Hongjue Temple Tower

About 1990, my friends and I rode south to Zutangshan to the second mausoleum of Nantang.

After seeing the second mausoleum, I came out of the gate, turned right, stepped on a narrow ridge, and soon climbed a barren slope; Standing on the barren slope is this lonely stupa, Hongjue Temple Pagoda.

Hongjue Temple Tower was built in 503 AD, and was built by Liang Dui in the Southern Dynasties for two years. Originally called "Buddha Cave Temple Tower", later called "Hongjue Temple Tower". In order to avoid Honglifang in Qing Dynasty, it was renamed "Hongjue Temple Tower".

With the change of dynasties and wars, the tower of Hongjue Temple has experienced many vicissitudes. 1600 years later, the pagoda we see now is not the original "Buddhist Temple Pagoda", but the reconstruction in the early Ming Dynasty. If we can travel through the early Ming Dynasty, we will be shocked by the exquisiteness and grandeur of the Hongjue Temple Tower carved with beams and painted buildings. However, at 1990, what I can see and feel is really nothing but the cruelty of time, the weakness of things and endless fear.

Standing at the bottom of this ancient pagoda, I can't find a place to climb. There are no steps, no handrails, only eight walls, barely supported by broken bricks eroded by the wind. I really don't see any eight sides. In my eyes, these corners have become uneven pieces, which may collapse at any time and become a pile of ruins.

Looking up along the broken wall, you can see the top of the tower at a glance; By 1990, any material structure that once existed in the tower disappeared, leaving only the convex and concave walls visible to the naked eye. 199 1 year, following 1956, the Nanjing Cultural Relics Bureau conducted a second survey of the Hongjue Temple Tower, reconfirming that there were as many as 70 "patronizing here" on these broken walls in the Ming and Qing Dynasties; But because these "trips here" are distributed between the third and seventh floors of the tower, it is impossible for me to "meet" any of them.

1993, Nanjing invested heavily in rebuilding this tower, and based on the tower of Hongjue Temple, it rebuilt Hongjue Temple in the form of 57 halls. It is said that Hongjue Temple has now become a Buddhist holy place in the southern suburbs of Nanjing, with strong incense, so that people close to them can go there to pray.

Thirty years later, I can still ride my bike for dozens of kilometers to Niushou, but now I'm too lazy to go back to the city, let alone go to Zutangshan again. Of course, the most fundamental reason for not going is the nostalgia for that year. "It's better to miss each other than to meet each other", which is the same for people and things.

The above picture was taken at 1940. The Hongjue Temple Tower I saw was far less "healthy" than it was at 1940. Although the Hongjue Temple is even more dilapidated 50 years later, in my eyes, this is the real ancient pagoda, which can bear the treasures of Jinling 1500 years of ups and downs.