Leifeng Pagoda, formerly known as the Imperial Concubine Pagoda, is also known as the Xiguan Brick Pagoda, which the ancients more called the "Yellow Concubine Pagoda". It is a stupa built by King Qian Of Wuyue in the second year of the Taiping Revival of the Northern Song Dynasty (977) in order to pray for the safety of the country and the people, on xizhao mountain on the south bank of the West Lake.
The Wuyue king Qian Li was very fond of Buddhism, and read a large number of Buddhist books, reaching the state of not leaving the Buddhist books. He also invited the high monk Dao to infiltrate the palace and take bodhisattva ordination for him. Such a devout Buddhist naturally wants to build a tower. Under the guidance of gaoren, a thirteen-story tower was built on the south bank of the West Lake. Later, in the process of construction, the money was not enough, so it was changed to seven floors. But when it was finally completed, it was only five floors.
The rich Jiangnan did not have enough money to build a tower, where did the money go? The money was naturally given to Zhao Kuangyin, and the non-stop supply party could ensure the safety of one party. Unfortunately, the tower had just been built, and the small imperial court of Wu Yueguo, which was in the southeast corner of An'an, had perished, and Qian Li became the last king of Wu Yueguo.
Qian Li built the Leifeng Pagoda
The same is the last king, Boss Qian is much kinder than the Southern Tang Dynasty Lord Li Boss, according to records, in the year of the great drought in the territory, some parents used to sell their children to maintain their livelihood (but also hope that the children will have stuttering in other people's homes), And Boss Qian knew that after using the money of the imperial court to redeem the children and return them to their parents, and opened warehouses to release grain to alleviate the disaster. It is said that after the surrender, Qian Li and Li Yu's fate was the same, they were both given a cup of poisoned wine, but they lived a lifetime.
It is worth mentioning that his grandfather once wrote a poem, which has a particularly famous sentence: Strange flowers bloom, but can slowly return.
If you are about the same age as me, you must remember that when you were in school, you learned an article by Lu Xun called "On the Fall of Leifeng Pagoda", and when I read this text, I was thinking, didn't you find a treasure under leifeng pagoda? On September 25, 1924, the twenty-seventh day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Leifeng Pagoda fell for hundreds of years.
In the hearts of Hangzhou people, this tower is very important. The tower fell, not a good sign. But there is a white snake Lady living here, and when the tower falls, the Lady has no place to live and wants to come out. That's fine.
There is a saying in Hangzhou: "The tower falls to the lake and the white snake is born." "Although the Leifeng Pagoda is crooked and oblique, it is still not falling. The people of Hangzhou feel that it will always stand like this, for the people to suppress those who do not want to see. Leifeng Pagoda had many ill-fated fates, and there were many repairs during the Song Dynasty, and during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the shameless Wukou burned the Leifeng Pagoda to the core of the masonry structure. Jiangnan is not bad money, and after hundreds of years, it has never been repaired, and the Leifeng Pagoda, which is bald and large, stands stubbornly on Xizhao Mountain.
Soon, the people began to rush in the direction of Leifeng Pagoda. It was found that there were holes in the bricks, and the holes contained scriptures. Ten or ten hundred spread. In the Hangzhou dialect, "jing" and "gold" are not distinguished, so they think that there is gold hidden under the Leifeng Pagoda, the tower has fallen, and the mountains are full of gold, so the brick knockers and gold seekers have come one after another, and the remaining tower base has not been overturned for a long time.
The people who searched the world for gold found only moldy scriptures. Some fingers turn into dust at a swipe. The monks of Jingci Monastery and the taoist monks in the vicinity saw that the pagoda was scattered all over the mountain, and most of them were unseen people, believing that it was a great sin, so they also joined the picking team and incinerated the many books they had picked up.
