Pagoda, called stupa in Sanskrit, means tomb in ancient India. After translating from Indian Sanskrit into Chinese, there appeared transliteration names such as X Dubo, Fotu and Fotu, as well as transliteration names such as Fang Fen, Zhu Yuan and Gao Xian. "Tower" is a very vivid name given to this kind of Indian architecture by ancient people in China, which was first seen in Ge Hong's Zi Yuan in Jin Dynasty. Legend has it that Buddha Sakyamuni? Later, his disciples cremated his body, which condensed into colorful and unbreakable crystals in the fire, called relics. According to legend, Sakyamuni also left his own body bones, skulls, teeth, hair and phalanges, all of which are Buddhist relics. At that time, the kings of the eight countries heard of Sakyamuni? After that, they all led the soldiers to compete for the Buddha relics. In the end, they got a copy respectively and built a tower in their own country according to the ancient traditional customs of India. There are underground palaces under these pagodas, which are filled with the relics of Sakyamuni Buddha. Because Buddhist believers regard the relic of Sakyamuni Buddha as the supreme sacred object, doesn't the pagoda become Sakyamuni? The symbol of Buddhism is the object of worship of Buddhist disciples. Buddhism believes that if believers can worship around the stupa regularly, they will get great merits and blessings in the afterlife. Therefore, the worship of right-handed people around the stupa became the daily task of monks at that time. Not only that, the construction of the stupa itself is also an act of merit. More than 200 years after Sakyamuni's nirvana, King Ashoka of the Peacock Dynasty in India opened seven underground pagodas of the first eight pagodas, took them out and divided them into many parts, and then built pagodas as support in the vast area where he spread Buddhism. This practice is often followed by later Buddhist believers. Today, the Buddha's pagodas are all over Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and there are tens of thousands of ancient pagodas on the land of China. There are only a handful of stupas dedicated to relics, and most of them are dedicated to symbolic relics. Buddhist scriptures say: believers who build stupas can use treasures such as gold, silver, glass, crystal and agate instead if they can't find the Buddha saria; If you really can't find these treasures, you can also go to the seaside to pick up clean sand, or collect some herbs and bamboo roots as relics. As long as they have a sincere belief in Buddhism, these symbolic objects have the same function and role as the real Buddhist relics in the eyes of believers. In addition, Buddhist classics concentrate all the thoughts and wisdom of Sakyamuni, and are the guiding lights for Buddhist believers to reach the realm of Nipan. Therefore, in some ancient pagodas, some Buddhist classics are also enshrined in the tower as relics. Classics are different from relics, so the classics collected in pagodas are called "relic relics" by Buddhism. The stupa where the relic and the instrument relic are located is called "stupa". There is also a stupa that only serves as a symbol of Sakyamuni. There are no relics buried under the pagoda, so it does not have the nature of a tomb. For example, the stupa carved from stone in the grottoes is like this. This tower is called Chaitya in Sanskrit Buddhist literature, which is transliterated as "Zhiti" or "Zhidi" in Chinese. There is no fixed pattern in any form of culture and art, and so is the stupa, which is one of the important symbols of Buddhist belief. When the idea of building pagodas spread from India to all directions, Buddhist believers in various regions accepted the architectural style of Indian pagodas and created their favorite pagodas in combination with their own inherent culture. So in the long history of the development of Buddhism, various pagodas have emerged constantly, becoming a wonderful flower in the architectural art of all ethnic groups who believed in Buddhism in ancient times.
There are also many kinds of ancient pagodas in China. Judging from their appearance and structural forms, they can be roughly divided into the following seven types:
1. Pavilion Tower: It is the longest, largest and most preserved pagoda in China, and it is a unique architectural style of Han pagodas. The distance between each floor of this tower is relatively large, and at first glance it looks like a high-rise pavilion. Tall, there are usually masonry or wooden stairs in the tower, which can be used for people to climb and look into the distance. The number of layers of the tower body is often the same as that of the tower body. Outside some towers, doors, windows, columns, etc. Has a wooden structure.
