China's Four Famous Towers
Yellow Crane Tower
The Yellow Crane Tower, known as one of the three famous towers in the south of the Yangtze River, was originally located in the Yellow Crane Tower at Snake Mountain in Wuchang, Hubei Province. , it is said that it was built in the second year of Wu Huangwu in the Three Kingdoms (AD 223). In the long history of history, the Yellow Crane Tower has gone through vicissitudes of life, destroyed and rebuilt many times, and it can be verified more than 30 times. The last time the Yellow Crane Tower was destroyed was in August of the 10th year of Guangxu's reign in the late Qing Dynasty (AD 1884). A fire broke out in a residential house in Dongjiapo outside Hanyang Gate. The strong wind and fire affected the tower and soon reduced this ancient and famous tower to ashes. There are thousands of kilograms of treasures and a copper-covered tripod.
The issue of rebuilding the Yellow Crane Tower was raised as early as the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China when it was decided to build the Yangtze River Bridge. After decades of repeated research and preparation, the Yellow Crane Tower reconstruction project finally broke ground in July 1981 and was completed at the end of 1984. It was exactly 100 years since the last Yellow Crane Tower was destroyed. It is located on the western slope of Gaoguan Mountain at the western end of Shanxi, opposite the Simenkou District of Wuchang Old Town, and is located in the triangular area between the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and the branch approach bridge that crosses the Yangtze River Bridge. The new building has 5 floors, 51.4 meters high, and an antique reinforced concrete structure. Although it is further away from the river than the former site of the Yellow Crane Tower, the view of the Yellow Crane Tower is unprecedented and unparalleled due to the tall mountains, majestic momentum and wide field of vision.
The famous building has many legends, which makes it more magical. According to the record "Ji En Lu", the Yellow Crane Tower was originally a hotel opened by the Xin family. In order to thank her for her kindness, a Taoist priest drew a crane on the wall before leaving and told it to come down and dance to cheer her up. From then on, the house was filled with guests and business was booming. After 10 years, the Taoist priest came back and played the flute. The Taoist priest climbed on the yellow crane and went straight to the sky. In order to commemorate the immortal man who helped her get rich, Mrs. Xin built a tower on the site and named it "Yellow Crane Tower". One of them said that there was a man named Fei Wei who became an immortal through cultivation in Yellow Crane Mountain and then ascended to heaven on a yellow crane. Later, in memory of Fei Wei, people built a Yellow Crane Tower on Yellow Crane Mountain. The above are of course myths and legends. During the Three Kingdoms period, the building on the top of the mountain near the river was firstly based on military needs, but later it gradually became a tourist attraction where people gathered for entertaining, meeting friends, reciting poems and admiring the scenery. Celebrities in the past dynasties such as Cui Hao, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, Jia Dao, Xia Song, Lu You, etc. have visited here successively, recited poems and composed poems. Cui Hao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, climbed up to the Yellow Crane Tower to enjoy the scenery and wrote a masterpiece that has been passed down through the ages: "In the past, people have gone on the Yellow Crane, and the Yellow Crane Tower is empty here. Once the Yellow Crane is gone, it will never return. The white clouds have been empty for thousands of years, and the sky is clear." The Hanyang trees in the Sichuan calendar, the fragrant grass luxuriantly growing on the Parrot Island, where are the hometown gates at dusk, and the Yanbo River makes people sad. "Later, Li Bai also climbed up to the Yellow Crane Tower, looked at the Chutian, and had a broad mind. He was inspired by poetry and was about to write. When I was writing poems, I saw Cui Hao's poems. I felt ashamed and had to say: "There is a view in front of me, but Cui Hao wrote a poem above." Cui Hao wrote the poem, and Li Bai wrote the poem. From then on, he became famous.
