Baitayu pagoda

Baitayu pagoda

Baitayu tower, commonly known as octagonal Linglong tower, also known as Jiulong tobacco tower, is one of the eight ancient scenic spots in Xingcheng. Located in the south of Jiulong Mountain, Tagou village, Baita Township, Xingcheng City, Liaoning Province. The original name of the pagoda was "the stupa of wujiyuan in Kongtongshan", belonging to the wujiyuan in Kongtongshan of Haiyun temple on juehua island. It was built in 1092 ad in the eighth year of Da'an of yeluhongji, the emperor of Liao Dynasty.

Location overview

Two kilometers to the west of baitayu tower is Xingcheng River, whose geographical coordinates are 120 ° 40 ′ 46 ″ E and 40 ° 38 ′ 50 ″ n. Here, there are many strange peaks and springs converging. Every rainy day, the rain and fog on the top of Jiulong Mountain are misty, and the smoke and clouds are rising. Entering the mountain is like falling into a fairyland. Therefore, it is called "Jiulong smoke tower". The Liao Dynasty brick tower has unique shape and exquisite structure.

The tower is towering, tall and straight. Ma Chang in Qing Dynasty also wrote the poem "Jiulong ancient pagoda", which says: "the mountain stands abruptly, the slopes are slaughtered for thousands of years, the dragon in heaven is in accordance with the relic, the cloud and tiger protect the fierce Luo, the peak and stone are flowing and gathering, the dry seal is full of rain, the East camp is occupied and the ambition is created." The annals of Ningyuan states: "Jiulong is craggy and secluded, surpassing all the mountains. There is a spring flowing out. In midsummer, BINGSHU pagoda is constantly seen on its eight sides and thirteen floors outside the sky." "Xingcheng county annals" contains: "Linglong tower in the northwest of the city Jiulong Mountain five miles Xu eight four Buddha four monument.".

The age of Architecture

According to the records of wujiyuan Pagoda in Haiyun Temple of juehua Island unearthed in 1956 near the brick Pagoda in Tagou village, baitayu Township, Xingcheng County, Liaoning Province, the original name of the pagoda is "wujiyuan relic Pagoda in Haiyun Temple of juehua island", which was built in 1092 ad in the eighth year of Da'an, yeluhongji, Liaodao Zong. In the stone room of the Tadi palace, there is an inscription about the person who built the pagoda and the time when it was first built: "Da'an was eight years old. On the 29th day of xinsishuo in September, Princess Yanyun, the emperor's grandson, built thirteen eaves of the funtu, which is more than 100 meters high." It can be seen that the tower was built by Princess Yanyun. Prince zhaohuai was the only son of emperor daozong of Liao Dynasty, and Prince zhaohuai only had one son and one daughter. Therefore, Princess Yanyun, the grandson of emperor daozong of Liao Dynasty, should be Yelu Yanshou. According to historical data, Yelu Yanshou was 16 or 17 years old when he built the White Pagoda Valley relic tower. This inscription not only clarifies the identity of the xiuta people, but also makes up for the lack of Liao history.

The baitayu Pagoda in Xingcheng is a Buddhist relic pagoda compatible with Mahayana and Hinayana, which provides evidence for the study of the form and content of the Royal Buddhist belief in the late Liao Dynasty.

