At about 1:40 p.m. on September 25, 1924, Sun Chuanfang, the leader of the warlords directly in charge of the five southeastern provinces, held a grand inauguration ceremony in Gushan to prepare to become the commander-in-chief of the five provincial coalition forces.
Just as a large number of tourists and boatmen crowded around the cross-Hongqiao area of the Su Causeway to watch the grand scene of Sun Chuanfang's assumption of office, there was a sudden boom, and a large yellow smoke rose from the direction of Xizhao Mountain on the south bank of West Lake.
Someone shouted in the chaos: Leifeng Pagoda has fallen! The white lady is out!
So, everyone hurriedly took a boat through West Lake to see what happened.
In this way, the inauguration ceremony of the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces of the five provinces was completely disrupted.
In the hearts of Hangzhou people, this tower is very important. The fall of the tower is not a good sign. But here lives the white snake Niangniang, the tower falls, Niangniang has no place to live, if you want to come out, then you have to go?
Soon, the common people began to rush in the direction of Leifeng Pagoda.
And the fact is that there is no white lady inside, only holes are found in the bricks, and the holes contain scriptures.
For a time, as soon as it spread ten, ten and hundred, the news that there was a treasure buried under the Leifeng Pagoda spread.
The scriptures under the Leifeng Pagoda
In Hangzhou dialect, there is no distinction between "jing" and "gold", so they think that there is gold hidden under the Leifeng Pagoda, "the tower has fallen, and the mountains are full of jing (gold).
So brick knockers followed, and the surviving base of the tower was turned over in a short time.
The surviving base of the tower
People all over the world looking for gold only found moldy scriptures, and some fingers turned into dust chips with a sipping of their fingers.
Among the people in the mountains, there are always people who see the goods.
Some people recognize that this is the authentic woodblock print of the fifth dynasty and the early Song Dynasty that was put in when the tower was built. In the Ming Dynasty, the inscriptions of the Song Dynasty were already regarded as treasures, not to mention the things of the fifth dynasty of the late Tang Dynasty.
In terms of value, gold is like dust before this scripture.
The scroll of the "All Rulai Heart Secret Body Relic Treasure Treasure Indra Scripture" printed by King Qian Hongli Shi of Wuyue, which is printed on Sichuan cotton paper or bamboo paper, is an extremely precious cultural relic of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
As soon as the news was publicized by the newspapers, the situation was even more amazing, and more people gathered and rushed to search for it.
It is almost impossible to find a complete scroll, even a broken one.
Thankfully, they didn't find the legendary underground palace.
Seventy-seven years later, on February 15, 2001, the archaeological team excavating the site of Leifeng Pagoda announced the discovery of the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda.
When the archaeologists struggled to remove the 1,500-kilogram stone, the first thing they saw was a large number of Kaiyuan Tongbao coins on the stone cover.
When the stone slab moved away to reveal the entrance of the underground palace, a copper mirror appeared in front of everyone.
A copper mirror unearthed from the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda
The copper mirror has a polished front and inscriptions and patterns on the back. The inscription with the words "Copper Fang of the Capital Province" and the words "Craftsman Ni Cheng" are typical of the official system.
Under the copper mirror is an iron letter, inside is the sterling silver Ashoka Pagoda containing the relic of the "Buddha Screw Hair" in a gold coffin.
In fact, a sterling silver Ashoka Pagoda was also found in the Leifeng Pagoda Heavenly Palace.
The shape, decoration and texture of the two silver Ashoka Pagodas are the same, the only difference is that the gold vessel unearthed in the underground palace, the "golden coffin", contains the "Buddha Screw Hair" relic (legend has it that it is a spiral strand of hair on the head of Shakyamuni).
Sterling silver Ashoka Tower
The one unearthed in Tiangong hangs a 4-centimeter-tall gourd-shaped gold vase containing relics.
Back then, Qian Li was a devout Buddhist who read a lot of Buddhist books and reached the state of never leaving the Buddhist books.
After receiving the relic of the Buddha, he felt that he was too precious to hide it in the palace, so he decided to build a stupa in Leifeng Mountain in Hangzhou to house the Buddha's hair (it is also said that Qian Hongli, the king of Wuyue, built it to celebrate the birth of the favored concubine Huang).
Qian Li
At the beginning, Qian Li wanted to build the Leifeng Pagoda into a thousand-foot thirteen-story pagoda, and he hoped that the pagoda would be an unprecedented masterpiece, so it would far exceed the previous pagoda in scale and height. Later, during the construction process, I calculated the money and found that it was not enough, so I was forced to change it to seven floors.
You can read the Southern Song Dynasty painter Li Song's "West Lake Map" to find that the Leifeng Pagoda has only five floors, what is the reason?
Because if you build to the fifth floor, you will have no money.
The rich prince of Jiangnan actually didn't even have enough money to build a tower, where did the money go?
Naturally, it was given to Zhao Kuangyin, and the constant supply could ensure the safety of one party.
Old photo of Leifeng Pagoda
Although the project budget is not enough, judging from the other cultural relics unearthed in the tower, Qian Li still bothered to this tower.
Because in addition to the two silver Ashoka towers, a large number of important cultural relics have been unearthed in the underground palace, such as:
A gilded bronze statue of Shakyamuni ↓
Statue of the boy of Yuzencai ↓
"Long live the autumn" gilded silver box parrot ↓
Tattooed gilt silver belt ↓
"Long live the autumn" inscribed gilt silver pad ↓
Jade "Kaiyuan Tongbao" money ↓
Seated statue of Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva ↓
It's a pity that the tower has just been built, and the small imperial court of Wu Yue Kingdom, a corner of the southeast of An, has died, and Qian Li has become the last king of Wu Yue Kingdom.