What's under Leifeng Tower?
The Millennium Leifeng Pagoda collapsed violently, and the underground mysterious underground palace appeared in the world, attracting the keen attention of experts at home and abroad, not only unearthing the most precious treasure of the Buddhist family, but also drilling out a white snake underground.
Photo: Before the collapse of Leifeng Tower
What secrets are hidden in the underground palace under the Leifeng Tower?
Is it really suppressing the legendary White Lady?
The Millennium Leifeng Pagoda collapsed violently
The Leifeng Pagoda, which stands proudly on the shore of West Lake today, was actually rebuilt in 2002.
The real Leifeng Pagoda with a thousand-year history was actually weakened and collapsed as early as September 1924 because too many bricks were stolen from the surrounding towers.
The collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda caused a great sensation at that time, and even Mr. Lu Xun wrote an essay called "On the Fall of the Leifeng Pagoda", which was novel and ingenious and breathtaking.
When other local residents heard the news, most of them were happy first. It is said that nearby residents rushed to check it out after the collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda, only to see a large number of white snakes crawling out of the ruins and running away.
Everyone felt that the legend about Xu Xian and the White Lady was true, and now that the Leifeng Pagoda had really collapsed, the White Lady had finally regained her freedom, and it was not surprising that people who were touched by this folklore would be happy about it.
At that time, the Government of the Republic of China had plans to rebuild after the collapse of Leifeng Pagoda, but because it was quickly caught up in the war, this reconstruction plan did not really begin to be implemented.
After the founding of New China, in 1981, a thousand-year-old pagoda of Famen Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, fell into disrepair and collapsed in the wind and rain, and when the local government was preparing to rebuild the pagoda, it accidentally found a mysterious underground palace that had existed for a thousand years under the base of the pagoda.
In this famen temple pagoda underground palace, archaeologists have found a large number of rare treasures, including an embroidered skirt worn by the female emperor Wu Zetian, as well as a Buddhist treasure and a Buddha bone relic.
Archaeologists were pleasantly surprised and could not help but have associations. There are many thousand-year-old pagodas like the Famen Temple Pagoda throughout the country, so are there also mysterious underground palaces and rare treasures hidden under these stupas?
Despite such speculation, archaeologists did not really investigate and excavate until 2001, when the reconstruction plan of Leifeng Pagoda, which collapsed 70 years ago, was once again put on the agenda, and the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology was responsible for cooperating with the reconstruction.
After learning the news, archaeologists remembered the underground palace found in Famen Temple many years ago, and their hearts suddenly ignited new hopes and the impulse to explore.
They found the ruins of the Leifeng Pagoda and carried out carpet cleaning and searching there.
Archaeologists spent 5 months cleaning up the ruins of up to 8,000 cubic meters formed after the collapse of the ancient tower, and studied the original tower body and base structure of Leifeng Tower.
It is said that at that time, some of the pagoda bricks had round holes and hidden scripture scrolls in the middle, which is commonly known as Tibetan scripture bricks.
At that time, the citizens of Hangzhou mistakenly thought it was a "hidden gold brick" and competed to pick up the tower bricks. At that time, the monks of Jingci Monastery opposite Leifeng Pagoda joined the picking up team in order not to desecrate the Buddhist scriptures, and burned the Buddhist scriptures they had picked up.
There are not many surviving Leifeng Pagoda scrolls in later generations, but archaeologists still found some treasures when cleaning up the site, mainly some Wuyue coins, as well as pagoda bricks with inscriptions, and also found a small multi-layered silver tower that was squashed.
Experts speculate that this small silver pagoda should have been placed on the top of the pagoda, it is estimated that the pagoda was squashed when it collapsed, I did not expect that so many people ran to find treasure, it could even escape a disaster, and survived more than 70 years, once again appeared in front of people's eyes.
In addition, archaeologists were most pleased to find some of the remnants. These stele are inscribed with the Huayan Sutra and accompanied by a text, which excites all archaeologists — the text mentions that the most precious treasure of the Buddhist family, the "Buddha's Conch Hair", is enshrined in the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda.
The mysterious dungeon is alive
According to these remnants inscribed with the Yanhua Jing, the Leifeng Pagoda was built by order of Qian Li, the ruler of the State of Wuyue.
Everyone may be very unfamiliar with the name Wu Yueguo, in fact, Wu Yueguo is a small country in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period after the Tang Dynasty, the kings are in Hangzhou, and Qian Li is the last monarch.
In ancient times, Leifeng Pagoda also had a nickname, called "Yellow Princess Pagoda", or "Princess Pagoda", and this "Yellow Concubine" here refers to Qian Li's concubine.
In 975, in order to celebrate the birth of a son to his concubine Huang, Qian Li ordered the construction of an eight-sided, seven-story pavilion-style tower, also known as Leifeng Pagoda.
According to historical records, when the Leifeng Pagoda was first built, the entire tower was made of brick and stone, the outer ring was a thick-walled double-layer sleeve structure, the heavy eaves flying building, golden splendor, magnificent and colorful, according to legend, there were 16 gold and copper arhats enshrined under the tower, and Qian Li also hid precious Buddha conch hair and Buddhist scriptures in it.
The so-called "Buddha's conch hair" is actually a kind of Buddha bone relic, which is the most precious treasure for the Buddhist family, and for the world, it is also a rare treasure.
With the guidance of the stele, everyone's expectant eyes are naturally focused on the mysterious underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda. In March 2001, excavations of the Leifeng Pagoda Underground Palace officially began.
