The Big Wild Goose Pagoda

 Situated in the Da Ci’en Temple, about four kilometers from the urban center, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda ( also called Da Ci’en Temple Pagoda) is one of the famous Buddhist pagodas in China.

   Originally built in 589 A.D. in the Sui Dynasty, the temple was named the Wulou Temple. In 648 A.D., Emperor Li Zhi, the still a crown prince, sponsored a repair project on the temple in memory of his mother, Empress Wende. It then assumed the present name the Da Ci’en Temple( the Temple of Thanksgiving). The emperor was said to pay homage to the temple twice a day (in the morning and at dark) by looking in its direction from the Hanyuan Palace. The temple consisted of 1,879 magnificent rooms and was a place of grand extent in the Tang Dynasty. However, it went into gradual decay after the downfall of the Tang Dynasty. The halls and rooms that have survived the ages were actually built in the Ming Dynasty.

  The Tang Regime gave orders to build a chamber for the translation of Buddhist scriptures and appointed the widely renewed Master Xuan Zang (Monk Tripitaka) the head of the temple.

Xuan Zang

   Xuan Zang was both a great translator and traveler. At the age of 28 in 628 A.D., he went to study Buddhism in India. He spent 17 years doing research into Buddhism in various places. Later in spite of many hardships, he covered a distance of 50,000 kilometers and returned to Chang’an in 645 A.D. with 657 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. His “Travels in the Western Regions” was based on what he had witmessed in about 128 countries and regions. He recorded their geographic locations and customs. His works provide an important source of information for the study of the history and geography of these regions. Wu Cheng’en, famous novelist the Ming Dynasty, wrote a novel about Xuan Zang’s experience in his search of the Buddhist truth. The book is one of the the four most famous novels in the history of Chinese literature. Xuan Zang translated one of the Chinese Classic “Lao Zi” into Sanskrit and introduced it to India. He was indeed a great contributor to the Buddist cultural exchanges between India and China in ancient times.

  On the day when he moved into the temple, the imperial court held a ceremony of unprecedented grandeur for him. The procession consisted of 1,500 decorated chariots. On the same day, all the monks from the capital followed the procession, holding bunches of flowers and incense burners in their hands, and reciting passages from Buddhist Scriptures. Civil and military officials and the Emperor’s body guards also followed the master into the procession. Even the Emperor and his whole royal family stood on the city gate tower, burnt incense sticks, and respectfully watched the procession. Later, the Emperor selected hundreds of renowned scholars and Buddhist monks to help Xuan Zang in his endeavor to translate the Buddhist scriptures that he had brought back from India.

  Xuan Zang stayed in the temple for 12 years and translated 1,335 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. In praise of the “Master’s dedication to Buddhism, Emperor Tai Zong Wrote “ an introduction to the Sacred Teaching of Monk Tripitaka of the Great Tang Dynasty”, follow by Crown Prince Li Zhi’s “Note on the Introduction to the Sacred Teachings of Monk Tripitaka of the Great Tang Dynasty”. Chu Suiliang, a famous calligrapher of th Tang Dynasty, inscribed the two texts on the stone tablets on both sides of the south gate to the ground floor of the pagoda.

  The Big Wild Goose Pagoda

  In 652 A.D., Xuan Zang proposed to the court that a pagoda should be built inside the temple to store the scriptures and statues that he had brought back from India. The Emperor readily agreed with him, and raised funds by selling the things left behind by decreased court maids. Master Xuan Zang was so pleased that he designed th pagoda and moved stones and bricks to the construction site.

  The two fierce-looking stone lions before the front gate of the temple stand there as if they were two sentinels guarding the place.

   The five-story pagoda, 60 meters high, was brought into completion in 652 A.D.. Owing to the decay of its rammed earth and bricks, the pagoda increased to ten stories when it was under reconstruction from 701 to 704. However, the winds of war in the years to come brought the pagoda almost to ruins, which in turn resulted in the construction of a seven-storey structure with a height of 64 meters. This storied pagoda is an architectural marvel. It was built with layers of bricks but without any cement in between. The dou gong (bracket) style in traditional Chinese architecture features the construction of the pagoda. The seams between each layer of bricks and the so-called “prisms” on each side are clearly visible. The pagoda is characterized by its towering height, structural compactness, imposing appearance and unaffected style. It is indeed a good reflection of people’s wisdom and talent in ancient China.

