When you visit Xi'an, you must want to see the second big wild goosepagoda. This ancient Tang Dynasty pagoda is a unique symbol of the ancient cityof Xi'an. The ancients once left a poem that "driving mountains and shining atnight, the morning bell of the wild goose pagoda is in the south of the city".As one of the eight scenic spots in Guanzhong, the big wild goose pagoda standshigh in the Ci'en Temple in the southern suburb of Xi'an, about 4 kilometersaway from the city center. It is one of the famous Buddhist pagodas inChina.
Dayan Pagoda was formerly known as Ci'en Temple. Ci'en Temple wasoriginally named Wulou temple. In 648 ad, when Li Zhi, Emperor Gaozong, was thecrown prince, he ordered to build a temple in jinchangfang, Chang'an, in memoryof the kindness of his dead mother, empress changsun. Facing the Hanyuan Hall ofDaming Palace in the north, it covers an area of 26570 square meters and issurrounded by beautiful scenery. It is the most magnificent and spectacularBuddhist temple in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. Now, please comewith me to visit Ci'en Temple and Dayan Pagoda.
[Ci'en Temple - stone lion - Bell and Drum Tower - Daxiong Hall - Sutralibrary]
Dear tourists, Ci'en Temple is a temple built by the royal family. It has aprominent position and a grand scale that no other temple can match. The templewas composed of 13 courtyards, covering an area of 340 mu, seven times the areaof the temple now. Its architecture is magnificent and its decoration isgorgeous. The existing area of Ci'en Temple is 32314 square meters, about 48.5mu.
Let's take a look at this pair of powerful stone lions in front of theMountain Gate of the temple. Strange to say, generally speaking, thingsintroduced into our country from foreign countries are always introduced intothe real objects first, and then there are works of art based on the realobjects. The lion settled in China, but the first exception is the lion stoneart, and then there is the real lion. As we all know, the lion was introducedinto China from Persia in the Eastern Han Dynasty, while the stone lion wasintroduced into China from India at the same time as Buddhism. The lion has thefunction of protecting the Dharma and avoiding evil. Buddhism believes that "theBuddha is the lion among the people", so the lion is often engraved in front ofthe Buddha platform, which is called protecting the Dharma lion. At the gate ofCi'en Temple, there are four stone lions sitting symmetrically on the left andright, and two of them are close to the gate. It is not clear when they werecarved. On the east side is the lion, teasing at the foot of hydrangea. On thewest side is the lioness, with a pair of cubs at her feet, called the lioness.It seems that these lions are also arranged in the order of male left and femaleright according to people's habits. The two lions on the outside are carved in1785 and 1930 respectively. The height of the two pairs of stone lions is morethan 1.7 meters, and each pair weighs at least 250 kg. It's strange that thesetwo solid monsters made of eight faceted majestic stones, even if they aregently patted with their hands, will also make a metal sound like copper but notsteel, which is crisp and pleasant. Tourists, can you guess the reason?
Walking into the temple, there are two small buildings. To the East, thereis a bell tower. There is an iron bell cast in the Jiajing period of the MingDynasty, weighing 15 tons. To the west is the drum tower, in which there is abig drum. For a long time, "the morning bell of the wild goose pagoda" has beenwidely spread as one of the eight scenic spots in Guanzhong. But in the past,people thought that "the morning bell of the wild goose pagoda" refers to thebell of the small wild goose pagoda in Xi'an. In fact, this scene refers to thebig wild goose pagoda, because the bell of the big wild goose pagoda weighs30000 Jin. It was cast in October of the 27th year of Jiajing in the MingDynasty (1548 A.D.), more than 100 years before the bell of the small wild goosepagoda was moved into the temple.
As we all know, most temples have the main hall, and so does Ci'en Temple.Its main hall is located on the high platform in the center of the temple. Itwas built from 1458 A.D. to 1466 A.D. and was overhauled in 1887 A.D. The threestatues above the main hall are the three body statues of Shi Ying and Mou Ni.The one in the middle is called Dharma statue, the one in the west is calledBaoshen statue, and the one in the East is called Yingshen statue. Shiyingmuni,the founder of Buddhism, was originally a prince of ancient India's yingpilaweikingdom. He was born in 565 BC and died in 486 BC, about the same time asConfucius. Yingye, one of the top ten disciples of Sakyamuni, is on the eastside of the three body Buddha, and Ananda, one of the top ten disciples ofSakyamuni, is on the west side. On both sides are statues of eighteen Arhats andXuanzang.
Behind the main hall is the Sutra library, which contains importantclassics such as the Tibetan Tripitaka. Downstairs is the lecture hall, whereBuddhists preach Buddhist scriptures. There is a bronze statue of Amitabha, morethan 1 meter high. Inside the hall, there is a Buddha seat offered by Xuanzanghimself, as well as a statue seat of the four heavenly kings of qingxiangshi inthe Tang Dynasty. This stone is blue stone produced in Lantian Yushan. It iscrisp and pleasant to the ear.