When the Wuchang Approach Bridge of the Yangtze River Bridge was built in 1957, the old site of the Yellow Crane Tower was occupied. Today, the rebuilt Yellow Crane Tower is on the Sheshan Mountain Ridge about 1 kilometer away from the old site. The ancient Yellow Crane Tower "has three floors, with a total height of 9 feet and 2 feet, plus a copper roof of 7 feet, making it ninety-nine." The new building is much more majestic, with a 5-meter-high gourd-shaped top. , the building has five floors and is 50.4 meters high, nearly 20 meters higher than the ancient building. With its spires and overhanging eaves, it looks like one in all directions. There are also Shengxiang Pagoda, stele gallery, mountain gate and other buildings around the main building. The entire building has a unique national style. The ground floor of the old building is "15 meters wide each", while the ground floor of the new building is 30 meters wide. Therefore, the Yellow Crane Tower is not restored but rebuilt. It retains some features of the ancient building, but is more designed based on current needs and changes in people's aesthetic views. The new Yellow Crane Tower is more spectacular than the old one. This is because the Yangtze River Bridge, which spans the river, is right in front of it, and across the river is the 24-story Qingchuan Hotel. This group of buildings complement each other and add brilliance to the river city of Wuhan
The interior of the Yellow Crane Tower has different styles. The ground floor is a tall and spacious hall with a caisson in the middle that is more than 10 meters high. On the front wall is a huge ceramic mural of "White Clouds and Yellow Cranes", and 7-meter-long couplets are hung on the columns on both sides:
The refreshing air comes from the west, and the clouds and mist sweep away the heaven and earth;
The river goes east, and the waves wash away the worries of the past and present.
The architectural feature of the Yellow Crane Tower is that the roofs of various levels are staggered and overlapping, and the corners are raised in the air, as if they are like crane wings spreading their wings. The interior and exterior of the floor are painted with cranes as the main body and cloud patterns, flowers, dragons and phoenixes as background patterns. The front wall of the first floor hall is a huge ceramic mural with the theme of "White Clouds and Yellow Cranes". The surrounding space displays important documents about the Yellow Crane Tower from past dynasties, landscape prints of famous poems, and reproductions of Yellow Crane Tower paintings from past dynasties. On the front wall of the hall on the second floor, there is a marble copy of "The Story of the Yellow Crane Tower" written by Yan Boyin of the Tang Dynasty, which describes the rise and fall of the Yellow Crane Tower and anecdotes of famous people. There are two murals on both sides of the building record. One is "Sun Quan Building the City", which vividly illustrates the history of the Yellow Crane Tower and the construction of Wuchang City; the other is "Zhou Yu hosted a banquet", reflecting the visit of celebrities from the Three Kingdoms to the Yellow Crane Tower. activities. The murals in the hall on the third floor are "embroidered portraits" of celebrities from the Tang and Song Dynasties, such as Cui Hao, Li Bai, Bai Juyi, etc. They also excerpted their famous quotes about the Yellow Crane Tower. The lobby on the fourth floor is divided into several small halls with screens, with built-in calligraphy and paintings of contemporary celebrities for visitors to appreciate and purchase. The top hall has long scrolls and murals such as "Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangtze River". Walking out of the outer corridor of the fifth-floor hall, you can look around and have a wide field of vision. It is nearly 90 meters above the river. The scenery on both sides of the river is vivid and refreshing. The Snake Mountain area where the Yellow Crane Tower is located has been turned into Yellow Crane Tower Park. Many flowers, plants and trees were planted, as well as some archways, pavilions, pavilions, corridors and other buildings. There is a poetry stele gallery, which houses many stones engraved with the works of famous poets from past dynasties. The ancient scenic spots in the Snake Mountain area will be restored one after another. The Yellow Crane Tower will become a symbol of Wuhan, a central city located in the heart of my country.
Tengwang Pavilion
Tengwang Pavilion stands majestically on the bank of Ganjiang River. It is a famous pavilion with a reputation throughout the ages and is well-known at home and abroad. It is known as the "No. 1 Tower in Xijiang" say.
Tengwang Pavilion is named after the Tengwang Li Yuanying who first built it. Li Yuanying, the 22nd son of Tang Emperor Li Yuan and the younger brother of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, was named King Teng in June of the 13th year of Zhenguan (639), and later moved to Hongzhou (Nanchang) as the governor. In Nanchang he made no other achievements. Only in the fourth year of Yonghui of the Tang Dynasty (653), a tower was built on the bank of the Gan River in the west of the city as a separate residence. This tower was the "Tengwang Pavilion".
"The setting clouds and solitary swans fly together, the autumn water lasts for a long time and the sky is the same color" is a sentence in the "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" written by Wang Bo, a poet of the early Tang Dynasty, in the second year of the Yuan Dynasty (675), Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. For thousands of years, the name of the pavilion has been passed down by order, and the pavilion has been famous for its order, which has added a lot of popularity to Nanchang.
It has been 1,300 years since Tengwang Pavilion was founded in the early Tang Dynasty. In this long history, it has been abandoned and built up to 28 times. The foundation for the 29th construction was laid in 1983 and completed in 1989 on the Double Ninth Festival. Festival.
