previous life of Dabaoen Temple
Dongwu Chiwu Ten years (247), Western Region Empress monks came to Jiankang (now Nanjing) to promote Buddhism. Sun Quan received a report and summoned the monk. After witnessing the magical art of induction relics, Sun Quan was greatly impressed and built the first temple for the monks.
▲The silver house for storing relics unearthed at the Dabaoen Temple site
Jianchu Temple is the second temple in China after Luoyang White Horse Temple, and it is also the first Buddhist temple established in southern China . This history was also recorded in the form of murals in Cave 323 of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.
▲Dunhuang mural "The Picture of the Dharma of Kang Monk Hui Jianye"
At the same time, in order to worship relics, Sun Quan also built the Ashoka Tower.
▲Ashode pagoda unearthed from the Dabaoen Temple site
Ashode pagoda was named after the third king of the Indian Mauryan Dynasty Ashode . This Ashoka was a Buddhist. In order to promote Buddhism, he collected the relics of Sakyamuni and asked the monks to take these relics to the world to promote Buddhism. He built pagodas in the local area to worship the relics. The pagoda that practiced to worship these relics was the pagoda of Ashoka. This is also why the Ashoka Tower built in China thousands of years ago looks exotic.
Jianchu Temple was later destroyed by war, but the Buddhist temple was constantly rebuilt on the ruins of Jianchu Temple. During the Taikang period of the Jin Dynasty (280), a Buddhist temple called Changgan Temple was rebuilt. Southern Liang Emperor Wu expanded the temple and renamed it to Baoen Temple .
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Zhenzong rebuilt Baoen Temple, so Baoen Temple was renamed Tianxi Temple. In the first year of Duangong in the Song Dynasty (988), a monk discovered the sacred bones of Master Xuanzang and brought it back to Tianxi Temple, so he began to build a pagoda called the Sacred Relic Pagoda. This relic is also the only relic found in the world so far.
▲The clitoral relic unearthed from the Dabaoen Temple site
Yuan Dynasty, Yuan Shizu Kublai Khan and Chengzong Tiemur both strongly supported Tianxi Temple. Tianxi Temple was renamed Yuanxing Ci'en Jingzhongjiao Temple and changed the pagoda to Ci'en Pagoda. But unfortunately, this Buddhist temple was destroyed by war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang began to renovate the original site, but unfortunately it turned into ashes in the six-year fire of Yongle .
In the tenth year of Yongle (1412) Ming Chengzu Zhu Di started the reconstruction project at the original site to commemorate Ming Taizu and Queen Ma . This rebuilt Buddhist temple is the Dabaoen Temple, and a nine-story glazed pagoda was also built. The project lasted 19 years, costing 2.485 million taels of silver, and mobilized 100,000 military service and civilians.
▲Glass arch in the exhibition hall of the Dabaoen Temple ruins
More than four hundred years later, it happened to Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement . Beiwang Wei Changhui was worried that Wingwang Shi Dakai occupied Glass Tower outside the city and set up cannons to attack the city, so he sent troops to dig tunnels under the tower to detonate explosives, while using cannon to directly attack the tower body. In the end, the glazed pagoda turned into a pile of rubble, and other buildings in Dabaoen Temple were also burned down in the fire.
pictures @Jiangsu News
The glorious past
Since its completion, the glazed tower of , which is as high as 78.02 meters, has been the tallest building in China. Until it was destroyed, no other buildings broke this record.In addition to being highly arrogant and arrogant, the tower body is made of glass, and the inside and outside of the tower is also unique at that time.
Whenever twilight comes, monks will light the oil lamp. Hundreds of monks took turns to be on duty, responsible for adding oil and cutting cores to the oil lamp, wiping bright tiles, and ensuring that the tower lamps are bright every night. Even next to the glazed tower, an oil depot was built to store the lamp oil needed for lighting lamps.
Such a pagoda with glass and brightness every night is unique in the world, and has attracted the attention of the whole world. Together with the
In Europe in the 17th and 19th centuries, royal nobles from all over the European continent were eager to wear Chinese silk, drink Chinese tea, use Chinese porcelain, talk about Confucius , and even take pride in speaking simple Chinese.
One of the Chinese-style fans is Louis XIV. He wore Chinese clothing and went out to sit in Chinese-style
The source of inspiration for this porcelain palace is the glazed pagoda of Dabaoen Temple. The Europeans at that time regarded the "Nanjing Porcelain Tower" as a symbol of mysterious ancient China, and for a long time it was even more famous than Great Wall .
▲Unfortunately, European color porcelain technology was not good at that time, and it weathered more than ten years later
If you have been to the Royal Botanical Garden in London, England, you will see a Chinese pagoda. This is the Qiuyuan Pagoda , built by the British in 1762, which imitated the glazed pagoda of Dabaoen Temple. There are many such buildings abroad, just like we like to imitate the Eiffel Tower later.
The origin of this trend is due to a Dutchman named John Niehoff. In 1654, the Dutch East India Company decided to send a delegation to visit China and asked the sketch artists who accompanied the delegation to depict the scenes and strange buildings that they might see along the way in their original images and preserve them as materials. This painter is Nihof.
After returning to China, Nihoff compiled what he saw and heard in China into a book, and "Nihoff's Travels" was born. The travel notes were very popular after they were published. They can be said to be popular all over Europe, making the glazed pagoda of Dabaoen Temple the most well-known Chinese architecture by Europeans.
