How was Leshan Giant Buddha built?

After the death of Master Haitong, the construction of Leshan Giant Buddha was once interrupted. About 10 years later, Zhang Qiu, the messenger of Jiannan Xichuan, donated money, and Haitong's apprentice led craftsmen to continue building the Giant Buddha. Due to the huge project, the court ordered the payment of hemp salt tax, which made the project progress rapidly.

Leshan Giant Buddha reached his knees, and his successors, Zhang Qiu and Joan, moved to be the Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the project stopped again. After another 40 years, Wei Gao, our messenger from Xichuan, donated his own money to lead people to continue building Leshan Giant Buddha. The Stone Monument of Maitreya Buddha in Lingyun Temple in JiaZhou written by Wei Gao is on the cliff by the river on the right side of the giant Buddha, which records the whole story of digging the giant Buddha.

The excavation of Leshan Giant Buddha lasted more than 90 years, from 765,438+03 to 803, with four emperors, namely Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, Tang Suzong, Tang Daizong and Tang Dezong, and three presenters, namely Haitong, Zhang Qiu, Joan and Wei Gao.

Among the three presenters, except Haitong, Zhang Qiu, Joan and Wei Gao are local governors. Zhang Qiu and Joan are the deputy ambassadors of Yingyong in Jiannan Road and our ambassadors to Jiannan, and Wei Gao is our ambassador to Xichuan in Jiannan and the king of Nankang County. So in fact, most of the projects of Leshan Giant Buddha were completed under the organization of the local government.

From 7 13 to 730, Haitong presided over the construction of Leshan Giant Buddha in 18, in which it took about 10 years from planning to raising funds, and the actual time spent on excavation was only 8 years. He died of overwork. Xiang Zhi records that he "died before he finished his whole body."

Haitong only dug the head and chest project of the giant Buddha and died. Most other projects were completed by Zhang Qiu, Joan and Wei Gao, especially Wei Gao, who presided over the finishing project.

Zhang Qiu and Joan spent about seven years in charge of the project of the giant Buddha from the chest to the knee, Wei Gao in charge of the project of "Lotus to the knee", the whole body painting project of the giant Buddha "Zhang" and "Jinbao and Yan", the nine-curve plank road project of "Image and Furniture", the remaining small Buddha in "Wannicheng Lamp" and the project of protecting the gods, as well as the particularly arduous and complicated elephant hall project. That is to say, the whole construction project of the giant Buddha actually took more than 30 years to excavate the giant Buddha, except for raising funds and stopping work due to the Anshi rebellion and separatist regime. The local government has presided over the excavation for 22 years, and has undertaken nearly three-quarters of the engineering quantity.

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