Lingxiao tower

Lingxiao tower

Lingxiao tower is located in the former Tianning Temple on the north side of Dazhong street in Zhengding. The tower is thick, huge and shaped like a pavilion. It's named for its towering height. Because the tower has many wooden structures, it is commonly known as wooden tower.

Historical evolution

Lingxiao tower, located in the former Tianning Temple on the north side of Dazhong street in the west of Longxing Temple in Zhengding, is named for its towering height. Because the body of the tower is mostly of wood structure, it is commonly known as the wooden tower.

According to the records of Zhengding County annals by Guangxu of Qing Dynasty, Tianning Temple and Lingxiao tower were built in the Weitong period of Yizong of Tang Dynasty (860-874 AD). At that time, the temple was large-scale and magnificent. The archway, chongmen, Tianwang hall, front hall, back hall, Lingxiao tower and other main buildings were arranged from south to north.

The evening drum and the morning bell are full of fragrance. In the early years of the Republic of China, the temples suffered many misfortunes, and the halls were destroyed one by one.

Brick wood structure

Lingxiao tower is a nine story Pavilion tower of brick and wood structure. It is octagonal in plane and 41 meters high. It stands on the octagonal platform. The first to fourth floors of the pagoda were rebuilt on the remains of the Tang Pagoda in the Song Dynasty. They are of brick structure, and the upper floors are rebuilt in the Jin Dynasty.

The front of each floor of Lingxiao tower is equipped with arched openings or straight skid windows. From the fourth floor to the ninth floor, the brackets and cornices are all made of wood. Starting from the fifth layer, the height of each layer decreases layer by layer, and the outer contour shrinks layer by layer, giving people a sense of lightness and straightness.

Wooden pillar

The biggest feature of Lingxiao tower is to erect a wooden pillar to the top of the tower in the center of the fourth layer of the tower, and connect it with the outer lining with eight radial grilling beams according to the layer. There is only one such structure in China, which is extremely valuable. The tower structure is not only different from the general wooden tower, but also different from the general brick and wood structure tower.

Lingxiao tower has been damaged for thousands of years. On March 22, 1966, the iron hollow jujube shaped Tasha was destroyed by the earthquake. Since then, due to wind and rain, the eighth and ninth floors of the tower collapsed one after another. In order to protect this ancient pagoda, which occupies an important position in the history of ancient architecture, the people's government organized forces to carry out a comprehensive survey, and on the premise of striving to maintain its original appearance, the pagoda was removed and rebuilt in 1981.

In February 1982, the underground palace was discovered under the tower base during the survey.

Cultural relics protection

After cleaning up, a number of valuable cultural relics were unearthed, among which two stone relic letters with inscriptions in the second year of song Chongning (1103 A.D.) and the sixth year of Jin Huangtong (1146 A.D.) provided reliable basis for determining the exact age of the tower. According to the two stone inscriptions, the pagoda, formerly known as Huiguang pagoda, was built in the Tang Dynasty (762-799 AD), and was overhauled in the fifth year of Qingli (1045 AD) of the Song Dynasty and rebuilt in the fifth year of Huangtong (1145 AD). The records of county annals should be revised, supplemented and corrected according to the cultural relics. The tower is a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Address: No.1, Ma'anshan East Road, Kunshan City

Longitude: 120.94421386719

Latitude: 31.386322021484

Tel: 0512-57510070

Ticket information: no ticket required. The ticket is within 20 yuan.

Chinese PinYin : Ling Xiao Ta