The Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County
应县木塔
The real name of the Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County, located in Fogong Temple in the northwestern corner of the county town of Yingxian, is Sakyamuni Pagoda. Since it was built completely of timber, it has been known popularly as the Wooden Pagoda of Yingxian County. It is the oldest wooden structure extant in China, and also the tallest among the ancient wooden buildings of the world. The pagoda was constructed during the Liao Dynasty. The Wooden Pagoda, nearly 70 meters high, is 30 meters in diameter and weighs over 2600 tons. Made up of at least 3,500 cubic meters of wood, the pagoda is octagonal in shape and contains nine floors, with four built-in stories not apparent from the outside. Built without the use of nails, the entire structure is solid, imposing, and elegant. Although built entirely with timber, the pagoda has weathered over 900 years of wind and rain, and withstood numerous strong earthquakes and wars. lts been recorded that there had occurred a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6. 5 0n the Richter scale 300 years after the pagoda was built. All the buildings around collapsed but the quake merely shook out some shingles from the pagoda's eaves. All this is due to its unique structure. The pagoda's multi-storey structure has given it the kind of stability resembling those in the modern buildings.lts wood texture is very soft, which won't easily twist under the outside pressure.The many layers also reinforce the pagoda. Since the founding of New China in 1949, the government has dispatched many survey groups to conduct an on-site investigation into the pagoda and great efforts have been made to repair and reinforce the structure. During a repair project in 1974 a number of important and valuable cultural relics were found in the pagoda, including a picture of medicinal herbs and some Buddhist scriptures, all belonging to the Liao Dynasty. The scripture scrolls include both hand-written and block-printed ones, some of which are more than thirty meters long when spread out and can date back to as early as the year 990, 1003 0r 1071. They are regarded as rare treasures both at home and abroad, and provide important data not only for the collating of the Buddhist scriptures but also for the research of development of the printing technology and cultural exchanges among different nationalities in China. The temple is also widely extolled as an outstanding example of Chinese architecture.
应县木塔地处应县县城西北的佛宫寺内，真名释迦塔。因完全由木料建造，人们一般习惯称其为应县木塔。它是我国现存年代最古老的一座木构建筑，在世界古代木构建筑中也是最高的。木塔建于辽代，近70米高，底层直径30米，总重为2600多吨。整个木塔至少使用木料3500立方米，呈八角形，共九层，其中内有四级暗层，从外部很难看出。整个木塔建筑没有使用一钉一铆，结构坚实、气势恢弘，样式别致。尽管完全由木制建造，该塔却经受住了900多年的风雨侵蚀，多次的强烈地震和战争。据记载，该塔建后300年，该地区曾发生里氏6.5级强震，震塌了周围所有建筑，但却仅仅震落了塔檐的几片木瓦。木塔的多层结构确保了其结构的稳固性，这堪与现代建筑相媲美。所选用的木料质地柔软，在外力作用下不易变形。木塔的多层结构也对其起到了稳固作用。1949年新中国成立后，政府多次派遣勘测组对该塔进行实地勘测，为修复和加固该塔做出了很大努力。在1974年的一次修复工程中于木塔中发现大量珍贵文物，其中包括一幅药草图以及一些佛教经卷，均属辽代。这些卷轴中有写经刻经，其中一些展开后有30多米长，历史可追溯到990年、1003年或1071年，在国内外堪称稀世珍品，不仅为佛教经卷的整理也为中国印刷技术和各民族间文化交流的发展研究提供了重要资料。应县木塔作为中国建筑的杰出典范广为世人称赞。