The
Iron Pagoda (鐵塔) of
Youguo TempleYouguo Temple is a Buddhist monastery complex located northeast of Kaifeng, in Henan province, China. It was built by the Song Dynasty...
(佑國寺),
KaifengKaifeng , formerly known as Bianliang , Bianjing , Daliang , or simply Liang , is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China...
City,
HenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the eastern central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 , named after Yuzhou Province , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan...
province, is a Buddhist
Chinese pagodaChinese Pagodas are a traditional part of Chinese architecture, and is evolved from the stupa from the Indian subcontinent. In addition to religious use, since ancient times Chinese pagodas have been praised for the spectacular views which they offer, and many famous poems in Chinese history...
built in 1049 AD during the
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(
960-Europe:* Edgar the Peaceable is crowned King of England. Dunstan becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and Edgar's chief adviser. He reforms monasteries and enforces the rule of Saint Benedict: Poverty, Chastity and Obedience for monks. He attempts to impose celibacy on the secular clergy without...
–1279) of
ChinaChinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River valley in the Neolithic era. The written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty . Turtle shells with ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to as early as 1500 BCE...
. The pagoda is so-named not because it is made of iron, but because the colour of the building resembles that of iron. It is a brick
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly...
tower built on the location of a previous wooden pagoda that had been burnt down by lightning fire in 1044 AD. Along with the
LiuheLiuhe Pagoda , literally Six Harmonies Pagoda or Six Harmonies Tower, is multi-storied Chinese pagoda in southern Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. It is located at the foot of Yuelun Hill, facing the Qiantang River...
,
LingxiaoThe Lingxiao Pagoda is a Chinese pagoda west of the Xinglong Temple in Zhengding, Hebei Province, China.-History:The original pagoda that stood at the same site was dubbed the Wooden Pagoda, and was built in 860 AD during the Tang Dynasty...
,
LiaodiThe Liaodi Pagoda of Kaiyuan Monastery, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China is the tallest existing pre-modern Chinese pagoda, built in the 11th century during the Song Dynasty . The pagoda stands at a height of 84 m , resting on a large platform with an octagonal base...
,
PizhiThe Pizhi Pagoda is an 11th century Chinese pagoda located at Lingyan Temple, Changqing, near Jinan, Shandong province, China. Although originally built in 753 during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , the present pagoda is a Song Dynasty reconstruction from 1056 until 1063, during the last...
, and
BeisiThe Beisi Pagoda or North Temple Pagoda is a Chinese pagoda located at Bao'en Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. The base of the pagoda has an octagonal frame, and the tower rises nine stories in a total height of 76 m . The pagoda was once eleven stories tall, yet was damaged and reduced...
pagodas, it is seen as a masterpiece of Song Dynasty architecture.
This
octagonIn geometry, an octagon is a polygon that has eight sides. A regular octagon is represented by the Schläfli symbol {8}.-Regular octagons:A regular octagon is always an octagon whose sides are all the same length and whose internal angles are all the same size.The internal angle at each vertex of a...
al-base structure stands at a current height of 56.88 meters (186.56 feet), with a total of 13 stories.
The
Iron Pagoda (鐵塔) of
Youguo TempleYouguo Temple is a Buddhist monastery complex located northeast of Kaifeng, in Henan province, China. It was built by the Song Dynasty...
(佑國寺),
KaifengKaifeng , formerly known as Bianliang , Bianjing , Daliang , or simply Liang , is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China...
City,
HenanHenan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the eastern central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is 豫 , named after Yuzhou Province , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan...
province, is a Buddhist
Chinese pagodaChinese Pagodas are a traditional part of Chinese architecture, and is evolved from the stupa from the Indian subcontinent. In addition to religious use, since ancient times Chinese pagodas have been praised for the spectacular views which they offer, and many famous poems in Chinese history...
built in 1049 AD during the
Song DynastyThe Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
(
960-Europe:* Edgar the Peaceable is crowned King of England. Dunstan becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and Edgar's chief adviser. He reforms monasteries and enforces the rule of Saint Benedict: Poverty, Chastity and Obedience for monks. He attempts to impose celibacy on the secular clergy without...
–1279) of
ChinaChinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River valley in the Neolithic era. The written history of China begins with the Shang Dynasty . Turtle shells with ancient Chinese writing from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to as early as 1500 BCE...
. The pagoda is so-named not because it is made of iron, but because the colour of the building resembles that of iron. It is a brick
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly...
tower built on the location of a previous wooden pagoda that had been burnt down by lightning fire in 1044 AD. Along with the
LiuheLiuhe Pagoda , literally Six Harmonies Pagoda or Six Harmonies Tower, is multi-storied Chinese pagoda in southern Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. It is located at the foot of Yuelun Hill, facing the Qiantang River...
,
LingxiaoThe Lingxiao Pagoda is a Chinese pagoda west of the Xinglong Temple in Zhengding, Hebei Province, China.-History:The original pagoda that stood at the same site was dubbed the Wooden Pagoda, and was built in 860 AD during the Tang Dynasty...
