The three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple consist of this big one and two small ones. This tower is called Chihiro Tower. The distance between Chihiro Tower and the two small towers in the north and south is 70 meters, showing a tripartite confrontation. Chihiro Tower is 69.13m high. It is a square hollow brick tower with dense eaves and grade of 16, which belongs to the typical architectural style of Tang Dynasty. The inner wall of the tower is vertical, and there are no wooden stairs. You can climb to the top of the tower and enjoy the panoramic view of Dali ancient city from the observation hole. It is said that the top of the tower can accommodate four people, and you can climb to the top from the edge of the tower near the top with a ladder, but that requires high skill and extraordinary courage. In the past, young people nearby often climbed to the top of the tower to play flutes and sing songs. It was really chic. To tell the truth, I was lucky enough to climb Chihiro Tower, but of course I didn't climb to the top. It looks at Cangshan Xue Rui in the west, near Yuer Bibo in the east, close to the rural scenery of Xanthium, overlooking the beautiful image of a chicken claw and a jade dragon ... It's really extraordinary to climb high and look far. Now, due to the protection of cultural relics, it is impossible for all guests to have such an opportunity. However, there must be similar commanding heights in the ancient buildings of Chongsheng Temple under construction to make up for this regret. Chihiro Pagoda stands on this two-story platform. On the east-facing zhaobi in front of the pagoda, there are four powerful stone-carved Chinese characters "Yongzhen Mountains and Rivers", each with a height of 65,438+0.7 meters, written by Sun Mushijie, Duke of Ming and Guizhou. There are two reasons for writing these four words: one is that many floods in Dali history are caused by evil dragons, so as long as water is controlled, dragons must be treated first, but dragons only worship towers and fear Dapeng. Therefore, only when there are dragons on the rostrum and Dapeng golden-winged birds on the rostrum, they dare not do evil, and the flood will naturally be reduced. It is said that there are nine dragons under the Three Pagodas, and the Dapeng golden-winged bird on the Pagodas disappeared after the 1925 earthquake, and the precious cultural relics found during the maintenance and reinforcement of the Three Pagodas 1978 to 1. Another way of saying it is that in the Ming Dynasty, Dali, located in the frontier, became its territory. In order to fully express the intention of sticking to this territory, it can be said that the inscription on the standing tower foundation is far-reaching and appropriate.
It is generally believed that the construction of Chihiro Pagoda began in the period of persuading Fengyou in Nanzhao (AD 823-859). Legend has it that there are many ways to build Chihiro Tower, one of which is called "Burying the Earth", that is, from the tower foundation, each tower is buried with earth, and the earth pile is pressed into an inclined earth platform, which greatly facilitates the transportation of building materials and the construction of the next tower. When the tower was capped, the slope of the earth platform had been extended for several miles. It is said that it extended to Yinqiao area, and then the buried tower was dug up layer by layer. When I was a child, I heard that goats were used to carry bricks when building towers. Because goats are light and dexterous, they can climb very high. A goat can carry two bricks at a time. I think it must make sense.
Among the three towers, the two smaller towers in the north and south are the same in height, both of which are 42. 19 meters, each with 10 level. They are a pair of octagonal brick pagodas with dense eaves. Above eight floors are solid, below eight floors are hollow. The outline is like a cone, which belongs to the typical architectural style of Song Dynasty. According to relevant data, the North-South Tower was built in the period of Duan Zhengyan and Duan Zhengxing in Dali (A.D.1108 ~1172). Now, the two small towers we see have deviated from the vertical line and are in a worrying state, but you don't have to worry because they have been tilted for more than 400 years. This can be said to be the "leaning tower" spectacle of Dali. If we look up at the three pagodas carefully, we can easily find that there are arches on all sides of the seal cutting class of Chihiro Pagoda; That is to say, the small pavilion is often used to worship Buddha. There are Buddha statues in the two opposite niches, and the other two niches serve as windows and holes leading to the center of the tower. As for the north and south pagodas, the eight sides of each floor are shaped like pagodas with different shapes, and the pagodas on each floor are decorated with relief. The series of the three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple are even, but the series passing through the local pagodas are generally dependent.
