The ancient Leifeng Pagoda collapsed in the baptism of time, and the traces of its history seemed to disappear in an instant, leaving only a ruin.
Explore the secrets of the underground palace of Leifeng Tower: Does the legend of the White Lady come true?Although the Leifeng Pagoda standing on the shore of the West Lake was rebuilt in 2002, the thousand-year-old Leifeng Pagoda collapsed in 1924 due to the theft of the tower bricks and digging too much, and the foundation of the tower was weakened.
Picture: The sensation before the collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda turned out to be not only because the collapse of the Leifeng Pagoda caused a great sensation at the time, but even the first reaction of other local residents after learning the news was that most of them were very happy.
It is said that some residents in the vicinity rushed to check after the collapse of Leifeng Pagoda, only to see a large number of white snakes crawling out of the rubble, scattering and fleeing. As a result, everyone thinks that the legend about Xu Xian and the White Lady is true, and now that Leifeng Pagoda has really collapsed, presumably the White Lady has finally regained her freedom.
It is not surprising, then, that people who are moved by this folklore would be happy.
The collapse of Leifeng Pagoda had caused a reconstruction plan, but the outbreak of war prevented the plan from being implemented. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1981, archaeologists found a large number of treasures in the underground palace of the pagoda of Famen Temple, including one.
In ecstasy, archaeologists began to make associations. There are still many pagodas as old as the Famen Temple pagoda across the country, although there have been such speculations in mind, but archaeologists have not really carried out investigations and excavations.
After learning the news, they once again recalled the underground palace they had discovered in Famen Temple many years ago, and their hearts were full of anticipation and longing for the unknown to explore.
They found the ruins of Leifeng Pagoda and conducted an in-depth cleaning and search for it. Archaeological experts spent 5 months to clean up the ruins formed after the collapse of the ancient tower, totaling more than 8,000 cubic meters, and finally revealed the original tower body and tower base structure of Leifeng Pagoda.
It is understood that the citizens of Hangzhou at that time mistakenly thought that it was another building.
Although there are only a small number of Leifeng Pagoda scrolls in existence, archaeologists were pleasantly surprised to find many treasures when they cleaned up the site. These treasures are mainly some coins of the Wu Yue Kingdom and tower bricks with inscriptions.
Experts also speculate that the small silver stupa was supposed to sit on top of the stupa but was flattened when the stupa collapsed, but surprisingly, despite the many people who came to hunt for the treasure, it miraculously escaped and reappeared after more than 70 years.
These discoveries have delighted archaeologists and given us a deeper understanding of this history.
The remnants of the Yan Hua Jing reveal that Wu Yue was a small country during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, located in today's Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and its last monarch was Qian Yu. The ancient Leifeng Pagoda has another nickname.
In 975 A.D., the completion of Leifeng Tower, historical records, brick and stone piling, double-layer sleeve, eaves heavy building, splendid, magnificent. It is said that there are 16 gold and bronze Arhats hidden under the tower, and Qian Yu also hid his precious Buddha conch hair and Buddhist scriptures here.
People's expectations focus on the mystery of the underground palace of Leifeng Tower. In March 2001, the excavation of the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda officially kicked off.
After the survey, archaeological experts confirmed that the entrance to the underground palace was about 1 meter deep and 1 meter wide4 meters, with a total area of only about 1 square meter. Despite finding the entrance, the experts did not enter immediately, but decided to make a detailed survey of the dungeon first.
After measuring, they found that the underground palace was 26 meters, which means that the excavation will face certain difficulties.
After a long period of public archaeological excavations by archaeologists, the citizens of Hangzhou soon learned of the discovery of the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda. Although they were not directly involved in archaeology, they showed great enthusiasm and curiosity about it.
This is also understandable, because in history, in addition to the legend of the White Lady in folk tales and scripts, there are many legends of Leifeng Pagoda and the White Snake. Legend has it that during the Northern Song Dynasty, there were soldiers who tried to knock down the Leifeng Pagoda in order to obtain the tower bricks for use elsewhere.
However, as soon as they approached the tower, a giant python suddenly appeared in the tower, and when it stood up and looked at the offending with fierce eyes, the sun and moon above their heads suddenly lost their luster, causing the soldiers to flee in terror.
The legend that has been passed down for thousands of years makes the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda full of mystery. Whenever archaeologists carry out archaeological excavations at the Leifeng Pagoda site, although people in the vicinity cannot participate in person, their enthusiasm for the excavation is still undiminished.
The local TV station also broadcast the excavation site in real time, and the **TV station and ** across the country also reported on the excavation for the first time.
With widespread public attention, archaeologists are eager to complete the excavation as soon as possible. However, even though they had discovered the entrance to the dungeon and conducted a preliminary survey, they were unable to enter the dungeon immediately.
The reason was that they found a huge stone, which happened to be pressed against a cover plate, completely blocking the entrance to the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda and also hindering their progress.
In order to open the underground palace, the archaeologists urgently called in a crane, but encountered unexpected difficulties.
The boulder weighed more than 750 kilograms, and although it had been lifted with a crane, the roller suddenly failed and the boulder fell downward. The people present were shocked, but fortunately, some archaeologists laid steel pipes and wooden planks underneath in advance, which successfully prevented the boulder from falling completely, and the entrance to the underground palace was preserved.
However, the lid of the entrance to the underground palace still cracked as a result. The archaeologists gently pried it, and the cover plate cracked into three pieces. After removing the smaller part of it, they could faintly see what appeared to be a statue in the dungeon through the light above their heads.
With a glimpse, a thousand-year-old treasure appeared. Everyone carefully removed the stone slabs, and finally revealed the hidden secrets of the dungeon. Although the scale of the dungeon is not large, the treasures in front of you are exciting.
The first unearthed cultural relic is a bronze mirror, which is engraved with more than 500 Kaiyuan Tongbao, among which there is a jade, extremely rare, this coin in the middle and late Tang Dynasty is extremely precious.
The focus of everyone's attention is undoubtedly the rusty iron letter. It measures 32 centimeters long, 32 centimeters wide, and 50 centimeters high, and occupies almost most of the space in the underground palace.
Based on the previous excavation experience of the underground palace of Famen Temple, experts speculated that the iron letter may contain a Buddha bone relic sealed with a gold coffin and silver coffin, that is, a "Buddha snail hair".
On March 14, 2001, this special day, the iron letter was finally opened, however, to the surprise of the experts, the golden tu pagoda was the representative of the highest level of craftsmanship of Wu Yueguo at that time, with a height of 35 centimeters and a side length of 126 cm, on all sides decorated with bas-reliefs on the subject of the story of the Buddha himself.
Although there was water in the underground palace, the tower body is still quite well preserved, which is rare in archaeological finds. Through the hollowing out of the tower, the experts were able to get a glimpse of its fine craftsmanship.
Although the treasures in the underground palace are coveted, archaeologists did not take them out easily for the sake of cultural heritage protection. The White Lady was not suppressed, and the Buddhist treasure was not witnessed.
However, the archaeological excavations of the underground palace under the Leifeng Pagoda still satisfied the experts. Such a cultural extravaganza is rare in the world, and it is a great honor to be a part of it.