Yifeng Chongwen Pagoda

In 1626, Magistrate Shen Xishao initiated a project to counter local poverty and heavy taxes by elevating the minds of his people. He proposed a tower dedicated to scholarship and literary culture. This ambition required ninety-one years and multiple generations of craftsmen to complete, finally reaching its full height in 1717.

Standing forty-five point five meters tall on the banks of the Ye River, the Yifeng Chongwen Pagoda is an octagonal, seven-story monument of brick and stone. Builders bound the masonry using an aromatic mixture of tung oil and lime, coating the walls in a cool, five-millimeter-thick layer of white plaster. Inside, a spiral stone staircase winds through the double-layered brick walls, leading visitors through a maze of alternating real and false doors. The steps are worn into smooth, concave hollows by the feet of centuries of aspiring scholars.

Each level reveals deliberate engineering. The lower platforms feature dragon-patterned tile ends and phoenix-patterned drip tiles that catch the damp mountain mist. Inside the upper chambers, dome-shaped ceilings center on stone blocks carved with the eight trigrams and a plumb-line alignment hole. On the fifth floor, a stone inscription from an 1893 renovation preserves the names of those who saved the tower from decay. Higher still, clay sculptures of the Four Heavenly Kings guard the top level beneath an iron finial.

Today, visitors stand where Qing Dynasty poets like Hu Yitang once stood, listening to the quiet murmur of the river and touching the same cool, plastered brickwork that has anchored this valley for nearly four centuries.