Andersen was also influenced by this trend. In his fairy tale "Garden of Heaven", he described Feng's mother with a child wearing Chinese clothes and told her mother, "I am from China now - I danced a dance around the porcelain tower, making all the bells ring! ". The porcelain pagoda here is the glazed pagoda of Nanjing Dabaoen Temple.
As Western missionaries and missions arrived in China one after another, the Glazed Tower gradually became known to the Western world. They were amazed at the magnificence of the Glazed Tower, and , together with the Great Wall, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, Stonehenge in the UK, is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
At that time, Dabao'en Temple was simply a place for internet celebrities to check in, and it became a must-visit place in China.
Until now, many foreigners still regard it as a symbol of China. In American dramas, we often see the characters in the drama eating Chinese takeout. If you observe carefully, you will find that almost all the plays use takeaway boxes with a pagoda printed on it. This pagoda is the glazed pagoda of Dabaoen Temple in Nanjing .
This is not the logo of a Chinese restaurant, but almost all Chinese restaurants in the United States use such boxes to package them. This takeaway box with the red pagoda printed on it has not only become a symbol of Chinese food, but also a part of Chinese culture.
even in some Western games, such as the Civilization Series, Empire Age 3, the rise of the country, etc., this glazed pagoda of the Great Baoen Temple has appeared as a symbol of China.
The present life of Dabaoen Temple
talks about the tragic past life of Dabaoen Temple coming and going in the wind and rain. Let's talk about its present life.
Although the glazed tower has been prosperous abroad, many Chinese people do not know it. Thanks to the pursuit of foreigners, this pagoda destroyed by artillery fire was finally remembered until the 20th century.
pictures @Jiangsu News
After 2004, the Nanjing government began to plan the reconstruction of the glazed tower. This project was originally just a reconstruction project of an ancient tower, but unexpectedly, after archaeological excavation, a thousand-year-old underground palace was discovered, which turned into a site protection project.
Dabaoen Temple reopened in 2015. This time, the name was not changed again, but its newly built glass tower has received a lot of criticism, and even Nanjing citizens complained that it was too ugly.
But there is a reason for this to be built. The reconstruction of the Glazed Tower is load-loaded and the foundation must be excavated, which will inevitably cause damage to the Millennium Underground Palace. According to the principle of minimal intervention in the protection of cultural relics, in order to protect the underground palace, the new tower had to use steel structures and ultra-white glass and other lightweight materials .
At the same time, even if a new tower is rebuilt on the original site, it cannot be made into a glass tower, otherwise it will cause confusion in historical information.
And most people who think this glass tower is abrupt must have not visited it on site.
In addition to the unearthed treasures such as Ashoka Pagoda and the clitoral relics, What is most amazing today’s Dabaoen Temple is its design and technological sense . I think it is rare to see the combination of religion and modern technology around the world.
Strictly speaking, the current Nanjing Dabaoen Temple is not a temple, but as a ruins park, it is more like a museum. Even as a museum, such space design and and light and shadow structure are excellent in China.
Entering the exhibition hall, the first thing that caught my eye was the large site of the ruins. In order to protect the underground ruins, it is impossible to build a large-scale construction of temples, and the shapes of rows of eaves and columns on this ruins have built invisible temples.
The museum has used glass on a large scale, which not only makes the venue more transparent, but also shows us the original appearance of the site as much as possible.
is displayed through electronic screens and physical devices. In front of the Qiangan Buddha Vein Exhibition Area, we can review the past and present of Dabaoen Temple.
In front of the 3D three-dimensional Buddha head composed of optical fiber and more than 8,000 crystal beads, a copper statue of Xuanzang sat facing the Buddha's head and meditated, forming a scene of concentrating the mind with the Buddha.
This exhibition hall is called "Thousand Years of Looking". There are eight glazed pillars on both sides of the exhibition hall, which means Sakyamuni Buddha Eight-phase enlightenment . There is a sensor screen of seven lotus flowers on the trail, which blooms with people's footsteps, meaning Buddha "Seven Steps to Grow Lotus".
above the exhibition hall of 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties, displaying the scene of Buddha temples in the Southern Dynasties, and models of major temples are displayed on both sides.
The most shocking exhibition hall is the "Shari Buddha Light". The entire space is on the roof of a dome-shaped garden, covered with 42,000 glass lamps , which doubles under the reflection of the glass surface, corresponding to the 84,000 Dharma doors .
Looking closer, each lamp looks like an lotus lantern . The seven-colored light that changed randomly from the glass lamp seemed to have entered the illusory holy land.
In the middle is a statue of the Buddha with his hands clasped and his eyebrows smiling, and his compassionate and compassionate Buddha lying in front of him.
The two trees in front of the Buddha statue are also exquisite glass lamps. This should be the scene of Bodhi tree and thousands of Buddha relics.
There are more than ten such exhibition halls in Nanjing Dabaoen Temple Ruins Park. In addition to promoting Buddhism, the installations in these exhibition halls are also a modern art interpretation of Buddhist culture . In a few years, perhaps these may become "cultural relics".
The innovation of Nanjing Dabaoen Temple is not only that. Before visiting, you can rent a set of Hanfu in the museum and take a time travel journey.
You can also calm down and copy the scriptures under the gaze of Master Zhi Qian. The museum will provide you with everything you need.
Children also have projects to participate in. In the northeast corner of the exhibition hall, there is an archaeological excavation site specially prepared for children.
After visiting, and then looking at the glass tower that was criticized as an office building, you will suddenly feel that perhaps this temple wants to keep up with the pace of the times, so that it will continue to collapse and rebuilt in history. And it is also a fate that the Dabaoen Temple today stands in such a modern way. But this time, I hope this tower will never fall again.
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