Do you know the history of Wenfeng Tower?
Wenfeng Pagoda in Anyang, Henan
Wenfeng Pagoda is a very unique tower located in the northwest corner of the ancient city of Anyang. It was built in the second year of Wenshun in the Later Zhou Dynasty (952) and has been standing to this day. It has a history of more than 1,000 years. Because the pagoda was built in Tianning Temple, it was originally called Tianning Temple Pagoda. In 1722 (the 37th year of Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty), Huang Bangning, the prefect of Zhangde, presided over the reconstruction of Tianning Temple and Pagoda. He believed that the pagoda echoed the Confucius Temple in the south (in today's Xijie Primary School in Anyang City), and that the two could represent the cultural peak of the ancient city, so he inscribed the four characters "Wenfeng Shuxiu" on the banner of the pagoda door. The tower was also named "Wenfeng Tower", which is still used today.
The Balong Tomb is located in the west of Chenzhuang Village, 2 kilometers north of Xuchang City. It is the tomb of Xun Shu, the prime minister of Langling Marquis in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. The eight sons of Xun Shu (Jian, Nian, Jing, Tao, Wang, Shuang, Su, and ) were all famous figures in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Cao Wei period, and were known as the Eight Dragons. For example, Xun Shuang was proficient in "Spring and Autumn" at the age of twelve. From the time when he was a commoner, he went from Heavenly Official to "Three Dukes" in ninety-five years. Xun You, the grandson of Xun Shu's nephew Xun Tan, was Cao Cao's counselor. Cao Cao praised him as "Xun You, the military advisor, has been assisting his ministers since the beginning. He has followed every conquest and defeated the enemy before and after." Xun is the grandson of Xun Shu, the son of Jinan Prime Minister Xun Nui, an important counselor of Cao Cao, and an official to the rank of Shangshu Ling. Legend has it that after Xun Shu died, each of the eight sons planted a cypress tree on the top of the tomb, so it was called the Eight Cypress Tombs. There were eight scattered tombs in the northwest of the tomb as the burial place of the eight sons. Over the years, the eight tombs have been leveled. The Eight Dragon Tombs are round in shape, about 5 meters high and 100 meters in circumference.
So what is unique about Wenfeng Tower? Most towers gradually shrink from bottom to top, but Wenfeng Tower is unique in that it goes against the norm. The top of the tower is large and the bottom is small, taking an umbrella shape, which is rare at home and abroad. The tower is 38.65 meters high, with a base circumference of 40 meters and a wall thickness of 2.5 meters. The tower body has five layers of weight, which increase step by step from bottom to top. There are bronze bells hanging on the eaves corners of each floor. The breeze blows and the jingling sound is pleasant to the ear, giving people a sense of lofty tranquility. The structure of Wenfeng Pagoda is an octagonal plane, with a brick and wood structure and a glazed tile roof. The eight walls of the tower are decorated with mullioned windows, round coupon doors and brick carvings of Buddhist stories. The carvings are meticulous, the images are lifelike, and the shapes are moving.
The bottom is the base of the pagoda. On the base of the pagoda is a circular lotus seat with seven layers of lotus petals, staggered up and down, stretching left and right, supporting the pagoda body at the top, protecting the pagoda base at the bottom, and supporting the pagoda. The decoration is more beautiful.
The pagoda body is on the circular lotus base. The lowermost floor of the pagoda has a higher body. There is a door on each front of the pagoda. The south door is the real door and the others are false doors. On the front of the coupon gate, there is a brick carving of two dragons playing with beads. There are coiled dragon pillars surrounded by giant dragons in the eight corners, with iron shackles and locks on them, which is very spectacular. Let’s take a look at the eight brick relief Buddhist story images between the eight dragon pillars.
The one in the southwest corner is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha preaching.
The one to the west is the image of the birth of Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha Sakyamuni.
In the northwest corner is the image of a man practicing asceticism in a snow book.
To the north are the statues of Guanyin Bodhisattva and the Good Wealth Dragon Girl.
In the northeast corner is the image of Buddha preaching for heaven and humans.
The one on the east side is a statue of Sakyamuni Buddha in Nirvana.
In the southeast corner are the statues of King Min and his queen of Persia, attending the Buddha and listening to the Dharma.
It can be seen that the characters in the picture are obviously Chinese, and the line drawing method of the characters is completely Central Plains style, which shows that Shiying Muni, a Western saint, was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in China at that time. Moreover, these reliefs are vivid in shape, lifelike in expression, natural in posture, and lifelike. They are rare art treasures. From these images, we can see that the relief craftsmanship at that time was very exquisite, and we can also feel the lofty status of Buddha in people's hearts during that period and people's yearning for beauty and peace.
Enter the tower gate and spiral up to the top of the tower along the 72 steps. As the stairs get steeper and steeper, now when you reach the top platform, you can see a 10-meter-high vase-shaped Tasha standing in the middle of the top of the tower, which is very similar to the White Pagoda Tasha in Beihai, Beijing. The top of the tower is surrounded by a parapet wall more than one meter high, and the platform can accommodate more than 200 people. Looking around from the top of the tower, you can see the whole view of the ancient city of Anyang. During the Ming Dynasty, our area was called Zhangde Fucheng, with a circumference of 9 miles and 113 steps and more than 90 streets, crisscrossing and dense as a cobweb, with 9 mansions, 18 lanes and 72 alleys. Now, the administrative district where Wenfeng Tower is located is called Wenfeng District.
In order to transform the old city, the Anyang Municipal Government implemented a five-road and one-bridge project to beautify and lighten the roads. The circular road around Wenfeng Tower, Wenfeng Avenue, is one of them. One, it was specially designed to protect Wenfeng Tower and maintain the original appearance of Anyang Ancient City. The new buildings around this road, including the street lamps, are all imitating ancient times, adding another beautiful scenery to the ancient city.
In 1997, Mr. Zhao Puchu, chairman of the Buddhist Association of China and a famous poet, wrote a poem after visiting Wenfeng Pagoda: "The high umbrellas hold up the tower to block the waves, and the shadow of the Congo River Pagoda is better than the Huan River. I am even more surprised by the number of statues. Wonderful, worthy of a lifetime.