Xi'an Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is located in Ci'en Temple, 4 kilometers outside Hepingmen, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was originally called Ci'en Temple Pagoda and is located in Ci'en Temple. Ci'en Temple was built in the Sui Dynasty and was originally named Wuluo Temple. In the 21st year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty (647), Prince Li Zhi expanded the temple in memory of his mother, Queen Wende, and changed its name to Da Ci'en Temple. There are pavilions, palaces, and meditation rooms in the temple. There are ten courtyards and a total of 1,897 rooms. Famous painters such as Yan Liben, Yuchi Yiseng, Wu Daozi, and Yi Lin have all painted, making the walls full of glory. . Not long after the temple was built, the then famous monk Xuanzang moved here from Hongfu Temple to translate Buddhist scriptures. It took 19 years to translate 74 Buddhist scriptures, and he founded the Ci'en Sect of Buddhism in this temple. Therefore, the temple became famous far and wide, and pilgrims gathered here. It was very prosperous. At that time, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built in the third year of Yonghui (652). It was specially built by Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, to house the scriptures brought back by Xuanzang from India. Unfortunately, the temple suffered a war in the late Tang Dynasty and all the temples were burned down. Only the pagoda survived. The buildings in the temple today were rebuilt in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The Dayan Pagoda was originally built with five floors, with a brick surface and an earth core. It later collapsed and was rebuilt with ten floors. During the Chang'an period of Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (701-704), it was transformed into a pavilion-style blue brick pagoda. , seven floors, square in plan, composed of two parts: the tower base and the tower body. The tower base is 48 meters long on a side and 4.2 meters high. Above it is the tower body, which is 25 meters long on a side and 59.9 meters high. The total height of the tower base and the tower body is 64.1 meters. The walls of each floor of the tower are made of flat brick pillars and balustrades. There are large buckets on the upper parts of the pillars, and brick gates are opened in the middle of the four sides of each floor. The plane inside the tower is also square, with floors on each floor and escalators that can spiral up to the top of the tower. In the Ming Dynasty, a thick layer of bricks was built on the outside of the tower, and the bricks were polished to meet the seams, making it extremely strong.
On the south side of the pagoda base are two steles inlaid with the "Preface to the Holy Religion of the Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty" written by Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and the "Preface to the Holy Religion of the Tripitaka of the Tang Dynasty" written by Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. It was written by Chu Suiliang, a famous calligrapher, with elegant and unrestrained handwriting. It is a famous monument of Liangtong in the Tang Dynasty. On the lintel of the stone gate on the west side, there are Tang carved architectural patterns and line carvings of Buddha statues. The layout of the picture is rigorous and the lines are strong and smooth. It is said that it was painted by Yan Liben and Yuchi Yiseng, the famous painters of the Tang Dynasty. It is an important material for the study of ancient Chinese architecture.
Since the Tang Dynasty, on the 14th, 15th and 163rd days of the first lunar month, there has been a traditional temple fair in Da Ci'en Temple, commonly known as the "Yanta Temple Fair". In the place of Cui, both Juzi and his concubines climbed up to the pagoda to inscribe their names. "Inscribing names on the Wild Goose Pagoda" became something that scholars admired and yearned for. In front of the pagoda, there are stone inscriptions on the names of Juren from Shaanxi Province dating from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty for more than a thousand years. In addition, literati often climbed the pagoda to write poems. In the 11th year of Tang Tianbao's reign (752), poets Du Fu and Cen Shen climbed up to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Cen Shen wrote a poem: "The pagoda is like a gush of energy, standing alone in the heavenly palace. Climbing out of the world, stepping on the road The sky towers over the sky, towering like ghosts. Its four corners block the sky, and the sky is covered with seven layers of sky. Looking down, one can hear the wind blowing. "This has become a famous poem by poets throughout the ages.