The picture shows the Wuyue King Qian Hongli Shiyin's "All Rulai Heart Secret Whole Body Relic Treasure Indrani Sutra", which is printed with Sichuan cotton paper or bamboo paper, which is an extremely precious cultural relic of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
Among the people in the mountains, there are always people who know the goods. Some people know that this is the original copy of the five generations and the early Song dynasty woodblock prints that were put in when the tower was built, and during the Ming Dynasty, the engravings of the Song Dynasty have been enshrined as treasures, not to mention the five generations of the late Tang Dynasty. In terms of value, gold is almost like dust in front of this scroll. As soon as the news was publicized in the newspapers, the situation was even more unbearable, and more people gathered and rushed to search for it. It is almost impossible to find a complete scroll, not even a broken one.
Fortunately, they did not discover the legendary underground palace until seventy-seven years later, on February 15, 2001, the archaeological team excavating the Ruins of Leifeng Pagoda announced the discovery of the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace.
At 9:00 a.m. on March 11, 2001, the archaeological excavation of the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace officially began. Leifeng Pagoda's cavernous underground palace is very small, located 2.6 meters below the center of the tower, and the mouth of the underground palace is covered with a square stone slab and suppressed with boulders, making it seem as if there is really something psychic in it (legend has it that there is still power). Especially when the boulder was lifted by a crane, the steel noose actually broke, frightening the archaeologists and reporters present with a sweat.
It was difficult to remove the 1500-pound large stone, and the stone cover plate extracted a large number of Kaiyuan Tongbao coins. When the stone slabs were removed and the mouth of the dungeon was revealed, the air was almost frozen.
The first to be unearthed is a fine bronze mirror with polished fronts and inscriptions and patterns on the back. In the middle of the middle is a "official", and the inscription has the words "Tongfang of Du Province" and the words "Craftsman Ni Cheng". Typical official system. And the paper has long since vanished. The excavations of the entire underground palace lasted eighteen hours and did not end until 3 a.m. the next day. The big iron letter was transported to the warehouse of the Zhejiang Museum for cleaning. After opening the iron letter, let's see what the last Wuyue king put in it?
Silver gilt Ashoka Pagoda
Respectively, one was found in the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace and the Heavenly Palace, when excavated, the Ashoka Pagoda of the Underground Palace was intact as if it were newly built, and the Ashoka Tower of the Heavenly Palace was squeezed when the Leifeng Pagoda collapsed, and it has been seriously deformed, and the "relics golden bottle" in the tower has also been flattened, fortunately, the basic components are not missing, and then carefully repaired and restored.
Archaeologists have confirmed that the shape, decoration and texture of the two silver Ashoka pagodas of the Heavenly Palace and the Underground Palace are the same, with a height of 36 centimeters, and are composed of four parts: the base, the tower body, the mountain flower banana leaf, and the tower brake. The pagoda is square, and the four sides are engraved with the story of the Buddha's birth and good deeds, each with a golden-winged bird in each corner; the mountain flower banana leaves in the four corners of the tower body are engraved on the front to reflect the story picture of the Buddha's life deeds. The craftsmanship is extremely exquisite, worthy of the royal family.
The difference between the two pagodas is that the Ashoka Pagoda excavated from the underground palace has a gold container, that is, a "golden coffin", which stores the relics of the "Buddha's Snail Hair" enshrined by Qian Li in that year; the Ashoka Pagoda in the Heavenly Palace hangs a 4 cm high gourd-shaped gold vase containing relics.
Gilded bronze statue of Shakyamuni Shakyamuni
Pass height 68 cm. The Buddha statue has a high bun, conch hair, slender eyebrows, two earlobes and shoulders, and three silkworm stripes on the neck. He wears a double-collared robe with a lotus pedestal draped over the hem, a monk's branch inside, and a knotted band on the chest. Stroke your knees with your left hand, apply the seal with your right hand, and sit on the lotus platform. Under the lotus seat there are dragon pillars and double-layered Sumire seats and square beds. The coiled dragon goes up the pillar and holds up the lotus pedestal, which is embedded in the sumeri pedestal. Two flame-type doors are opened on each side of each floor of the Sumire Seat. The front and sides of the square bed also open the door. The hollow flame pattern is large backlight, and the backlight is rounded.
