In 2001, Zhejiang Television launched a special live broadcast of the whole process of excavating the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace.
Lei Gong Pagoda must be known to everyone, not only in the story of the White Snake, the pagoda that suppressed the "White Lady". It is also one of the "Ten Views of the West Lake", "Lei Feng Xizhao".
The older generation of people living by the West Lake said that today's Leifeng Pagoda is newly built, and the old Leifeng Pagoda has long collapsed. They were right that the Leifeng Pagoda had indeed collapsed a long time ago, and it was not until 1983 that the state approved its reconstruction.
But before the reconstruction, the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology used a major discovery, under the Leifeng Pagoda, there is an underground palace! And this dungeon has never been discovered before.
Rebuild the Leifeng Pagoda, there is a cave under the ruins
In 2000, the institute began to send people to excavate and clean up the ruins of Leifeng Pagoda, more than 8,000 square meters of ruins, there are a large number of wreckage, after investigation and research, the institute also came up with the shape, materials and structure of the Leifeng Tower tower body and tower base. It saves a lot of burden for the construction team.
It was during this investigation and study that they discovered that below the ventricle of leifeng tata, there was another space, the so-called underground palace.
After reporting this matter to the superiors, the superiors also attached great importance to it, and finally decided that on March 11, 2001, the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda would be officially excavated.
Before the official excavation of the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace, Zhejiang Television station was also allowed to report on the matter live. Leifeng Pagoda is well-known among the masses, and this exposure helps the public understand the importance of ancient culture and ancient cultural relics.
So, on the day of the excavation, before the staff of the archaeological team had fully arrived, the reporters waited early nearby. Seeing this battle, the staff can only respond with a bitter smile.
After all, the live broadcast excavation of the underground palace is unprecedented. During the live broadcast, every step of the staff, every cultural relic that appears in the underground palace, will be fully presented in front of the national audience.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the staff officially began to excavate the underground palace. Previously, they had already conducted a relatively complete exploration of the underground palace, so the excavation steps had been clarified. But in fact, every staff member has no bottom in his heart, the Leifeng Pagoda has been built for so many years, and it has been destroyed in the middle, maybe the underground palace has long been empty.
Despite this thought, the staff began to discover the work step by step. In the first step, they need to first remove the top stone pressed against the cover of the dungeon.
This top stone is not huge, but its weight has reached about 750 kilograms, so the weight must not be able to be moved by people, so they set up a pulley set that can weigh three tons, carry it, and when the boulder was just moved, they put a lot of steel pipes underneath to prevent the pulley group from malfunctioning.
The terrain inside the underground palace is complex, and the top stone cannot be completely removed, so it can only be set aside first. And this work can only be done by hand. The young team members jumped into the top of the dungeon and prepared to pry the stone open with a steel pipe, but they failed to notice that one of the pulleys in the pulley group had a problem!
With a loud noise, one of the pulleys suddenly separated, and the chain instantly straightened or slid down, and before everyone could react, the top stone smashed down!
Fortunately, the steel pipe that was previously cushioned below played a key role. The top stone rested firmly on the steel pipe and did not hit the artifact below. And the young player, who was only frightened, was not injured.
The pulleys were quickly repaired and several experienced players replaced the younger ones. As the boulder slowly moved, everyone's heart went to the throat eye, although the boulder just now did not smash into the dungeon, but the vibration caused would cause damage to some of the more fragile cultural relics? The team members were extremely excited, they wanted to know what was under the boulder, but they were afraid to see that the cultural relics inside had been damaged due to the negligence just now.
In such a complicated mood, the top stone was finally moved to the side, and a rusty iron letter was in the middle of the underground palace. Next to the iron letter, there is also a Buddha statue.
Found the relic, there is also a tower in the iron letter
In addition to the iron letter and the Buddha statue, there are also a large number of copper coins pressed under the iron letter, and among the copper coins, there are also jade coins, agate, bronze mirrors and other items.
Seeing these items, a guess popped into everyone's mind. Could it be that under this Leifeng Tower, there really lives the White Lady? Otherwise, how can these jewelry be explained?
Maybe there really is a white snake in the iron letter?
In fact, these jade and bronze mirrors and other ornaments are the "Seven Treasures" in Buddhism that offer relics, that is, there is no white snake in the iron letter, but it is likely that they are relics or other things.
The staff first took out the Buddha statue and carefully placed it in a wooden box covered with soft cloth. Buddha statues are made of metal, the workmanship is extremely exquisite, the shape is also very exquisite, everyone who receives the Buddha statue, is afraid of one careless, the Buddha statue will be damaged.