[origin of the name of Dayan Pagoda - Xuanzang and Temple Pagoda -Architecture and cultural relics of Dayan Pagoda]
Dear tourists, when we walk out of the Sutra library, we can see themagnificent wild goose pagoda. When you see this Tang Dynasty building, you mustbe both surprised and curious. First of all, why is the tower named aftergeese?
According to Indian Buddhist legend, there were two schools of Buddhism,Mahayana and Hinayana, and Hinayana Buddhism did not avoid meat and fishiness.One day, it was Bodhisattva giving day, but a monk in a Hinayana Temple couldn'tbuy meat for dinner. At this time, a group of geese flew by in the sky. A monklooked at the geese and said to himself, "today there is no meat in the house.The merciful Bodhisattva will never forget what day it is." Before the voicefell, the leading goose folded its wings and fell to the ground. So the monks inthe temple were shocked and thought that it must be the manifestation ofBodhisattva. They built a stone pagoda at the site where the wild geese fell.They gave up meat and turned to Mahayana Buddhism. Therefore, the pagoda is alsoknown as the big wild goose pagoda.
At the Dayan Pagoda, people will naturally think of Xuanzang, the famousmonk of Tang Dynasty, who was the first abbot of Ci'en Temple. It is said thatin the third year of Yonghui reign of Tang Dynasty (652 AD), master Xuanzang, afamous monk, built the big wild goose pagoda in the West courtyard of Ci'enTemple with the permission of Emperor Gaozong in order to arrange theScriptures, Buddha statues and relics he brought back from the western regions.Construction started in March of that year, under the supervision of Xuanzanghimself, and was completed in one year.
Dear tourists, you must have seen journey to the west, one of China's fourfamous works, and the TV series of the same name adapted from it. Is the Tangmonk in journey to the west the famous monk Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty? MasterXuanzang, with a common surname of Chen, was a monk in Luoyang at the age of 13.He was diligent and eager to learn. After visiting teachers all over thecountry, he decided to explore the essence of Buddhism in India, the birthplaceof Buddhism It's very important. Xuanzang started from Chang'an in the thirdyear of Zhenguan (A.D. 620__) and traveled along the Silk Road through the Gobidesert without birds and animals. He traveled westward to Tianzhu. Aftercompleting his studies in the 19th year of Zhenguan (A.D. 645), he returned toChang'an. It took him 20__ years to travel 50000 kilometers. Through more than100 countries and regions, he retrieved 657 Buddhist scriptures and gained ahigh status in India. After returning to China, with the support of the Tangroyal family, he gathered erudite eminent monks from all over the country toform an unprecedented Buddhist scripture translation site, and acted as thetranslator himself. The quality and quantity of translated Buddhist scripturesare far more than those of their predecessors, which ushered in a new era in thehistory of translation in China. A total of 75 Buddhist scriptures and 1335volumes have been translated, and a record of the western regions of the TangDynasty has been written, which has attracted the attention of scholars all overthe world. It should be said that journey to the west is written in thebackground of xuanlei's going out to the west to seek scriptures in the TangDynasty, but the Tang monk in the story does not refer to Xuanzang, but a figurein an artistic literary work.
Dear tourists, when the Dayan Pagoda was built, it was 60 meters high, with5 floors, brick surface, earth core and CD ladder. In the center of the reartower, there are lots of plants and trees growing in the cracks of bricks, whichare gradually decadent. After several renovations during the reign of Empress WuZetian in Chang'an, Emperor Xuanzong in Tang Dynasty and Emperor Changxing inlater Tang Dynasty, the big wild goose pagoda was 4.5 meters higher than theoriginal one and added two floors. Each side of the ground floor is 25 meterslong, the base is square, the side length is 45 meters to 48 meters, there areticket doors on all sides of each floor, and there are stairs in the tower. Onthe lintel of the bottom floor of the pagoda, there are exquisite line carvedBuddha statues, especially the picture of Sakyamuni Buddha on the lintel of thewest gate. The photo of the abandoned hall at that time is engraved on it. It issaid that it was written by Yan Liben, a great painter of the Tang Dynasty. Itis a precious material for studying the Buddhist culture and architectural artof future generations. The brick niches on the East and west sides of the SouthGate of the pagoda are inlaid with the steles of preface to the three sacredreligions of the Tang Dynasty written by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin of the TangDynasty and preface to the three sacred religions of the Tang Dynasty written byEmperor Gaozong Li Zhi of the Tang Dynasty. The two steles were written by Chusuiliang, a famous calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty. They are the best of thesteles in the Tang Dynasty. They are precious original calligraphic inscriptionsprotected by the state. They are important material for the study of ancientcalligraphy. It can be said that the square brick Pagoda with wooden structureis a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture in China, with its simple shape,majestic momentum, remarkable national characteristics and the style of thetimes.
Tourists, since the completion of the great wild goose pagoda, celebritiesof all ages have left a good sentence to recite through the ages. Du Fu praised"the sky is high, the wind is strong all the time", and Cen Shen praised "thetower is like gushing out, towering in the sky alone; stepping out of the world,pedaling through the void". The poet's magnificent description and philosophicalexclamation often resonate when people climb the tower.
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