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Small Wild Goose Pagoda - Xiaoyan Ta
General Introduction
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is situated just about 1 kilometer south of
Xi'an City in the grounds of Jianfu Temple, outside the southern gate
of Ming Dynasty Chang'an. Same as the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, it was in
the equal position to the importance as a landmark in Xi'an, capital of
the Tang Dynasty. As for its name origin, it is clearly to see, due to
smaller size and later tim e building than the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.
Its name was just following the big one.
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda was constructed in 707 of the Tang Dynasty,
which shows a lot of the typical ancient architectural features in the
period of Tang Dynasty.
Architecture
Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a fifteen-storied temple with a special multi-eave,
square and brick structure. Its height is 46 meters when it was first
established, but with the broken steeple through years, it lowered to
43.3 meters. Its large base and the first floor measured 11.38 meters
long each. There are two doors on the north and south sides on the ground
floor made of black stone and two windows instead on other floors. Carved
on the lintel are images of arhats and designs of grasses, their excellent
workmanship reflecting the artistic style of the early Tang Dynasty. Also
another typical feature in Tang Dynasty construction that the pagoda becomes
narrow as the increasing of the floor. In other words, the eaves are formed
by designs in the shape of chevrons and fifteen tiers of overlapping bricks,
each tier wider than the one below, thus making the eaves curve inward,
a characteristic of multi-eave pagodas in the Tang Dynasty. In the first
five stories it tapers very little, but from the sixth story up, it reduces
dramatically, giving the pagoda a smooth curved outline. The tubular interior
of the pagoda has wooden flooring and a winding flight of wooden steps
leading to other stores, what are not for climbing up.
Still there exists weakness, such as the windows on each floor that would
reduce the firmness of the pagoda. It is exactly the reason why the pagoda
spit up into two pars in a later earthquake. The fracture was so wide
that it looked like windows, and people passing by could see it dearly.
In 1521, the last year of the Zhengde period of the same dynasty, another
quake occurred and the crack was miraculously closed. People traditionally
called it "Magic Healing", Shen He in Chinese.
Magic Bell
In one of the courtyard stands a large bell of 4.5 meters high, 7.6 meters
in diameter along the outside rim and weighs about 10 tons. Its set-up
could be traced back to the year 1192 of Jin Dynasty. There is a interesting
legend contributed the name of "Magic Bell". Once there is somebody
missed his beloved living far away from him, could write down their names
on a piece of yellow paper and send a message by the very sound of the
Bell. Therefore, the "Morning Bell Chimes of the Pagoda" became
one of the eight famous scenic features in Shaanxi.
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