2. Pagodas with dense eaves: The number and status of ancient pagodas in China are second only to pavilion pagodas, and their shapes are generally relatively tall. It developed from a pavilion-type wooden tower to a masonry structure. The first floor of this tower is very high, but the height of each floor above the first floor is extremely small, and the eaves of each floor overlap closely. The inside of the tower is generally hollow, so you can't climb up to see it. Some cornice towers are solid when made. Even if there are stairs to climb in the tower, the number of floors inside is far less than the number of eaves in the tower. The rich imitation wood architectural decoration is mostly concentrated on the first floor of the tower.
3. Pavilion Tower: This is an ancient pagoda form, which combines the Indian Bowl-covered Pagoda and the ancient traditional pavilion architecture in China. It also has a long history. The tower looks like a pavilion, all of which are single-storey, and some even build a small pavilion on the top. Buddhist niches are generally set in towers to place Buddha statues. Because of its simple structure, low cost and easy construction, this tower was once adopted as a tomb tower by many eminent monks.
4. Flower Pagoda: There are single-layer and multi-layer flower pagodas. Its main feature is that the upper part of the tower is decorated with complex floral ornaments, which looks like a huge bouquet. It may have developed from the top of the decorative pavilion tower and the tower body of the pavilion-type dense eaves tower, which is used to express the seclusion of lotus in Buddhism. Although the number is small, it has a unique shape.
5. Hugai stupa: It is an ancient Indian traditional stupa, which was built very early in China and was mainly popular after the Yuan Dynasty. Its tower body is a round bowl cover, with a high tower brake above and a base of Mount Sumi below. This pagoda is widely used by Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet, so it is also called "Lama Pagoda". Because it looks like a bottle, it is also commonly known as "Aquarius Tower".
6. King Kong Throne Tower: This name is aimed at its own combination, but the specific shapes are diverse. Its basic characteristics are: there is a high pedestal below, and five towers are built on the pedestal. The tower in the middle is taller, and the four towers in the four corners are shorter. The shape of the five towers on the pedestal is not specified, some are dense eaves and some are covered with bowls. This is a pagoda dedicated to the five Buddhist masters of Tantric King Kong. It was popular in China after the Ming Dynasty.
7. Ferry tower and tower gate: Ferry tower is a tower built on the street or main road, with doorways under it for pedestrians and horses to pass through; The tower gate is the form of building the lower part of the tower into a doorway. Generally, only pedestrians are allowed to pass, and cars and horses are not allowed to pass. These two kinds of towers began to appear in the Yuan Dynasty, so the towers built at the entrance are generally bowl-covered, some are one tower, some are three or five towers side by side. The tower at the door is the symbol of the Buddha, so anyone who passes by the door under the tower is considered as a pilgrimage to the Buddha. This is the significance of building crossing towers and towers. In addition to the seven tower types listed above, there are many unusual tower types in ancient China, such as the nine-topped tower, with nine small towers on the pavilion top; Jieshilou is similar to the traditional architectural form of the Han nationality; A cylindrical tower shaped like a cylinder; And bell tower, spherical tower, classical tower, etc. They are usually found in the tomb tower where the remains of eminent monks are buried. There is also a popular high-platform pagoda in Tibetan Buddhist temples, that is, five or eight bowls-covered pagodas with the same size are built on a rectangular high platform. In addition, there are some shapes that combine two or three kinds of towers, such as placing the pavilion tower on the bowl-covered tower, or combining the bowl-covered tower with dense eaves and pavilions, or adding a bowl-covered body and multiple wheels on the square and polygonal pavilions (namely, the pavilion-covered bowl tower, commonly known as Asoka Tower), which makes the form of the ancient pagoda more colorful and varied.
