塔子山百年古塔的老龙门阵

□ 文、图/本刊记者 杨艳

塔子山百年古塔的老龙门阵

□ 文、图/本刊记者 杨艳

古城重庆，修建了不少宝塔，通远门附近有菩堤金刚塔；黄桷垭的文峰山之巅有文峰塔；鹅岭山上有瞰胜楼；磁器口宝轮寺内有古塔；照母山上有览星塔……据统计，重庆现存塔楼2 0 0余座，修建时间跨度从南宋至民国，这些古塔各具风姿，如群星点缀在喧闹都市或山巅峰顶，气势壮观。每座塔的背后总有一段故事，本期就来说说江北塔子山上百年古塔的龙门阵。

寻古问幽塔子山

江北区寸滩溉澜溪长江边的塔子山上，有一座砖石结构的文峰塔，屹立于此至今已百余年。随着塔子山公园景观工程的开工，塔子山文峰塔修缮工程也即将启动。记者从江北区文管所获悉，这座于2000年被列为重庆市文物保护单位的文峰塔预计于今年9月动工，明年5月完工，届时，古塔将对外开放，成为重庆人又一个登高望远的好去处。

江北区北滨一路有一道掩映在密林中的石梯可以直达塔子山，记者沿着蜿蜒的石梯拾级向上，穿过郁郁葱葱的树林，不久便来到塔子山文峰塔前。这座塔别名白塔，建于1888年，塔高约26米，距离江边约200米，坐北向南，七级楼阁式设计，底层用条石砌成，塔身用青砖砌成，塔顶为六角攒尖顶，塔身呈六边形，每一层各有一扇小窗，呈螺旋式布局于塔身。

文峰塔，寓意文运昌盛，历经百年光阴，依旧气质雅致，古韵犹存。据江北区文管所工作人员刘晓梅介绍，文峰塔的塔砖为修建者专制的塔砖，每匹砖烧制有“文峰塔”“戊子岁”字样，塔门额上有“题名胜迹”字样目前还清晰可见。门内券顶刻有“大清光绪十四年戊子岁孟夏吉旦”“三里士民东恭建”等字，在最高的7层塔顶匾额上刻有“能默厚德”4个大字。文峰塔石壁上刻有《重修文峰塔记》的碑文，记载了这座塔的修建沿革及原因。据记载，塔子山文峰塔是在百年前的废塔基上重新修建的，最早由何人修建，语焉不详。

① 文峰塔同正在修建的塔子山公园项目形成有机的整体。② 站在塔前，朝天门大桥、“朝天场帆”、重庆大剧院尽收眼底。

③ 文峰塔的塔砖为修建者专制的塔砖，每匹砖烧制有“文峰塔”“戊子岁”字样。

1986年，江北区人民政府公布文峰塔为区级文物保护单位，1996年10月30日被定为重庆市文物保护单位，2000年9月7日被审定为重庆直辖市文物保护单位。1999年江北文管所对文峰塔进行了一次基础加固和外观修缮的工作，塔内原来每层铺有楼板，沿梯而上可达塔顶，时隔多年，楼桴、地板都已损毁，外部表面和部分题刻皆成齑粉，字迹早已模糊不清。

① 塔门额上刻有“题名胜迹”字样。

② 2 0 0 0年文峰塔被审定为重庆市文物保护单位。

三塔不见面 共守重庆城

重庆谚语曰：“三塔不见面，九子不出沱。”是关于“三塔”的传说，此三塔指江北塔子山文峰塔、南岸黄桷垭文峰塔、下浩莲花山林中的觉林寺报恩塔。其中，江北塔子山的白塔与南岸黄桷垭的白塔同为文峰塔，于是也被称为“兄弟塔”。

所谓“三塔不见面”，是指在任何一座塔上，无法看到另外两座塔。传说，清朝年间，在溉澜溪江边出现一条作恶多端的孽龙，时常兴风作浪，盘踞在朝天门一带，令船只无法通行，从湖广一带船运上来的物资无法运达，需要远行的人也无法乘船出去，严重扰乱了老百姓的出行。于是，一名云游四海的道士到此“降龙”。

