Fusheng Temple Pagoda

Fusheng Temple Pagoda

Fusheng Temple Pagoda, also known as Fanta, is located in the southwest corner of Dashizi street, Dengzhou City, Henan Province. It was built on February 25, 1032, the tenth year of Tiansheng in the Northern Song Dynasty. The pagoda is an octagonal seven level Pavilion brick pagoda. The pagoda was originally 13 storeys. It was destroyed by soldiers at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and became seven storeys. It was rebuilt by sengziyan at the beginning of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty. In May 1988, Henan Institute of ancient architecture protection discovered the underground palace at the base of the tower when it was repaired. With the approval of the State Administration of cultural relics, an excavation team composed of Henan Institute of ancient architecture protection and Henan Institute of cultural relics excavated from July to August 1988, and unearthed a number of cultural relics, such as gold coffin, silver coffin, Buddha bone relic, relic bottle and glass gourd. In 2006, it was announced as the Sixth Batch of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council.

Historical evolution

The pagoda of Fusheng temple was built in 1032, the 10th year of Tiansheng in the Northern Song Dynasty. At the beginning of its construction, it was 13 grade and more than 20 Zhang high. Later, it was burned by war. The existing Fanta has 7 floors, 36.7 meters high, and is octagonal cone-shaped. The Vatican pagoda is simple in shape and moderate in proportion. It is a solemn and simple Pavilion style brick pagoda. The eaves of the pagoda are made of green bricks. Around the body of the pagoda, there are more than 13000 niches with brick reliefs on each side. On these niches, there are relief sculptures of the heavenly king, Bodhisattva, Vajra, arhat, huangjinlishi and other Buddhist deities with peculiar shapes. The edge of the niche and around the arch are decorated with various patterns of vines.

As for the construction time of Fusheng Temple Pagoda, it is recorded in volume 9 of Dengzhou annals in detail: "Fusheng temple was established in the State governing Nanguan, between heaven and saints, destroyed by soldiers from the Yuan Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and rebuilt by monk Ziyan at the beginning of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty." For a long time in the past, the local people have been calling it the Sui pagoda. When it was repaired in 1951, it was engraved with stone and embedded in the wall of the tower, also known as "a brief account of the restoration of the Sui tower". It is believed that the tower was built in the second year of Renshou in the Sui Dynasty. At that time, it was believed that it was a Sui pagoda because the pagoda inscription of Xingguo temple in Dengzhou in the second year of Renshou of Sui Dynasty, which was originally transported from Deng county to Kaifeng, was mistaken for the pagoda inscription of Fusheng temple. Although it was later identified as the song tower according to its architectural characteristics, there was no exact chronology. According to the records of the underground palace discovered in the underground palace, the tower was built on February 25, 1032, the 10th year of Tiansheng in Song Dynasty.

In May 1988, Henan Province ancient architecture protection research found the basement of the tower when repairing the tower. The discovery of the pagoda underground palace of Fusheng temple is another important discovery of Buddhist cultural relics in China. The unearthed relics, such as gold coffin, silver coffin, gilded double dragon silver pot and purple red glass gourd, show that the handicraft industry of Song Dynasty has reached a fairly high level, and provide precious material materials for the study of ancient science and technology history, art history and religious history.

architectural art

The main gate of Fusheng Temple Pagoda is south, octagonal in plane, 7-level Pavilion style brick pagoda, now 38.23 meters high. The body of the tower is built with green bricks, the internal and external walls are pointed with lime mortar, and the internal walls are bonded with red clay. Its surface width converges layer by layer from bottom to top, the height of each layer decreases evenly, the outline is rigid and flexible, and the shape is beautiful. The eaves of each tower are built into five pavilions with green bricks, and the eaves are carved with brick rafters and beams. The corner of each wall is built with leaning column. The inside and outside walls of each layer of the tower are inlaid with more than 2000 pieces of carved bricks of various Buddha statues, including sitting Buddha, Bodhisattva, heavenly king, Lishi, arhat, Jile, Baozhuang lotus and various decorative patterns, totaling 25 kinds.

A semicircular arch gate is set in the middle of the north wall and the south wall, and beautiful patterns such as various vine patterns are carved around the gate. From the second tower door in the south, you can enter into the tower chamber. There are stairways in the room, circling clockwise to pick up the steps. The second and third floors need to be around the outer eaves of the tower, and then enter the stairway to the upper floor to reach the tower room. The inner chambers above the fourth floor are tubular and no stairway is set. The inner wall is separated by overlapping eaves. The first to fifth floors are octagonal, and the fifth to seventh floors are square. A ticket gate is set on the south wall of the seventh floor (Fig. 1). In 1951, the people's Government of Henan Province provided funds for the reinforcement and maintenance of the first floor.

Fusheng Temple Pagoda was announced as a cultural relic protection unit in Henan Province in 1963. Due to the low-lying and humid environment, the erosion of the tower foundation by caustic soda can not be solved, and the collapse of the top is more serious. In 1988, the people's Government of Henan province again appropriated funds, and the Provincial Bureau of cultural relics ordered Henan Institute of ancient architecture protection to carry out comprehensive repair of the tower.

