Introduction to the history of Xuege Tower

Xuege Tower, also known as Wenfeng Tower, is located in the south of the middle section of Xuege Road in Bozhou City. According to the Records of Bozhou, in the thirty-seventh year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty, Zheng Jiaotai, the ruler of Bozhou, found that since the Qing Dynasty, there was hardly a scholar in Bozhou, except Wu Chuqi's explanation of Yuan Dynasty in the forty-first year of Kangxi (172). He believed that the reason for the lack of literary style in Bozhou was related to geomantic omen, and proposed to build Wenfeng Pagoda near Xue Hui's temple in the Ming Dynasty in the southeast of the city, so as to revitalize Bozhou's literary style. Due to limited funds, only five floors were completed at that time. In the seventeenth year of Jiaqing (1812), Zhou Shen He Tianqu donated money to continue the construction of the second floor, becoming the present seven-level exquisite pagoda. Because the tower was built near Xuejiage, the home temple of Xue Hui, a doctor in the Ming Dynasty, the local people called it Xuege Tower.