Songjiang Sutra Pillar of the Tang Dynasty

The Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Sutra Pillar in Songjiang was built in 859, the 13th year of Dazhong Period of the Tang Dynasty. It now stands in Zhongshan Primary School of Songjiang District as the oldest aboveground cultural relic in Shanghai, and also the most complete and tallest sutra pillar of the Tang Dynasty in China. It was announced as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988.

We know that it was built by the pious Buddhist believers Jiang Fu and Shen Zhizhen at that time to release souls of their deceased parents and other family members. Up to the early 1960s, only ten levels of the building were exposed, and the rest were buried underground. After excavation inscriptions, the whole pillar was restored to full view. These inscriptionss bring back the social customs of the Tang Dynasty before our eyes all of a sudden.

The pillar is made of limestone, 9.3 metres high, and with 21 levels remained. It is divided into upper and lower sections, both in octagonal shape, with a diameter of 76 centimetres. The upper section engraved with the full text of Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Sutra, and the lower section engraved with inscriptions and names of donors. The lower part of the pillar was built with a flat seat, corbellings, and three girth piers and three-layer pedestals beneath, which are carved with coiling dragons, crouching lions and Bodhisattva Kunmen, as well as ripple patterns, lotus-petal designs, and scroll designs respectively. There are ten levels in the upper part of the pillar, including the lion-head canopy, the granulation, the cloud patterned bracket, the sitting statues of the four Heavenly Guardians, the octagonal waist eaves, the lotus bracket, the Buddha worshipping relief cylinder, and the octagonal conical roof from bottom up. The whole structure of the pillar is magnificent and beautiful with graceful shape and well-balanced level combination. The relief on the pillar is vivid and sophisticated in workmanship, rich in the artistic style of the Golden Age of the Tang Dynasty.