Architectural features

The tower, 43 meters high, is a brick octagonal 13 solid eaves type. At the corner of xumizuo, there are brick carvings of the heavenly king's powerful man as the supporting shape. Each octagon of the tower body is inlaid with stone carvings of leaning columns, and the names of the eight Lingta are engraved. The center of each facade of the tower is built with a Buddhist niche. The door of the niche is round and carved with rolled grass pattern, with a built-in Buddha statue. On the left and right sides, there is a flank, equal to the top of the niche. The upper part of each niche is carved with the name of Buddha, and the lower seat is carved with three statues, three horses, three peacocks and three golden winged birds. The statues of Buddha, birds and animals are exquisitely carved. There are five small Buddhas on the left and right of the niche, sitting on the clouds, on which are all covered. The other four sides are brick steles, each of which is engraved with a Buddhist saying. They are all engraved in the shade, with correct and powerful characters. On both sides of the stele, there is a monk named Bi Qiu, and the upper part is carved with a Baogai and Feitian. The second floor tower has a plain surface, on which there is a stack of tower eaves, and the eaves are paved with tiles. Above three layers, the cones were harvested layer by layer. 12 meters deep in the center of the tower, there is an underground palace made of 17 blue sandstone steles. The underground palace is a collection of octagonal stones with a space of five feet in the middle. On the stone tablet of the underground palace are carved the records of building pagodas, the names of the eight pagodas, the verses, the scriptures of the merits of building pagodas by the toroni, the names of nine saints, eight Ming kings, 120 sages, five Buddhas and seven Buddhas. The name and verse of the eight pagodas are the same as those of the pagoda.

Architectural structure

Baitayu pagoda has typical characteristics of Liao Dynasty Pagoda with dense eaves. The inner part of the tower is hollow, and from bottom to top is the underground palace, the middle palace and the heavenly palace. The relics in the underground palace have been stolen and dug up in the early years. From bottom to top, the tower body is divided into four parts: tower base, tower body, dense eaves and tower top.

Tower base

At present, the damage of the tower foundation is serious, and the shape of the lower part of the tower foundation is indistinct and difficult to identify. According to the residual traces on the site and the comparison with other types of Liao tower, it can be roughly inferred that the original state of the tower foundation can be divided into five sections from bottom to top, namely, the tower, the big xumizuo, the big lotus, the small xumizuo and the small lotus. The pagoda is plain without carving. There are exquisite brick carvings on the gate and Shu column in xumizuo, and there are exquisitely carved strongmen at the corner of xumizuo.

Tower body

The tower has eight sides. There are octagonal leaning columns at each corner, which fall on the lotus platform at the base of the tower. The side corners are obvious, and the stigma has a roll killing, which is decorated with a curtain. There are standing cheeks on both sides of the pillar, and the pillars are connected with the Pu Pai Fang by the appendix forehead. On the pillar, there are eight pagoda names, and on the walls of the pagodas in four positive directions, there are niches carved with a Buddha statue in each niche. The niches are carved with a Buddha statue on the lotus platform of the xumisheng spirit. On the left and right sides of the niches, there are bodhisattvas standing at the same height as the top of the niche, decorated with a Baogai on the top and a light on the back. On the upper part of the niches, there is a Buddha name carved There are five middle and small Buddhas sitting in Xiangyun on the left and right sides, forming a cross of Buddhas. The niches are decorated with a Baogai. On the four corners, the pagoda body is changed into a brick stele, and the stele is engraved with words. On both sides of the stele, there is a arhat, with a light head behind the head, or holding offerings, or holding hands together. On the stele, there is a Baogai Feitian, bafeitian wearing a crown. The body is in a straight shape, with the head raised and the upper body raised Bare, under the long skirt, in pairs, hands tray, for the air flying shape, elegant clothes, clouds. At the head of the stele, the two dragons are coiled around, and there is a pattern of rolled grass on the side. There are four cloud plates on each side of the forehead. The forehead is supported by Pu Pai Fang. Pu Paifang is paved with corner paving and patching. Pu Paifang on the forehead intersects with PU Paifang on the forehead. The corner paving is used as five paving, which is made of single Dougong and oblique Dougong. There are four bunches in the mending room and five bunches in the double bunches.

Paving

The overhanging eaves purlin is paved with upper bearing brick, on which wooden corner beams are set. The overhanging eaves purlin is supported by wooden eaves rafters and stacked bricks, and a layer of large eaves is lifted out. The roof of the eaves is paved with tube tiles, and each corner is provided with a berm, and the corner beam is provided with a Fengduo. From the second floor to the 13th floor, the eaves are made of green bricks and wooden rafters. The eaves are folded inward layer by layer, and the wing angles of each layer rise slightly, forming a soft curve. There is a ridge at the waist, a ridge at the corner of the eaves, Fengduo at the bottom of the corner beam, and tube tile at the top of the eaves. There were three bronze mirrors on each side. The top of the tower has collapsed, and the tower brake does not exist.