This statue, with a solemn appearance, has a very prosperous Tang style, the dragon pillar is full of tension and majesty, the shape is an isolated example in the sea, a fine product of the late Tang Dynasty royal Buddha statue, and a national first-class cultural relic.
Statue of the Jade Virtuous Boy
It is 8.6 cm high and inserted vertically on a square base with the theme of "Nine Mountains and Eight Seas". Carved from green and white jade, the whole is a flaky circular carving, the part is hollowed out, and the details are outlined by the yin line. The boy has a big nose and a small mouth, ringed ears, wearing a wide-sleeved wide coat, wrists carved with arm gold, belts around the waist, hands supporting the waist, standing on top of the floating Ruyi cloud, the form is vivid and natural, and it is a national first-class cultural relic.
"Long live the thousand autumns" gilt gold and silver box
Height 13.7, caliber 20.7, weight 823 grams. It is made of box lid and box body buckle, the whole body of the instrument is gilded, the outer wall of the two sides is ringed, the lid is dominated by a pair of phoenix flying with grass, and the surrounding is engraved with fine tangled peony flowers, and the four characters of "Long Live thousand autumns" are distributed equidistantly on all four sides. The silver box skillfully blends the phoenix of the "King of The Birds" with the peony of the "King of The Hundred Flowers", and is surrounded by the auspicious phrase "Long Live the Thousand Autumns", which is a symbol of prosperity and happiness.
Parrot-print gilt gold and silver belt
It is 68 cm long and weighs 475 g. A set of thirteen pieces, orderly arranged at the time of excavation, is decorated on the front of the hammer with one or two parrots flying out of their wings, patterned with pearls, and three to five silver nails welded on the back, embedded in leather. The buckle consists of a movable clasp, a buckle needle, and two pieces of buckle fixed with silver nails at one end, and the reverse side of the buckle is lightly engraved with the fifteen characters "Disciple Chen Chengyu Jingshe should be brought into the pagoda". The dedication of the Buddha with a belt shows the devotion of the giver Chen Chengyu.
"Long live a thousand autumns" inscribed gilt gold and silver pads
Diameter 25.4, thickness 0.05 cm, weight 98.5 g. Round, hollow flake-like, in the middle of which is engraved a "Long Live a Thousand Autumns" inscription circular square hole coin, divided into two circles inside and outside with a beaded pattern, the outer ring is decorated with six wild geese flying with wings outstretched, and the surrounding area is covered with honeysuckle patterns wrapped around the branches; the inner circle is decorated with two pairs of Mandarin ducks who are looking forward to affection, and the pond lotus is engraved around it. The pattern layout is orderly, showing a bird-singing, peaceful and warm atmosphere.
Jade "Kaiyuan Tongbao" money
Seated statue of Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva
"Treasure of Mercy" copper coin
The leifeng pagoda site underground palace was excavated, with a diameter of 1.8 cm. It was cast in the first year (859) of Emperor Zhenguan of Japan. This is the smallest individual unearthed from the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace, and it is a rare foreign coin. The history books record that the king of Wuyue sent emissaries to Japan several times, and there were many exchanges between the two countries, and this small copper coin is a physical example of the frequent exchanges between Wuyue and Japan.
In addition, a large number of other precious cultural relics have been unearthed in the underground palace and iron letter of Leifeng Pagoda.
On October 25, 2002, the new Leifeng Pagoda was completed.
On November 1, 2002, the Leifeng Pagoda, which was rebuilt on the original site, was officially opened to the public. The propaganda slogan said: "A historical regret, a seventy-eight-year-old fault line, a fragmentation of ten views of the West Lake, finally came to an end on this day." ”