Entity
Weishan Wenbi Pagoda
Dali, Yunnan, China
A twenty-nine-meter brick writing brush rises from the agricultural fields of Yunnan, pointing toward the sky. This is the Weishan Wenbi Pagoda, also known as the White Pagoda. Located in Wenbi Village within Nanzhao Town, it aligns on a precise north-south axis with the local Confucian Temple and the Fengchuan Pagoda. Local geomantic traditions dictated this design to symbolize educational success and regional prosperity.
The original structure collapsed long ago, leaving only its stone foundation. In 1787, during the Qianlong reign, local administrators Huang Dahao and Liu Kai led a massive effort to rebuild the pagoda. Among the workers was a masonry artisan named Zhao Youhong. He pressed his personal signature, "Zhao You Hong Ji," into the wet clay of the bricks before they were fired.
The rebuilt pagoda is a nine-tiered, square, dense-eave hollow brick structure. It stands on a rough, stone-carved Sumeru-style pedestal, its first level measuring 5.1 meters wide. The silhouette is unusual. The walls expand outward through the fourth tier, then narrow sharply toward the top. On the north side, visitors enter through a semi-circular arched doorway. Above this entrance rests a cool white marble plaque inscribed with the characters "Yue Zhi Yuan Ting," flanked by gray-plaster couplets.
Inside the hollow brick cavity, a spiral wooden staircase once allowed people to climb to the top. Along the climb, small ventilation apertures let in the whistling wind, while arched niches on each of the four sides housed stone Buddha statues. At the very peak, a 1.82-meter-tall copper gourd finial, decorated with Bagua trigrams, crowns the structure. Four sculpted beast heads extend from this finial, holding heavy copper chains that stretch down to the corners of the roof.
The pagoda has survived over two centuries of earthquakes. Today, it remains a prominent landmark, its silhouette captured in regional paintings and photographs, continuing its silent work of writing culture into the Yunnan sky.