What is the history of Chongwen Tower?

Shaanxi Chongwen Tower

A key cultural relic protection unit in Shaanxi Province. It is located in Chongwen Township, Jingyang County, 32 kilometers north of Xianyang City (now located in the playground of Chongwen Middle School, Chongwen Town). It was built in the 21st year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1593). Under the initiative and leadership of Li Shida, it was constructed by Nanjing Zhenjiang craftsmen and completed in the 33rd year of Wanli (1605). The tower has 13 floors and is 87.218 meters high. Designed based on the ancient architectural principle of the Bagua suspended roof, the tower base to the top is entirely built with blue bricks. It is an octagonal shape with a base length of 9 meters. The bottom floor is of double-eaves style, and the four characters "Chongwen Pagoda" are engraved on the south-facing tower door. The highest level is a castle-style tower, topped with a copper gourd. In 1979, eight bronze Buddha statues, Bodhisattva statues and heavenly king statues were discovered on the top of the tower. They are lifelike and vivid in shape and are treasures of the Ming Dynasty. According to the inscription "Tiefo Chongwen Pagoda Temple Permanent Field Offerings to the Public", the pagoda was built to encourage schoolchildren in Jingyang, Sanyuan and Gaoling counties to study hard. It was built in the 19th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1591) and took 19 years. By the time it was completed in the thirty-sixth year of Wanli (1608), the pagoda was built by Li Shida, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment of the Ming Dynasty and a native of this county. Introduction to Chongwen Tower in Jingyang, Xianyang Chongwen Tower is located in Chongwen Middle School, 10 kilometers southeast of Jingyang County, standing majestically on the north bank of the Jinghe River. The tower was built in 1593 AD, the 21st year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. One floor was built every year. It was completed in 1605 AD in the 33rd year of Wanli. It is a provincial key cultural relic protection unit. The Chongwen Tower has 13 floors and is 817 meters high. It is designed based on the ancient architectural principle of the Bagua suspended roof. Each floor has a Bagua suspended roof and the top is built with blue bricks from the bottom to the top of the tower. The entire tower body is eight-sided in shape, with the bottom floor 9 meters on each side and a total circumference of 72 meters. There are four windows on each floor, and four Buddhist niches on the outside of each floor, crossing each other. There are stone Buddha statues from the Ming Dynasty in the Buddhist niches, standing or sitting, with different shapes, extremely delicate and vivid. There is a metal standing Buddha statue cast inside the second floor. The bottom floor is of double-eaves style, and the south-facing tower door is engraved with the four characters "Chongwen Pagoda". From the inside of the tower, you can zigzag up to the top of the tower, and you can visit both the inside and outside of each floor. Castle-like battlements are built around the top floor. If the weather is clear, you can see the scenery of Xi'an, Huayue and Lishan from the tower. Every year on the 23rd and 24th of the first lunar month, the pagoda is held for people to climb, which is very lively and bustling. 1. Transportation: Take bus No. 2 from Xianyang to Jingyang, and take buses from Xi'an and Xianyang to Jingyang County. 2. Tickets: 3 yuan 3. Opening hours: 9:00～18:00 History

Chongwen Pagoda is located in Chongwen Middle School 10 kilometers southeast of Jingyang County. It is the tallest brick tower in China and has a long history. This tower is about 360 years old and is one of the best preserved brick towers in China. It is now a provincial key cultural relic protection unit. There is a cultural management office and dedicated protection personnel.

Chongwen Pagoda was built in the 21st year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1593) by Li Shida, the Shangshu of Jingyang, and built by craftsmen and officials in Zhenjiang, Nanjing. It was completed in the 33rd year of Wanli (1605). It is a pavilion-style brick tower with an octagonal plane, thirteen floors, and a total height of 83.218 meters. It is designed according to the ancient architectural principle of the Bagua suspended roof. It is built entirely with blue bricks from the bottom to the top of the tower.

