1850.
Pagodas in and near Canton.
543
He had fixed the limits of the ground, when a god appeared to him in a dream and told him to make the place broader; so he made it 45 cubits broad; on digging, he came to an ancient well, and found nine rings spread around the wall just where he had measured to build, and a huge tripod in which were discovered three swords and a mirror shining as bright as a newly buried Bud- ha's tooth; under these the foundations of the old pagoda were recognized. He collected laborers and procured tiles, and raised it 207 cubits, calling it the Tsing Wei monastery and Thousand Budhas' Pagoda. In the reign of Sh&ushing (A.D. 1095), the minister Sú Tungpo coming here called the monastery the Six Banians; and in 1374, half of it was taken down to erect a granary ; two years after, the abbot Kienyü built a Budhist temple on the east side of the pagoda, and changed the gate of the monastery to the east, ordering the priest Kin-pien to fast there very strictly. At present, the monastery receives the rental of about 240 acres. Next to the Kwang-háu sz3, or Bright Filial monastery, this is the most ancient in Canton.'
(4
A native friend tells me that the banians mentioned in this notice still exist, but I suppose this assertion is to be taken like the legend given of the mulberry tree near Cairo, under which the Virgin rested when she came into Egypt from her flight out of Judea—namely, that other banian trees stand where they did; for since the famous poet 86 Tungpo came to Canton, it has been sacked twice, and almost burned to ashes. These trees are, I think, cherished for the sake of the poet, and it is pleasant to find that in China too, genius can hallow spots in the eyes of posterity. The Hwá táh is a good deal out of repair, and the citizens are no longer allowed to ascend it as formerly to enjoy the prospect, lest accidents occur.
"These five are all the pagodas visible when ascending the Pearl river, but according to the saine work from which I have before quoted, there are fifteen others in this department alone, of which I have seen only the one near Hiángshán town, a lofty spire nearly 200 feet high perched on a hill fully 500 feet above the river, and forming one of the most conspicuous objects in th it region. On asking a na- tive friend the reason why none have been built during the present dynasty, he says the fung-shui doctors, or geomancers, now decry them as bringing ill luck, and that they have gone out of fashion in these days. People now erect wan táh☀ or literary pagodas, three stories high, and dedicate them to the God of Literature, whose image is usually found enshrined in them. This, he remarks, indicates the literary taste of the present day, but I tell him I think it proves the poverty and want of spirit of the people nowadays to be content with a wan pik or mere writing-pencil, which these are modeled after and usually called, while their ancestors put up solid structures two hundred feet high, and calculated to last a thousand years."
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