Daguan Tower

Daguan Tower is located in Daguan Park, No. 284 Daguan Road, Xishan District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province. It is a triple eaved glazed corner wooden structure building, covering an area of more than 400 square meters, and is famous for its long couplets. The Grand View Tower was built by Governor Wang Jiwen in the 29th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1690). In the eighth year of the Daoguang reign (1828), the Daguan Tower was renovated and expanded to three floors. In the seventh year of Xianfeng (1857), Changlian and Lou were destroyed by war. It was rebuilt in the fifth year of the Tongzhi reign (1866) and suffered from heavy floods again. It was rebuilt again in the ninth year of the Guangxu reign (1883)

Grand View Building is a traditional ancient building in Yunnan with triple eaves and pointed roof. It is square in plan. It is surrounded by a platform, with water in the south. The platform is surrounded by stone blocks of limestone, covered with stone slabs, and connected with the corridor in the west
The Grand View Tower not only inherits the mainstream traditional Chinese architectural culture, but also features Kunming's "Five Ink" painting and wooden carvings of eaves, rafters, and beams with elephant heads or floral patterns, reflecting the fusion of Central Plains culture and border ethnic culture@In 1983, Daguan Tower was announced by the Yunnan Provincial People's Government as a key cultural relic protection unit in Yunnan Province@In May 2013, Daguan Tower was announced by the State Council as the seventh batch of national key cultural relics protection units

Grand View Tower Long couplet

Top couplet: Five hundred miles from Dianchi Lake, rushing to the eye, draped over the shore, enjoying the vast and boundless expanse
Look: Dong Xiang Shen Jun, Xi Chong Ling Yi, winding north, Nan Xiang Su@Why not choose to win and climb to the top as a talented and talented person
Seize the opportunity on Crab Island and Luo Zhou, combing and wrapping up will make you feel dizzy and confused; Amidst the lush sky and reeds, embellished with green feathers and rosy clouds, do not disappoint: surrounded by fragrant rice, ten thousand hectares of clear sand, nine summers of hibiscus, and three springs of willow trees
  Next line: Thousands of years of history poured into my heart, I drank wine and sighed. Who is the hero? Thinking: Han learned to build ships, Tang symbolized iron pillars, Song wielded jade axes, Yuan crossed leather bags
Wei Lie has put in a lot of effort and effort to move mountains
The pearl curtain painting tower is not as big as the evening rain and the morning clouds; Cut off the broken steles and hand them over to the setting sun
Only wins: a few sparse bells, half river fishing fire, two rows of autumn geese, a pillow of clear frost

Translation

Preface: Five hundred miles of the vast Dianchi Lake surges before my eyes. Open your clothes, push open your crown, and the boundless blue waves are so joyful! See: Jinma Mountain in the east is like galloping horses, Biji Mountain in the west is like a phoenix dancing, Snake Mountain in the north is like a spirit snake winding, and Crane Mountain in the south is like a white crane soaring. Poets! Why not choose this auspicious day to climb up a tall building and admire the crab like island and snail like sandbar; The green trees and weeping willows in the mist sway like a girl combing her hair; There are also the water plants in the sky, reeds everywhere, as well as the emerald green birds and a few brilliant red clouds dotted among them. Enjoy watching to your heart's content! Don't let down the fragrant golden rice fields around Dianchi Lake, the vast beaches under the bright sunshine, the graceful lotus flowers in summer, and the willows in spring. The past of thousands of years surges into my heart. I raise my glass and look up at the sky, sighing, 'Who else is there among the many heroes in the long river of history?'? Imagine: Emperor Wu of Han dug Kunming Lake in Chang'an to train his navy in order to open up a passage from the southwest to India; Emperor Tang Zhongzong sent troops to recapture the Erhai Lake area and erected iron pillars to commemorate his achievements; Emperor Taizu of Song waved his jade axe and faced the map, drawing the southwest outside the boundary; Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty led his army across the Jinsha River on leather bags and rafts, unifying Yunnan. These great achievements are truly exhausting the effort of moving mountains! But the rapid change of dynasties is like the rain in the evening or the clouds in the morning, so short-lived that even the curtains disappear quickly before they can be rolled up; Even the broken stele of the meritorious service collapsed in the sunset mist. In the end, only a few sparse bell sounds, dim fishing fires in the river, two lonely autumn geese, and a pillow of cold frost remained

Grand View Building Features

Structure

Grand View Building is a traditional ancient building with triple eaves and spires in Yunnan, with a square plane, covering an area of 400 square meters, and a floor area of 140 square meters. There are platforms around, facing water to the south. The platform is 21.30 meters wide in the east-west direction, 4.75 meters deep, and 1 meter high. It is equipped with stone railings and descends to the ground through seven steps, making the front of the Grand View Tower magnificent. The platform is 18.90 meters long in the north-south direction, and the north platform is 18.60 meters wide and 2.40 meters deep due to its retraction from the west. Due to the raised north floor, the platform is only 0.15 meters high. The entire platform is surrounded by limestone square stones, covered with stone slabs, and connected to a long corridor on the west side of the building (which is the rear building)^[6]

