Tianfeng tower

Tianfeng tower is the highest ancient building in Ningbo City, and it is also the landmark building of Ningbo ancient city. The tower is of the Tang Dynasty style with six ridges, multi-storey cornices and sharp roofs. It is similar to the twin towers of the Tang Dynasty in Suzhou. It is a long live tower built in memory of Wu Zetian's accession to the throne. After many times of reconstruction, it has gradually become a brick tower without cornices. Now the tower is rebuilt according to the small tower unearthed from the underground palace in the 1980s.

Tianfeng tower

Tianfeng tower is located at the intersection of the west end of dashani street and Jiefang South Road, Haishu District, Ningbo City. It was first built in the period from "long live Tiance" to "long live Dengfeng" (695-696) by Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty. It got its name from "Tian" and "Feng" at the beginning and end of the tower's construction. After completion, the tower is 18 feet high, about 51 meters, 14 stories in total, divided into seven light and seven dark (including underground palace), hexagonal.

history

Tianfeng temple was built in the third year of Qianyou reign (950) of the late Han Dynasty. It was first named "Tianfeng pagoda courtyard" and later named "Tianfeng courtyard".

In the third year of Jianyan (1129) of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Jin soldiers captured Ningbo, and Tianfeng pagoda and temple were destroyed by fire. Shaoxing was rebuilt in 1144. It was destroyed again in 1220.

It was destroyed in 1326 and restored in 1330. During the Zhizheng period (1341-1368), Pingzhang, Fang Guozhen and di Guomin rebuilt the courtyard.

In 1412, thunder and fire destroyed three storeys and rebuilt them in the same year. In the 36th year of Jiajing (1557), the typhoon fell to the top of the tower and was rebuilt in the 38th year.

It was overhauled in 1660. In August 1751, a typhoon hit the top of the tower. In 1756, the tower was rebuilt. In December 1798, the third year of Jiaqing, the tower was about to be completed. The eaves, flat seats and railings of the tower were burned due to the fire of the tower lamp, leaving only the brick body.

It was rebuilt in 1935.

In June 1984, Ningbo Institute of archaeology conducted an archaeological excavation of the underground palace. More than 140 pieces of cultural relics such as the silver hall and the silver tower were unearthed. Among them, the silver hall and the silver tower are engraved with the inscription of the 14th year of Shaoxing.

In December 1989, the project was completed.

In December 1981, Tianfeng tower was declared as a municipal cultural relic protection unit by Ningbo Municipal People's government, and is now a national cultural relic protection unit.

structure

style

Tianfeng tower is a typical brick and wood structure tower imitating Song Dynasty attic in Jiangnan of China. It is exquisite, simple and dignified. It is a navigation mark and an important symbol of port city in ancient Mingzhou.

Since the Tang Dynasty, Mingzhou port has risen and become one of the three famous foreign trade ports in China.

Foreign envoys, students and business travelers enter the port from Mingzhou port, and go to Kyoto through the East Zhejiang canal and the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Professor Geng Sheng, President of the Chinese Society for the history of Chinese foreign relations, said that the French described in the field investigation of China's export trade: "the most beautiful Ningbo City in China It has a large number of historical sites.

One of the most striking It's called Chifeng tower (Tianfeng tower) On the wall of the tower were found the names inscribed by several seamen on the French three sail alcmena, who had visited Ningbo the year before

Tianfeng tower is a witness of history and an important cultural heritage of the "maritime Silk Road".

shape

The experience of Tianfeng tower is very bumpy, and its appearance has changed greatly.

Quadrilateral Tang tower

At first, Tianfeng tower was a relatively low quadrilateral Tang tower.

According to reasonable inference, Mingzhou in the Tang Dynasty was a "old and young frontier poor" area, and the personnel and technical strength at that time should not be enough to build a huge building of more than 30 meters; the shape of Tang tower was mainly quadrangle, so the Tianfeng tower in the Tang Dynasty should be quadrangle and much shorter.

Complete hexagon song tower

It was rebuilt in 1144, the 14th year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty. When it was completed, it was a complete hexagonal song tower.

According to many local chronicles and Siming Tanzhu, Tianfeng pagoda is "hexagonal and 18 Zhang", which should be the same as song pagoda.

The song tower, which was first built, was destroyed in 1220, the 13th year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty, and was completely restored in 1330.

Until the Ming Dynasty, the song tower was still stable, with only two major maintenance records, and its appearance did not change much.

At that time, there was no crane and other equipment. How did the ancients build the tower high? It turned out that when the tower was built higher and higher, the craftsmen would pile the river sand into a high flat about the height of the tower, and then transport the bricks and stones to the top of the tower. After the completion of Tianfeng tower, the sand used for transportation was used to pave two roads, which should be very familiar to the public, namely dashani street and xiaoshani Street on the east side of Tianfeng tower.