The rebuilt Tengwang Pavilion is located at the confluence of the old roads of Ganjiang River and Fuhe River, covering an area of ??4.3 hectares. Backing the city and facing the river, it is close to Nanpu, facing the West Mountain, and has a broad view. It is only more than 100 meters away from the Tang Dynasty pavilion site, and it still retains the artistic conception in Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng". This reconstruction adopts the style of the Song Dynasty, highlighting the magnificent and unique momentum of the city facing the river. The pavilion is 57.5 meters high, with three bright and seven dark floors, plus two floors of base and one to nine floors. It has glazed green tiles, gilt double eaves, carved screen pavilion, and vermillion lacquered corridor columns. It is simple, elegant and spectacular. The north and south sides of the main pavilion are equipped with two pavilions, "Yajiang" and "Yicui", which are connected with the main pavilion. In addition to the main pavilion, there are also gardens, rockeries, pavilions, lotus ponds and other buildings. Regardless of its height, volume, area or architectural style, Tengwang Pavilion can be listed as one of the major classical pavilion buildings in the country.
Yueyang Tower
Yueyang Tower is located in Yueyang, an ancient cultural city with a long history. Yueyang was called "Baling" in ancient times. It is located in the north of Hunan Province, where the vast Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River meet. Yueyang Tower, the first of the three famous towers in the south of the Yangtze River, is located at the head of the west gate of an ancient city built by the water. Yueyang has mountains, rivers and buildings, picturesque scenery and many places of interest. The beauty of Yueyang scenery is concentrated in Dongting Lake and is best known on the first floor of Yueyang. The scenic spot of Baling, centered on Yueyang Tower and Junshan, is famous far and wide. It is known all over the world as "the water in Dongting is under the sky, and the tower is under the sky in Yueyang". The Yueyang Tower in Yueyang, the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuchang, and the Knee King Pavilion in Nanchang are collectively known as the "Three Famous Towers in Jiangnan".
Yueyang Tower stands on the east bank of Dongting Lake, on the west gate wall of Yueyang City. It faces the vast Dongting Lake to the west and the Yangtze River rolling eastward to the north. The water and light of the tower contrast with each other. It is known as "the water is under the sky in Dongting, and the tower is under the sky at Yueyang". It has a high reputation and is one of the famous tourist attractions in my country.
The Yueyang Tower was built around 220 AD and has a history of more than 1,700 years. According to legend, its predecessor was the "Military Review Tower" of Lu Su, the general of Soochow during the Three Kingdoms period. It was also called the "Baling Tower" during the Western Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "In the early Tang Dynasty, it was called "South Tower". After Li Bai wrote poems in the middle Tang Dynasty, it was called "Yueyang Tower". Yueyang Tower is 21.5 meters high, with three floors, cornices and pure wood structure. The roof of the building is covered with yellow glazed tiles and has a magnificent shape. The plaque "Yueyang Tower" is handwritten by Guo Moruo. Poets in history such as Du Fu, Han Yu, Liu Yuxi, Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin, etc. all came to visit the scenic spot and left many famous works, making Yueyang Tower famous all over the world. In the spring of the fourth year of Qingli in 1045 AD, Teng Zijing rebuilt Yueyang Tower and invited his friend and writer Fan Zhongyan to write "The Story of Yueyang Tower". From then on, Yueyang Tower became even more famous. The furnishings in Yueyang Tower are unique. Couplets written by famous writers from past dynasties are hung on each floor. There is a carved screen of "Yueyang Tower" embedded in each of the first and second floors. The carved screen on the first floor is a replica from the 19th century AD; the carved screen on the second floor was written by Zhang Zhao, a great calligrapher in the 18th century AD, with square fonts. , The writing power is vigorous, the techniques are changeable, and the originality is unique. It is a first-class treasure handed down from generation to generation. The carved screen on the third floor is a poem "Climbing the Yueyang Tower" written by Du Fu written by Mao Zedong. The writing style is vigorous and unrestrained, with both form and spirit. The carved screen is dazzling with golden light. In 1988, Yueyang Tower was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relic protection unit.
