In the distant Western world, there is such a myth:
After the Great Flood, Noah took the new humans to the Promised Land, where he built a "Tower of Babel" that stretched to the sky. However, God believes that this is a blasphemy against the gods by man. Thus, God sent a punishment that made it impossible for humans to communicate with each other, and the Tower of Babel project was interrupted.
There is also a theory about this myth, that is, the gods were provoked and sent down thunder to split the "Tower of Babel" into powder.
This legendary "Babel Tower" is juxtaposed with the "Hanging Garden" and is hailed as an architectural marvel in ancient civilizations. However, according to the current stage of historical research, the existence of the "Tower of Babel" is a mystery, and there is no evidence that this building ever existed.
However, in the history of our country, there is a real "Tower of Babel":
One rainy night in 534 AD, the sky over Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei state, was overcast. Suddenly, lightning pierced the night sky, and a red light flashed in the gloomy dark clouds, and a huge fireball descended on the earth.
Subsequently, the fireball lit the "Tower of Babel" from top to bottom, and the ignited building was like a torch, reflecting the entire Luoyang City like daylight, and even people who lived a hundred miles away could see the fire in the capital.
This building, which was ignited by the "Heavenly Fire", is the Pagoda of Yongning Temple, which is known as the "Tower of China's Babel".
In different historical sources, there are differences in the descriptions of the Yongning Pagoda by historians. For example, the Luoyang Jia Lan Ji says that the height of the tower is about "100 zhang", which is converted into the current unit of length, "100 zhang" is 330 meters. The Notes on the Water Classics records that the height of the tower was forty-nine meters, or one hundred and sixty-three meters.
However, according to modern architects' investigation of the ruins of Yongning Pagoda, the height of the tower should have been one hundred and forty meters at that time. It can be seen that whether it is the Luoyang Jia Lan Ji or the Water Sutra Notes, the record of the pagoda is wrong.
Although the data presented in the literature is not true, the results of the architects' research still shocked the archaeological community. It is reported that the highest existing ancient tower building so far should be the wooden pagoda of Ying County, China, which was built a thousand years ago and its height is about sixty-seven meters. Obviously, the height of this tower is not comparable to that of Yongning Pagoda.
Unfortunately, no one has the opportunity to witness the majesty of this tower.
Today, we can only see the remains of this tower from the ruins pit, which covers an area of about 10,000 square meters and is about six meters deep. The silent ruins of Yongning Pagoda tell a story that took place during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Emperor Xuanwu of northern Wei was pleased with his son, but when his son grew to be three years old, Emperor Xuanwu was very embarrassed. At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the first emperor Tuoba Jue, in order to prevent the situation of "children and young mothers" in later generations, made a rule, that is, "establish a prince and kill the mother". That is to say, if Tuoba Jue's descendants want to become crown princes, they must kill the prince's birth mother to prevent him from chaos.
Emperor Xuanwu's beloved son Yuan Xu grew up to the age of three, and Emperor Xuanwu intended to make him the heir of Jiangshan. However, if he followed the ancestral system, he had to kill his most beloved woman, Yuan Xue's birth mother, Concubine Hu Gui. Emperor Xuanwu thought about it again and again, and suddenly thought of the situation that his birth mother was facing. When he was crowned prince, didn't his mother die tragically at the hands of his father? In order to prevent his own tragedy from repeating itself on his son, Emperor Xuanwu painfully thought about it and abolished the evil system of his ancestors.
As a result, Hu Guifei escaped a disaster.
However, the doom that awaited her had only just begun.
Three years after he was crown prince, Emperor Xuanwu died. The six-year-old Yuan Xuan naturally succeeded to the throne, and Emperor Xuanwu's empress became the empress dowager. Since ancient times, the lord of the harem can only have one person.
Empress Gao felt that if Concubine Hu gui was left alive, she would inevitably ride on her head in the future with her son's status as emperor. Therefore, Empress Gao set up many traps and lured Concubine Hu Gui to throw herself into the net.
However, Empress Gao underestimated Concubine Hu. This woman's heart was far beyond the imagination of others, and after some counter-offensive calculations, Hu Guifei actually forced Empress Gao into a desperate situation. Desperate, Empress Gao had to flee to the temple to seek refuge. However, it was not long before Empress Gao died inexplicably in the temple.
Since then, in the Northern Wei harem, only the new empress dowager Hu Shi has been dominant.
Most of the southern and northern dynastic regimes revered Buddhism, and the Northern Wei Dynasty was no exception. Perhaps several times in her life, she was in danger, and Empress Dowager Hu was extremely insecure. In order to seek peace of mind, she immediately built a large number of buildings to build the Yongning Temple.
It seems that the higher the pagoda in the temple, the more it can support Hu's sensitive nerves.
We know that since the founding of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Buddhism has been revered as the "state religion." After coming to Luoyang, the Rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty built thousands of monasteries where more than two million monks practiced.
Among the more than a thousand Zen temples in Luoyang City, Yongning Temple corresponds to the "key project" of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Under the supervision of Empress Dowager Hu, the 140-meter-high stupa was completed in only three years.
