This 1,200-year-old tower healed my inner exhaustion

After leaving Yuncheng Museum, we headed straight to the first stop of this Yuncheng ancient visit - the Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda. Every time I go to Shanxi, I am amazed that every village in Shanxi has treasures, and this low-key Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda hidden in the suburbs of Yuncheng is one of the best. · It is said that from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, China built more than 100,000 pagodas, and there are thousands of ancient pagodas still existing across the country. But among the thousands of ancient pagodas, only the Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda is a rare round Tang Dynasty brick pagoda still existing in my country. ​ · The day we went there, the village was under road construction, so we had to park our car on the main road and then walk in. Sibeiqu Village, where the Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda is located, is not much different from most villages in Shanxi. The low-rise bungalows and the elderly people left at the door look somewhat lonely. I thought the ancient pagoda would be in the core of the village, but I didn't expect to walk all the way to the end of the village before I finally saw the national protection monument. I pushed the door into the courtyard and finally encountered this 1,200-year-old legendary ancient pagoda. · The Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda was built in the second year of the Changqing reign of the Tang Dynasty (822). At first glance, it looks a bit simple and has almost no complicated carvings. The tower consists of three parts: the base, the body and the top. The base of the tower is circular, tapering slightly from bottom to top. The lower part of the tower is a waisted Sumeru pedestal, and above it is the tower body. There are 8 square brick columns around it, dividing the tower body into 8 rooms. There is a door on the south side. The tower room is hexagonal with a stepped caisson on the top. There are broken lattice windows on the southeast and southwest sides. · The most precious thing about this tower is that the inscription on the back of the tower is still intact. The text is read backwards from left to right and most of it is still legible. It records the life of Zen Master Fanzhou and the process of building the pagoda. It turns out that Zen Master Fanzhou was not an ordinary person, but a descendant of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and could be considered a member of the royal family. At that time, he was invited by Qu Huan, the famous Tang Dynasty general and governor of Jinchang County, to preach at Baoguo Temple. After Master Fanzhou passed away in the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793), Qu Huan built a stupa for him, namely the Master Fanzhou Pagoda. · It is sad to say that the Baoguo Temple was so grand in those days, but it eventually disappeared in the long river of history. Only the Fanzhou Zen Master Pagoda has been preserved. Standing under the tower, there was a moment when I suddenly felt less anxious... After all, it still stands after 1,200 years of dynasty changes and historical changes, and my troubles are just an insignificant speck of dust in the vast years. · 🏠Name | Fanzhou Zen Master Tower 🎫Tickets | Free ⛳Address | At the site of Baoguo Temple in Sibeiqu Village, Yanhu District, Yuncheng City 🚗Transportation | Just follow the self-driving navigation to "Fanzhou Zen Master Tower"