Structure

The Chongwen Tower has 13 floors. It is a pavilion-style brick tower with an octagonal plane and a height of 83.218 meters. It is designed based on the ancient architectural principle of the Bagua suspended ceiling. Each floor is It has a hanging and closed Bagua structure. The Chongwen Pagoda is built entirely with blue bricks from the bottom to the top. The entire tower body is eight-sided in shape, with the bottom floor 9 meters on each side and a total circumference of 72 meters. There are four windows on each floor of Chongwen Pagoda, and four Buddhist niches outside each floor, crossing each other. There are stone Buddha statues from the Ming Dynasty in the Buddhist niches, standing or sitting, with different shapes, extremely delicate and vivid. There is a metal standing Buddha statue cast inside the second floor. The ground floor is of double-eaves style, and the south-facing pagoda door is engraved with the four characters "Chongwen Pagoda". From the inside of the tower, you can zigzag up to the top of the tower, and you can visit both the inside and outside of each floor. Castle-like battlements are built around the top floor. If the weather is clear, you can see the scenery of Xi'an, Huayue and Lishan from the tower. Every year on the 23rd and 24th of the first lunar month, the pagoda is held for people to climb, which is very lively and bustling.

The entire tower has an octagonal shape, with nine meters on each side of the bottom floor and a total circumference of 72 meters. There are four windows on each floor, and four Buddhist niches on the outside of each floor, crossing each other. Inside the Buddhist niche are Ming Dynasty stone Buddha statues, sitting or standing, in various shapes and extremely vivid. The south-facing pagoda door on the second floor is engraved with the four characters "Chongwen Pagoda". It is the largest brick pagoda in China. You can climb zigzag from the inside of the pagoda to the top of the pagoda. You can visit both the inside and outside of each floor. The entire Chongwen Pagoda is built with blue bricks. Each floor of the tower is equipped with four doors and four niches. In the niches, there are Ming Dynasty stone Buddha statues of various shapes, sitting or standing, with vivid shapes. There are brick steps inside the tower that can be climbed up to the top. On each floor of the tower, several layers of giant bricks are folded and stretched out, forming a waist eaves platform of more than one meter wide for tourists to tour. The brackets and brick eaves and rafters on each floor are assembled with specially polished bricks, which are interlocked with mortise and tenon joints, and have various patterns of brick carvings, which is very spectacular. There are wind chimes hanging on each eaves corner. In the morning light and moonlit night, the wind chimes tinkle, adding to the charm of the ancient pagoda. There are castle-like battlements built around the top floor. When the weather is clear, visitors can look out from the battlements and patrol in all directions. They can see the spectacular scenery of the Eight Rivers surrounding Chang'an and Lishan Mountain in the evening, and even the vivid Jing and Weier Rivers. . There was originally a copper basin on the top of the tower, and 8 different types of bronze Buddha statues were placed under the basin. Unfortunately, the copper basin was broken and stolen after 1929 during the severe drought in Guanzhong, and the small bronze Buddha statues were also stolen by local children in 1980. The copper was dug up and sold, but fortunately it was discovered and redeemed by the county cultural unit, and is now in the county museum.

In the past, there used to be several evergreen cypress trees on the top floor, but now there are no more. The 13th floor is the top of the tower, which is topped by a copper gourd about 5 meters high, which is quite majestic.

Legend

It is said that Qianqian, the beloved concubine of Wanli, the twelfth generation emperor of the Ming Dynasty, died. The emperor heard that her spirit had drifted to Penglai Island, so he told Li Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry , and asked him to build a thirty-foot-high "Wangxian Tower" twenty miles away from Beijing.

This Li Shang's name is Chongwen and his native place is Jingyang County. After serving as an official for more than 20 years, he has never returned home, and he often misses his hometown. Now that I heard that a pagoda was to be built twenty miles away from Beijing (Jing), I was naturally indescribably happy. Busy taking my wife and daughter on their way at starry night. After returning to his hometown, Shangshu told the prefecture and county about the construction of the pagoda to raise money, and immediately began to select a site and clear the foundation. When people nearby heard that Li Shangshu was building a pagoda for Jingyang, everyone was happy and scrambled to raise funds. Brick kilns were built in dozens of villages in the south of Jingyang County (this area was later called kiln), and some villages were dedicated to grinding rice and flour for the pagoda. The village was called Mozi Village), and within a few days, skilled craftsmen came one after another.

