The Five Dynasties Underground Chamber of Pagoda Leifeng in Hangzhou

The Five Dynasties Underground Chamber of Pagoda Leifeng in Hangzhou Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Antiquity and Archaeology Keywords: Pagoda Leifeng site underground chamber Pagoda A oka The site of Pagoda Leifeng 雷峰 refers to the deposited ground structure originally built in the last years of ruins of Pagoda Leifeng after its collapse on September Wuyue State during the Five Dynasties is in mint 25, 1924. It is located on the smooth hill, east of Hill condition. Xizhao 夕照山, to the south of the West Lake in I. A Brief Survey of Pagoda Leifeng Hangzhou 杭州. It is 60 m long from north to south and 45 m wide from east to west, 9–11 m above ground. In The ruins of Pagoda Leifeng compose of the 1997 Zhejiang Provincial government declared it as one pedestal, the sub-staircase, the pagoda body and the archaeological site under provincial protection. underground structure. The pedestal, octagonal in profile, According to historical records, Pagoda Leifeng measures 43 m in diameter, 17 m in side length. Its main was originally built by Qian Chu 钱 , the king of body is a platform of sterile soil shielded by brick-and- Wuyue State at the end of Five Dynasties. From Song stone structure 1.2–2.5 m above ground. The 5.8-m- Dynasty to the end of Ming Dynasty this pagoda had wide sub-staircase has four square column footings of twice suffered severe damage. In the third year of 1.2–1.5 m in side length deposited on each side, amount- Xuanhe 宣和 reign period during Huizong 徽宗’s reign ing to 24 pieces altogether. In the center of the east and in the Song Dynasty (1121), the pagoda courtyard and west sides of the pedestal is a flyer leading to the sub- the wooden structure of the pagoda itself were burned staircase. The pagoda body, octagonal, 25 m in diameter, down during war. In the Southern Song Dynasty from 3–5 m in remaining height, is a sleeve type ambulatory the seventh year of Qiandao 乾道 reign period in Em- structure composed of the outer jacket, the winding peror Xiaozong 孝宗’s reign to the first year of Qingyuan corridor, the inner jacket and the core chamber. The 庆元 reign period in Emperor Ningzong 宁宗 ’s reign inner and outer jackets are all made up of bricks with full-scale maintenance was done to this pagoda, includ- yellow mud sticking them together. The exterior wall of ing the restoration of some partly-damaged structure. At the outer jacket is 10 m in side length. A door stands in the the end of Ming Dynasty, Pagoda Leifeng suffered a center of each wall. The winding corridor is 1.8–2.3 m second damage and only the brick core of the pagoda wide, at each corner of which is a column-shaped hole remained. No reconstruction was done henceforward. 0.3–0.4 m in diameter and 1.6 m in depth. The core In order to aid the reconstruction of Pagoda Leifeng, chamber is located in the center of the inner jacket, Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Antiquity and Archae- 4.5–5.3 m in diameter (Fig. 1). ology made an excavation of this site in two stages with The peripheral ruins rebuilt in the Southern Song the approval of the State Administrative Bureau of Dynasty and later times include monks’ dwelling and Antiquity. The excavation lasted from February 2000 to roads, located to the north and south of the pagoda July 2001 and covered an area of 4000 sq m. pedestal. As for the northern structure, three stone The excavation reveals that the pedestal and the column footings and some brick-paved ground of 2 m in sub-staircase are roughly complete, the bottom layer of width still remains, probably the peripheral winding the pagoda is in fairly good condition and the under- corridor to the pedestal. In the southern section, only Volume 3 19 山体基岩 N 外围遗迹砌石排水沟石砌基座柱础副阶坍塌块体北门坍塌块体柱洞柱洞柱洞外围遗迹柱顶石柱顶石地宫塔踏门道门道心门道门道步室外套筒回廊内套筒内套筒回廊外套筒砖砌散水坍塌块体石砌基座坑塔身南门副阶柱础坑塔基坑外围遗迹道路 0 5 M Fig. 1 Plan of the site of Pagoda Leifeng two stone column footings and some stone-paved ground The bricks with inscription of the Buddhist scriptures remain. The paved ground is of three bays in area, are of the same specification, only with a round hole of probably the ground of the monks’ dwelling. To the 10 cm in depth and 2 cm in diameter on one end. The southwest side of the pedestal is a brick-paved road, 12 round tile-ends bear impressed plants patterns such as m in remaining length and 1.7–1.8 m in remaining lotus, peony, lotus leaves, and chrysanthemum. The width. dripping stones are mostly of the