   The Heavenly King and the Buddha in line drawings appear on the door frames and horizontal bars on the four sides of the pagoda’s base. They are vividly portrayed in smooth lines and show a high level of workmanship. They serve as an important source of material for the study of paintings and sculptures of the Tang Dynasty. Out of these artistic works, the one on the horizontal bar of the west door is most precious. It is a rare piece of art now used for the study of the Tang architecture.

  There is an interesting story about the name of the pagoda. It is said that Master Xuan Zang once stayed in a Mahayana temple in India. In fact, there are two major sects of Buddhism in India, the Mahayana and the Hinayana. The Mahayana believers are vegetarians while those of the Hinayana are non-vegetarians. Near the temple where he stayed, there was a Hinayana temple. One day, a monk was just worried about the shortage of meat in the temple. But it happened to be the General Alms Day of the Buddha, another monk looked up at the sky and sighed, “Our beloved Buddha, the Great and Merciful, will not forget what it is today!” At these words, a flock of wild geese flew over the temple. The head goose dropped dead to the ground. The monks were all puzzled by this, and they concluded that this must be the result of the Buddha’s spirit at work: to provide them with the wild goose. Ever since then, the monks of the temple became vegetarians and began to believe in Mahayana Buddhism. They also set up a pagoda where the wild goose dropped dead, and called it the Wild Goose Pagoda. The Wild Goose Pagoda that greets us today was actually modeled after its Indian prototype. It was given the same name in memory of Xuan Zang and in praise of Buddhism. After about half a century, the pagoda at the Jianfu Temple is smaller than the Wild Goose Pagoda, it is often called the Small Wild Goose Pagoda.

 The Bell Tower and the Drum Tower

  Inside the temple where the pagoda is situated, there are two small buildings. The one on the east side houses a bell, and the one on the west houses a drum. The bell, cast with iron in the Ming Dynasty, weighs 15 tons. Together with the drum, the bell was used to strike time for the monks in the temple.

The Great Hall of the Buddha

  In side the Great Hall of the Buddha in the temple, there are three incarnations of Sakyamuni. The one in the middle is called Fashen Buddha. The one in the west is called Baoshen Buddha, and the one on the opposite side is called Yingshen Buddha. Sakyanmuni, the founder of Buddhism, was prince of the Kingdom of Dapila in India. He was born in 565 B.C., and died in 486 B.C.. He was an approximated contemporary of Confucius in China. Sakyamuni left home in search of monkhood when he was 29 and achieved his purpose at 35. He then spent the rest of his life travelling in India and preaching his principles. The figure on the east side, beside the three incarnations of the Buddha is Jia Ye, one of the ten great disciples under Sakyamuni. The one on the other side is Ahnan, Sakyamuni’s cousin. He served Sakyamuni for 25 years as one of his 10 great disciples. Along both sides are the 18 arhats, who were also Sakyamuni’s disciples. Arhats are the highest ideal position in Hinayana Buddhism.

The Doctrine Chamber

 This is the Doctrine Chamber where the Amitabha Buddha is worshiped. He is in charge of the Western Paradise. At the word of the Amitabha Buddha, one will be led to the Paradise upon his death. Therefore, the Amitabha Buddha is also called the Buddha of Guidance. On the wall at the east side of the chamber, there are three rubbings. The one in the middle is called “Xuan Zang on his Way Back to Chang’an”. With rolls of scriptures on his back, a pair of straw sandals on his feet and an oil lamp on top of the rolls, Xuan Zang is making his way to the capital. Beside the portrait of Xuan Zang, there are pictures of Yuan Ce and Kui Ji, two of his disciples. Yuan Ce was from Xinluo (present day Korea); Kui Ji was the nephew of the famous general YuChi Gong of the early Tang Dynasty. Judging from the social status and background of the disciples who followed him, Xuan Zang proved to be a renowned figure during his day.

Inscription on the Big Wild Goose Pagoda

  In the Tang Dynasty, every successful candidate who passed the imperial examination would climb up the pagoda and write poems and inscriptions to indicate that he would have a soaring career in the future. The famous pooet Bai Juyi once wrote, “Here under the Ci’en Pagoda, I inscribe my name as the youngest of the seventeen candidates”. He revealed his pride and happiness when he became successful at a young age. The fashion of writing poems and leaving inscriptions on the horizontal bars over different doors and their stone frames by the successful candidates went on as far as the Ming Dynasty. These poems and inscriptions have survived till this day as a fine mirror of the city’s past. Now let us do what those successful candidates did: climb the pagoda and enjoy the sight of the old capital. But the pity is that we cannot inscribe our names and our poems on the pagoda as those successful people did long ago!