Does the Chongshan Ancient Tower with its leaning architectural style have meaning?

Left Jiang Slope Tower, also known as Guilong Tower or Chongzhao Slope Tower, is located on Houshi Mountain Island, about 3 kilometers northeast of Chongzhou City. It was built by Li Youmei, a knew-fu during the Ming Dynasty’s Tianqi period (1621), with three floors originally. Xu Yuan, another knew-fu, added two more stories in 1629 to form a five-story brick tower. The base diameter is 5 meters and the height of the tower body is 18.28 meters, forming an octagonal cylindrical shape.

The tower is one of the world’s eight great sloping towers, listed as an autonomous region-level cultural relic protection unit in 1994 and a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2019.

The notable feature of Left Jiang Slope Tower is that its main body tilts west-southward by 1.41 meters at an angle of 4°24’64”, leaning south-of-west at 52°16’30”. The reason for the tilt is that builders took into account factors such as water currents, wind direction, and foundation conditions when designing to enhance the tower’s resistance to various natural forces.

The entire structure depends on the mountain for support, with a stable foundation.
Left River diagonal tower, also known as Gui Long Tower or Chongzuo Diagonal Tower, located on Piao Tou Mountain Island 3 kilometers east of Chongzhou City, was built by Li You Mei, a magistrate of the Ming dynasty, in the first year of Tianqi (1621) and initially constructed with three stories. Subsequently, Magistrate Xu Yue added two more stories in the 35th year of Kangxi’s reign (1629), making it a five-story brick tower with a base diameter of 5 meters and height of 18.28 meters, featuring an octagonal body shape.

This diagonal tower is one of the world’s eight great diagonal towers, listed as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit in 1994 and converted to a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2019.

The characteristic feature of this left river diagonal tower is that its main body inclines at an angle of 1.41 meters towards southwestern direction with a tilt angle of 4º24´64`and the inclination direction is southward by about 52º16′30. The reason for the incline was to take into account factors such as riverside wind force, water impact and foundation conditions during design and construction, all intended to enhance the structure’s ability against various natural impetuses. Through mountainous terrain follow-the-natural-slope and construct solid stability and harmonious shape.