,
LiaodiThe Liaodi Pagoda of Kaiyuan Monastery, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China is the tallest existing pre-modern Chinese pagoda, built in the 11th century during the Song Dynasty . The pagoda stands at a height of 84 m , resting on a large platform with an octagonal base...
,
PizhiThe Pizhi Pagoda is an 11th century Chinese pagoda located at Lingyan Temple, Changqing, near Jinan, Shandong province, China. Although originally built in 753 during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , the present pagoda is a Song Dynasty reconstruction from 1056 until 1063, during the last...
, and
BeisiThe Beisi Pagoda or North Temple Pagoda is a Chinese pagoda located at Bao'en Temple in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. The base of the pagoda has an octagonal frame, and the tower rises nine stories in a total height of 76 m . The pagoda was once eleven stories tall, yet was damaged and reduced...
pagodas, it is seen as a masterpiece of Song Dynasty architecture.
Architecture
This
octagonIn geometry, an octagon is a polygon that has eight sides. A regular octagon is represented by the Schläfli symbol {8}.-Regular octagons:A regular octagon is always an octagon whose sides are all the same length and whose internal angles are all the same size.The internal angle at each vertex of a...
al-base structure stands at a current height of 56.88 meters (186.56 feet), with a total of 13 stories. It is a solid-core brick tower with an inner spiral stone staircase and outside openings to allow light and air flow. The architectural style features densely positioned,
articulatedArticulation, in art and architecture, is a method of styling the joints in the formal elements of architectural design. Through degrees of articulation, each part is united with the whole work by means of a joint in such a way that the joined parts are put together in styles ranging from...
dougongDougong is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important elements in traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian and Singaporean architecture....
in the eaves (
miyan) and multiple stories (
louge). The exterior features more than fifty different varieties of
glazeGlaze or glazing is a thin shiny coating, or the act of applying the coating; it may refer to:In materials or engineering:* Architectural glass, a building material typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope...
d brick and 1,600 intricate and richly detailed carvings, including those of sitting
BuddhaSiddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is regarded by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c...
, standing monks, singers and dancers, flowers, lions, dragons and other legendary beasts as well as many fine engravings. Under the eaves are 104
bellsA bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
that ring in the wind. The foundation rests in the
siltSilt is soil or rock derived granular material of a grain size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
of the
Yellow RiverThe Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at 5,464 kilometers . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea...
. Inside the Iron Pagoda are
frescoFresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins...
s of the classical Chinese tales, such the
Journey to the WestJourney to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, and even though no direct evidence of its authorship survives, it has been ascribed to the scholar Wu Cheng'en since the 20th century.In...
.
History
In the Northern Song (
960-Europe:* Edgar the Peaceable is crowned King of England. Dunstan becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and Edgar's chief adviser. He reforms monasteries and enforces the rule of Saint Benedict: Poverty, Chastity and Obedience for monks. He attempts to impose celibacy on the secular clergy without...
–1127) dynasty's capital city of
KaifengKaifeng , formerly known as Bianliang , Bianjing , Daliang , or simply Liang , is a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China...
, the famous architect
Yu HaoYu Hao was an eminent Chinese structural engineer and architect during the Song Dynasty period .-Legacy:Yu Hao was given the title of Master-Carpenter , for his architectural skill...
built a magnificent wooden
pagodaA pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly...
as part of
Youguo TempleYouguo Temple is a Buddhist monastery complex located northeast of Kaifeng, in Henan province, China. It was built by the Song Dynasty...
(between 965–995 AD) that was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a marvel of art. It was thirteen stories and 120 meters high. Unfortunately, the widely admired structure burned down in 1044 after a
lightningLightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strike. Under the order of
Emperor RenzongEmperor Renzong was the fourth emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. His personal name was Zhao Zhen . He reigned from 1022 to 1063. Renzong was the son of Emperor Zhenzong of Song China. Despite his long reign of over 40 years, Renzong is not widely known...
(1022–1063), a new pagoda was built in its place by 1049. The new tower was built of nonflammable brick and stone and was dubbed the 'Iron Pagoda' due its iron-grey color when viewed from afar (its bricks are in fact
glazeGlaze or glazing is a thin shiny coating, or the act of applying the coating; it may refer to:In materials or engineering:* Architectural glass, a building material typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope...
d red, brown, blue, and green). In 1847 the Yellow River overflowed its banks and the Youguo Temple collapsed, but the Iron Pagoda survived. Historically, the pagoda has experienced 38 earthquakes, six floods and many other disasters, but it remains intact after almost 1000 years.
In 1994, the Iron Pagoda was featured on a two-
yuanThe yuan is, in the Chinese language, the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The same character is used to refer to the cognate currency units of Japan and Korea, and is used to translate the currency unit "dollar"; for example, the US dollar is called Meiyuan , or "American...
Chinese postage stamp.
External links