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Huo Jianying  

The Mother of All Towers

    The tallest and most magnificent tower in Chinese history is a glazed brick tower in the Dabao'en (Great Gratitude) Temple in Jiangsu's Nanjing. Both the temple and the tower were built by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Zhu Di (1360-1424) in honor of his mother. Zhu Di was an important emperor in Chinese history; he initiated Zheng He's seafaring voyages, sponsored the compilation of the Yongle Encyclopedia, moved the Ming Dynasty capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and constructed the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs, and the Wudang Mountain temple clusters – the last three survived to be included on the World Cultural Heritage list.

    The tragedy behind his mother's memorial is legendary. It is said Zhu Di was Imperial Concubine Gong's premature delivery, a circumstance that led to charges of adultery. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang imprisoned the mother and tortured her to death, discovering only later that the charges were false. The emperor showed regret for his mistake by lavishing favor on Zhu Di, making him Prince of Yan (present-day Beijing). After Zhu Di ascended to the throne himself, he had the temple and pagoda erected in his mother's honor.

    Great Gratitude Temple, which stood for more than 400 years outside the southern city wall of Nanjing, was built to imperial construction standards over a period of almost 20 years. The gems and other decorations on the pinnacle alone were said to have cost 2,000 taels of gold. The tower was octagonal in shape and had nine stories ascending to roughly 78 meters. Wind bells clanged and tinkled on eight iron chains suspended from the pinnacle to the roof ridges. Even more bells hung from each corner of the eaves. Zhu Di named the pagoda "Tower Number One" and put down the three characters in his own handwriting.

    Record-keepers of the time specified that three sets of glazed bricks, tiles and other building components were fired and assembled for the tower. One set was used for the construction, and the remaining two sets were coded and buried as spares for future repairs. In 1958, a large trove of glazed building components bearing ink marks were unearthed nearby, and are now held in the collection of the National Museum of Chinese History in Beijing, Nanjing Museum, and Nanjing Municipal Museum.

    Tower Number One was deliberately destroyed in 1856 during the Heavenly Kingdom Movement. That fall, infighting occurred in the rebel peasant army. The faction inside the city wall blasted the pagoda down to prevent the other side from using the high altitude to bombard the city gate and force it open. Fortunately, detailed and precise historical records of the pagoda survived, and the happy ending is that the municipal government of Nanjing has recently decided to rebuild the tower on its original site.

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VOL.59 NO.12 December 2010 Advertise on Site Contact Us