Decorative features

The whole body of the white tower is built with green bricks, the dense eaves are supported by wood members, the tower body and dense eaves are decorated with bronze mirrors, most of them are built with white mortar surface bricks, and the tower core bricks are built with yellow mortar. The waist part of xumizuo in the tower base is decorated with face brick, which is pasted on the outside of the tower core brick, and the lotus terrace is made of Ding brick, which is ground into the image of lotus. The dense eaves are made of brick and wood. Because the top two stacked bricks have larger overhanging, the fifth stacked brick is supported by a rafter every other t-brick, and the rafter is paved with a wooden watch board to support the sixth stacked brick. In the third laminated brick, several wood bars are applied every two to three bricks, and the wood bars are the same as the eaves rafters. On the top of the stack, the anti stack brick is laid, and then the slab tile is laid, and the tube tile is covered on the seam of the slab tile. There are obvious overhanging and warping in the eaves. The overlapped bricks near the corner gradually increase the overhanging length to form overhanging. The closer the mortar joint between the overlapped bricks is to the corner, the thicker it is. The corner is padded up to form overhanging, just like the head wood. The corner beam supports the corner inverted brick and the berm and other components. The face brick of the waist part is three skin flat brick, and the corner flat brick is ground into an obtuse angle of 135 degrees according to the shape of the tower. Three copper mirrors are suspended on each waist, with different square circles, and each mirror is embedded in a square brick. The ridge part is composed of tile covering brick, ridge enclosing brick and shoulder pressing brick, which has the typical characteristics of brick imitating tile. The most prominent one is that the ridge groove is carved on the three skin ridge enclosing brick to imitate the tile ridge method commonly used in song, Liao and Jin Dynasties. The main bonding material between the face bricks is lime slurry, while the yellow slurry is mostly used between the tower core bricks.

On the leaning column at the corner of the pagoda body, there are eight Lingta names, which are in the order of "Shengchu pagoda of King Jingfan Palace", "chengfo pagoda under bodhi tree", "Falun Pagoda in Luyeyuan", "name Pagoda in Guigu garden", "bianbaojie Pagoda in Qunu city", "Prajna Pagoda in qijatungshan", "Weimo Pagoda in anluoweilin" and "Yuanji Pagoda in suolulin", The eight pagodas summarize the life story of Sakyamuni.

Pagoda niche

On the walls of the pagodas in the four positive directions are carved niches, in which one Buddha statue is carved, and on the top of the niches is carved the name of Buddha: "Baosheng Tathagata" in the south, "wuliangshou Buddha" in the west, and "Bukong Tathagata" in the north The four Buddhas are the four Buddhas on the top of Vajrayana (for example, plus the Dharma Buddha piluzana Buddha in the center of the pagoda, which is the Vajrayana five Buddhas). The southern Baosheng Tathagata, one of the five Buddhas in the Jin Gang Kingdom, is also known as the southern Buddha. In esoteric Buddhism, the Bodhisattva is mainly a Buddha who practices Dharma and contemplates. It symbolizes the equal wisdom of the Tathagata, and also represents the wonderful virtue of practice and the virtue of happiness. The Bodhisattva gathered merits and virtues with maniford to fulfill the wishes of all sentient beings, and even gave the three realms of Dharma king the top, so as to make the perfection come from his equal victory and righteousness. Therefore, he was absorbed into the Bodhisattva of the five parts, turning the seventh knowledge of all sentient beings into the wisdom of the Tathagata, the equal wisdom of the five main intelligences. The Baosheng Tathagata of baitayu Pagoda in Xingcheng city made a fist with his left hand as his chest, and made a diamond fist seal. His right hand was damaged, but the specific handprint was not clear. The next seat is the lotus seat of xumisheng spirit, which is the horse seat of Baobu. The seed in the word wheel of xuluo changes to the horse seat. The auspiciousness of the king of guanding is just like the wisdom of the harness

Chinese PinYin : Bai Ta Yu Ta