The Four Gates Pagoda () is a Sui dynasty (581-618 AD) stone

Chinese pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to 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 sometimes Taoist ...

located in central Shandong

Province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, China. It is thought to be the oldest remaining pavilion-style stone

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to 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 sometimes Taoi ...

in China. The oldest extant brick-built pagoda in China is the

Songyue Pagoda The Songyue Pagoda (), constructed in AD 523, is located at the Songyue Monastery on Mount Song, in Henan province, China.Yetts, 124. Built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, this pagoda is one of the few intact sixth-century pagodas in China and ...

of 523 AD.

Location

The Four Gates Pagoda is located at the foot of Qinglong Mountain, near Liubu Village, in Licheng District, under the administration of

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

City, about 33 kilometers southeast of the city of Jinan proper. The pagoda is located to the east of the site of the Shentong Temple (), which was one of the most important temples in northern China at the time the pagoda was built but is now in ruins.

History

According to an inscription on a stone tablet which was discovered inside the pagodas ceiling in 1972, the pagoda was "built in the seventh year of the Daye period of the Sui dynasty". This corresponds to the year 611 AD, near the end of the dynasty. The pagoda has been listed as a

Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level A Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National LevelEnglish translation for "全国重点文物保护单位" varies, it includes Major Site (to Be) Protected for Its Historical and Cultural Value at the National Level, Major Histo ...

since 1961.

Architecture

During the Sui dynasty, stone and brick were introduced as material for building pagodas. The Four-Gates Pagoda was built from blocks quarried from a hard local rock. All extant older stone pagodas are sculptured pagodas or columns in the shape of a pagoda. The simple design of the Four Gates Pagoda is typical for one-storey, pavilion-style pagodas: It has a square cross-section delineated by plane side walls. All elements of the structure are symmetrical with four identical sides each facing one of the four

cardinal directions The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are a ...

. In the center of each wall is a door with straight sides and round arch on top (hence the name). The roof of the pagoda is pyramid shaped. It consists of 23 tiers of overlapping stone slabs and is supported by five tiers of stone eaves. The tip of the roof is occupied by a stone steeple. The overall shape of the steeple resembles a box-shaped pagoda which is carved with

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

scriptures and sits on its own

Sumeru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spirit ...

pedestal with stone corner decorations in the shape of banana leaves. The spire of the steeple is made up of five stone discs. The total height of the pagoda is 10.4 meters; each side is 7.4 meters long.

Interior

The interior of the pagoda is dominated by a large central pillar with a square cross-section like the walls of the pagoda, between the surface of the central pillar and the inner side of the walls is a corridor which leads around the entire pillar. The roof of the pagoda is supported by 16 triangular beams which link the outer walls to the central pillar. On each of the four sides of the central pillar, behind the gates, a seated

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

sculpture is located. The four sculptures are: the "Subtle-voiced" Buddha () on the northern wall, the

Ratnasambhava Ratnasambhava ( sa, रत्नसम्भव, lit. "Jewel-Born") is one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas (or "Five Meditation Buddhas") of Mahayana and Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism. Ratnasambhava's mandalas and mantras focus on developing equanimity ...

Buddha () on the southern wall, the

Akshobhya Akshobhya ( sa, अक्षोभ्य, ''Akṣobhya'', "Immovable One"; ) is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas, a product of the Adibuddha, who represents consciousness as an aspect of reality. By convention he is located in the east of the ...

Buddha () on the eastern wall, and the

Amitābha Amitābha ( sa, अमिताभ, IPA: ), also known as Amitāyus, is the primary Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism, he is known for his longevity, discernment, pure perception, purification of aggregates, and deep awar ...

Buddha () on the western wall. On the base of the statues is a dedication inscription dated to the year 544 AD (during the times of the

Eastern Wei Wei (), known in historiography as the Eastern Wei (), was an imperial dynasty of China that followed the disintegration of the Northern Wei dynasty. One of the Northern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Eastern W ...

dynasty). According to the inscription, a high-ranking military and civil official named Yang Xianzhou () commissioned the Buddha statues to commemorate his ancestors on occasion of the anniversary of his father's death. This suggests that the statues are significantly older than the pagoda which houses them. The pagoda may thus have been built for the purpose of housing these sculptures. The head of one of the four Buddha statues in the pagoda, the Akshobhya Buddha seated on the east wall, was sawed off and stolen in 1997. The head came eventually into the possession of a group of business people from Taiwan, who presented it to Dharma Drum Mountain Foundation in

Beitou Beitou District is the northernmost of the twelve districts of Taipei City, Taiwan. The historical spelling of the district is Peitou. The name originates from the Ketagalan word ''Kipatauw'', meaning witch. Beitou is the most mountainous a ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

, to be exhibited in the foundation's Museum of Buddhist History and Culture. After the origin of the head was determined, it was returned to its original location in 2002.

Surroundings

Next to the pagoda stands an ancient pine tree known as the "Nine-tip Pine" ({{zh, c={{linktext, 九, 顶, 松, p={{linktext, jiŭ, dǐng, sōng ) or "Thousand Year Pine" since it is believed to be more than thousand years old. Two other pagodas dating from the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdo ...

stand near the Four-Gates Pagoda: The Dragon-and-Tiger Pagoda and the Minor Dragon-and-Tiger Pagoda.

External links