Quzhou Wenfeng Pagoda

　　Wenfeng Pagoda was first built in the Song Dynasty, renovated in the Ming Dynasty, and rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. It stands atop Wenbi Peak (Pagoda Mountain) in the southern part of Tianma Town, within the campus of Changshan County No. 1 Middle School. On October 26, 1982, the county government designated it as a county-level key cultural relics protection unit.

　　According to the Guangxu-era “Changshan County Annals,” “Wenfeng Pagoda” is located on the mountaintop to the southeast of the county. It was built by Magistrate Su Wangbi in the 1168th year of the Qianlong reign (Qing Dynasty), renovated by Magistrate Tang Sanping during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, collapsed on May 19 of the 12th year of the Jiaqing reign in the Qing Dynasty, and was rebuilt on the 18th year by Magistrate Chen Sheng with the help of local gentry. It was named “Wenfeng Pagoda” because it was meant to “influence the literary culture of the entire region” and was built at the peak of a mountain.

　　Wenfeng Pagoda is a hexagonal, seven-story brick pagoda in the pavilion style, standing 29.5 meters tall. Its stone-built Sumeru pedestal foundation is solid and sturdy, consisting of four layers of bluestone slabs. Each level of the pagoda has three sides with arched doorways and the other three sides with false windows. Every level features corbelled eaves and upturned flying corners, with floral-basket decorations on the corner pillars. The spire and its disks are all well-preserved.

　　The pagoda is graceful and elegant, with a beautiful design. The second level’s false windows house an inscribed stone tablet commemorating the Jiaqing-era reconstruction of Wenfeng Pagoda. Originally, there were structures near the pagoda such as Jizhen Taoist Temple, Banxian Pavilion, and Kuixing Pavilion. Among these, Banxian Pavilion has been repurposed, while Jizhen Taoist Temple and other ancient buildings no longer exist.

　　Speaking of Wenfeng Pagoda, there is still a popular local legend circulating in Changshan County: It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, Yan Song, a scholar from Fenyi, Jiangxi—who later rose to the position of Chief Grand Secretary (equivalent to a prime minister)—passed through Changshan on his way to the imperial examinations in the capital. Exhausted, hungry, cold, and ill from the long journey, he collapsed at the Temple on Pagoda Mountain. Upon hearing the news, Grandma Zhan, who lived at the foot of the mountain, believed this was the fulfillment of a dream she had the previous night about a “black dragon coiling around the pagoda.” She thought this destitute scholar would one day become a high-ranking official. So, Grandma and Grandpa Zhan discussed it and sent people to carry Yan Song back to their home, where they arranged for medical treatment and cared for him attentively. Deeply grateful, Yan Song earnestly asked the elderly couple to adopt him as their foster son and pledged that if he ever achieved success, he would repay their life-saving kindness. As the couple had no children of their own, they happily took him in as their own. Before long, Yan Song recovered fully. With the imperial exams approaching, he bid farewell to his adoptive parents and continued on to the capital. They even gave him traveling funds for the journey. Later, Yan Song indeed passed the highest level of the imperial examination, was selected for the Hanlin Academy, and appointed as an Inner Cabinet Scholar. From then on, Yan Song rose swiftly in power, monopolizing authority, colluding with treacherous factions, persecuting loyal officials, taking bribes, and bringing disaster to the nation and its people. Grandma and Grandpa Zhan gradually distanced themselves after witnessing his misdeeds. True to form, Yan Song was eventually impeached for his many crimes, stripped of his office, and reduced to begging. When he returned to Changshan, some of the local beggars recognized him as Yan Song and worked together to crush him to death under a mud wall. Yan Song’s journey—from falling into hardship in Changshan, rising to power through the area, and ultimately meeting his end there—embodies the old saying, “A life of evil will bring self-destruction.” This folk legend of the “Black Dragon Coiling the Pagoda” adds a layer of mystique to Wenfeng Pagoda.