There are several heroes of ethnic minorities in Chinese history, and the Khitan Yelu Abaoji is one of them. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period after the decline of the Tang Dynasty, the Central Plains fell into chaos. At this time, Yelu Abaoji unified the Khitan tribes and established the Khitan Kingdom in 916 AD. ancestral. After the death of Taizu Liao, his second son Yelu Deguang ascended the throne and became Emperor Taizong of Liao Dynasty. This boy colluded with Shi Jingtang of Later Tang Dynasty to occupy the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, and used it as a base to attack the Central Plains. In the 20th year of Liao Huitong (AD 947), Emperor Taizong of Liao captured Kaifeng Mansion in Tokyo, destroyed the Later Jin Dynasty, changed the name of the country to Daliao, and the name of the reign to Datong. Yelu Deguang plundered in the Central Plains and was unpopular, so he had to retreat northward and died of illness on the way. Yelu Deguang, Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty, had a high prestige among the Khitan people because he took Kaifeng and occupied a large area of Central Plains land north of the Yellow River. After his death, his mother, the Empress Dowager Shulu, said, "If you are alive, you must see people, but if you die, you must see the corpse." Then some military cooks came up with a trick to make him "羓", which is dried meat like beef jerky. As a result, his body was really turned into a mummy called "Emperor Li", becoming the only emperor mummy in Chinese history. After being transported back to Beijing, it was buried in Huailing Mausoleum in Fengshan, which is now in Bahrain Right Banner, Inner Mongolia.
Several generations passed after Liao Taizong, Liao Jingzong died in the fourth year of Qianheng (982 A.D.), Liao Shengzong came to the throne at the age of 12, and his mother, Empress Dowager Xiao, was regent. In the 27th year of Tonghe (1009), Shengzong of Liao Dynasty took charge personally. Under the governance of Empress Dowager Xiao and Liao Shengzong, the Liao Kingdom reached its peak. In the 11th year of Taiping of Liao Dynasty, Shengzong of Liao Dynasty passed away, and Prince Yeluzongzhen ascended the throne as Xingzong of Liao Dynasty. During the Liao Xingzong period, with the help of the heyday of the previous dynasty, it reached a certain degree of balance with the Song Dynasty. He and Song Renzong Zhao Zhen, the emperor of the Song Dynasty, gave each other books and paintings, which seemed quite literary. The empress of Liao Xingzong was also surnamed Xiao, called Xiao Tali, but she had nothing to do with Empress Xiao Chuo. Empress Xiao of Liao Xingzong was docile and kind to others, and was very popular with the people. At that time, Emperor Liao set up an accompanying capital in Datong. Once, Empress Xiao went to Datong with Xingzong of Liao Dynasty, passing by Yingzhou Fogong Temple. Seeing the simplicity of the temple, she proposed to build a Buddhist pagoda in the temple, which is now the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda. The pagoda was built in the second year of Qingning (1056). At this time, Liao Xingzong had passed away, and Liao Daozong Yelu Hongji succeeded him, and Empress Xiao also became the empress dowager. This is the official origin of the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, which was deduced from a piece of inscription in Yingzhou Chronicles in the Qing Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty corresponding to the 2nd year of Qingning in Liao Dynasty is the Zhihe 3rd year of Song Renzong and Zhao Zhen.
When I arrived in Yingxian County, it was already the third pole of the moon, and the big wooden pagoda was not illuminated by lights. If you want to say that tourism in Shanxi is really not so easy. I have no choice but to find a place to live and wait until sunrise tomorrow. I stayed in a hotel next to the wooden pagoda that looked like that. In the dining room, I asked the chef to order a bowl of noodles and cut a piece of meat. It tasted really good. The chef said that he has a genuine qualification certificate, and the level is not low, and this hotel is the best hotel in the county, I should feel honored. After eating the honored meal, I returned to the honored house, and found that there was no honored hot water for bathing, and the boiler in the hotel was unlucky. Come on, I went to the lucky bed, but I didn't make a lucky dream. After breakfast the next day, I came out of the hotel to take a good look at the hotel, and it looked quite decent during the day.
Turn left, and you will see Antique Street. They say that this is a building imitating the Liao Dynasty. My family has no relatives from the Liao Dynasty, so I don't know if it is true or not.
Walk one hundred meters forward and you will see an archway. Four pillars and three floors, gray tiles and single eaves resting on the top of the mountain, Jin Pai Longji Kiss. Look at the wood, it has a sense of age.
Standing on the waist in front of the archway, you can see the tall wooden tower behind the door opening.