After the completion of the pagoda, every late night in the silence, the people in all directions can hear the wind chimes from the pagoda. For a time, Buddhist disciples from all over the country came to worship the Buddhist holy places in their hearts. Since then, the Yongning Pagoda has become a symbol of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and Empress Hu, who presided over the construction of this tower, has been highly respected by Buddhists.
However, after all, the stupa is only a building, and although it can bring spiritual satisfaction to Hu, it does not bring her the protection of the gods. Only one year after the completion of the pagoda, the Hu clan lost power due to the internal strife in the imperial court, and was placed under house arrest by political enemies in the deep palace, and even full warmth became a problem.
After all, it is a woman who has experienced great winds and waves, and the hu clan who has lost power still relies on conspiracy and calculation to re-establish contact with the old ministers of the DPRK. After a year of living in captivity, the Hu clan finally ushered in a chance for revenge. After a bloody coup, Hu regained his position as lord of the harem and once again became the de facto ruler of Northern Wei.
Hu's era is too far away from us, so modern people can't guess what kind of suffering Hu's heart experienced during the year of house arrest. In the case of loneliness and being toyed with by political enemies, does this woman hope for the god buddha in her heart?
Maybe, but after she begged for the hopelessness of the gods and Buddhas, presumably this woman would devote all her energy to the seizure of power. In other words, since the day they saw the light of day, the Hu clan no longer believed in gods, but concentrated on consolidating power. Therefore, in the later historical materials, we can see the absurd, arbitrary and domineering woman.
Although his son Yuan Xu was emperor, the Hu clan never considered delegating power. At this time, even her own son no longer believed it. In order to make the power in his hands greater, the Hu clan constantly supported the domestic slaves. Everything that Hu Shi did, his son Yuan Xue saw in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. How old was the Yuan Xue at that time? Nineteen is the age at which I plan to show my skills.
However, Yuan Xue had the name of the emperor and never exercised the name of the emperor. Yuan Xue, who was anxious to take power, blamed all the faults on his mother. In order to overthrow the mountain that was pressing down on his head, Yuan Xue did not hesitate to turn to the ambitionist Erzhu Rong. After receiving Yuan Xue's secret letter, Erzhu Rong immediately led a group of elite soldiers to Luoyang, and coerced the empress dowager to hand over power in the name of "Qing Jun's side".
Witnessing the rebel soldiers approaching the city, Hu Shi's face was expressionless. She sneered and ordered someone to poison Yuan Xue's meal and kill her own son. Because, she had already foreseen this day and chose the former between power and son. It didn't take long for Erzhu Rong's army to capture the city of Luoyang.
After the soldiers broke into the palace, they tied up the culprit, the Hu family, and then escorted him to the Yellow River to soak the pig cage, in order to comfort the dead emperor. However, it is false to comfort the emperor, and it is true to seize power. Erzhu Rong overthrew Empress Dowager Hu and immediately turned the butcher's knife to Manchu Wenwu. Erzhu Rong killed all the ministers who refused to submit to him, and in this bloody incident massacred more than two thousand officials in total.
The Northern Wei Dynasty, which was plagued by many disasters and difficulties, was weakened in endless infighting and gradually declined. In 534 AD, a "heavenly fire" fell from Luoyang City, and ball lightning burned the Yongning Pagoda to the ground. Perhaps, the destruction of this tower heralded the fall of the Northern Wei Dynasty. During this year, the Northern Wei regime collapsed, and the Northern Wei Dynasty withdrew from the stage of history.
So, what kind of truth does the destruction of this "Tower of Babel" explain to us?
In ancient china, the vast majority of rulers did measures to prove the legitimacy of their regimes. Especially for emperors who seized power by violent means, proving legitimacy was the focus of governance.
To this end, these rulers often expend a lot of manpower and material resources to create a "destined" face project, which is either architecture or culture. For example, the Yongning Pagoda built by the Hu clan in today's story with all the national strength, the Grand Canal dug by killing the Sui Emperor who seized power by killing the former emperor and seizing power, the empress Wu Zetian who seized power from her son to build the Kaiyuan Temple with the anointing of the people, Zhao Kuangyi, whose origin for the throne is unknown, wrote the "Taiping Imperial Dictionary", and Zhu Di, who competed with his son and nephew to usurp the national unity, presided over the "Yongle Canon".
However, what did these glamorous "face projects" bring to the rulers? Will it really make their rule legitimate? not necessarily. For the sake of the canal project, the Sui Emperor offended the common people, causing the world to be in turmoil and changing hands; the Wuzhou Emperor spent his life struggling to return the dynasty to Li Tang under pressure before his death; how Zhao Kuangyi whitewashed Taiping was difficult to change the speculation of later historians on the "sound of candle shadow axes"; the "Yongle Canon" compiled by Zhu Di was burned with the fall of the Ming Dynasty...
Sometimes, the more self-confidence you lack, the more you need to rely on some unrealistic face-saving project. However, even if the face project is made glamorous, it will not help. There have been too many rulers in history to prove that this kind of image project created by the "Tower of Babel" is nothing more than a paper tiger.
Resources:
【Luoyang Jia Lan Ji", "Notes on the Water Classics"】