The tower makes you feel meditative when you look at it from a distance, and it opens your mind when you climb up. Because of its tall and eye-catching image, it is easily regarded as a landmark building in urban planning conventions, such as the White Horse Temple Tower in Luoyang and the Xi'an Tower. Big Wild Goose Pagoda, White Pagoda in Beijing, Big White Pagoda in Mount Wutai and Twin Pagodas in Taiyuan.
In 1985, Taiyuan City took the lead in designing its own city emblem in the country. It took the Taiyuan Twin Towers as the main body and added the element of Taiyuan's abbreviation "Bing" to reflect that Taiyuan is an ancient city with a long history. This is enough to illustrate the status of the Twin Towers in the hearts of the people of Taiyuan.
Shuangta Temple is also known as Yongzuo Temple. "Zuo" means blessing and protection. The simple name of Yongzuo Temple itself is quite nice, but in local chronicles, it likes to call this place " "Lingxiao Twin Pagodas", one of the eight scenic spots in ancient Taiyuan City, people like to call this place commonly known as "Twin Pagodas Temple". The influence is so great that even the original name of "Yongzuo Temple" is rarely used by outsiders. known.
The Shuangta Temple is located in Haozhuang Village, Haozhuang Town, Taiyuan City. It was built in the middle of the Wanli Period of the Ming Dynasty. It was built by the local gentry on the advice of the Kan Yu family in order to make up for Taiyuan City's topographic defects of "high in the northwest and low in the southeast". The Feng Shui Tower was built to pray for the prosperity of local cultural fortune. Later, Mr. Fu Shan appeared out of thin air, which seemed to fulfill this statement. However, only one tower was built at that time, the Wenfeng Tower.
Later, in the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), Zhu Minchun, the eleventh generation king of the Jin vassal, felt that the scale of Wenfeng Pagoda was simple and incompatible with the status of the provincial capital Taiyuan, so he specially built it. Xiantong Temple in Mount Wutai was invited to preside over the temple. Monk Fudeng, a well-known architect in the country at that time, came here to expand the temple. After Monk Fudeng came to Taiyuan for an on-the-spot investigation, he suggested to the King of Jin that while expanding the palace, a new tower should be built on the left side of the Xuanwen Pagoda. This tower would be the relic pagoda, which would be used to enshrine Buddha relics and store Buddhist scriptures.
At this point, the construction of the two pagodas of Shuangta Temple was completed and both were named "Xuanwen Pagoda". They were both built in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. They are very similar in height and shape, and are only 50 meters apart. However, their construction backgrounds are completely different. They are independent but blend with each other. They have become the architectural wonder of Taiyuan City's "two peaks reaching into the sky", which has attracted the attention of the world. .
In the summer, drive to the Twin Pagoda Temple. You can see the twin towers standing in the distance, hidden or visible, turning with the road. When you go up the stairs, the first thing you see is the peonies all over the courtyard. Peonies are everywhere in sight and smell. Along the way, peonies of various colors spread out, and bursts of floral fragrance floated in the wind. However, because it had just rained, many petals fell off, which made people feel sad. I feel deeply regretful that I did not see the peonies blooming at their peak, what a scene it would be in full bloom.
After encountering the Peony Garden, which is known as "Little Luoyang" in Taiyuan, you can see the twin towers when you walk back. The twin towers are the tallest existing ancient buildings in Taiyuan. Li Zicheng wrote in "Ode to the Twin Towers" in the late Ming Dynasty : "The two towers of Haozhuang can penetrate the sky." From this, we can also imagine the insignificance of people standing under the twin towers.
Both towers have an octagonal plane. The bottom floor is 7 meters high and decreases from bottom to top. There are 13 floors in total and a total height of more than 50 meters. They are typical pavilion-style brick towers. The portrait of the pavilion-style brick tower is that of our ancient buildings, modern attics, from the outside, the eaves are widely spaced, and there are doors and windows on each floor. From the inside, the tower is hollow, has stairs, and is climbable. For people to climb up the stairs.
Although the two towers have many similarities, they were built nearly 10 years apart and had completely different purposes, so there are still some differences.
The base of the stupa is made of sand and stone strips, which is simple and solid. The 1st to 7th floors are made of brick imitation wood bucket arches. As the tower rises gradually, the bracket shape gradually becomes smaller, and becomes more prominent above the 8th floor, with obvious points, making the entire tower's shape arc-shaped and streamlined, which is very beautiful. . Each layer on the eaves of the tower is made of peacock blue glazed tiles to create a crystal clear and beautiful edge. Under the eaves of the first floor of the tower, the words "Amitabha" are inlaid and engraved. The brick characters are stacked layer by layer, cleverly filling the space between the brackets and the flat space between the brackets, making it beautiful and well-proportioned.
Wenfeng Pagoda, which stands close to the stupa, is slightly lower than the stupa in height. It has no pagoda base, no niche, and no inscription of "Amitabha", which once again shows that although Wenfeng Pagoda is It is in the style of a pagoda, but is not used for religious purposes. In addition, the upper and lower diameters of Wenfeng Pagoda are almost the same, straight up and down, with no obvious points. There are no glazed tiles on the exterior decoration, and there are very few decorations. Overall, Wenfeng Pagoda is simply made of bricks, but this layer-by-layer The vertical and straight feeling formed by the ramparts fully demonstrates the majestic quality of the masonry structure, which is spectacular. What's strange is that since the tower was built, the entire body of Wenfeng Tower has tilted slightly to the northwest. People think that it was because the northwest wind in Taiyuan was strong at that time, and this place is located at the front of Dongshan. In order to offset the northwest wind's impact on the tower Therefore, he deliberately turned the tower slightly to the northwest.
There are stairs inside the tower for visitors to spiral up. Each floor has four doors leading to the eaves. Visitors can stop here briefly and overlook the beautiful mountains and rivers of Taiyuan.
In the 1930s, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin came to Shanxi to look for ancient buildings. The Taiyuan Twin Towers were one of their stops. At that time, Lin Huiyin climbed to the top of the tower. She said: "The high domes in Western churches It makes people feel very close to God, but standing on a tall pagoda and looking out, it feels very far away from Buddha and very close to the world. "This feeling that makes you feel close and alienated can only be achieved by climbing up. You can only feel it if you climb up to the pagoda and look far away.
Taiyuan has many famous cultural monuments. In addition to the Twin Towers, the most famous one should be the Jinci Temple. I have been to Jinci Temple many times. Every time, it is crowded with tourists. There are many vendors at the door and the fireworks are very prosperous. In comparison, the twin towers are quite deserted. Although they are the landmarks of Taiyuan, they have fewer tourists and a weak secular atmosphere. The two towers are hidden alone on the mountainside, cold and noble, and have a sense of independence from the world. The feeling of loneliness. I wonder if you will be moved by this huge loneliness when you go to the Twin Towers. (Cao Wenwen)