Yan Temple Wenfeng Pagoda

Yan Temple Wenfeng Pagoda

Yan Temple Wenfeng Pagoda is a cultural relic protection unit of Anhui Province.

Yan Temple Wenfeng Pagoda is located at the former village entrance in the northern suburbs of Yan Temple Town, Huizhou District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province.

Also known as the Water Mouth Pagoda or Yan Temple Pagoda, it has a history of nearly 500 years, and its full view can be clearly seen from the highway leading to the Yan Temple expressway entrance. The pagoda is now a provincial-level key cultural relics protection unit. Yan Temple Wenfeng Pagoda was first built in the 23rd year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (i.e., 1544 AD) and was advocated by a local man named Zheng Zuo. It took fifteen years to complete. Zheng Zuo, styled Shuangxi, was a native of Yan Temple, Huizhou (hence referred to as “a local man,” meaning someone from the area). He was a successful candidate in the imperial examination during the Zhengde Jiaxu year of the Ming Dynasty and eventually held the official position of Right Censor-in-chief of Guizhou. Zheng Zuo indeed devoted considerable effort to building this pagoda. From design to completion, it took 15 years and cost more than 40,000 taels of silver. Each level’s donors were all inscribed and recorded on steles. For just the central pillar of the pagoda, he searched through all the mountains in the county and finally found suitable timber on Dasheng Mountain in Yuting, Yi County. This giant timber, which stood 13 zhang tall, took three full years to fell and transport the hundred or so li to Yan Temple. To cast the gourd-shaped precious vase at the top of the pagoda, he referred to the designs of the Bao’en Pagoda in Nanjing, the Dachan Temple Pagoda in Shaoxing, and the Sizhou Pagoda among others.

In the past, especially during the Qing Dynasty, it was a tradition for people from the surrounding villages to visit the pagoda on the second day of the second lunar month. During the day, the place would be bustling with visitors, and at night, pagoda lanterns would be lit, hanging in a string from the top, creating a colorful display. Whenever there was a grand pagoda-visiting event, the area around the pagoda would become as lively as Beijing’s Tianqiao, with performances such as drum storytelling, acrobatics, magic shows, medicine sellers, street stalls, and various booths. Elderly people who are now seventy or eighty years old still vividly remember the scenes of these pagoda festivals from their childhood.