In addition to this Buddha statue, the most eye-catching thing is the huge iron letter. Due to the serious corrosion on the surface of the iron letter, if the iron letter is moved at will, it is likely to cause damage to the cultural relics in the iron letter. Therefore, the staff had to tear down a wall to expand the scope of work, so that the iron letter could be excavated intact.
Fortunately, these efforts were not in vain, and after about 9 hours of busyness, the archaeologists dragged the bottom of the iron letter with a wooden board, and then fixed the iron letter with a rope, and finally moved it out of the underground palace.
As soon as they left the underground palace, the staff sent the iron letter to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum warehouse for strict storage.
It was not until 4 days later that the iron letter appeared in front of everyone again, only at this time the iron letter had been opened, and inside was a golden tu pagoda that had been cleaned up by the staff, and although the golden tu pagoda was carved by time, it still shone with golden light.
While the crowd marveled at the delicacy of this tower, they also had doubts in their hearts.
Why is there a small tower in the underground palace of Leifeng Tower? Could it be that this tower is the tower that suppresses the White Lady?
Unfortunately, the truth has disappointed everyone again.
Many Buddhist stupas will be like Leifeng Pagoda, there is an underground palace at the bottom of the tower, there is an iron letter in the underground palace, and there is such a small tower in the iron letter, and the small tower is placed in the relic.
That is to say, the "White Lady" that the public is most concerned about is actually a poignant love story made up, and there is nothing about the White Lady in the Leifeng Tower.
The people's beautiful expectations for the "White Lady" have been ruthlessly shattered by reality, but another story in the Leifeng Tower has fascinated all historians.
In the past of Leifeng Pagoda, the northern Song Dynasty has been destroyed 3 times since its establishment
According to historical records, Leifeng Pagoda was built in 977 AD, that is, during the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, King Qian Li of Wuyue died of a difficult childbirth and built this stupa to commemorate this favored concubine and pray for the safety of the country.
Therefore, Leifeng Pagoda is also known as "Imperial Princess Pagoda", and many ordinary people call it "Xiguan Brick Pagoda", but only the name "Leifeng Pagoda" is remembered by most people and has been passed down to this day.
In addition, according to the inscription of the "Huayan Jingbao" excavated from Leifeng Pagoda in the early years, this golden tu pagoda hidden in the iron letter contains the "Buddha's Spiral Bun Hair", which is the so-called "Buddha's Hair Relic".
The inscription also specifies the name of this small pagoda - Ashoka Pagoda.
King Qian Li of Wuyue was extremely devout to Buddhism, so experts believe that what qian Li wrote on his inscription is most likely true. But out of respect for religious beliefs, experts do not open the Ashoka Pagoda for verification, and this matter has become a mystery.
But the historical reference information provided by Ashoka Pagoda, the bronze dragon Buddha statue of the gilded lotus seat and other cultural relics also fills the gap in the mainland's research on that period of history to a certain extent.
These cultural relics are extremely precious and hard-won, and it is also an unexpected surprise for the Chinese archaeological community.
From the Northern Song Dynasty to the present, Lei Feng Pagoda has been damaged three times for various reasons, but it is a surprise that so many cultural relics can be left behind today.
In the second year of the Northern Song Dynasty, Fang La, a Native of Qingxi in Muzhou, led an uprising on the grounds of revenge against Zhu Xun, and captured dozens of prefectures and counties in just a few months. During the war, many buildings were destroyed, and the Leifeng Pagoda was also destroyed by fire.
In the seventh year of the Southern Song Dynasty, Buddhist Zhiyou Master funded the reconstruction of leifeng pagoda, and the original seven-story Leifeng Pagoda was only five floors left. In order to strengthen, another wooden cornice was added to the perimeter of Leifeng Pagoda.
During the Jiaqing period of the Ming Dynasty, the war revolted, and the wooden eaves of the Leifeng Pagoda were destroyed, leaving only the brick tower core inside. These disasters have caused a lot of damage to leifeng pagoda, but the real fatal thing is because of a story from the Republic of China period.
The story goes that there was a village dedicated to raising silkworms and weaving silk for a living, but due to the disaster, the quality of silk was extremely poor, and the life in the village was also very poor. One day, a villager accidentally saved a monk on a waterway, and in return, the monk gave the villager a brick and told him that this was the brick of Leifeng Pagoda and was a treasure.
When the villagers saw the monk say this, they put the brick in the house, and since then, the quality of their silk has soared and their lives have gradually become richer. Other villagers went to ask for experience, he said that he had obtained the sutra bricks from a master, and once he passed them on to ten or ten hundred, his sutra bricks were passed on as gold bricks, which caused many people to go to Leifeng Pagoda to "ask for bricks".
