The
Big Wild Goose Pagoda,
located in Ci’en Temple,
is about 4 kilometers
south of Xian City. In
648 AD Tang emperor Gao
Zong (Li Zhi), then
still a crown prince,
had it built to memorize
his mother. The Temple
then obtained its name
Da Ci’en Temple, meaning
the Thanksgiving Temple.
According to the
records, the temple,
with more than 10
courtyards, contained
1,897 marvelous chambers
altogether.
Taken Chenwei as his
popular name, Monk
Xuanzang was a very
famous Buddhist Master
and the founder of
Faxiang sect of
Buddhism. He went to
India to research the
Buddhist doctrines in
629 AD (the 3rd year of
Zhenguan period), and
then he came back in 645
AD with 657 volumes of
Buddhist scriptures. In
the temple, he
translated 74 volumes in
1,335 chapters of the
Buddhist scriptures into
Chinese. He was the best
one of the four famous
translators of Buddhist
scriptures, because his
translations were the
largest in quantity, the
best in quality and the
greatest in influence.
In praise of the
Master’s dedication to
Buddhism, Tang Emperor
Tai Zong wrote "An
Introduction to the
Sacred Teachings of Monk
Tripitaka of the Great
Tang Dynasty". When this
temple was completed,
Tang Emperor Xuanzong
invited the Monk to be
the headmaster
immediately. In order to
protect the Buddhist
Scriptures, Monk
Xuanzang asked for a
pagoda to be built. He
designed the pagoda like
a wild goose as he saw
in India. So this pagoda
was called the Wild
Goose Pagoda in memory
of the famous Monk. It
was a five-storeyed
pagoda when it was first
built. It was added to
10 storeys in 701 AD
(during the years of Wu
Zetian’s regin in
Chang’an) when it was
rebuilt, with a wooden
stairs leading to the
top inside. Nobody knew
the reason (no record)
why the pagoda became 7
storeys until today.
The Tablet of "Sacred
Teachings of Monk
Tripitaka of the Great
Tang Dynasty", prefaced
by Tang Emperor Tai Zong
himself and carved by
Zhu Shuiliang, a famous
calligrapher, still can
be seen inside the
pagoda. There have been
over ten earthquakes
over 7 degree in the
past 1300 years since
Tang Dynasty in
Guanzhong Plain. But
now, the Big Wild Goose
Pagoda is still standing
there firmly after so
many earthquakes. It
shows the ancient
people’s wisdom and
talent in architecture. |