The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is located on the south side of Xi'an. It was built in 652 AD to house Buddhist writings brought back from India by a monk named San Zang. Besides translating these works into Chinese, this monk wrote a book about his 16 year journey to India and back. Almost 100 years later, his story was adapted into a novel called "Journey to the West", one of the four Chinese classics of ancient literature.

The courtyard to the north of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda is taken up with a huge fountain that is synchronized to music played over several large speakers. These fountains seem to be pretty popular in China as we have seen them in other places as well.

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is not far from its larger cousin. It was built in 707 AD, also to house Buddhist writings. The top two stories of this tower were destroyed in earthquakes in 1487 and 1555, and damage to the highest remaining stories is still clearly evident.

The grounds around the Small Wild Goose Pagoda had some interesting objects from ancient times. There were two rooms set up as they had been in the past, one that was used to celebrate birthdays and the other to celebrate weddings. We also saw some interesting wooden machines - used to do such things as pump water to irrigate fields and winnow grain. Lee decided to test out his wagon-pulling skills on these old-time wagons.

The Forest of Stone Steles was founded in 1087 to preserve carvings of classic works, particularly the teachings of Confucius. This stele was among the first group to be moved to this new location. It is the Canon of Filial Piety, and was made by a disciple of Confucius. It gives an account of this student's discussion with Confucius about the virtues of being a good son and brother.

In addition to the actual stone tablets, there were rubbings of steles on display. This one shows an inscription done in 767 AD in the ancient zhuan shu style of calligraphy. The method for making these rubbings is very interesting. First they get a piece of paper as big as the stone and get it thoroughly wet. They put this wet paper on the stone, and rub it gently so the paper goes down into the carved characters. Finally, the paper is dabbed with a cloth dipped in ink. The raised part of the stone, between the characters, gets colored, while the inscription remains white.

Many of the steles are carried on the backs of turtles, or at least turtle-like creatures. This is true all over China, not just in this place. Deanna thinks turtles are very cool, and gave this big guy a pat on the head.

Not all of the steles contain writing. Some are pictures. There were carved pictures of famous mountains in China, as well as plants like bamboo, plum blossoms and lotus. This picture is a map of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) palace at XingQing in Xi'an.

Four character quotations are very common in China. This one is in traditional characters, and would be read from right to left. It says "wei shan zui le", literally, "do kind most joy". The idea, of course, is that in doing good for others, we find our own greatest joy.

Copyright 2006, Dr. Lee Williams

Last Modified: 10 February 2006

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