Yunmeng Wenfeng Pagoda

Yunmeng Wenfeng Pagoda

Wenfeng Pagoda is located on Zhenzhu Slope in the eastern part of Yunmeng County. Because it stands just a hundred steps from the county town, it is known as the “Hundred-Step Pagoda.” Merchants from other regions who traveled great distances to Yunmeng for the white cloth market would see the top of the pagoda in the distance and know they were nearing the town. Thus, the name “Hundred-Step Pagoda” was phonetically transformed into “White Cloth Pagoda.”

The pagoda is constructed of brick and wood, with a regular hexagonal shape, three stories, and a height of 3 zhang 6 chi. Its spire points directly toward the sky, and the top bears two large characters: “Ying Kui” (映奎). “Kui” refers to the Kui star constellation. This constellation consists of 16 stars arranged in curved, hook-like patterns resembling the strokes of Chinese characters, thus symbolizing literature and scholarly fortune — commonly known among the people as the Star of Literature. The presence of these two characters on the pagoda makes its purpose quite clear.

The construction of Wenfeng Pagoda was indeed related to the scholarly fortunes of Yunmeng. Although Yunmeng was just a small county, during the early Qing Dynasty, its performance in imperial examinations ranked among the best in De’an Prefecture and even in Hubei Province. The enrollment scale of Confucian schools in Yunmeng was upgraded during the Kangxi era from a primary school (with 20 Confucian students) to a secondary school (with 30 students), and then exceptionally expanded to a tertiary school (with 40 students) during the Yongzheng era. Within 150 years from the founding of the Qing Dynasty to the end of the Qianlong era, Yunmeng produced 22 successful imperial examination candidates at the jinshi level. After the Jiaqing era, Yunmeng’s scholarly fortune began to decline somewhat. But in the 13th year of the Daoguang era, Yunmeng saw two jinshi candidates in a single year: one named Peng Yuanhai and the other named Dai Qisong. The simultaneous rise of these two local scholars was undoubtedly a powerful shock to the local officials and gentry, who believed that Yunmeng’s scholarly fortune was about to revive. In the spring of the 14th year of Daoguang (1834 AD), the De’an Prefecture appointed Xiang Ying, a waiting appointment as Tongpan (a provincial official rank), to serve as the magistrate of Yunmeng. Responding to public sentiment and aiming to revive the county’s scholarly fortune, this magistrate decided to build a fengshui pagoda. Under his advocacy and leadership, local funds amounting to 300 taels of silver were raised, and Wenfeng Pagoda was constructed next to the Dongyue Temple on Zhenzhu Slope in the eastern part of the county town.

During the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Wenfeng Pagoda was destroyed. In 1998, the county government rebuilt the Hundred-Step Pagoda in the Eastern Park of the county town.