double-lipped type and The unearthed artifacts from this site include archi- the animal-shaped ornaments are mainly in the shape of tectural materials, stone scriptures, Buddha images and lions. The stone Buddhist scriptures are of different size, so on. Most of them belong to the Five Dynasties period 1100 pieces in total number, with dozen thousand in- while a small quantity may be ascribed to the Southern scribed Chinese characters. As for the Buddhist scrip- Song Dynasty and later. The commonest architectural tures inscribed, the majority are 80 types of Dafang material is the rectangular tower brick 37 cm in length, Guangfo Huayanjing 大方广佛华严经, newly rendered 18 cm in width, and 6 cm in thickness with inscriptions by monk iksananda during Empress Wu Zetian’s 武则 on one end. There are more than 160 types of such 天 reign. A minority of the scriptures are Jingang bricks, with the home town, name and year of birth of the Banruo Poluomijing 金刚般若婆罗蜜经 translated by donator impressed on them, such as“吴甲俞荣,”“沈 Yao Qin 姚秦 and Kumárajiva during the Sixteen States 甲朱福,”“周甲金德,”“官,”“王,”“天下,”“西关,” period. Apart from these, the fragmentary stele with the “辛未”(971), “酉” (973), “壬申” (972) and others. inscribed Huayanjing Ba 华严经跋 composed by King 20 Chinese Archaeology Qian Chu of Wuyue State is also discovered. The N inscription of this stele may be checked with that re- corded in Xianchun Lin’anzhi 咸淳临安志. As for Bud- 北门 dhist artifacts, they are of different textures, such as 柱洞 gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and pottery. The un- 塔心 earthed items include Pagoda A oka made of pure 室 silver, square stone pagoda, small statues made of gold and bronze and statues of Bodhisattva, arhat, guardian spirit of Buddhist monastery, and monks. Since they 东门 resemble distinctive style of the Tang and Five Dynas- 西门柱洞地宫 ties period and were retrieved together with coins such as“Kaiyuan tongbao 开元通宝”and“Qianyuan tongbao 乾元通宝,” they must have been donated at the beginning of the construction of Pagoda Leifeng. II. The Underground Chamber and Unearthed Artifacts The underground chamber is just below the core 南门 chamber in the center of the pagoda pedestal and covered by the pedestal in the beginning of the construction 塔心室地坪 work. It was never opened afterwards. To be more specific, the underground chamber is located 2.6 m 柱柱 below the paved bottom of the core chamber and sealed 塔身 with a square limestone slab 0.92 m in side length and 洞洞 0.13 m in thickness, over which are piled earth 0.3 m in height and a top stone 1 m in side length and 0.2– 0.4 m 夯土填顶石 in thickness. The underground chamber is a shaft- 盖板 shaped single square chamber made of brick, 0.6 m in 土 side length and 0.72 m in depth, coated with lime, paved with three layers of brick. From the slit between bricks 地宫 are retrieved a piece of gold-coated silver pin and 20 01 M “Kaiyuan tongbao” bronze coins and one yansheng 厌胜 coin with the design of dragon and phoenix on both Fig. 2 Plan and elevation of the underground chamber of Pagoda sides (Fig. 2). Leifeng There are 51 pieces or sets of artifacts (numbered up to 77) retrieved from the underground chamber. In the center of the underground chamber is an iron case, Locapatas. On the bottom slab of the iron case are beneath which are thousands of various types of bronze deposited tidily a hollowed-out silver padding coated coins mingled with beads, jade coins, jade tortoises, with gold, a square bronze mirror round in corners, a bronze mirrors, onyx ornaments and silver armlets. In silver box coated with gold circled by a complete silver the crack outside the iron case are bronze coins, bronze girdle coated with gold. Inside the silver box are a mirrors, lacquer bracelets, bronze Buddha coated with gourd-shaped glass bottle in light green and Pagoda gold, silver girdle, jade Avalokite vara, jade boy servant, A oka harboring a gold coffin. wooden seat coated with gold, textiles, and scriptures, The unearthed artifacts may be divided into 10 most of which are placed on the Sumeru Seat inside the categories according to their texture: iron case, gold and iron case. On the wall behind the main Buddha are stuck silver wares, bronze wares coated with gold, jade wares, round hollowed-out ornaments resembling the solem- onyx ornaments, lacquer wooden ware, bronze mirrors, nity of Buddhism. In the same position on the other three bronze coins, glass bottle and beads, textiles,and walls are stuck small Buddha images, and images of scriptures.

Load more