After the investigation of archaeologists, the entrance to the underground palace is at the center of the Leifeng Pagoda, and the underground palace under the tower has not yet been excavated, which makes everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
The size of the entire underground palace is not very large, the depth is about 1 meter, the width of the bricks is about 1.4 meters, and the total area is only about 1 square meter. The archaeologists were a little confused in their hearts, what treasure could such a small underground palace hide?
Although the entrance was discovered, the archaeologists did not rush into it in a hurry, but first let the archaeologists carefully survey the underground palace. After measurements, archaeologists determined that the underground palace was 2.6 meters from the ground where the bottom of the tower was located, and the excavation work was not easy.
At this time, because the archaeological excavations carried out by archaeologists on the Leifeng Pagoda were bright and took a long time, the local citizens of Hangzhou soon heard the news of the discovery of the underground palace under the tower. Although they will not and cannot participate in archaeological excavations, they are very active and curious.
This is also understandable, the public is curious about what kind of good things can be in the thousand-year-old stupa, and the other is curious about whether the White Lady is really suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda.
In addition to the stories about the White Lady in the scripts and folklore, there are many legends about the Leifeng Pagoda and the White Snake in history.
According to legend, during the Northern Song Dynasty, there were soldiers who wanted to tear down the Leifeng Pagoda and take the tower bricks built into the tower to be used elsewhere. Who knows, they have just approached, and a giant python has sprung out of the tower, and when it stands upright and looks at the person who offends it, the sun and moon above its head are all set off and lost their luster, scaring the soldiers into fleeing.
These legends have been passed down to this day, and people in the vicinity are very interested in the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda, and when the archaeologists excavate the ruins of the Leifeng Pagoda, the locals, although they can't watch it closely, still pay attention to it with great enthusiasm.
The media at home and abroad are eagerly awaiting, and the local TV station also broadcasts the excavation site live, and CCTV and media across the country are tracking and reporting for the first time.
With such attention, archaeologists also want to complete the archaeological excavations as soon as possible. However, after discovering the entrance to the underground palace and completing the preliminary survey, they still could not enter the underground palace immediately.
Because they found that at the entrance of the underground palace, there was a huge stone pressed.
Secret treasures in the dungeon
This huge stone was pressed against a cover plate, blocking the entrance to the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda and blocking everyone's way. In order to open the dungeon, the archaeologists could only urgently transfer the crane, but they did not expect an accident.
The boulder weighed more than 750 kilograms, and after lifting it, the crane's rudder malfunctioned, and the boulder fell down violently. Those who witnessed this scene instantly felt a sudden cardiopulmonary arrest, fortunately, archaeologists had laid steel pipes and wooden planks underneath, the boulders did not completely fall, and the entrance to the underground palace escaped the disaster.
However, Rao was so, the cover plate on the entrance of the underground palace still caused a crack, and then the archaeologists gently pried it, and the cover suddenly cracked into three pieces. After the archaeologists removed the smaller piece, the overhead light faintly saw that there seemed to be a Buddha statue in the underground palace.
This amazing glimpse made everyone excited again, and everyone carefully removed the stone slabs that blocked the road, and finally saw the treasure of the underground palace that had been hidden for thousands of years.
The scale of the underground palace is indeed not very large, and what is displayed in front of everyone is first of all a rusty iron letter, surrounded by a large number of coins, a bronze Buddha statue, and several bronze mirrors.
The first cultural relic taken out is a bronze mirror with the words "Craftsman Ni Cheng" engraved on it, with obvious characteristics of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. After that, archaeologists took out the wooden Buddha statue base, more than 30 pieces of gold and silver cultural relics such as various jade bracelets and arm bracelets, and finally took out the exquisite bronze Buddha statue.
Most of those coins are Kaiyuan Tongbao, with a total of more than 500 pieces, one of which is actually jade, which is very rare, and is the only jade Kaiyuan Tongbao in Chinese archaeological excavations.
And the most concerned by everyone is the rusty iron letter. It is 32 centimeters long and 32 centimeters in width and 50 centimeters high, which takes up almost half of the area of the underground palace and is the "protagonist" of the entire underground palace. If the record is true, then the Buddha's most precious treasure, the "Buddha's Spiral Hair", should be placed in it.
Based on the previous experience of excavating the underground palace of Famen Temple, experts speculate that the iron letter should be a Buddha bone relic wrapped in a gold coffin and silver rafters, that is, "Buddha conch bun hair".
The opening time of the iron letter was set for March 14, 2001, and in the eyes of everyone's expectation, the iron letter was finally opened, but to the surprise of the experts, there was no gold coffin and silver rafter inside, but a gold tu pagoda made of pure silver and very exquisite workmanship.
The Jintu Pagoda is 35 centimeters high and 12.6 centimeters long at the sides, and is decorated on all four sides with bas-reliefs of the story of the Buddha himself, and its exquisite workmanship represents the highest level of craftsmanship in Wu Yueguo at that time. The dungeon should have been flooded, but the tower is still fairly well preserved, which is rare in archaeological finds.
Experts can see from the hollow of the golden tu pagoda that the tower contains a gold container, and it is thought that this container may be the "golden coffin and silver rafter" used to place the "Buddha's snail hair".
However, it is not easy to take it out, for the sake of protecting cultural relics, in the end, archaeologists did not forcibly remove it, and the legendary "Buddha's conch hair" is still safely hidden in it.
The suppressed "White Lady" that people expected did not appear, and the legendary Buddhist treasure was not really witnessed, but the archaeological excavation of the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda still made archaeologists feel very satisfied, after all, such a rare cultural event in the world, just participating in it is already a deep honor.