Baisigou Square Pagoda (Chinese ) was a brick
pagoda in
Helan County,
Ningxia,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, built during the early years of the
Western Xia
The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...
dynasty (1038–1227), ''circa'' 1075–1076. It is situated in an isolated location about 10 km into the Baisigou Valley on the eastern side of the
Helan Mountains
The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains in older sources, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia's Alxa League and Ningxia. They run north-south parallel to the north-flowing Yellow River in ...
, northwest of
Yinchuan
Yinchuan (, ; ) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and was the capital of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its built- ...
, but may have been the site of an important Buddhist temple during the Western Xia. The pagoda was illegally destroyed in 1990; archaeological investigation of the ruins has uncovered a large number of
Tangut artefacts and Buddhist relics, including books and manuscripts written in the
Tangut language
Tangut (Tangut: ; ) is an extinct language in the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Tangut was one of the official languages of the Western Xia dynasty, founded by the Tangut people in northwestern China. The Western Xia was annihilated by the Mongo ...
and
script
Script may refer to:
Writing systems
* Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire
* Script (styles of handwriting)
** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
.
Investigation of the ruins of the pagoda
On 28 November 1990 a local peasant discovered that the pagoda had suddenly collapsed, and when the Ningxia police investigated they discovered that the pagoda had been blown up by unknown criminals, apparently with the intention of stealing any historical relics inside the pagoda. The pagoda was reduced to rubble, with only a fragment of the northwest corner left intact.
Local archaeologist Niu Dasheng (牛達生) (b. 1933), who worked at the
Ningxia Museum
The Ningxia Museum () is a museum in Jinfeng District, Yinchuan, Ningxia
Ningxia (,; , ; alternately romanized as Ninghsia), officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR), is an autonomous region in the northwest of the People's Rep ...
, thought that there may be cultural relics at the pagoda, or even an underground chamber like the one found at
Famen Temple
Famen Temple () is a Buddhist temple located in Famen town (), Fufeng County, 120 kilometers west of Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. It was widely regarded as the "ancestor of pagoda temples in Guanzhong".
History
Han dynasty
One theory, supported b ...
after its pagoda semi-collapsed in 1981, therefore he organised an expedition to carry out an archaeological investigation of the site and to clear the rubble. In addition to archaeologists, his team included two police officers who were investigating the crime, and twenty or so soldiers from a unit of the
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...
who were to help move the rubble. In August 1991, after receiving permission from the
State Administration of Cultural Heritage
The National Administration of Cultural Heritage (NCHA; ) is an administrative agency subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China. It is responsible for the development and management of museums as well a ...
, Niu's team headed off to the site of the ruined pagoda, which was several hours from the nearest road, and could only be reached by foot, with donkeys carrying their equipment. The team lived in caves near the pagoda for the duration of the expedition, but there was no source of drinkable water nearby, and so bottled water had to be transported in by donkey.
![吉祥遍至口和本续封面](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/%E5%90%89%E7%A5%A5%E9%81%8D%E8%87%B3%E5%8F%A3%E5%92%8C%E6%9C%AC%E7%BB%AD%E5%B0%81%E9%9D%A2.jpg)
On the sixth day the team uncovered a large number of historical artefacts dating to the
Western Xia
The Western Xia or the Xi Xia (), officially the Great Xia (), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as ''Mi-nyak''Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts and Tibetans, was a Tangut-led Buddhist imperial dynasty of China tha ...
period (1038–1227), including:
* coins;
* wooden knives;
* pieces of silk cloth;
* woodblock Buddhist prints;
* miniature moulded clay sculptures of
stupa
A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation.
In Buddhism, circumamb ...
s;
* a bag containing Buddhist relics and fragments of bone;
* miniature moulded clay sculptures of Buddhas (over 5,000 pieces);
* a handwritten
scroll
A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.
Structure
A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus ...
5.74 m in length written in
cursive
Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
Tangut characters;
* more than thirty printed books and manuscripts in both
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and Tangut;
* wooden tablets inscribed in ink with Tangut characters (datable to the period 1102–1114).
These objects were all concentrated in an area about 2 m in diameter, underneath about 1 m of rubble in the centre of the ruins, and were mixed in with earth, branches, bird carcasses and bird skeletons. The archaeologists determined that the artefacts had been housed in chambers occupying the tenth and twelfth stories of the pagoda, and that as these chambers had an opening to the outside on the south side they had thus been used as a roost for birds.