Walking through the archway and looking at the tower in the morning light, the sense of magnificence is very shocking. Birds are flying in the sky, but there is no gauze net to protect the wooden structure. It is said that it is to let those birds eat the moths in the wooden structure. These birds are swallows, especially in autumn. The pagoda can be preserved for so many years, and it is also thanks to these swallows.
There are flying birds hovering in the sky and autumn leaves as companions under the pagoda.
The earliest Fogong Temple is gone, and the front gate of Fogong Temple is newly built, which is a courtyard gate. The "Fogong Temple" plaque on the door was inscribed by Zhao Puchu.
Standing in front of the courtyard gate, you can clearly see the Tasha on the tower. Because the tower is huge, the Tasha is also very large and complicated. Below is a double-layered brick lotus seat, and then a wire braided orb. On the top of the orb is a five-layer phase wheel, on top of the phase wheel there are uplifting moon orbs, and on top of that is a string of orb lightning rods. Although complex, it looks very simple. If you look carefully, you can find a lot of grass growing on Tasha's double-layer gray brick lotus seat. It is said that it is Ganoderma lucidum grass, and I can't climb it anyway. If they say so, I can only believe it.
Once you enter the gate, you can see the whole tower. Viewed from the outside, the tower has five floors, with eaves corridors on the bottom floor, doors on the north and south, and a circle of flat railings on each floor above. The first floor is the top of the mountain with double eaves, and the upper floors are all single eaves. It seems that there are dark layers between the bright layers, and there should be nine layers inside. The top of the tower has an octagonal spire.
Take a good look, this is the only remaining ancient wooden pagoda in China, and it is also the tallest wooden pagoda in the world. It was listed in the first batch of national key cultural relics in 1961. The whole wooden structure, after nearly a thousand years, has withstood several large and small earthquakes and still stands tall. The wooden frame structure of ancient Chinese buildings is very scientific. It relies on mortise and tenon joints to form a whole. It is an elastic frame and has absolutely good earthquake resistance. In recent years, Chinese and foreign engineers have made a scaled-down model of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, which is a Ming-style building. Put this model on a shaking table to simulate an earthquake up to magnitude 9, the brick walls collapse, and the wooden structure still stands. Ancient Chinese wooden pagodas can withstand earthquakes, but they cannot withstand fire, so it is not easy to preserve them. Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is the only preserved ancient wooden pagoda. Although it has experienced wars and suffered a lot of guns and bullets, it is very lucky that it was not set ablaze by bad guys or knocked down by sky thunder.
There are many plaques on the pagoda. Looking from bottom to top, the plaque on the first floor: Tianzhu and Earth Axis, was written by Tian Hui, a native of Yingzhou. Tian Hui once served as the head of the household department. This was the topic he asked after he resigned and returned to his hometown. Tianzhu: Tianzhu Mountain, the pillar of the sky; the earth axis: the axis of the earth in the legend;
The plaque under the bucket arch on the second floor: integrity. Inscribed by Li Jiashi of Huairenzhi County during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. Both the explicit and implicit meanings of the word integrity are easy to understand.
The plaque on the second floor: The Heavenly Palace is soaring. It was inscribed by Li Shu, the magistrate of Yingzhou during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty. The Heavenly Palace is Jiuchongtian, with a total of 36 floors from Yaochi of Yichongtian to Luotian of Jiuzhongtian. It is the temple of Taoism that lives in the heavenly emperors and gods in Chinese mythology. The sky in Buddhism is the celestial realm, and there are 28 layers in the three realms. Hang the Taoist Tiangong plaque on the stupa? This plaque hangs a bit.
The third layer of plaque: Sakyamuni Pagoda, oh, it turns out that the name of this tower is Sakyamuni Pagoda. This plaque is the oldest among these plaques. It is the real plaque and the nameplate of this tower. It says that it was made after the restoration in the 5th year of Mingchang (1194 A.D.) in Jin Zhangzong Wanyan Jing's reign. The inscription is Wang Yu, a salt envoy judge at that time, a seventh-rank sesame official, who wrote such a good handwriting! The plaque also reads "The pagoda was specially built in the second year of Qingning". Thereafter, the six repairs until the 7th year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1471) are recorded on this plaque. The plaque is eight hundred years old, a miracle in itself.