原来这条孽龙是由草绳修炼成精而化为龙形，为了牢牢镇压住这条孽龙，当地人在道士的指点下修建了这三座塔，分别镇压龙头、龙身、龙尾，塔子山下所镇的就是龙头。为了防止孽龙复活，这三座宝塔各处一方，永远看不见对方。传说，若是任两座塔能互相对望，这条孽龙将复活，重庆城将江水猛涨，汛涝成灾，百姓将受苦受难。

③ 文峰塔屹立于塔子山已有百余年。④ 塔前可俯看溉澜溪新貌。

⑤ 北滨一路有一道石梯可直达塔子山。

然而，民间对于传说中的三塔还有另一种说法。《中国名城掌故丛书》里提到“三塔不见面”指的是南岸境内的三座宝塔：文峰塔、报恩塔、下浩卵石塔。卵石塔早在清朝时立于龙门浩的石梁上，现在已被江水淹没。究竟哪个传说为真？难以证实，却耐人寻味。“传说让这座文峰塔披上一层神秘面纱，表达了重庆人对和谐生活的寄予，这么多年来，这座白塔已成为重庆独特的人文风貌。”刘晓梅说，塔子山文峰塔具有重要的文物价值。

一盏行船航标 一段墨宝

古塔属这个城市难得的文化遗产，蕴藏着丰富的文化底蕴。百年文峰塔，不仅是这座城市的人文景观，实际上其背后还具有一定的实用价值。

“从前，行船走水路的船帮们只要在船上望见长江北岸塔子山上的这座高耸挺拔的白塔，便知晓重庆城到了。”刘晓梅说。位于长江朝天门下游北岸的文峰塔，与江面的距离约200米，处于较显眼的高位，又因地处水陆交通要冲，于是曾作为行船的标志。但凡乘船来重庆，看到白塔就意味着重庆已是一箭之遥，朝天门也遥遥在望。

当年山上芳草萋萋，山下江水汩汩，白塔在江边矗立百年，临风而立，颇有一番文雅的娴静，成为这方圆百里的一道亮丽的风景线，也曾吸引不少文人墨客登临揽胜。

《江北厅志》中有记载，清代诗人程衡就曾于此写下《溉澜溪访友》一诗：

“果然此地绝风尘，几欲相求已暮春。竹里遗荪摇风尾，溪水小浪织龙鳞。到来恰见如珪月，坐久浑忘卖药人。却知当年杜陵老，寒山无伴语津津。”

期待重新焕发旧日光彩

由于年久失修，以及文峰塔建筑材料自身的缺陷，自然破坏等原因，文峰塔的外墙墙体略有破损，塔内的楼梯楼板也荡然无存。塔门被封多年，将随修缮工作的展开而被重新开启。

据刘晓梅透露，文峰塔的修缮保护工程根据江北区文化委提出的“三个一批”—保护一批、修缮一批、利用一批的思路，将进行内部结构的恢复、外部的修缮以及亮化工程。以“不改变文物原状”为原则，尽可能地利用原有材料，保存原有的构件，使用原有的工艺对其进行修缮保护，并对塔内的木楼梯进行修缮复原。对古塔外墙的修缮将对空鼓、脱落的部分进行修复，并进行做旧处理。修缮工作比上一次修缮工作将更加细致。

此外，塔子山公园目前已进入施工建设阶段，建设项目包括景观舞台、登山步道等，整体工程预计今年年底竣工。文峰塔将同正在进行修建的塔子山公园项目形成有机的整体，届时，古塔重新焕发旧日光彩，古风古貌得以延续。

记者站在塔前远眺，视野无比开阔，位于长江、嘉陵江汇合处的重庆大剧院、“朝天扬帆”尽收眼底，南岸弹子石一带高高低低的建筑拔地而起，左右两座气势如虹的大桥—大佛寺大桥与朝天门大桥相映生辉……待塔修缮完毕后，登上塔顶，俯观两江胜景，景色将更加恢弘。

A lot of ancient pagodas were built in Chongqing, also an ancient city, including the Bodhi King Kong Pagoda near the Tongyuan Gate; Wenfeng Padoda on the top of the Wenfeng Mountain in Huangjueya; Kansheng Tower on the Eling Mountain; the ancient pagoda in the Baolun Temple in Ciqikou; Lanxing Pagoda on the Zhaomu Mountain... According to the statistics, there are more than 200 existing pagodas in Chongqing with a construction time ranging from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Republic of China. Those magni fi cent ancient pagodas with their own unique charm intersperse among the noisy city or on the top of mountains like stars in the sky. As each pagoda has a story to tell, this issue is going to talk about the old stories of centuries-old pagoda on the Tazi Mountain in Jiangbei District.

