White Pagoda Temple
Jiang Baobing
The ruins of the White Pagoda Temple are located in the Baita Temple Primary School in Weizhuang Village, Fangsi Town, Yucheng City. According to the historical records of Yucheng, the temple was built for Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty to repay the abbot's life-saving grace. The construction of the Jiuzhang High White Pagoda and more than 400 small pagodas named "White Pagoda Temple" has been repaired many times over the centuries. There are two stone stele reconstructed by Ming Jiajing. It was converted into a school in 1935. At present, there are no architectural traces, only two Tang locusts and two stone tablets remain, located in the White Pagoda Temple Primary School.
By chance, I went to the White Pagoda Temple Primary School with the comrades of the Education Bureau to inspect the work. Under the guidance of the school leaders, we stopped by to visit the white pagoda temple campus. They are all cultural people, and the principal's introduction is very detailed and vivid.
To the north of the White Pagoda Temple Elementary School are two north houses, separated by a hard road that leads south to the gate. There are offices, classrooms and dormitories on the west side of the road, playgrounds on the east side of the road, and two stone tablets and two ancient locust trees in the back. There are two stone tablets on the east side of the old locust ("Rebuilding the White Pagoda Temple" and "Meritorious Lord Good Man"), and there is a gantu under each stele, perhaps because of its age, one stone stele has no handwriting on it, and the other is also faint.
According to the stone inscription, the White Pagoda Temple was originally called "Ancient Fahai Zen Temple", and was renamed "White Pagoda Temple" around the time of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. In the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, the monk Cheng Cheng from Henan led his disciples to renovate the monastery once, and the monk Miao Heng (Yucheng) in the Ming Jiajing Temple took the lead in donating funds and widely absorbing funds in the society, and spent three years rebuilding the temple on the old site, the scale of the temple was larger on the original basis, and the building was more magnificent. This stele was erected in the autumn of the twenty-fifth year of Ming Jiajing when the new temple was built.
There is no historical record of the ancient locust tree is located on the east side of the hard road behind the current school, 5-6 meters high, the tree body is only a piece of hard skin on the north side, thick up to 10-15 cm, arc-shaped, arc length of more than 1 meter, according to the shape of the current tree body, it can be speculated that the diameter of the tree body can reach more than 1.5 meters, and the tree circumference is about 5 meters. It is this old bark that supports the huge canopy of about 6 meters in diameter. According to the elderly Yu Hongxiang, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the school as a big bell for going to and from class, weighed 3800 pounds, but in 1958, the bracket was destroyed during the smelting of steel, so it was hung on a branch of the ancient locust that extended southward, also supported by old bark, which could not but make people admire the creation of nature and its magical power.
Half a meter to the north of the ancient locust tree, there is also a locust tree of the same species, up to half a meter in diameter, with lush branches, and the local residents call them mother and child trees. According to the staff of the school's communication room, every spring, the sub-trees sprout a week earlier than the mother trees.
In 1943, a senior primary school was established at the White Pagoda Temple under the presidency of Duan Rensheng, the mayor of the district, becoming the earliest senior primary school within dozens of miles of the surrounding area, and the school was closed during the Liberation War. In the spring of 1950, the "White Pagoda Temple Primary School" (Shitun District Complete Elementary School) was officially established, and the first principal was Yu Hongxiang. In the autumn of 1950, because the main hall became a dangerous house, President Yu Hongxiang reported to the county cultural and educational bureau and approved the demolition of the main hall. The stone stele originally located on both sides of the temple's hard road (one is "Rebuilding the White Pagoda Temple" and the other is "Meritorious Lord and Good Man") was bulldozed and abandoned in the open space in the school courtyard during the Cultural Revolution. In 1996, led by Du Chuanli, who was then the principal of Baita Temple Primary School, and in consultation with the yuanshanji township government, the Municipal Bureau of Culture and the government of Yuanshanji Township invested 10,000 yuan to ask Qufu craftsmen to repair it, and principal Du Chuanli operated it to re-erect the stele tree in its current position.
It is said that the scale of the original White Pagoda Temple is even larger than the current school's courtyard, divided into two courtyards, east and west, the east yard is slightly smaller than the current school, the north-south length is about 80 meters, and the east-west width is 50 meters. After entering through the south gate, there is a front yard, with 3 boxes in the east and west, and a hard road paved with bricks in the middle of the courtyard leads to the main hall on the north side. The ancient locust tree is just west of the hard road, 4-5 meters from the high platform where the main hall is located (about 1.2 meters above the ground level). The main hall is called the Great Buddha Hall, which is about 20 meters long from east to west, about 8 meters wide from north to south, and more than 10 meters high, with three large rooms, and the portico is painted with carved beams and columns along the corridor. Entering the temple door, Hum Ha II will be lined up on both sides, thick eyebrows, big eyes, strange shape; in the center of the hall is the statue of Shakyamuni, more than 4 meters high, sitting peacefully on the high platform (pedestal); there are 18 arhats around the hall, with different shapes and realistic appearances. The west courtyard is adjacent to the east courtyard, connected by a gate, the location is slightly in front, the north-south length is about 40 meters, the east-west width is about 20 meters, there are 4 north houses, 5 west houses, is the monks' eating and living place.
From the Ming and Qing dynasties to the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the incense of Baita Temple has been very prosperous, dozens of monks, hundreds of acres of temple land, cars, horses and agricultural tools are readily available, and believers in a radius of dozens of miles have come here to burn incense to worship the Buddha and make wishes. Every spring temple fair is more lively, the general temple fair is arranged before the wheat harvest, the meeting period of 4-5 days, when the storytellers, singing opera gathered here, all kinds of agricultural products, livestock, utensils are listed and traded, bun shops and other service industries are also arranged in a conspicuous position. The volume of temple fairs is generally large, which has played a certain role in promoting local ethnic integration and economic development.
The vicissitudes of history and the traces of time, the temple buildings left in Yucheng city are reflected in the vibrant modern culture, showing its unique historical and cultural charm.
As the sun sets and the sun sets, the sound of students reading at the White Pagoda Temple is heard, and the legendary ancient temple of the White Pagoda Temple is full of vitality.
About the author: Jiang Baobing, Zi Jian Mei, Number Sword Mei Lou Lord, Qingfeng Hall Master. He is a member of the Chinese Essay Literature Association, a member of the Whole Committee of the Dezhou Writers Association, a member of the Dezhou Calligraphers Association, a director of the Yucheng Writers Association, and an editorial board member of Yucheng Literature.
The work "Night Reading Lu Xun" won the second prize of the national "Walking with the Republic, Good Books Grow with Me" Reading essay competition, and "Looking at Social Changes from Dietary Changes" won the first prize of the National Day Essay contest for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. "The Green Plane Tree" won the third prize for outstanding literary and artistic works in practicing the core values of socialism. "Growing Up with the Great Motherland" won the first prize of the "Lucky Color Cup, I and New China" with an award for essays. "The Ancient Road of the Yellow River" won the Excellence Award in the Prose Group in the 4th China Xiajin Yuguo Poetry (Prose) Competition.
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