Gaozhou Baoguang Pagoda is located on the west bank of Jianhe River in Gaozhou City. It was built by Zhang Bangyi, the magistrate in the fourth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (1576), in the name of town geomantic omen. It's a pavilion-style brick tower with steps folded in the wall. The plane of the tower is octagonal, with a nine-level appearance and a height of 65.8 meters. It is the highest existing ancient pagoda in Guangdong, with a length of 5.72 meters on both sides of the ground floor. Each floor is made of water chestnut tooth brick and line brick alternately to form waist eaves and seats. There are 24 granite reliefs on the eight sides of the tower, 3 on each side, and the patterns are rich and auspicious, double phoenix rising in the morning, flying clouds and flying cranes, and fish jumping on Longmen. Each sculpture is1.45m long and 0.55m high. There is a bamboo stone carving between the two stone carvings, which is 0.55 meters high and 0.28 meters wide. The statue of Lux, which is 0.55 meters high and 0.38 meters wide, is embedded in eight corners. There are four Buddha statues on each floor of the tower, which are luxuriantly decorated and brightly pastel, so the masses also call the Baoguang Tower "Powder Tower". 1992 has been fixed.
Since ancient times, Gaozhou Baoguang Pagoda, the first of the next four hospitals, has been famous far and near. It is the tallest tower in Guangdong and is listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Guangdong Province. Gaozhou Baoguang Pagoda is known as "the glory of the ancient city of South China". It was built in the fourth year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty (AD 1576), when the magistrate Zhang Bangyi proposed to build it. It is located at the end of Xi 'an Village, a suburb of Gaozhou, and stands at the swift corner of Jianjiang River. The Qing Dynasty's "Guangxu Rebuilding Maoming County Records" contains: "The Baoguang Pagoda was built on the banks of the Jiangxi River. In the four years of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Bangyi, the magistrate, was nine stories high and magnificent. Taking towns and counties as an example, the old labor costs are recorded: it took130,000 platinum, which is amazing. Li, a city resident, donated 80,000. Xianfeng flooded for six years _ its toes flooded for nine years, and the county people rebuilt their roots and grasses to kill water, and Taki was forever solid. "
The Baoguang Tower is 62 meters high, * * * nine and a half stories, octagonal, with a clear outline. Tower foundation diameter 1 1 m, height 2.3 m. Its materials are all blue bricks and sugar ash. Surrounded by granite, the tower is engraved with exquisite relief patterns such as "Carp yue longmen, Plum Blossom Running Deer, Shuangfeng Chaoyang, Birds and Animals". Each relief is 145cm long and 55cm high, and the whole tower base is inlaid with 23 relief patterns. Every stone statue of Heracles is fixed in the southeast corner, and Heracles' hands are tower-shaped and show a solid foundation. The building materials of the tower are all piled up with blue bricks, sugar and ash, which is very strong. Each floor of the tower has four windows above the head, which are east, south, west and north. The stairs in the tower are spiral, and there is a Buddha statue at each corner of each floor, which can reach the top of the tower step by step. The tower is magnificent, simple and solemn, and on the top floor, you can see the beautiful Gaozhou City.
At the foot of the pagoda, there is also a house where migrant workers lived when the pagoda was built. This house is called "Zhoujia Big House". It is said that when the tower was built, all the men, women and children of the Zhou family acted as migrant workers. Because the Zhou family was poor, they sold one of the boys as a Totalix, so they mobilized the government, and the government allocated funds to help the Zhou family and repair the house for it. It is said that this house is the same age as the Baoguang Pagoda, and it has become the largest residential building in the Ming Dynasty.
There are many legends about the construction of this pagoda. According to legend, when the pagoda was built, there were 100 people working, but every day until dinner time, they could always find an extra meal. Everyone wants to know why only 99 people eat when 100 people work. Isn't this with the help of "immortals"? Some people say that Pan Maoming incarnated to help build the tower, and others say that this huge and arduous tower-building project touched the gods, so the gods sent a general from heaven to help. In short, there are many folk legends about this tower in the past dynasties, which are really endless.
Since ancient times, literati and tourists have all been inspired to climb the tower, or chanted or chanted, leaving a thousand-year-old poem, the most representative of which is the poem "Climbing the Tower in Autumn" by Zhang Xiao, the magistrate of Gaozhou County in the Ming Dynasty: "Floating on the nine-level Fu River, gathering clothes for a while, with bright eyes and bright heads. Mario blows short sleeves, and the four mountains are high in autumn rain. In the morning, the sky is half bright and the clouds are low and far away. Looking back at the dusty smoke tree, it is like a bird swimming beside the cloud. " During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Chao Zhou Chaoxun, the eunuch of the dynasty, and Yang Yi, a grand teacher, met when they came home from Beijing to visit relatives in autumn. When they climbed the pagoda in full swing, Yuan Chao Zhou Chaoxun blurted out the seven-character quatrain in Autumn Pagoda: "The cool breeze blows gently, and colleagues are very happy. The city wall is beautiful, and Taishi Shenyi chases waves. " Soon, Yang Yi, a grand master, leaned over the river from the tower, thought for a while, and then recited the seven verses of Yi Yunfeng and Xiongqiu Deng Baoguang Tower: "The great river hugs my waist, and the high city looks proud. Buddhist meditation in the tower, holding hands in the yuan. " At this time, two Gaozhou court officials were singing poems and having fun on the Baoguang Pagoda, and their songs stirred up ripples in Jianjiang for a long time.
Gaozhou Baoguang Tower has experienced more than 500 years of vicissitudes and the test of wind, rain and lightning. Because this tower is built in the quicksand zone of Jianjiang rapids, floods and quicksand pose a serious threat to Baoguang Tower. Therefore, in the sixth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (AD 1859), the bottom of the tower foundation was damaged by flood, and many plants were planted to kill the water potential and protect the tower foundation forever. 1964 Gaozhou county people's government maintained the baoguang tower. 1993 Gaozhou city people's government sought the advice of archaeological experts and carried out a comprehensive overhaul, including flood dike, tower foundation expansion, tower body reinforcement, recasting tower gates, reloading lightning protection equipment and opening baoguang park. It has also become a good place for people to travel, relax and entertain.
June 1989 Guangdong Provincial People's Government announced it as a cultural relic protection unit.
20 19 10 7, Gaozhou baoguang pagoda was selected as the eighth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.