The History of Datong Drum Tower

Drum Tower is also called Geng Drum Tower. The morning sun rises, the bells float, the sun sets and the drums fly. As the saying goes, "the morning bell and the evening drum". According to historical records, the Drum Tower was originally built to convey information and catch thieves. With the changes of the times, it has become a tool for telling time and an alarm signal.

According to historical records, Datong in the Ming Dynasty had pavilions and magnificent buildings, and the Taiping Building in Heyang Street was in the east. There is Qingyuan Street Bell Tower in the west; There is a Kuixing hug in Wuding Street in the north; There is the Drum Tower in Yongtai Street in the south. Unfortunately, most of these pavilions were destroyed by wars and natural disasters, and only the Drum Tower survived.

According to (Datong County Records), "Drum Tower was built in the Ming Dynasty, in the middle of the cross at the south end of Southeast Street in Fuzhi." Qing Shunzhi, Qianlong and Xianfeng were repeatedly repaired. The building is three rooms wide and three rooms deep, with a length of18.33m from east to west, a width of14m from north to south and a height of about 20m. The bottom floor is made of bluestone with four corners and a cross doorway in the middle. The upper two floors are made of brick and wood, and there is a big drum on the top floor, which was used by the ancient "four-star" newspaper office at night, hence the name "Drum Tower". In the past, morning bells and drums shook the ancient city and its suburbs. The Drum Tower was built (demolished) to match the bell tower. 1966 was designated as a municipal cultural relics protection unit in April.

1in the autumn of 978, the Drum Tower underwent a large-scale maintenance, closed the cross doorway and expanded the road beside the building. 1985 was completely painted, with vivid and gorgeous patterns, which completely restored its majestic, simple, neat and magnificent features.

In 200 1 year, the cultural relics department carried out all-round and large-scale reinforcement, maintenance and painting of the drum tower, making it look brand-new. There is a "Photographic Exhibition of Ancient Buildings in Datong" upstairs, which makes people know the face of Datong in the process of climbing the building: a spiral staircase has been newly built downstairs, which sets off the ancient buildings and embodies the perfect unity of modern architecture and ancient architecture; There are exquisite paintings on the eaves of all floors in the building, with vivid and interesting images, such as "Three Marriages in Taoyuan" and "The Story of Diusim Played by Lu Bu". The original plaque of the Drum Tower has been restored, with "singing" in the east, "clouds come in spring" in the lower part, "Drum Tower" in the south and "four famous names" in the lower part; The west is "zhende" and the next is "harmony"; The north is "time and harmony" and the bottom is "looking at the clouds and the moon". The plaque of the predecessors has a beautiful meaning, which plays a role in making the clouds see the sun and making the finishing point. Added a charm, a connotation and a classical beauty. Style Drum Tower stands in the center of the intersection of the south section of Da 'nan Street in Datong City, with unique architecture, beautiful shape and ingenious layout, which is amazing. It is elegant and simple, exquisite and delicate, which makes people linger. It not only decorated the face of Datong, but also set off the ancient features of this historic city.

Datong Drum Tower is a three-story pavilion-style building, located at the top of the cross sloping roof. Its plane is approximately square, three rooms wide and three rooms deep. East-west length 17.65 meters, north-south width 14.55 meters, and height of about 20 meters. A bucket arch is placed under each eaves, a bucket of two Cimicifuga leaf arches is placed under the first and second eaves, and a monoclinic third-order bucket arch is placed under the third eaves. There are doors on all sides of each floor and cloisters around it, and the whole big city can be seen from a distance. There are wooden stairs in the northwest and a corridor in the southwest corner of the first floor. The ground floor passes through the heart and opens the door to traffic.

The drum tower is surrounded by plaques, facing south, with the upper plaque as "drum tower" and the lower plaque as "four famous people"; To the east, on the plaque "Song style", on the plaque "Clouds bloom in spring"; To the west, the upper plaque is "Zhende" and the lower plaque is "Harmony"; To the north, the upper plaque reads "Time and Harmony" and the lower plaque reads "Looking at the clouds and the moon". There is also a plaque under the eaves, "Tianqing". Not anymore.

Today's Drum Tower, one drum on the first floor is for the first Yungang Tourism Festival, and the other drum on the second floor is for the reopening of 1993 Drum Tower. There are two drums on the first floor, which makes the drum tower more worthy of the name. The Drum Tower adorns Datong, beautifies the ancient city, and becomes a beautiful scenery of the famous city beyond the Great Wall, attracting countless Chinese and foreign tourists.

As a landmark building in Datong, the ancient capital, the completion date of the ancient drum tower in Yongtai Street has long been unclear. The reporter learned that after years of painstaking research by Zhang Zhuo, a cultural relic expert and president of Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, the answer was found in the collection of Chinese studies "Sikuquanshu": Datong Drum Tower was built in the seventh to eighth years of Tianshun in Ming Dynasty, namely 1463- 1464.

According to historical records, there are many pavilions and pavilions in Datong in the Ming Dynasty, with magnificent buildings. There are Taiping Building in Heyang Street in the east, Bell Tower in Qingyuan Street in the west, Kuixing Building in Wuding Street in the north and Drum Tower in Yongtai Street in the south. Unfortunately, most of them were destroyed by fires and natural disasters, and only the Drum Tower survived.

For a long time, this three-story pavilion-style building on the top of the mountain is a landmark building of Datong ancient city. However, due to the lack of historical materials about the Drum Tower, there are only inscriptions left in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, so its construction date has not been clear. Whenever its construction history is mentioned, it is always ignored as "built in the Ming Dynasty".

Therefore, Zhang Zhuo, president of Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, has been searching for historical materials about Datong for many years. Many things happen. Not long ago, Zhang Zhuo found the Datong Drum Tower written by Li Xian in the first year of Chenghua (1465) in the fifth volume of Ancient Collection written by Li Xian, a famous official in Ming Dynasty. According to records, three people presided over the construction of Datong Drum Tower, namely Wang Yue, the right deputy capital of Duchayuan, Yang Xin, the company commander, and Li Fu, the magistrate of Datong. Among them, it was Li Fu who went to Beijing to ask Li Xian to write an inscription for Datong Drum Tower. According to the historical data, it is inferred that the construction age of Datong Drum Tower jointly built by them should be between seven and eight years in Tianshun when the three of them were working in Datong, that is, AD 1463- 1464. According to this calculation, Datong Drum Tower has existed for about 547 years.