Underground structure

The underground palace is located under the heart of the tower, 4.6 meters deep from the earth's surface. It sits in the south, North and 2 degrees to the East. It is composed of four parts: Palace Road, gate, corridor and palace. The palace road is located at the north end of the gate. As the upper part of the road has not been excavated, it is known that it is a rectangular downhill with a length of 15.3 meters and a width of 2.35 meters after drilling. The road is filled with a layer of loess and a layer of brick slag. The loess layer is 20 cm thick, and the brick slag layer is 40 cm thick. After a little ramming, there are 12 layers in the deepest part. The gate of the underground palace is a gatehouse style building, with a gate built in the middle, 2.21 meters high and 1.22 meters wide, which is blocked by door sealing bricks. On the gate, there are six five brick arches, and on top of them are brick rafters, large and small eaves and tile shaped bricks, all of which are overhanging outwards. The walls on both sides of the gate are the same width as the palace road. The corridor is connected with the gate, and the height is the same as that of the gate. The East and west walls are built with long brick staggered joints, and the arch roof is built with wedge brick staggered joints upward at the height of 1.63 meters. The floor in the corridor is paved with brick staggered joints. A square niche, 18 cm high, 12 cm wide and 14 cm deep, was built above the east wall of the gate. It may be a lamp niche. The corridor is 6.13 meters long. It is sealed with dry brick. There are two sizes of bricks, one is 53 cm long, 24 cm wide and 7.5 cm thick, the other is 43 cm long, 20 cm wide and 7.5 cm thick. On the south end of the corridor and the north wall of the palace, another Ziquan gate was built. It was 170 cm high and 82 cm wide, slightly to the east of the corridor. It was also blocked with green bricks.

The palace is located at the south end of the corridor, with a hexagonal plane and a length of 65 cm on each side. The bottom is tiled with square brick staggered joints. The peripheral wall gradually shrinks inward from the bottom to the top. At 1.92m, six walls are overlapped and shrinks inward, forming a hexagonal cusp type item with a height of 3.45M. One bronze mirror is embedded in the middle of the top. East, South, north three walls above each have a nail. The walls of the whole palace were painted white and smooth.

Unearthed relics

In 1958, when the tower foundation was restored, it was found that it was an underground palace, from which rare treasures such as gold coffins and silver coffins were excavated. The gold coffin and the silver coffin were placed in the jade letter. The silver coffin is rectangular and is placed on the bed of xumizuo's coffin. There are two eaves pillars in front of the coffin, on which the roof of the imitation wood structure is supported. There are ridge beast, tile ridge, tile, dripping water, cornice board and so on. The carving is exquisite and exquisite. The silver outer coffin cover is a seven prism shape, with a linear pattern on it. In front of it, there are two dragons playing peony. The gold coffin is placed in front of the silver coffin. It is 19 cm long, 12 cm high and weighs 620 G. On the left side of the coffin is the story of Sakyamuni, and on the right side is the travel map. In the gold coffin, there is a "parietal bone" in the front and a "Buddha Tooth" in the back. The glass vase is placed at the back of the silver coffin. The beige vase contains colorless transparent liquid and Buddhist relics the size of rice grains. Inside the "relic" bottle, there is also a gold-plated double dragon silver pot and a stained glass gourd, which are rare treasures. According to relevant experts, the teeth in the underground palace under the pagoda of Fusheng temple are 39 years earlier than those in the Guangling pagoda of Ximen in Beijing.

Gold coffin and silver coffin

Gold coffin and silver coffin, Northern Song Dynasty, including gold coffin, 19 cm in length, 11 cm in width, 14.5 cm in height and 614.52 g in weight; silver coffin, 99% in silver content, 43 cm in length, 20 cm in width, 34 cm in height and 2384 g in weight, was unearthed from the pagoda of Fusheng temple in Deng County, Henan Province in July 1988.

The cover of the gold coffin is a wide front and narrow back pentagonal shape, with double phoenix and peony carved on it. The front of the gold coffin is decorated with imitation wood architecture, and two Dharma protectors are engraved under it. The two deities stand barefoot, each holding a sword. On the right side of the gold coffin is a travel map, followed by an inscription "not made in March". On the left side is the story of Sakyamuni, on the back of which is carved "VIMA hidden monk", and on the edge of the base of the golden coffin is carved with auspicious clouds.

The silver coffin is composed of three parts: the cover, the body and the base. The front and rear facades of the coffin body are decorated with the patterns of the roof and the gate; two eaves columns are erected outside the front facades of the coffin body, on which the roof of the imitation wood structure is supported and connected with the base, and the base is decorated with a circle of railings.

In front of the silver coffin, there is a gate tower. Under the gate tower, a plaque of Fengyu is erected. On the plaque, two lines of regular script inscriptions are engraved, with a total of 20 characters, which read: "all the Dharma disciples are born because of their origin. The Tathagata says that it is because of their origin, and the Dharma disciples perish because of their fate, as the dashamen says."

Other cultural relics

One stone letter. It is square in shape, with a bucket shaped cover on the upper part and a child and mother mouth. The bottom is located in the groove on the Xumi seat. The length and width are 60 cm and 34 cm respectively.

One "Buddha's parietal bone". Ivory. It is an irregular oval shape with smooth bottom. The height is 7 cm. One silver box. The hemispherical cover is buckled on the mouth of the box. Box round, drum belly, round bottom, ring foot. A round hole is drilled on the edge of the ring foot, and the silver wire is connected to the lower part of the box. The diameter is 6.5 cm, the base diameter is 4.5 cm and the height is 7 cm. One "Buddha Tooth". Brown stone, irregular oval. The height is 2 cm.

One glass Sherry bottle. Spherical, small mouth, round bottom, bulging abdomen. The diameter is 2 cm, the abdominal diameter is 11.5 cm, the base diameter is 5 cm, and the height is 12 cm. In order to put it stably, the bottom of the bottle

Chinese PinYin : Fu Sheng Si Ta