Restore to full hexagon song tower

In 1984, the Ningbo municipal government invited cultural relics experts from all over the country to demonstrate, and finally decided to rebuild the Tianfeng tower, which was completed in December 1989. The reconstructed Tianfeng pagoda was built according to the unearthed model of Tianfeng Pagoda in the Southern Song Dynasty. It is an antique complete hexagonal song pagoda.

"Naked" hexagonal song tower

In 1798, in the process of a routine maintenance, the tower lamp caught fire, which led to the destruction of the eaves, flat seats and railings of the tower, leaving only the brick body. Tianfeng tower became a "naked" hexagonal song tower. The "naked" Tianfeng tower is basically in a state of minor repair and survival, and its body is constantly inclined.

The significance of ancient pagoda

ruins

There are seven levels of Tianfeng pagoda (commonly known as seven level futu), which are divided into seven bright and seven dark levels. The actual underground palace is the first dark level, and so on. There are 14 levels in total. The main remains found in the demolition.

1. Each floor has flat seat, including flat seat jumping, waist edge, patching, corner paving, leaning column, eaves column and other structural remains and impressions.

2. In each layer of the tower, there are residual components such as beams, beams and reinforced wood.

3. In addition to the relics related to the structure of the tower, in order to collect cultural relics, there are domes and niches for placing cultural relics in the tower (on the top of the restored pot door in the Yuan Dynasty).

Relic

Category I: boxed cultural relics

1. One tin box: one white porcelain Avalokitesvara, one male Buddha (remnant) and one bronze Buddha.

2. There are three stone boxes: two of them are damaged, and the inside of them is a remnant of the Lotus Sutra. It was made during the reign of Zhihe in Yuan Dynasty.

3. Two wooden boxes: one is eroded, and the other contains the Lotus Sutra of Mahayana, which is a rare version of the Yuan Dynasty. Unfortunately, it is difficult to start.

The second category: cultural relics in cylinders

Some of them can be identified when they are unearthed, and they melt when they see the wind. In the Yuan Dynasty, 25 pieces were found.

The third category: coins

It is found that there are some coins with the age of "Kaiyuan Tongbao" in the Tang Dynasty, "Chongning Tongbao" in the Song Dynasty, and "Chongning chongbao" in the Song Dynasty.

The fourth type: inscription brick

It can be divided into three types: Zhu Shu, Mo Shu and Mo Yin. 3450 pieces of Zhu Shu and 4600 pieces of Ming brick have been numbered and registered. The most precious one is the chronological brick, which is a rare physical evidence for the study of Ningbo local history.

Based on the remains obtained from archaeological excavation, this paper provides reliable physical evidence for the study of brick and wood pagodas in song and Yuan Dynasties, and for the restoration of ancient pagodas in Southern Song Dynasty.

Through cleaning and dissection, it is proved that the bottom of the dome of Tianfeng tower was built in 1329.

The second level or above was rebuilt during the reign of Yuan Zhihe to Tianli (1328-1330). The first and second level bricks with inscriptions of "Jiazi" and "Yichou" were found. Structurally, they should belong to the 14th and 15th years of Shaoxing.

For the first time, the facts mentioned above have been handed down for centuries, such as "the foundation of the Tang Dynasty lies below the Tianfeng tower", "three stories were blown down in June of TAIDING and rebuilt in the first year of Zhishun", "three stories were destroyed by lightning in the 10th year of Yongli in Ming Dynasty", "typhoon in the 36th year of Jiajing fell to the top of the tower", "the wind was strong in August of the 16th year of Qianlong and then fell to the top of the tower", "Tianfeng tower is 18 meters high As far as the height of Tianfeng pagoda is concerned, it is 54 meters in total according to the modern 3 meters of song Yizhang, except that the underground palace is 2.7 meters, the original height of Tianfeng pagoda is 42.5 meters, and the height of the central column is consistent) The difference between the records of literature and the statements of modern people has been corrected.

In addition, the literature records about the collapse and reconstruction of the top of the tower are even more ambiguous. In fact, there is a brake on the top.

It is proved from this cleaning up that the Tasha part was repaired frequently. However, the iron covered bowl was made in 1329, the second year of the Tianli reign of the Yuan Dynasty. The middle part is a pearl shaped treasure chest, and the upper part is a lotus bowl. Its inscription is also of the yuan Dynasty.

legend

Facing the turbulent East China Sea, Ningbo is the intersection of Yongjiang River, Yaojiang River and Fenghua river. One year, in Zhaobaoshan, Zhenhai, there was a turtle spirit that made waves. From then on, Ningbo was often hit by floods and waves.

At that time, there was an old Mason in Siming Mountain. He hated the evil of turtle essence.

One morning, he suddenly saw that the top of Siming Mountain was shining with gold. So he climbed up to the top of Siming Mountain and saw that it was a bright red gem shining there.

So he spent 7749 days chiseling the gem into a shining pearl.

On this day, the turtle essence made waves again and flooded Ningbo City.

The old stonecutter came down from Siming Mountain and took this dazzling pearl. As soon as the turtle spirit saw the sword like light, he fled to the bottom of the sea.

Chinese PinYin : Tian Feng Ta