Since their completion, these three towers have not only experienced thousands of years of sunshine, wind and rain, but also experienced the severe test of more than 30 strong earthquakes. Among them, during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, most of the houses in the ancient city of Dali collapsed, and the Chihiro Tower cracked like a broken bamboo, but miraculously recovered to its original state ten days later. In the Dali earthquake of 1925, 99% houses in urban and rural areas collapsed, Chihiro Pagoda was found, and only the Ding Bao Temple at the top was knocked down. This is indeed a miracle for the three towers built directly without stone foundation. After the completion of Chongsheng Temple and Three Pagodas, the temple was well preserved until the Ming Dynasty. According to historical records, it has a scale of seven miles in Fiona Fang, with three pavilions and nine halls on the seventh floor, more than 890 houses and 1 1400 Buddha statues. In Dali, there are nine kings who are monks and abbots of Chongsheng Temple. During the Dali period when Buddhism prevailed, no matter the people were rich or poor, every household had a Buddhist temple; No matter men, women and children, you can't let go of a few pearls, so Dali is known as the "Buddhist country". Chongsheng Temple is also called "Buddha Capital". The ancients said that "Brahma Temple in South China is better than Cangshan Ershui, and Cangshan Ershui is better than Chongyi Temple". The three pagodas in the temple, namely Hong Zhong, Yutong Guanyin, Zhengdao Gebei, Fodu Monument and Sansheng Golden Statue, are regarded as five treasures. At that time, the famous monk Nianan in the Yuan Dynasty wrote an inscription from a famous couplet like Chongsheng Temple: "Awesome! The scenery is magnificent, and I didn't know this place until this state; Sure enough! It is a scenic spot in the ancient south, and Festa Mo is called the fourth floor. " Anonymous inscription "Shadow of the Three Pagodas of the Ancient Cloud; The clock on the first floor of the storm. " They all gave a wonderful perspective to the famous towers and buildings of Chongsheng Temple. Until Li Yuanyang organized the reconstruction of Chongsheng Temple in the Ming Dynasty, the five treasures in the temple were still well preserved. Xu Xiake once wrote in the Travels of Yunnan that the bell in the temple was cast in the twelfth year of Nanzhao Foundation (AD 87 1): "The bell is extremely large, with a diameter of more than ten feet and a thickness of one foot, and its reputation can reach 80 miles." Therefore, "Zhong Zhen Buddha Capital" has become one of the sixteen famous scenic spots in Dali. Someone wrote in the original bell tower, "Knock loudly, knock loudly, sleep in a dream; One Buddha makes a sound, while a thousand Buddhas look far beyond the horizon "describes this kind of landscape, while Zhou Zhilie in the Qing Dynasty wrote" The building wants to empty the world; The bell awakens the past and the present. "This also has the same effect. The rain copper Guanyin in the original temple is solemn, quiet and beautiful, with a thin waist and bare feet and exquisite shape. According to legend, Guanyin, which was three feet high, was cast in the temple at that time, and the bronze was finished in the middle. At this time, there was a copper rain in the sky. People collected these pearls of copper rain before casting Guanyin, hence the name Yutong Guanyin. I went there many times when I was a child. The giant bell in the temple was destroyed in the Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty, while the Yutong Guanyin was destroyed in the early days of the Cultural Revolution, and the time when the Taoist tablet and Buddhist tablet were destroyed was unknown. The bell tower and Yutong Guanyin Temple in the temple were rebuilt only a few years ago. The recast clock was designed by Beijing Ancient Clock Museum according to historical data and cast by Nanjing Chenguang Machinery Factory. The clock is 3.86 meters high, 2. 138 meters in diameter and weighs 16.295 tons. At present, it is the fourth largest in China and the first in Yunnan.
As early as March 196 1, the three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple were announced by the State Council as the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. From 1978 to 198 1, the state allocated funds to repair and strengthen the three towers for three years. In this maintenance and reinforcement, there are two important discoveries: first, the footings of the three towers are not stone foundations, but soil foundations; Second, more than 680 precious cultural relics such as Buddha statues and Buddhist scriptures have been cleared up, which is the richest and most important batch of cultural relics discovered so far in Nanzhao and Dali periods. These cultural relics have become historical materials for studying the history of Nanzhao and Dali. During Nanzhao and Dali periods, religious cultures such as Tibetan Buddhism, Indian Tantric Buddhism and Zen Buddhism (Central Plains) met and merged in Dali. Therefore, Dali is called "the ancient capital of Asian cultural crossroads" by sociologists. After visiting the Three Pagodas, you should visit the Three Pagodas Reflection Park.
The three towers reflection park we are visiting. It originated from Jishuitan, a reservoir built during the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and 1980s. The park covers an area of 27 mu, with a water area of 10 mu. The park faces south and is backed by the three pagodas of Chongsheng Temple, one kilometer away. It is named because the water in the park can clearly reflect the majestic and beautiful image of the three towers. It embeds three towering pagodas into it to make a crystal-clear mirror, which can reflect their beautiful images, adding a lot of beauty and elegance to the beautiful scenery of these three pagodas standing in the sky. The buildings in the park have couplets and poems reflecting the houses of the Bai people. There are many exotic flowers and herbs in the park, such as camellia, Yinxiang and Guijuan. It is an excellent place for tourists to recite couplets, watch hundreds of flowers, or take photos with the beautiful scenery of the three pagodas in the water. Not only on sunny days, but also on moonlit nights, it is also wonderful. The excellent beauty of three towers reflecting the moon can be called the real "three towers reflecting the moon". The reflection of the three pagodas, with its beautiful scenery that contains and blends the iconic symbols of Dali-the three pagodas and the blue sky and white clouds, the sun, the moon, the stars, the snow scene of Cangshan Mountain and the flowers in four seasons-has amazed the world, added color to Dali and made it famous. It has attracted countless Chinese and foreign guests to visit and take photos here, and printed many pictorial, book covers, stamps and postcards, which has won a great reputation for Dali for many years. It has won many reputations for Dali, even Yunnan and China ... The Sanzang Pagoda and the Santa Reflection Park complement each other, complement each other, and are important cultural landscapes and beautiful signs that best represent the image of Dali.