Although there are various types of ancient pagodas, their basic structures are basically the same, generally including underground palace, pedestal, tower body and tower brake. The underground palace is generally built under the stupa to bury the stupa and offer sacrifices. The tower foundation is the lower foundation of the tower, which covers the underground palace and is the foundation to support the tower. The tower body is the main part of the tower. The types of towers mentioned above are mainly distinguished by the shape of the tower body. The internal structure of the tower is mainly solid and hollow, and the number of layers of the tower is mostly one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven and thirteen. , and the number of floors with negative numbers such as two, four, six and eight is extremely rare. Tasha is the top of the tower, which is a transliteration of Sanskrit. It contains the meaning of earth, land and Buddha country, so Buddhist temples are also called temples. Naming the top of the tower as "brake" seems to have the symbolic significance of Buddhism. Generally, the standard tower gate is also a small bowl-covered tower, which can also be divided into three parts: gate seat, gate body and gate top: gate seat is generally composed of base, lotus cover and lotus cover; The brake body consists of a brake lever, a phase wheel and an umbrella cover. The brake lever is arranged on the brake seat, and a phase wheel is sleeved on the brake lever. The image of the phase wheel is very similar to the overlapping rings. It is a symbol of the lofty and revered stupa. The traditional common names in ancient China are also called "Golden Plate" and "Exposed Plate". The number of layers of the phase wheel varies from three to five to dozens, all of which are odd. Some towers also use the number of phase wheels to indicate the level and height of the tower. Generally speaking, there are many and large phase wheels in the big tower, and few and small phase wheels in the small tower. At the top of the phase wheel, there are round lights, moons, spheres, etc. It is still placed on the brake lever in the way of piercing, and together with * * * constitutes the brake top part. Under the pagodas, some also set up the Heavenly Palace, which is specially used to collect and worship the relics and articles offered. When some towers were built, some Buddhist scriptures were placed in the walls of the towers as Buddhist relics of Sakyamuni.
The building materials used in China Ancient Pagoda can be roughly divided into wood, masonry, metal, glass and so on. Mufo Pagoda was mainly popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and was built by the traditional wooden structure method of Han nationality. Masonry pagodas rose after the Tang Dynasty and were built by bricklaying or masonry, issuing coupons and overlapping. Most of the existing ancient pagodas in China belong to this type of building. After the Song Dynasty, people sometimes liked to cast metal towers by carving and molding. The tower built with glazed tiles adds dazzling luster to the appearance of the tower body.
While building pagodas, Buddhist believers in ancient China also built countless pagodas for monks and great virtues in past dynasties. Next to some monasteries, groups of Buddhist pagodas of eminent monks form the world-famous Tallinn, telling us about the merits of people who died under the pagodas. During the development of Buddhism in China 1000 years, the pagoda, an architectural art form, aroused the imagination of ancestors for other architectural types, and thus produced a series of pagodas for observing enemy situations, navigation towers for navigation and extradition, and style towers for suppressing geomantic omen. Even after the death of some Taoist priests, they built stupas for burial. The form of building stupas is often not much different from that of stupas. These pagodas, with various names and wide uses, fully demonstrate that this architectural form originally belonging to Buddhism has long been integrated into the ocean of ancient national culture in China, becoming an indispensable part of ancient architectural art in China, and also making the great rivers and mountains in China more beautiful.
The oldest existing stupa in India can be traced back to the time of Asoka in the third century BC. The first stupa in China was built in the Eastern Han Dynasty in the first century A.D., when Buddhism was just accepted by a few people in China. In the stormy years of nearly two thousand years, countless pagodas have sprung up on the land of China, showing the brilliant artistic achievements of our ancestors; How many pagodas were buried in the ground during the war, and their majestic posture can only be found in ancient books. Nevertheless, there are still thousands of ancient pagodas standing in China, which are second to none in terms of quantity, variety, production technology and time span among countries that once believed in Buddhism and still believe in Buddhism. Their achievements are by no means limited to the ancient architectural art itself. From the dazzling aura of these ancient pagodas and relics, we can see the historical process of Chinese ancestors accepting various foreign cultures and constantly innovating national culture. (Excerpted from Changqing's Art Course of China Ancient Pagoda, Shaanxi People's Fine Arts Publishing House,1September, 998)
Baimasi Yun Qi Tower