Mengcheng Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda

Mengcheng Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda

The Mengcheng Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda is a national key cultural relics protection unit.

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda, also known as the Flower-inserting Pagoda, Xinghua Temple Pagoda, or Cishi Temple Pagoda (as there was a Xinghua Temple here during the Song Dynasty and a Cishi Temple in the Yuan Dynasty), is commonly called the "Mengcheng Brick Pagoda." It is a national-level cultural heritage site, initially built in the first year of the Chongning era of the Northern Song Dynasty (1102), though some say it dates back to the Tang Dynasty. It is located southeast of Mengcheng County. The pagoda has 13 levels, is 38.6 meters high, with a base circumference of 24.3 meters. Each level has 8 gates—4 real and 4 false. The positions of doors and windows on levels 1 to 7 are the same, but from level 8 upward, they rotate and shift in position with each level. The eaves of each level are adorned with various decorative patterns. The top of the pagoda is fitted with an iron spire, and each corner of the eaves has a hanging bell. The interior and exterior of the pagoda are inlaid with over 1,300 colored glazed bricks in ochre, yellow, and green. Each brick is carved with three Buddha figures—the central one being Shakyamuni, the left one Kasyapa, and the right one Ananda. A few bricks have only a single Buddha figure. In total, there are more than 6,000 Buddha images, which is why the pagoda is widely known as the "Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda."

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda has four distinctive features: First, it has an octagonal floor plan, with the first level of the pagoda body being particularly tall—the lower half is solid, while the upper half is all trapezoidal, with the main entrance located on the upper half of the northern side. Second, the pagoda is built in the pavilion style, with the second, third, and fourth levels featuring balconies supported by lotus petals instead of traditional bracket sets (dougong), making it both elegant and simple. Third, the internal structure of the pagoda varies considerably, using a mix of through-style, corridor-style, inner-wall spiral, and solid-core construction methods. Fourth, the inner and outer walls of the pagoda are covered with Buddha-image bricks, making it the Song Dynasty pagoda with the most Buddha images inlayed. The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda has no base or foundation platform. The first level has gourd-shaped columns, while the second and third levels have column capitals with entasis. The door lintels are all shaped like a jade tablet corner, and the bracket sets each have double-branched floral brackets. The window patterns include diamond shapes, spherical vertical grids, diagonal grids, and tortoise-back motifs. The entire pagoda is exquisitely designed and finely crafted, holding significant value for the study of ancient architectural history. A poet of old wrote: “The towering pagoda’s shadow brushes the clouds and rosy clouds; thirteen stories reflect the slanting sun. When the cranes nest, the wind begins to rise, and the ringing of bells echoes through thousands of homes.” The “Pagoda with Inserted Flowers” is one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Mengcheng.

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units