Great Bao'en Temple
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The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, part of the former Great Bao'en Temple, is a historical site located on the south bank of external Qinhuai River in
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
, China. It was a
pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist, but some ...
constructed in the 15th century during the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
, but was mostly destroyed in the 19th century during the course of the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...
. A modern, full-size replica of it now exists in Nanjing. In 2010,
Wang Jianlin Wang Jianlin (; born 24 October 1954) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the chairman, founder, and majority shareholder of the Dalian Wanda Group, one of China's foremost conglomerate companies, which is also well ...
, a Chinese businessman donated a billion yuan (US$156 million) to the city of Nanjing for its reconstruction. This is reported to be the largest single personal donation ever made in China. In December 2015, the modern replica and surrounding park were opened to the public.


History

The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, originally called the Great Bao'en Temple, was designed during the reign of the
Yongle Emperor The Yongle Emperor (2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Chengzu of Ming, personal name Zhu Di, was the third List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 142 ...
(r. 1402–1424); its construction began in the early 15th century. On 25 March 1428, the
Xuande Emperor The Xuande Emperor (16 March 1399 31 January 1435), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1425 to 1435. He was the son and successor of ...
ordered
Zheng He Zheng He (also romanized Cheng Ho; 1371–1433/1435) was a Chinese eunuch, admiral and diplomat from the early Ming dynasty, who is often regarded as the greatest admiral in History of China, Chinese history. Born into a Muslims, Muslim famil ...
and others to supervise the rebuilding and repair of the temple. The construction of the temple was completed in 1431. It was first discovered by the Western world when European travelers like Johan Nieuhof visited it, sometimes listing it as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. After this exposure to the outside world, the tower was seen as a national treasure by both locals and other cultures around the world. In 1801, the tower was struck by lightning and the top four stories were knocked off, but it was soon restored. The 1843 book, ''The Closing Events of the Campaign in China'' by Granville Gower Loch, contains a detailed description of the tower as it existed in the early 1840s. In the 1850s, the area surrounding the tower erupted in civil war as the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...
reached Nanjing and the rebels took over the city. They smashed the
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
images and destroyed the inner staircase to deny the
Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
enemy an observation platform. American sailors reached the city in May 1854 and visited the hollowed tower. In 1856, the Taiping razed the tower to the ground either in order to prevent a hostile faction from using it to observe and shell the city or from superstitious fear of its geomantic properties. After this, the tower's remnants were salvaged for use in other buildings, while the site lay dormant until later rebuilding.


Description

The tower was
octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...
al, with a base of about in diameter. When it was built, the tower was one of the largest buildings in China, rising up to a height of with nine stories and a staircase in the middle of the pagoda, which spiraled upwards for 184 steps. The top of the roof was marked by a golden pineapple. There were original plans to add more stories, according to an American missionary who in 1852 visited Nanjing. There are only a few
Chinese pagoda A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhism, Buddhist, bu ...
s that surpass its height, such as the still-existent , eleventh-century Liaodi Pagoda in
Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...
or the no-longer-existent , seventh-century wooden pagoda of
Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...
. The tower was built with white
porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...
bricks that were said to reflect the sun's rays during the day, and at night as many as 140 lamps were hung from the building to illuminate the tower. Glazes and stoneware were worked into the porcelain and created a mixture of green, yellow, brown and white designs on the sides of the tower, including animals, flowers and landscapes. The tower was also decorated with numerous Buddhist images. Fragments of the original tower may exist in the Calcutta Museum, presented by the Geological Survey of India, 7 August 1877.John Anderson, ''Catalogue and Handbook of the Archaeological Collections in the Indian Museum'', Part II: Gupta and Inscription Galleries. Buddhist, Jain, Brahmanical, and Muhammadan Sculptures; Metal Weapons, objects from Tumuli, &c. (printed by order of the Trustees, Calcutta, 1883) p.479. A small fragment belongs to the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah, Georgia.


Gallery

File:UB Maastricht - Nieuhof 1665 - Toren.jpg, Early European illustration of the Porcelain Tower, from '' An embassy from the East-India Company'' (1665) by Johan Nieuhof File:Nieuhof-Ambassade-vers-la-Chine-1665 0789.tif, Porcelain Tower, from '' An embassy from the East-India Company'' (1665) by Johan Nieuhof File:Nanking Erlach.jpg, The Porcelain Pagoda, as illustrated in Fischer von Erlach's ''A Plan of Civil and Historical Architecture'' (1721) File:Porcelain Tower of Nanking Model.jpg, alt=Porcelain Tower of Nanjing Model by Tushanwan Orphanage Workshop, 1915 model of the original Porcelain Tower of Nanjing by the Tushanwan Orphanage Workshop.


References


External links

* (English subtitle)
''The Closing Events of the Campaign in China''
by Granville Gower Loch. London 1843.
Great Bao'en Monastery, Architectura Sinica Site Archive
{{coord, 32, 4, 49.26, N, 118, 43, 48.78, E, type:landmark, display=title Towers completed in the 15th century Buildings and structures in Nanjing Tower of Nanjing, Porcelain Demolished buildings and structures in China Towers in China Chinese ceramic works Former towers Yongle Emperor Individual pieces of porcelain Buddhism in Nanjing