As a result, this story is somehow rumored to be the bricks of leifeng pagoda that can drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters. At that time, it was a period of civil unrest, and ordinary people lived in fear all day long, scrambling to go to Leifeng Pagoda to pry bricks.
At the beginning, it was nothing to take away one or two bricks, but over time, a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand bricks were taken away by the superstitious people, and the Leifeng Pagoda could not hold on, and the Republic of China completely collapsed for twenty-four years.
Strange to say, the people watched the Leifeng Pagoda collapse, so they did not take the bricks. It was as if the fallen Leifeng Pagoda was no longer the Leifeng Pagoda.
At that time, many literati and inkers began to write articles criticizing this matter, and even Mr. Lu Xun specially wrote "On the Fall of Leifeng Pagoda", which attacked this matter and the old society at that time.
Archaeological work is difficult, and the people have inadvertently destroyed it into a boulder
Seeing that the Leifeng Pagoda was destroyed and collapsed during the Republic of China period, I believe that everyone is very sorry in their hearts. If the Leifeng Pagoda had not been destroyed, we would have learned more about the events of the dynasty at that time, and even through the murals or inscriptions in the tower, we can know whether the "White Lady" existed or not.
According to the speculation of experts and the records of the literature, the story of the "White Snake Legend" in the water flooding Jinshan Temple is likely to come from the Luoyang Giant Snake Incident that occurred during the Tianbao years, and if there is still a Leifeng Pagoda, we may be able to see the truth of the "White Snake Legend".
But unfortunately, due to the superstition and ignorance of the people at that time, there was also the fainting and inaction of the Republic of China government. We can no longer know what was depicted in the Leifeng Tower at that time.
And now in the 21st century, tragedies like Leifeng Pagoda are still happening in our lives.
The Yuci Municipal Government built the Maoerling Highway to find ancient tombs, and without reporting them, they directly started construction with large machinery, damaging 235 ancient tombs.
Linfen City's former Minkang Pharmaceutical Factory built an employee apartment, which damaged the ancient city wall of Linfen for more than 100 meters. A villager in Tianzhen County, Datong City, dug iron ore privately, and countless han Dynasty tombs were destroyed.
The construction of the Danjiangkou Reservoir led to the complete submergation of the ancient Danyang City and the ancient city of Junzhou in the Chu State during the Warring States period, and the historical value of the ancient buildings, ancient city walls, and ancient city gates in those ancient cities was immeasurable.
There are countless such cases in China, some of which are a last resort, but some of which are entirely for profit and convenience.
Domestic cultural relics protection projects have always been in a very embarrassing position.
The country is developing rapidly, and all kinds of infrastructure must keep up with the pace of development. Factories, office buildings, residential areas, transportation hubs, these things are indispensable, each of which affects the development of the domestic economy.
But it is precisely because of the rapid development that China's cultural relics protection has fallen into a very passive realm. The work of protecting cultural relics is difficult, the requirements for employing people are strict, and there are very few talents who meet the standards. Therefore, the Cultural Relics Bureau can only say which construction site has dug up the ancient tomb, go to which construction site to explore, even so, the cultural relics protection department is always facing a shortage of manpower.
Later, the state strictly required the protection of cultural relics and set severe penalties for the destruction of cultural relics. This has played a key role in protecting cultural relics, but it has also made it extremely difficult to build infrastructure in some cities.
The most famous of these are Luoyang and Xi'an, and there is a very interesting story in Xi'an's infrastructure circle. It is said that a tunnel digging construction team found a very spectacular ancient tomb, hurriedly reported to the relevant units, the relevant units sent people to see, let the construction site stop work, but stopped for more than 3 months, or no one excavated or studied the tomb.
The person in charge of the construction site can't sit still, he stopped working for a day, the construction cost will be larger, after calling the relevant unit to explain the situation, the relevant unit also helplessly said: "The princess tomb excavated by the subway construction is lined up, your wangye tomb and so on." ”
Maybe we see these stories and just laugh them off, but they are a true portrayal of a city with a long history. The strict protection of cultural relics is also invisible, affecting people's normal life.
However, with the development of science and technology and the emergence of high-end talents, I believe that this embarrassment of crying and laughing can also be solved. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has been a nation that is not afraid of difficulties and does not accept defeat, and no matter how difficult it is, we will face it and overcome it.
Nowadays, the protection of cultural relics has been deeply engraved into our hearts, and many ancient magnificent landscapes have opened their arms to people. I hope that when you marvel at the wisdom of the ancients and the grandeur of Chinese culture, you will not destroy the ancient cultural relics or landscapes on display. Too many people, too many to pay.