The layout of the Grand View Tower is simple, with the main entrance facing north-south and two arched small doors facing east-west. Two staircases are located on both sides of the building, from the ground floor to the second floor, passing through a corridor before entering the interior. The corridor and interior are separated by wooden doors and windows; There is no external corridor on the third floor, and the interior can be accessed directly through stairs^[6]

The main body of the Grand View Building is a three story all wood frame through bucket structure. The indoor floor elevation of the bottom floor is set to ± 0.00 meters. Therefore, the floor elevation of the second floor is 5.45 meters, the floor elevation of the third floor is 9.70 meters, and the roof elevation (including the roof) is 17.30 meters. Taiming is made of stone, slightly wider than the wall, and 0.51 meters high. The columns in the square layout are divided into eave columns and gold columns. The gold columns consist of four sky columns with a spacing of 5.2 meters, a diameter of 0.4 meters, and a diameter of 0.7%, which extend directly from the bottom to the third floor roof. Together with the beam frame, they form the main framework supporting the building^[6]

Features

The eaves columns of the Grand View Tower retreat inward layer by layer, with the bottom eaves columns 2.80 meters away from the gold columns and wrapped in a 0.7 meter thick gold silver (gold inlaid jade) wall. The second floor eaves columns retreat inward by 1.3 meters, and the third floor eaves columns retreat inward by another 0.8 meters. The upper eave pillar is fixed on the interlaced beam between the lower gold pillar and the eave pillar. The interlaced beam is composed of four overlapping garden woods with a diameter of 0.2 meters, which pass through the eave pillar to form the overhang of the eaves. To enhance the stability of the building, the four sky pillars have a vertical elevation of 3/100. The lower two floors of the roof are composed of the inward retreat of the upper columns and the eaves. The main groove of the bottom floor roof is 3.1 meters long, and the main groove of the second floor roof is 2.8 meters long. The ridge is lifted by four corner beams, and knife braces are installed on both sides of the corner beams to fix the wing corner rafters@The method for the top roof of 59#

is to place corner beams at 2/5 positions on the metal purlins on both sides of the gold columns. There are 4 corner beams at the four corners, and inner metal beams and purlins are installed at a 45 degree angle in the corner beams. Two layers of Yunnan ancient architectural decorative components, such as brackets and brackets, are installed between the upper and lower inner metal beams. The support of the inner metal beam not only relies on the corner beam, but also on the overhanging head of the eaves. The overhanging head cleverly uses the lever principle, with the metal beam as the fulcrum and the overhanging head as the overhanging rod to suspend the eaves beam (the span of the eaves beam is 9 meters), which not only reduces the span of the eaves beam, but also actually reduces the weight of the inner metal beam. Install a suspended ceiling on the inner metal purlin and form a roof ceiling together with the surrounding decorative components^[6]

At the four corners of the roof, corner beams are placed along a 45 degree direction to form the main components of the ridge. Four corner beams extend directly to the roof and are fastened to the suspended lightning bolt column with fish tail tenons. The lower part of the corner beams is fixed to the metal purlins and eaves purlins. The upper two floors of the building are supported by a column due to the excessive weight of the lower corner beams, while the lower floors are located on the lower roof corner beams, making the entire building look more balanced and appropriate. The roof of the top floor is built with 6 lifting frames, 1 m above the eaves, no cornice purlins, and the roof rafters are circular in section, without flying rafters. 2、 The construction method for the third floor is to use two I-beams that are more than 9 meters long, 0.2 meters high, and spaced more than 3 meters apart, placed on north-south beams. The upper part is equipped with building ribs and floor slabs, and the lower part is a single wooden structure tower style building. Sitting north to south, standing on a two-level stone platform covering an area of 402 square meters. The main plan of the pavilion is rectangular, with a width of 17 meters and a depth of 10 meters, covering an area of 170 square meters. The building is 18 meters high on the third floor, with yellow glazed tile eaves on the third floor and four corners on the top. The cross-section size of the entire building is relatively small. Except for the bottom column with a diameter of 0.4 meters, the maximum diameter of the beam and beam cross-section is 0.2 meters. Multiple beams and beams are overlapped to bear heavy loads. The two indoor staircases are ingeniously designed, fully utilizing the space between the inner and outer columns while avoiding interference from the upper beams^[6]

The roof of the Grand View Building is made of golden glazed tube tiles, ridges, treasure roofs, and animal heads, with gray bottom tiles. The unique shape of the top of the treasure, with an iron chain hanging between the top and the beasts on the four ridges. The spine adopts a seven line spine, which is composed of seven layers of components (made of flower blue, tray bricks, and tiles). The head is made of dragon shaped wood carving, and due to its excessive length, there are hanging teeth (decorations) installed under the fixed head. Between the two layers of eaves and rafters, there is a swallow mouth and a ruyi tray (decorative object), and there is a hanging lintel (known as an inverted lintel in the north) under the eaves and rafters. The installation of the main gate is carried out with stone door pillows at the bottom and connected pillars at the top. The middle of the door and window sashes is designed with a transparent diagonal grid plum blossom pattern, and the two ends are wooden reliefs. The doors and windows are painted in fruit green. The exterior decoration of the building features chestnut colored columns and white walls, with Yunnan style painted columns and beams