The plaque on the fourth floor: Wonders of the World, inscribed by Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty in the 13th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1518). In the 12th year of Zhengde, Northern Yuan Dayan Khan Batu Mengke invaded Ming Dynasty. This Dayan Khan is quite awesome. It is said that he is the fifteenth grandson of Genghis Khan. He has just unified Mongolia and wants to become king again. People in the Ming Dynasty called him "Little Prince of Tartar". Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao was very happy, because he liked to fight. At this time, in fact, it was just over seventy years since the Tumu Fortress Change. All the ministers were afraid that he would be captured by the wara soldiers like Zhu Qizhen, and they all opposed the emperor's personal conquest. Zhu Houzhao refused to listen to them. He appointed himself "General Zhu Shou" and led a large army to Yingzhou to meet the enemy. He won a complete victory, and Dayan Khan died of fright on the way to escape. After winning the battle, the new year has passed, which is the 13th year of Zhengde. When the Ming Wuzong returned to the court, he had a banquet for the officers and soldiers in Yingzhou, and climbed the Sakyamuni Pagoda to see the scenery. He saw the plaque inscribed by the late emperor of his family, and then he also inscribed a plaque, which was the "Wonders of the World" plaque.
The plaque on the fifth floor: Junji Divine Works. Zhu Houzhao's first emperor inscribed this plaque. This first emperor was Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, and the time was the 21st year of Yongle (1423). In order to stabilize the northern border, Zhu Di went on the Northern Expedition five times, and finally drove the remnants of Mongolia out of Monan. After the Fourth Northern Expedition was won in Xuanhua, Zhu Di drank tea in Yingzhou on his way back to Beijing.
In addition to the plaques above, there is another plaque under the eaves of the tower gate.
"Wan Gu Guan Zhan", inscribed in the 61st year of Kangxi (1722), has not been signed. The story behind this plaque is quite tragic. It is said that Zhang Hong, the magistrate of Yingzhou at that time, had a lot of political achievements in Yingzhou and mobilized everyone to repair the Sakyamuni Pagoda. It was rumored that Zhang Hong once apportioned the money for pagoda repairing to the local rich people, which aroused the resentment of the local local tyrants, so they jointly participated in Zhang Hong's book. Therefore, Zhang Hong was called a bad official, and his inscription on the plaque was also erased by later generations. This is what people say and what they say, and it is impossible to tell whether it is true or false. There are several stone monuments standing on both sides of the main entrance, all of which are meritorious monuments that have been repaired each time. After counting, there are six of them.
Look at the towering plaque of the Heavenly Palace above.
There are still some traces of house foundations on the open space in front of the Sakyamuni Pagoda. I don’t know if they are the remains of the Fogong Temple in the past.
There is a dismounting stele in the yard, which reads, "Civil and military officials wait to dismount here", next to the standard kneeling horse. Is this the original here? If yes, it means that this temple is a royal temple.
The pagoda has two bases, the lower one is very tall, almost seven feet high. There is a small circle on the upper layer, and the original granite Pixiu is covered by glass on the horns. You can see the ancient wooden structure, and there are still remaining painted paintings on the cross beams. Looking at the huge brackets and the far-reaching cornices, it is very Tang style.
No door piers, just simple door pillows. Look at the pillars, they are all made of red pine, durable.
Look at the ridges, gray tiles, brick ridges and end beasts.
Turn to the back door, you can see the back of the Buddha statue.
This is the Sakyamuni Buddha statue in the Sakyamuni Pagoda. This Buddha statue is definitely not from the Liao Dynasty. It does look like a Buddha statue in the Tang Dynasty. On both sides of the Buddha statue are not gateposts, but a circle of eight pillars that reach the sky, which is the core backbone of the tower, and the pillars are covered with painted murals.
There is a floor between the Tongtianzhu and the wall of the tower. It used to be possible to go up, but now it is not allowed. It can be seen that there is a horizontal drape of the Jin Dynasty between the pillars, with pictures of officials worshiping Buddha painted on it.
Look at the murals of Buddha statues on the wall. These seem to be Buddha statues from the Liao Dynasty. The face is round, the eyebrows are slender, the eyes are half closed, and the chest is exposed. The lines are smooth and the colors are rich.
The base of the middle Buddha statue is a simple octagonal xumizuo with painted. The most peculiar thing is that there are eight painted Vajra statues standing on the eight corners of the Xumizuo, and they work together to carry the Xumizuo. These eight wrestlers are called "holding wrestlers", not vajra wrestlers, who are Dharma protectors. It is common for the wrestlers on the Xumizuo to be on the waist in the middle, and it is rare to stand outside the seat. Above Xumizuo is a lotus seat with three layers of petals.
Check out the painted lotus petals and the Buddha image on them.
