 National key cultural relics protection unit announced
by the State Council of the People's Republic of China | |
 | |
| 31°00′28″N 121°14′14″E / 31.00776°N 121.23722°E | |
| Location | Songjiang District , Shanghai |
|---|---|
| Type | Stone carvings and others |
| Restored date | 1963 |
Songjiang Tang Sutra Building, also known as Songjiang Tang Dynasty Dharana Sutra Stone Building, is located in the Zhongshan Primary School, Songjiang District, Shanghai, People's Republic of China,[1] the oldest surviving above-ground relic in Shanghai, built in 859 AD. Since then, it has tilted due to age and weathering, and was restored in 1963.On January 13, 1988, it was announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit.[2]
The Songjiang Tang Sutra Building is the oldest terrestrial relic in Shanghai,[3] also known as the Songjiang Tang Dharana Sutra Stone Building.[1] According to the inscriptions on the body of the building, the Songjiang Tang Sutra Building was built in the 13th year of the Tang dynasty (859). It was built by local native Li Song for his deceased parents and his second brother Jianfu, and belongs to the category of tomb blocks.[1] The earliest relevant record is found in the Yuan Zhiyuan Jiahe Zhi,[4] while the Ming Chongzhen Songjiang Fu Zhi[5] records the construction of the scripture building in the 13th year of Tang Dazhong (859).[6] However, there are still many local legends about the construction of this scripture building, some claiming that the place where the scripture building was built was often flooded with water and the mud and stones could not be blocked, so the scripture building was built to seal it. There are also folk legends that this sutra building was built to suppress a local blackfish spirit.[a 1][7] In modern times, only a part of the block on the mound and the above 10 levels were exposed, while the block was cracked and destroyed in many places due to weathering, and only one-eighth of the original hook and bar part of the block was left intact.[7] The warp block as a whole is also severely tilted, with a maximum offset of 23.93 cm. The condition inside the mound is unknown because it was not excavated at that time.[8]
The base of the sutra building was once excavated from within the earth in 1959, but no large-scale, related cleaning and restoration work was carried out at that time.[9] On September 7, 1962, the Songjiang Tang Sutra Building was listed under the name of "Tang Dharani Sutra Building",[10] and the Shanghai Cultural Relics Custodianship Committee granted special funds to repair the Tang Sutra Building.[7] During the dismantling process necessary for maintenance, 125 pieces of "Kaiyuan Tongbao", 8 pieces of "Qianyuan Chongbao" and 2 pieces of "Wu Baht" were found in the recesses of the top of the building. Copper coins were also found in the gap between the edges of several layers near the base, including one "Shengsong Yuanbao" and two "Chongning Tongbao".[6] In November 1964, the restoration of the sutra building was completed.[8] The repaired warp block is 1.6 meters above the ground.[11] On December 7, 1977, the Songjiang Tang Sutra Building was again announced as a cultural relics protection unit of Shanghai under the name of "Tang Dharani Sutra Building". On January 13, 1988, the Songjiang Tangjing Building was announced by the State Council as the third batch of national key cultural relics protection units.[2]
The Songjiang Tang Sutra Building has 21 surviving floors, all of which are octagonal in shape except for the 13th, 16th and 19th floors.[a 2] The bottom-up layers are in the following order:[6]
In addition, the upper part of the pedestal has a return hook and corner pillar, and the pillar is connected to the platform, which originally housed eight statues of Buddha.[a 3][8]
In 1962, the Shanghai Municipal Government selected personnel to carry out maintenance work on the Songjiang Tang Sutra Building. The heritage department staff first cleared the 100 square meters around the scripture building and the 3-meter-deep soil layer, the mound was found to have a 10-stage block body with the base,[7] and there was a brick paving the block in the Tang dynasty style. Afterwards, the maintenance staff surrounded the base with stones and built a wall about 3 meters high, outside of which stones and clay were piled into a mound.
The restoration project was undertaken by the Shanghai Museum Restoration and Reproduction Workshop. In May 1963, the workshop on the warp block upper smaller carved parts for trial gluing, after many trials practice success. In August of the same year, all 21 levels of stone elements were reinforced and glued together. In September, the restoration and installation of each part of the scripture building began. To ensure horizontal splicing, the staff filled the gaps between each level with ancient money-like copper plates. In October, the surface of the warp block was sprayed with silicone rubber after the restoration, installation,and construction were completed to prevent the block from absorbing water and delay the weathering of the surface of the warp block.[9] The restoration of the scripture block was completed in November 1964.[a 4][8]