I’ve
written something about one of the three nationwide famous towers
of China, the Yellow Crane Tower, located in Wuhan municipality
lying across both Yangtze riversides. The editor C.Rain told
me it would be a good idea to write a series of the Chinese
famous towers as a brief introduction to our foreign friends
who would like to understand something about the Chinese traditional
culture by visiting some scenic spots. I agreed with her, so
in this issue of CHINAWEEK, I want to introduce another tower
called Teng-Wang-Ge [Teng-Prince-Pavilion]. The Chinese character
“Ge" with more meanings, one of which is usually a 2-storeyed
building in ancient China. However, the pavilion-like building
of Prince Teng was a 9-storeyed magnificent one with a 12-meter-high
rampart as its steady foundation. It covered 9,400 square meters,
and situated near the bank of Ganjiang River. At first, it was
established in 653 (the Tang-Dynasty) while Prince Teng was
appointed as the first top leader or governor of Hong Zhou (today’s
Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi Province, China). Prince Teng
was one of the sons of the first emperor Li Yuan, the Tang Dynasty.
And the original ancient building or tower had been destroyed
or burnt for several times. The present one was rebuilt and
patterned upon the Song Dynasty’s classic style in 1989. The
top roof, the flying-like eaves and all the green-glazed tiles
are especially characteristic of the ancient Chinese architecture.
Seen from the outside, it is a 3-storeyed pavilion with winding
corridors but its inner is of a 7-storeyed structure with four
secret floors, which stands on a 2-layer rampart to form a 9-layer
building in all used to symbolize the 9-layer-heaven.
At the gateway hangs an inscribed board with four Chinese characters
[gui-wei-jue-te] "gorgeous, sublime, unique and peculiar"
quoted from a classic litterateur Hanyu’s (768-824) verse.
The 4.5 meter-long couplets written by Chairman Mao on both
of the red pillars read "The rosy fading clouds and a lonely
wild duck fly together, the colors of the autumn water and the
vast sky merge into one"（quoted from poet Wang Bo’s Foreword
to the Pavilion）. Inside the pavilion, the white marble sculpture
writes up the Chinese characters "Time and again the breeze
comes to cherish the Pavilion", retelling poet Wangbo’s
story related to the Pavilion. From the second-floor to the
sixth, there are different kinds of exhibition contents such
as (a) Jiangxi-Province’s "Remarkable Historical Figures",
(including 80 famous portraits from the period of Pre-Qin to
the end of the Qing Dynasty, China), (b) the dramatic story
adapted from "Peony Pavilion" written by the eastern
Shakespeare, Tangxianzu (1550-1616), (c) "The Rich Land"
(displaying not only natural landscapes or scenic spots with
good views in Jiangxi but also a land being pregnant with beauty
and genius), and so on. And on the fifth floor, a bird-eye view
will cover the vast and hazy river, the verdant mountains, the
floating clouds as well as the whole city with busy people and
rushing vehicles. In the west hall of the sixth floor are displayed
various replicas of China’s ancient musical instruments from
which visitors can enjoy different sweet and pleasant melodies.
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