The slender dragon of the Jin School coiled on the pillar of Xumizuo.
Look up at the Buddha statue.
From the front, it should not be in the style of the Liao Dynasty. It looks like a Buddha statue in the style of the Tang Dynasty. The clay body is painted and very beautiful. Above is the octagonal lattice flower caisson.
Looking at the Sakyamuni Pagoda from the back, the plaque on the first floor reads "Yongzhen Jincheng". This is a plaque from the Qing Dynasty, and the inscription is not clear. A few years ago, Ying County sponsored a movie named after this plaque.
Look at this veranda, it is quite wide, which shows that the cornices above are quite large.
It is said that there are two Buddha tooth relics in this tower, and they are real. It must have moved elsewhere, and it must not be in the tower now. There is a temple behind the tower, which is also a cultural relic now, without incense.
The brick gatehouse has screen walls on both sides. There is a brand-new Buddhist Temple incense burner inside. In order to show that this temple is related to the legendary Fogong Temple of the Liao Dynasty, two fin-shaped dragon kisses are installed on the main ridge of the main hall, indicating that this is the style of the Liao Dynasty. But the single-eave Xieshan roof is obviously the style of the early Qing Dynasty.
I went in and walked around, and saw a waiter cleaning the yard. She told me that this temple was originally built in the Qing Dynasty, but it was also destroyed later, and it was rebuilt in recent years. I asked her if this was the location of Fogong Temple in the past? She said yes. I turned around and looked at the Sakyamuni Pagoda from the temple.
This temple was originally the front tower and the back hall? This kind of layout was very rare in the Liao Dynasty, but it was common in the Southern and Northern Dynasties four or five hundred years ago.
Look at the outline of the Sakyamuni Pagoda in the shade.
After admiring the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, come out and look back, it is really spectacular.
I saw that there is a local special food on the street called "Er Nu jelly noodles". It is said to be sour and spicy. Isn't that just hot and sour noodles? Did not dare to taste, afraid of spicy.
During the Liao Dynasty, most of the Buddhist pagodas were brick pagodas. I saw the Daming Pagoda in Liaozhongjing, Chifeng, near the ancient Liao capital this summer. The Tianning Temple in Beijing was the last pagoda in the Liao Dynasty. These Liao pagodas are brick pagodas with dense eaves. . I saw two Liao Pagodas in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province on the border of Liao and Song Dynasties, both of which were pavilion-style brick pagodas. Empress Xiao of Liao Xingzong proposed to build this Sakyamuni pagoda in Yingzhou Fogong Temple, but it is a wooden pagoda, which is now the famous Yingxian wooden pagoda. Why are all the Liao pagodas we see brick pagodas, from the Chifeng Daming Pagoda in the early Liao Dynasty to the Tianning Temple Pagoda in Beijing in the late Liao Dynasty? Moreover, at first glance, you feel that this is a Song Pagoda. The Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou is a Song Pagoda with a brick heart and wooden pagoda. The Buddha statues enshrined in the pagoda have a serious Tang Dynasty style, which is very similar to the Guanyinge Buddha statues I saw in Dule Temple in Jizhou. Huge bucket arches, far-reaching cornices, and sturdy beams and columns all have the style of the Tang Dynasty. The layout of the front tower and the rear hall was not common in the Liao Dynasty. Although the nameplate "Sakyamuni Pagoda" on the pagoda says that the pagoda was specially built in the second year of Qingning, that plaque was built in the 5th year of Mingchang in the Jin Dynasty, not the 2nd year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty, so the origin of the pagoda is still unknown. clear. According to the official statement, this pagoda was built in the second year of Qingning in the Liao Dynasty, but I think its style is different from the architectural characteristics of the Liao Dynasty pagodas. Therefore, there are still some disputes about when the tower was built. There is a view that this pagoda should be built in the later Tang and Jin Dynasties, that is, before the Liao Dynasty; later, Empress Xiao named it "Shakya Pagoda" and ordered it to be repaired. In this way, the reserved Tang Feng can be explained. In the Central Plains, pavilions and wooden pagodas were popular in the Song Dynasty, and the later Tang Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty were the connection between the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. It is reasonable to start building pavilions and wooden pagodas.
Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is a historic site that I have admired for a long time. I am very happy to have fulfilled this wish. The journey from Yingxian to Beijing is not far away, and it takes three to four hours to get home. This trip to the Three Jins was very rewarding. I saw a lot of historical sites and some strange sights, but I didn't eat much sour food.
When the autumn wind blows, the trip to the Three Jin Dynasty has come to a successful conclusion.
