Brief introduction of mengcheng
First of all, let's learn about Mengcheng. Mengcheng, formerly known as Shaanxi, Sang, Qi, Yang Guo and Lishui, is a county under the jurisdiction of Bozhou City, Anhui Province, located in the middle of Huaibei Plain, northwest of Anhui Province. The history of Mongolia can be traced back to any period. The ruins and unearthed cultural relics of Weichi Temple excavated in its territory prove that the ancients thrived on this land more than 4,500 years ago. According to historical records, since the Shang Dynasty, the name of Mengcheng has been constantly changing, and who it belongs to is also changing. It was not until the first year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty (742) that it was officially named Mengcheng County, which is still in use today.
Mengcheng has a long history and left many cultural landscapes, including Wanfa Pagoda, Mengcheng Confucian Temple, Zhuangzi Ancestral Temple and Jiuding Lingshan Temple. Among them, the Neolithic cultural site of Weichi Temple is called "the first primitive village in China", and the Gutawan Pagoda in the Northern Song Dynasty is listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit. Therefore, Mengcheng County was selected as a provincial-level historical and cultural city in Anhui Province, the hometown of Zhuangzi, the hometown of couplets in China, the hometown of hard pen calligraphy in Anhui Province and so on. Today, let's talk about a little-known Song Dynasty stupa in Mengcheng: Ten Thousand Pagodas.
: 0.1-10/0000 stupa, located in the southeast corner of Mengcheng County, Bozhou City, Anhui Province, was built in the first year of Song Chongning (1 102), with a history of more than 900 years. That's not the original name of ten thousand pagodas. In the historical changes, its name has also undergone different changes. Its earliest name is Xinghua Tower, and there is a temple on the east side of the tower called Xinghua Temple, hence its name. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was a temple named Cishi Temple next to the tower, so it was named Cishi Temple Tower. Later, for a long time, the locals commonly called it "Mengcheng Brick Pagoda".
Finally, it was renamed Wanfo Pagoda, which was named after more than 8,000 Buddha statues embedded inside and outside the Pagoda. The tower body is made of water mill blue bricks. More than 300 pieces of ochre, yellow and green glazed tiles are embedded inside and outside the pagoda. Each brick is engraved with three Buddha statues, Ye Jia on the left, Ananda on the right and Sakyamuni in the middle. Only one Buddha statue is carved on several glazed tiles, totaling more than 6,000. Most of these Buddha statues are from the Song Dynasty.
The origin of ten thousand pagodas
The whole pagoda is an octagonal 13-story brick pagoda, which is the highest-ranking pagoda in Buddhism. It is 42.2 meters high, 24.8 meters long and 8 meters in diameter. Four front doors of the tower, four other fake windows, seven-story through-the-heart stairs and eight-story spiral stairs. Generally speaking, among the numerous pagodas in China, the scale and scale of Wanfa Pagoda are not very large, but it has beautiful shape, diverse structures and relatively complete preservation. It is a model of China's integration of North-South tower-building technology and an important pagoda in the Song Dynasty.