The Yueyang Tower has experienced many vicissitudes of life and has been destroyed and repaired many times. The Yueyang Tower we see now was rebuilt in the sixth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1867 AD). The architecture of the entire building can be summarized in eight words: four columns, three floors, cornices, and pure wood. The main building of Yueyang Tower is 3 stories high and 15 meters high. It is supported by 4 large nanmu trees in the middle, and 12 columns are used as the inner perimeter. It is surrounded by 30 wooden columns to form a whole. The whole building does not use a single iron nail. A huge beam. There are 12 cornices with high-pitched eaves (like a bird's beak pecking at high altitude). The roof is made of yellow glazed tiles, which is magnificent and magnificent. The curve is smooth, steep and curved, just like an ancient warrior's helmet, which is called the helmet top. The Ruyi Dougong under the top of the helmet is as exquisite as a honeycomb. It is recorded in ancient books that Yueyang Tower, an ancient building with "pure wooden structure and helmet-shaped roof", fully demonstrates the unique style and brilliant achievements of ancient Chinese architectural art.
Let’s talk about folk tales. Due to its long history and important status, the Yueyang Tower was built with exquisite craftsmanship (and was repeatedly destroyed and renovated), as well as the gathering of people from past dynasties. Therefore, many legends and stories about the Yueyang Tower are spread around Yueyang and Dongting Lake, and it has many social values. Among them, those who talked about the construction of Yueyang Tower include Lu Ban, Lu Dongbin, Zhang Guolao and other famous craftsmen and immortals; those who talked about the origin of Yueyang Tower include "Lusu Parade Stand", "Three Characters of Yueyang Tower", etc.; those who talked about the carved screen of Yueyang Tower, There are "Zhang Zhao Inscribed Screen" and "True and False Carved Screens"; regarding the style of Yueyang Tower, the most famous one is "Lu Dongbin Three Drunks at Yueyang Tower". In addition, there is also "Lang Yin Pavilion" if the legends about the scenery near Yueyang Tower are also included. If you go in, there will be "Meixi Bridge", "Golden Que Mountain", "Liu Yi Well", "Seventy-two Fairy Snails Build Junshan", "Tomb of the Second Concubine and Junshan", "The Story of Cishi Pagoda" and so on. It can be seen that there are so many legends and stories about Yueyang Tower and the related stories, and how rich and beautiful the style is.
Penglai Pavilion
Penglai Pavilion is located in the west of Yantai City (one hour's drive), located on Danya Mountain to the north of Penglai City. It is one of the four most famous pavilions in the country together with Yellow Crane Tower, Yueyang Tower and Tengwang Pavilion. A famous building. According to documentary records, the Dragon King's Palace and Amituo Temple were built here in the Tang Dynasty; in 1061 during the Song Dynasty, the Penglai Pavilion was built by Zhu Chu, the governor, for people to visit; in the seventeenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in 1589, the governor Li Dai A number of buildings were built near Penglai Pavilion; in 1819, Yang Fengchang, the governor of the Qing Dynasty, and Liu Qinghe, the commander-in-chief, presided over the expansion, which brought Penglai Pavilion to its current scale.
Below the Penglai Pavilion is the Immortal Bridge with exquisite structure and peculiar shape, which is the place where the Eight Immortals crossed the sea in mythology; on the east side are the Shangqing Palace, Luzu Palace, Puzhao Tower and Guanlan Pavilion; in the west wing are the wind shelter pavilion, Tianlan Pavilion, etc. The harem (commonly known as the Queen's Palace), the theater and the Dragon King's Palace. These pavilions are well-proportioned and integrated with Penglai Pavilion, and are collectively called "Penglai Pavilion". "Penglai Pavilion" is a huge ancient building complex (more than 100 rooms) covering an area of ??32,800 square meters and a construction area of ??18,960 square meters. The pavilions, pavilions and pavilions are well distributed, and the buildings and gardens complement each other. Each one is coordinated and spectacular according to the terrain. The mountains and seas are blue and the breeze is pleasant, so it has become a famous tourist area all over the world. In 1982, the State Council announced Shuicheng and Penglai Pavilion as national key cultural relics protection units.
Each building unit of Penglai Pavilion is surrounded by pavilions and pavilions of various styles, like stars over the moon. The layout of the pavilion is ingenious and integrated; the layers are layered and well-proportioned. There are a dazzling array of couplets and inscriptions in each pavilion. The main pavilion of Penglai Pavilion is a double-story wooden structure building with red windows, red doors, cornices and tiles, carved beams and painted pillars, which is simple and spectacular. Climbing up to the main pavilion, leaning on the railing and looking around, you will be surrounded by gauze-like clouds and mist, and the pavilions and palaces will appear and disappear in the cover, giving you a sense of transcendence.