Century-old tower the source of folk tales
The path to the Xiudaozhe Tower on the slope of Songjiang's Sheshan Hill is surrounded by old camphor trees. Xiudaozhe, literally meaning Monk Xiu, was named after the monk who was involved in the tower's construction.
This seven-story wood-brick structure is exquisite and elegant despite being around for more than 1,000 years, surviving wars and natural disasters. It is believed that Monk Xiu took part in the construction of the tower, which was built between AD 976-984 during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). Legend has it that after the pagoda was completed, the monk set himself on fire, considering the pagoda as his last act.
A yin-yang (cold and hot energy) pattern on the ground made of black-and-white stones next to the tower symbolizes the harmony and balance of work and life, light and shadow, day and night, man and woman, nature and technology, and all other opposite concepts that coexist together.
But few know that the tower has another name, which has a "once-upon-a-time" tale behind it.
Many old Songjiang locals living around Sheshan Hill call it Sisters Tower or Virgins Tower. The legend goes that in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), an official in Suzhou (in today's Jiangsu Province) had three beautiful daughters. The parents married them off to three influential men to curry favor with high-ranking officials.
The eldest daughter learned that her husband was a bully who extorted money from villagers; the middle daughter found her husband was lavish and lascivious and visited brothels often; and the youngest one heard that her husband was a dandy who gambled all day.
As the three girls didn't have the guts to disobey their parents, they had to pack their things and escape to Sheshan Hill at night. The sisters commissioned a hermit to build a seven-floor tower on the western side of the hill. They had their hair cut short and became nuns, living in seclusion in the tower for the rest of their lives.
It's said that people often heard cries from the tower. Even today on the first and fifth day of a lunar month, pious Buddhists who come to the tower to pray claim they can still hear the faint cries amid the rustle of tree leaves. Old locals say that it's because the sisters were found by their parents, and they begged and cried not to be sent back home.
Of course, this is just a romantic interpretation. As a matter of fact, the brick-and-wood structure has been exposed to wind and rain for hundreds of years. Every spring, the local black-head bees make holes in the building which function like the blowholes on a bamboo flute. In late autumn and early winter when the wind picks up, it produces sounds from the holes and the wall cracks which sound very much like crying.
