. There are six layers of brick stacked xumizuo on the top. There are carved brick doors on the top and separated by columns.

Xumizuo is a round brick tower with a hollow body. The door is opened in the south. The threshold, cheek and forehead are made of stone.

Inside the tower is a hexagonal chamber with a stacked caisson at the top. There is a small hole of 0.4m in the middle, which leads directly to the upper chamber. The upper chamber is still contracted to the top of the tower with inverted stacked brick. The outdoor space is divided into eight sides and eight rooms by eight leaning columns, and the side of the door is carved with wooden lattice windows. The upper part of the tower body is covered with a folded tower eaves, which are carved with rafters, flying rafters, hook heads and dripping water. There are 15 layers of bricks on the eaves, which are folded and contracted to the exposed plate under the base of the Tasha. There are broken lattice windows on the side of the door, and the proportion is similar to that of the wood structure. There is a inscription on the side of the tower, which describes the life of boating and the process of building the tower.

The eaves of the pagoda are stacked one by one, and the pagoda is on the top of the banana leaves and the covering bowl. It is a typical example of the circular Pagoda in Tang Dynasty.

architectural style

The boating Zen master tower is divided into three parts, the tower base, the tower body and the tower brake. The total height is 10 meters, and each of the three parts accounts for about one third. The base of the tower is made of plain bricks in a cylindrical shape, with a slight gain from bottom to top. The upper part is folded and contracted into xumizuo by six layers of bricks. The body of the tower is divided into eight rooms with square brick columns. A small door is opened in the south. The door frame is made of stone. The entrance to the tower is a hexagonal chamber with a stacked caisson. There are four rows of brick nails on the door leaf, and each nail cover is four centimeters. The four corners are equipped with broken vertical lattice windows.

On the body of the tower, it is carved with bricks to decorate it for a week, and then folded with twelve layers of bricks. The protruding part is larger than one tenth of the base of the tower. On the eaves, there are 15 layers of bricks which are folded and contracted to the exposed plate under the Tasha seat, on which are carved banana leaves, covered bowls, Qinghua, Chuilian, Yanglian, Baogai, etc. At the top is a jewel carved from stone. To the north of the pagoda, there is an inscription on the pagoda with a height of 1 meter and a width of 0.73 meters, which records the origin of the pagoda in detail.

artistic value

The boating Zen master tower has superb artistic value in architectural design and construction. Its unique conception is the best of ancient architecture, which shows the wisdom of ancient Chinese working people and the exquisite design and skills of skilled craftsmen. It is also an example of the superb architectural engineering technology and artistic achievements of ancient China. This single-layer round brick tower is the only isolated example of Tang tower in China.

Therefore, the tower was selected as one of the textbooks such as the history of ancient Chinese architecture and the famous tower of China. The boating Zen master tower not only has a unique construction and a long history, but also has high scientific value and unique artistic value, which also contains profound cultural connotation.

Boating Zen master

Boating Zen master is the grandson of Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty. He was intelligent and devoted to Buddhism since childhood. At the age of 20, he gave up his royal life and practiced in Baoguo temple, the holy land of Tantric sect of Tang Dynasty. After his death, he built this dignified and beautiful pagoda.

In his whole life, the boating Zen master traveled widely and was good at poetry and painting. In particular, the painted arhat is extremely popular and has been highly appraised in the past dynasties. Huang Xiufu of the Song dynasty recorded in his famous Yizhou paintings: boating is a famous poem, which is well-known in yunei. When people were good at cursive painting, they were compared with huaisu and Yan Liben.

The Song Dynasty's Xuanhe Huapu also introduces the painting of boating Zen master. It says that boating is the best at drawing arhat statues. "Arhat looks like an ancient wild, which is different from the world's tradition. It's rich and frowning, with deep eyes and big nose; or it's huge and haggard, and it's swarthy as if it's foreign. It's amazing to see it." Rowan painted by boating is exaggerated and deformed, which is quite different from ordinary people. He claims that the source of the strange image of Rowan is "seen from a dream". As the saying goes, the day has thought, the night has a dream. As for the painted Arhats, they often appear in dreams, from which we can see that the focus of boating Zen master's creation lies in constant deformation and creation.

Ouyang Jiong, the academician of the Imperial Academy of the later Shu Dynasty, once wrote a song "master Zen moon Ying Meng Luo Han Ge", praising Zen master's contribution to the creation of Buddhist statues: "the eminent monks of the Western Yue are famous for boating, and they are highly affectionate and stand out in Qingqiu. Tian Jiao ink painting Luohan, kui'an ancient Rongsheng pen If you compare this painting, it always comes first in the world. "

Related allusions

Since then, the sixteen true images of boating Zen master has become a model for later generations to copy and sculpture arhat Buddha. That is to say, most of the arhat statues we see in temples all over the country after the Tang Dynasty originated from the creation of boating Zen master, a fellow villager more than 1100 years ago, which undoubtedly adds a proud capital to the Jinhua people.

According to historical records, it took more than 10 years to complete the painting of sixteen true portraits of boating Zen master in Tang Guangming (880 A.D.) until the early years of qianning. During the rebellion period of the Ten Kingdoms, in order to escape the war, the boating Zen master came to Jinzhou, which was relatively stable, and brought the sixteen Ying images to Shanxi.

Address: About 5km northwest of Yuncheng City

Longitude: 110.94263458252

Latitude: 35.039817810059

Ticket information: market price: 5.0 yuan

Chinese PinYin : Fan Zhou Chan Shi Ta