Shoufeng Pagoda

Shoufeng Pagoda

Shoufeng Pagoda is a cultural heritage protection unit of Fenghua District.

Shoufeng Pagoda, located atop the easternmost peak of Tashan Mountain in Jiangkou Subdistrict, Fenghua City, was designated as part of the third batch of municipal-level cultural heritage protection units by the Fenghua Municipal People's Government in February 1987.

Shoufeng Pagoda is a multi-story brick-and-stone pavilion-style pagoda, octagonal in shape with seven levels, standing 22.20 meters tall. Below the pagoda is a circular base, 0.23 meters above ground level. It has an octagonal pedestal, shaped like an inverted basin, standing 0.50 meters high. The upper part is constructed with four layers of stone slabs, reaching a height of 0.85 meters. The bottom three layers each have a taper of 0.02 meters. The fourth layer connects to the brickwork above. The base has a diameter of 6.80 meters, with each face measuring 2.55 meters. The pagoda body is hollow, with a central brick pillar connecting to all four walls. Each level features a waist eave made of bricks, using a double-layered dentil pattern with a projection of 0.30 meters. Each corner has a carved stone upturned eave resembling an elephant’s trunk. Many of these have been damaged, with only 13 remaining intact. Each waist eave is topped with two layers of flat-laid bricks, all featuring a taper. Except for the base level, which lacks niches, every face of each level from the second up has niches (known as "kanmen"), with the same shape on each level but differing between levels.

The pagoda was initially built during the Later Tang Dynasty, rebuilt in the eighth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1529), and reconstructed again in the 20th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1840) by the then scholar Zhou Fan and local gentry such as Zhou Buying and Zhu Qisan, who raised funds to rebuild it following the Ming Dynasty’s original design. Two steles inside the Qingjing Nunnery beneath the pagoda today document these events—one commemorating the Ming Jiajing reconstruction and the other the Qing Daoguang rebuilding. The pagoda underwent renovation in 1989.