Haichunxuan Pagoda

Haichunxuan Pagoda is in the north side of Taidonghe River of Xixi. It is in the riverside of river for salt transport in the ancient time. It has been in the history of more than 1300, and it is one of the main spots of the sightseeing of Xixi.

Dongtai people is used to call it as Xixi Pagoda and it is deemed as a logo of long history of Dongtai.

According to the recording of Dongtai County Chronicle of Emperor of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty, Yangzhou Prefecture Chronicle and Jiangsu Province Chronicle of Emperor of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty, Haichunxuan Pagoda is supervised by Wei Chigong (respecting virtue) in Emperor of Zhengguan of Tang Dynasty (627-649).

According to legend, before the establishment of Tang Dynasty, the mother of Wei Chigong in Shuzhou, Shanxi (the present Su County) had taken refuge in Xixi. At that time, the east of Xixi was ocean and most of residents were salt people and fishermen. When fishermen went out to sea to catch fish in thick fog or wind and waves, there must be a shipwreck. At that time, the village was filled with tearful crying.

The mother of Weichi was a kind woman and she was so painful when looking at the scenery, so she ordered Wei Chigong shall build a pagoda in Xixi if he could be an officer, so that fishmen could recognize the direction when they went out to sea, so as to reduce the accidence.

Wei Chigong did not forget the order of his mother after helping Li Shiming to pacify the country. He wrote a proposal to the Emperor and he said that there was important salt production place form Nantong to Huaihe, and it was also the important military boundary, so it needed to build a direction pagoda for the security of the land. Li Shiming had been saved by Wei Chigong in wars when he fought against Wang Shichong to pacify Luoyang, so he did believe in Wei Chigong, so he asked Wei Chigong to supervise the pagoda. By now, the pagoda was called as Xiaomu Pagoda and Weichi Pagoda.

The Buddhism was popular in Tang Dynasty and Xixi Pagoda was also called as Buddhism pagoda. It is made with bricks with the height of 20 meters. There is seven layers and eight corners. The thickness of the bottom is 1.5 meters to increase the loading ability, which is suitable for the stability of pagoda.

There is no base in the pagoda, so it is empty from the bottom to the top, and there are no stairs for climbing. There are short eaves of stacked beams with brick barriers between each floor, and the proportion is moderate. At the bottom, only the front gate faces west and there is one gate. Go up to six layers and there are eight sides of each layer. There are shrines and different statues of stone carved Buddhas in each layer. The top is made with copper gourd, camerawheel, iron cladding Basin. The whole pagoda is heavy and strict with unique style. After the completion of the pagoda, the sea accidence had been greatly reduced. 

According to legend, the pagoda is made with Fengfeng copper. With it, the typhoon would cross the border, so it is called as “key stand” and “Pagoda Guarding the Sea” by the fishmen. Poet in Qing Dynasty, Wu Jiaji praised in the Goodbye in Xixi Town, “溪光浮佛舍，塔影压渔帆”.  

In the second year of Tang Dynasty (767), Depose Your Majesty of Huainan, Li Chen, had built a weir to defend the sea. After the completion of weir, “pavilion kitchens look at each other and relying on the use, the agricultural salt class benefit each other”. Then, there were so many sailings and boats out of the weir and there were so many fishing songs; while the salt kitchen was prosperous. In each Spring fair, there were so many businessmen and customers, so there was a prosperous scenery. The local salt inspectorate built a long corridor next to the pagoda for the protection of people in rainy day. The corridor is called as Xuan.    

     After appreciating pagoda and fair, Li Cheng thought that the vast of pagodas could not show the features of emerging salt and fish business in Xixi in the spring, so it was changed as Haichunxuan Pagoda. He also made a poet, “东筑点将台，西有溪通淮，海轩春潮旺，皆由此塔来”.

The tower is close to Guangfu Temple, but the pagoda has been robbed, earthquake, lightning strike and weathering, so that there are fragmented in many places. At the fall of 1944, the thatsa of Pagoda had been stolen by the Japanese army in Xixi and they tried to sell the treasury out. The abbot of Guangfu Temple, Linbo Monk, led the mass to protest. For the stress of public opinion, the army had to return the treasury back.

After the liberation, the Party and government do think highly of protection of cultural relics, so they made appropriation for pagoda repair in 1950s and 1960s. The abbot of Guangfu Temple, Linbo Monk was so happy, and he dug out the thatsa that had been buried for 10 years. The pagoda top had been installed to show the divine light again.

People’s government of Jiangsu Province approved the Haichunxuan Pagoda to be provincial key cultural relics protection unit in 1982. The pagoda was repaired in 1986 again. The lightning arrester was installed in the top and there were bars around the pagoda. Flowers and trees were planted. Dongtai Culture (Tourism) Bureau had overall maintenance in 2004.     

The charms of ancient pagoda are still the same although Xixi has been the history of thousand years. Haichunxuan Pagoda has been registration icon of multiple famous and excellent products in Dongtai City.

At present, Haichunxuan Pagoda seems to be an old people with child-face and grey hair to introduce the antique of the pagoda and excellent legends to tourism when there is soft wind with ringing bell.