Seek the historic site and a refined place on the Tazi Mountain

The Wenfeng Pagoda made of bricks and stones stands on the Tazi Mountain beside the Yangtze River in Kailanxi, Cuntan, Jiangbei District for more than a hundred years. With the start of the landscape project of Tazishan Park, the renovation work of Wenfeng Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain will also be launched. Our journalist had learned from the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Relics that Wenfeng Pagoda, listed as a historical and cultural site under government protection in Chongqing in 2000, will be renovated in September this year. Since the renovation work will be fi nished in May 2018, the opening of Wenfeng Tower will become another good choice for Chongqing people to climb mountain and enjoy a distant view.

There is a stone staircase hidden in the jungle to the Tazi Mountainon Beibin Rd., 1st, Jiangbei District. Our journalist climbed along the winding stone staircase and reached to the Wenfeng Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain after walking through the wild profusion of woods. This pagoda, also named White Pagoda, was built in 1888. It is about 26 meters high and 200 meters from the river. Sitting to the south, this 7-floor pagoda is of pavilion style and the bottom was built by stones and body by black bricks. Its top is shaped into hexagonal pavilion roof and body into hexagon. With one window on each layer, the body is decorated by those window spirally.

Wenfeng Pagoda with its name meaning the fl ourishing literature has gone through more than one hundred years and is still of elegant temperament and archaic charm. According to the introduction of Liu Xiaomei, an employee of the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Relics, the bricks of Wenfeng Pagoda were speciallymade by the then constructor. Each piece is fi red the characters meaning “Wenfeng Pagoda”, “Wu Zi Sui”(25th year of the Sexagenary Cycle). The horizontal inscribed board over the door of pagoda is written the“Cultural Site”, which is now still visible. The inside of the door is engraved with “大清光绪十四年戊子岁孟夏吉旦”(which means the year of 1834), “三里士民东恭建” and etc. The inscribed board on the top of the 7- fl oor pagoda is inscribed with four Chinese characters which mean “ability, silence, honest, kindness”. The inscription of the rebuilding of Wenfeng Pagoda carving on the stone wall had recorded the constructing evolution and reasons of this pagoda. According to the records, Wenfeng Pagoda was rebuilt on the foundation of an obsolete pagoda about one hundred years ago and the constructor of this obsolete pagoda was barely mentioned.

The People’s Government of Jiangbei District announced that Wenfeng Pagoda was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in the district level in 1986, the cultural relic protection unit of Chongqing in the city level on March 19, 1992, and the cultural relic protection unit of Chongqing Municipality on September 7, 2000. In 1999, the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Relics of Jiangbei District had conducted the work of foundation reinforcement and renovation to the Wenfeng Pagoda. The each layer of the original pagoda was paved with wooden fl oor and the ladder could reach to the top. After many years, the floors were all damaged. Since the external surface and the inscriptions were all into pieces, the writing was blurred and invisibility.

Three pagodas defend the city of Chongqing separately

An old saying of Chongqing goes, “Three pagodas defend the city of Chongqing separately, nine sons will not sail out of the inlet.” The legend of “three pagodas” mainly implies the Wenfeng Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain in Jiangbei District, Wenfeng Pagoda in Huangjueya in Nan’an District and Bao’en Pagoda of Juelin Temple in the Lotus Forest in Xiahao Street. Among which, since the White Pagodas both in Jiangbei District and Nan’an District are named Wenfeng Pagoda, they are also known as “brother pagoda”.

The so-called “separately” means that people cannot see another two pagodas from any of the pagodas. It is said that an evil dragon appearing beside the Kailanxi River made a lot of troubles. As the dragon raised winds and waves around the waters of Chaotianmen that ships couldn’t pass through it. So did the materials shipping by the boats from Hu’nan and Hubei. People who had to set out for a long journey couldn’t take the ship. Thus the evil dragon had seriously disturbed people’s travel. Therefore, a traveling Taoist priest came to this place to beat the dragon.