The books and manuscripts comprised both religious texts (Buddhist
sutra
''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...
s) and secular texts, including the first known collection of Chinese poetry written by Tangut poets. The most important text discovered was a printed edition in nine volumes of a previously unknown Tangut translation of a Tibetan
Tantric Buddhist text and commentaries entitled the ''
Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union
The ''Auspicious Tantra of All-Reaching Union'' ( Tangut: ''Gyu̱²-rjur¹ Źji²-njɨ² Ngwu²-phjo̱² Mər²-twẹ²'', translated into Chinese as ''Jíxiáng Biànzhì Kǒuhé Běnxù'' 吉祥遍至口和本續) is the title of a set of nin ...
'',
which has been identified as being the earliest known example of a book printed using
wooden movable type.
Construction of the pagoda
![Baisigou Square Pagoda posts 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Baisigou_Square_Pagoda_posts_1.jpg)
After excavating the base of the pagoda, archaeologists were able to determine that the pagoda was built during the Western Xia dynasty, during the reign of
Emperor Huizong (reigned 1067–1086), not during the Ming dynasty as was previously thought. The primary evidence for the date of construction of the pagoda comes from an ink inscription in Chinese on a section of the central supporting pillar made of pine wood which was discovered in the ruins (there is also an ink inscription in Tangut, but that is largely illegible). The Chinese ink inscription is dated the 5th month of the cyclical year ''yinmao'' 寅卯 in the 2nd year of the Da'an era (1076). ''Yinmao'' is not a valid cyclical date, and is thought to be a mistake for ''yimao'' 乙卯, however ''yimao'' corresponds to the first year of the Da'an era (1075). Therefore, it is thought that the pagoda must have been constructed in 1075–1076.
A wooden tablet with ink inscriptions in Tangut on both sides records repairs made to the pagoda during the reign of
Emperor Chongzong (reigned 1086–1139) between the 13th and 23rd days of the 5th month of the 13th year of the Zhenguan era, i.e. 27 June to 7 July 1113 in the Julian calendar.
Excavation of the pagoda base indicated that the pagoda was originally thirteen stories in height, not eleven as it had previously appeared to be, as the lowest two stories had been covered up by mudslides over the centuries.
There was also no specially built foundation platform underneath the pagoda, as is usually the case, but it was built on a foundation of broken stones. The pagoda was solid inside, with a wooden central supporting pillar that was grounded in a depression 1.4 m in circumference and 2.1 m deep at the bottom of the pagoda. Although the pagoda was solid, there were small, square rooms built into the third, tenth and twelfth stories, with windows on the south side. Matching false windows were built into the south side of all the other stories.
Investigation of the surrounding area showed that there was a large Western Xia site to the west of the pagoda, from which archaeologists recovered pieces of tile ends, roof sculptures, and guttering, some of which was glazed in green or blue. As the ''Laws of the Western Xia'' specify that red, green and blue glazed tiles are only permitted for use in temples or palaces, these remains are thought to come from a Buddhist temple associated with the pagoda.
Although the pagoda is now in a very isolated location, the mouth of Baisigou Valley is guarded by two Western Xia pagodas, and there are a large number of Western Xia sites with broken pottery, bricks and tiles all along the valley leading up the square pagoda, and so Niu Dasheng has suggested that the temple and pagoda at Baisigou were an important religious site during the Western Xia. The name Baisigou (拜寺沟) means "Valley of the temple" in Chinese. There are no known historical records of the pagoda, but Niu speculates that this was the site of the Temple of Five Platforms Mountain (Wutaishan Si 五台山寺), named after the famous Buddhist mountain,
Wutaishan
Mount Wutai, also known by its Chinese name Wutaishan and as is a sacred Buddhist site at the headwaters of the Qingshui in Shanxi Province, China. Its central area is surrounded by a cluster of flat-topped peaks roughly corresponding to the c ...
, in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
.
Gallery of artefacts and texts found at the pagoda
File:Baisigou Square Pagoda Chinese Buddhist sutra A.jpg, Chinese printed Buddhist sutra
File:Baisigou Square Pagoda Chinese Buddhist sutra B.jpg, Chinese manuscript Buddhist sutra
File:Baisigou Square Pagoda Sanskrit woodblock print.jpg, Woodblock print with Sanskrit text
Notes
Footnotes
Further reading
* 2005. Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. ''Bàisìgōu Xīxià Fāngtǎ'' 拜寺沟西夏方塔
he Western Xia Square Pagoda at Baisigou Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe.
{{Western Xia topics
Buddhist temples in Ningxia
Pagodas in China
Tangut history
Western Xia architecture
11th-century Buddhist temples
11th-century establishments in China