Moon tower

Moon tower

Moon tower, also known as shipin tower and Faji tower, is located in Tangji, Lianshui County, Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province. It is one of the national key cultural relics protection units of the people's Republic of China.

On March 25, 1982, it was awarded as a cultural relic protection unit in Jiangsu Province. In May 2013, it was awarded as a national key cultural relic protection unit. It is an ancient building and historical memorial building.

allusion

According to the records of Yongzheng Anton county annals, "Faji Temple goes to rule 75 Li", "Faji tower is outside the Mountain Gate of Faji temple. There are three pagodas: the left contains the Buddha's teeth, the right contains the Buddha's bones, and the southwest contains the relic. It's level seven. There's a door. It was rebuilt in the 34th year of Wanli. In the east of the temple, there is Tongji Bridge, with four characters of "master of mind" carved in stone. ''

It can be seen that there used to be a large-scale Faji temple in ancient Liandong. Faji pagoda, that is, this month pagoda, is only one of the Three Pagodas in the temple.

According to the local people, Faji temple is indeed generous. It is located in Dingliang in the front, Houying in the back and Zhongying in the middle. There are front hall, back hall and middle hall respectively. According to this statement, the length of the temple is about 15 kilometers from north to south. No wonder there is a saying that "paomaguan anmen" in the local area. Of course, word of mouth may not be true, but Zhongying's Zhongda hall still existed until 1946 and was demolished and used by the democratic government of Liandong county.

Local people also said that there are three main halls with long corridors, and the pillars are too thick for one person to hold. No one has made it clear when the front and back halls were damaged.

legend

It is not clear when the moon tower was built, or even which dynasty. Local legend: "in the early Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin led his troops to Faji temple during his eighth uncle's eastward expedition. Later, he was wounded in the battle and died in Faji temple. Li Shimin ordered Yuchi Jingde to build a tower in the temple as a memorial. "According to this, there was a temple first and then a tower, and the temple existed in the early Tang Dynasty, and the tower was built in the early Tang Dynasty. Among the uncles (including expenses) of Li Shimin, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, only Li Shuliang, King Changping, died after being wounded in the battle, and he died on the way to the road after fighting with Turks in the fourth year of Wude of the Tang Dynasty (621).

As for another legend, "the tower built by my sister-in-law", it is purely a work of folk literature and art, so it should be placed.

artistic value

Although the moon tower has many unsolved mysteries, it is still of high ornamental and research value as a Millennium Monument and special architectural art.

In the book essence of Chinese ancient pagodas, there is a special record of Jiangsu Lianshui moon pagoda. The full text is as follows: "the tower is octagonal in plane. It may have seven stories in that year, but now there are six stories left. It is 24 meters high. It is also a tower of Pavilion style. This tower has no base, only its simple base. On the first floor, the pagoda is very high. There are two folded door openings (GUI shaped) in the East, West, North and south sides. The pagoda is smooth and has no decoration. The eaves of the pagoda are decorated with single arched brackets. Except for the corner, there are two on each side. This is a common phenomenon in Song pagodas. The eaves are very short, and the corner beams are made of stone bars. Because the eaves of the tower are broken, there is no need for flat seats. On the second and third floors, there are four openings of doors and windows on all sides of the tower body, and the other four sides are flower windows, which are roughly similar to the structure of the first floor. The fourth floor is mullion; the fifth floor and the sixth floor have been destroyed. The inner part of the tower is "folded in the wall". This tower, according to the door and window openings and the style of Dou Gong, is a Song Dynasty tower.

other

In 1982, the people's Government of Jiangsu Province approved the moon tower as a cultural relic under provincial protection.

In 2013, it was listed as a national cultural relic protection unit.

Address: yueta village, Tangji Town, Lianshui County, Huai'an City

Longitude: 119.58089637756

Latitude: 33.919848140472