It turned out that the evil dragon was practiced from a rope. In order to firmly suppress the evil dragon, the local people built the three pagodas under the guidance of the Taoist priest to separately suppress the head, body and tail. The Wenfeng Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain was built to sti fl e the head of the dragon. Just in case of the resurrection of the evil dragon, three pagodas were built separately and could never see each other. It is said that if any two of them could see each other, this dragon will rise to raise the water and cause the flood and people in Chongqing will suffer from those disasters.

However, there is another saying of “three pagodas”among the people. The Series of Anecdotes of Famous Cities in China has mentioned that “three pagodas”refers to the three pagodas in Nan’an District including Wenfeng Pagoda, Bao’en Pagoda and Luanshi Pagoda in Xiahao Street. Luanshi Pagoda was built in the Qing Dynasty on the stone bridge of Longmenhao and was fl ooded by the river. Today it is hard to prove which one is true, but the stories are intriguing. “The Wenfeng Pagoda was covered with a mysterious layer by those legends. But they all express people’s hope for a harmonious life. The Wenfeng Pagoda has become a unique cultural landscape in Chongqing for so many years.” Liu Xiaomei said, “Wenfeng Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain is a cultural relic with an important value.”

A navigation mark and a value piece of calligraphy

The ancient pagoda with a rich cultural background is a rare cultural heritage in this city. The centuries-old Wenfeng Pagoda is not only the humanity landscape in this city, but also of a certain practical value.

“Once upon a time, once the boaters had saw the towering White Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain on the north shore of the Yangtze River, they would know that city of Chongqing was not far.” Liu Xiaomei said. As Wenfeng Pagoda is located on the north shore of the downstream of Yangtze River around Chaotianmenand 200 meters from the river, the prominent high location made it a navigation mark for the boats. Whenever a ship comes to Chongqing, to see the White Pagoda means that Chongqing is within a stone’s throw and Chaotianmen is not far.

At that time, the grass on the mountain was luxuriant and the water beneath the mountain was gurgling. The White Pagoda stood beside the river for hundreds of years against the wind. What a gentle and quiet picture! This pagoda had become into a beautiful scenery nearby and thus attracted many writers and poets.

The Annuals of Jiangbei had recorded that Cheng Heng, a poet in Qing Dynasty had written a poem at this place named “Visit Friend in Kailanxi”:

“Indeed this place is secluded from the secular matters and it is late spring when I fi nally visit this place. The aromatic plant in the bamboo forest is still swinging itself and the little waves of the brook seems like the dragon scales. When I arrived here, the moon was high in the sky; Sitting for a long time that I even forgot the drug seller. But I know that when Du Fu was old, he was alone in the mountain but still enjoyed himself.”

Looking forward to the glory of the past

Due to the disrepair as well as the shortcomings of the building materials of Wenfeng Pagoda and natural damage, Wenfeng Pagoda’s exterior wall was slightly damaged while the wooden floor of the staircase is also gone. As the pagoda is sealed for many years, it will be reopened for the upcoming renovation work.

According to Liu Xiaomei, the renovation and protection project of Wenfeng Pagoda is based on the “Three Steps” proposed by Culture Committee of Jiangbei District including “Protection, Renovation and Utilization”. Restoration of the internal structure and external renovation and lighting engineering will be carried out. On the principle of “do not change the original status of cultural relic”, they will use the original materials as far as possible, conserve the original components, use the original techniques to conduct the preservation and protection and repair the wooden staircase. The renovation of the external wall will focus on the restoration of hollowness and shedding parts. The renovation work will be more detailed than the last renovation.

In addition, Tazishan Park has now entered into the construction stage. The construction projects including the landscape stage, hiking trails and etc., are expected to be completed by the end of this year. Wenfeng Pagoda and the construction of Tazishan Park will form an organic whole. At that time, the ancient pagoda will regain its past glory and the ancient appearance will be continued.

When the journalist stood in front of the pagoda, the vision expanded. You can have a panoramic view of“Sailing to the Sky” and Jiangbei Grand Theater on the con fl uence of the Yangtze River and Jialing River. Those high and short buildings in Danzishi, Nan’an District, raise from the ground. Two magnificent bridges—Dafosi Bridge and Chaotianmen Bridge on both side of those buildings add radiance and beauty to each other. After the repair, looking down from the top of pagoda, the scenery of the two rivers will become more magni fi cent.

The Old Stories of Ancient Pagoda on the Tazi Mountain

Article, Pictures/Journalist Yang Yan