Just when the stone was being laid to lay the foundation, Shangshu was announced to Beijing. He misunderstood the decree and changed "Jing" to "Jing", which caused Wanli's anger and he was beheaded. When the news reached his hometown, everyone in Jingyang shed tears for Shangshu. At this time, someone among the craftsmen said: "Now that the minister has been killed and the bricks and stones are piled up on the river beach, why not just build a memorial tower for the minister." Everyone gathered in the village of Shangshu. You and I asked my wife to make a decision. The minister has a daughter named Cuiyun. Miss Cuiyun was in agony. When she heard the villagers' comments, her heart was moved. She thought that since her father could not be resurrected, she might as well take advantage of the wishes of the villagers to fulfill her father's wish and build a tower for her hometown. She bid farewell to her mother, put on men's clothes, and called herself Shangshu Gongzi. Her generous, free and easy demeanor was almost unrecognizable. She secretly swore to God that she would not wear women's clothing until the tower was completed. Just like that, the Jinghe River beach became lively again, with people transporting materials and digging foundations, and there were huge crowds of people. Cuiyun was so busy that she walked in and out of the crowd from time to time. On this day, there was a difficulty in the foundation construction. I saw that the tower foundation had been dug more than three feet deep, and the bottom was full of quicksand and silt. How could such geology support a tower of twenty or thirty feet? Cuiyun couldn't help but feel worried. Cuiyun's spirit of dressing up as a man and building a tower moved the Nine Heavens Xuannv. She gave Cuiyun a dream and said: "If you build this tower, it will be so high in the world that the land of Jinghe River may not be able to support it. I have specially summoned the eight brothers of the Jin family for you." , each of them serves as the cornerstone, and now ten thousand yuan can be lost." Cuiyun stood up and took a look, and the golden light was indeed dazzling in the pit. He hurriedly ordered everyone to go down to the pit to clear away the mud and quicksand. An eight-sided bluestone was seen underneath. Zhou Fang Wu. Six feet tall, there are eight bronze-like figures who are as tall as a foot. In the center of the stone plate, there are four poems engraved, which are: "The heart of the sky is the heart of the people, and the pagoda is built on the Jingbin. A filial daughter appreciates the sky, and the pagoda is named by Wen." When everyone saw it, God was helping them, and everyone was working extra hard. The sun and the moon are passing by, and it has been seven years before I know it. The tower has seven floors, which is still four floors short of the original plan. The original silver is about to be used up. Cuiyun sold his property, and fellow villagers donated money, but he still couldn't make ends meet. In a hurry, Miss Cuiyun changed into a Taoist nun's clothes and walked around Guanzhong to collect donations. In less than six years, it was built with thirteen floors, two more than originally planned. Then a clay statue of Shangshu was built in the main hall of Cuiyun Temple under the Chongwen Temple Tower, and a golden body was specially built for Jiutian Xuannv on the top of the tower.

On the day of celebrating the completion of Chongwen Tower, east of Jingyang, around Chongwen Tower, there was a sea of ??people, and everyone was singing and dancing happily. Later, a village in Tabei was named Yongle (now Yongle Town). Current Situation

The Wanli Emperor, in order to meet the soul of his beloved concubine, inspired the people of Guanzhong and built this strange tower thirty feet high from the ground. It is a great wonder in Shaanxi, and the tower is named Chongwen Pagoda. Every year during the Pagoda Festival, there are endless tourists. People look far away from the height, and Chang'an, Xianyang, Huaqing, Hot Spring, Taibai, Lishan, Zhaoling and Qianling are all visible. The scene is really spectacular.