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Vincent Lim Sui-leong prays for the
endurance of the Buddha Dharma at 1000-year-old Yingxian
Pagoda, and muses on emptiness nature and dependent origination while
admiring its intricate structure.
As we approached Yingxian County, 75km
south of Datong (大同), we caught our first glimpse of the pagoda from afar: it looks
plain ordinary, to be frank. Upon drawing near though, the pagoda unfurls
its wonders. The stately Yingxian Pagoda (应县木塔), built in 1056 during the Liao dynasty, is the oldest wooden
pagoda in China, a masterful piece of structural engineering that looks
sturdy enough to stand for another millennium. Soaring 67.31m high and
octagonal in plan, it has nine internal storeys,
though only six layers of eaves are discernible from the outside. You are
allowed to climb only as far as the second storey, but it is definitely
worth paying the hefty entrance fee of 60 yuan
for a closer look.
The first storey is taller than the rest, with extended eaves
held up by columns forming a cloister around a mud-and-straw wall
sheltering an impressive 11-meter-tall standing Buddha (left). If you think
that the Buddha looks foreign with his bronzed complexion, facial hair and
stretched-out earlobes, you are right. This particular rendition of the
Buddha is characteristic of northern ethnic groups, especially the Khitan (契丹), who came to power during the Liao dynasty (916- 1125 AD).
Though originally animists, they increasingly embraced Buddhism starting
from the reign of Emperor Shengzhong (辽圣宗). I prostrated to, and circumambulated the imposing figure
three times, recalling the Sixth Zen Patriarch's comment in the Platform
Sutra that "Though people may be distinguished as Northerners and
Southerners, there is no difference in Buddha Nature among them".
During a recent renovation, a cache of treasures was found buried
underneath the pagoda, including Buddhist sutras printed using woodblocks
dating back to Liao dynasty------ a testament to the presence of
sophisticated printing technology in ancient China,
400 years before Gutenberg introduced movable type printing in Europe.
Now, for an even more marvelous fact: the 1000-year-old wooden
pagoda was originally constructed without a single nail, and has survived
not one but seven major earthquakes! Though the pagoda appears solid and
unitary from afar, it appears as an aggregation of beams, pillars and
wooden brackets upon close examination------ empty in nature and
dependently originated (缘起性空). The ceilings and walls of the spacious internal halls are
networks of beams held together with huge, intricate wooden brackets, called
dougong (斗拱), of which there are fifty-four different kinds. Interlocking,
with their ends smoothened into curves and layered one on top of another,
these impart a burly, muscular appearance to the pagoda. The use of
multiple layers of dougong also allows the
structure to have a certain degree of elasticity when subjected to the
assaults of strong winds and earthquakes. According to historical records,
the pagoda stood firm during a particularly severe earthquake which lasted
for seven days in Yuan Dynasty. Though the region has also been recently
afflicted by major earthquakes originating from the neighboring provinces
of Hebei and Inner Mongolia, the wooden pagoda did not sustain any
significant damage.
I was delighted to be able to examine the pagoda at close
quarters, and had a rather propitious feeling about this, as if it
signifies that the Dharma (which it was built to represent) would remain
for a long time to come. Inspired by what I have seen, I composed the
following poem in Chinese.
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