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Campus Tour Through
History(4)——Story behind the Marble
Pillars of Peking
University——Unmatched Marble
Pillars
By Ning Jing
PKU NEWS 2006--09—22
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=160361469
Peking University, Beijing, Sep. 22th (2006): Walking into Peking University, a pair of
Marble Pillars welcome you inside the Western Gate, which was built in 1742 at
latest.
Marble Pillar is used as road sign before Han Dynasty and as decorative symbol,
and afterward setting before constructions such as bridge, palace and mausoleum.
On the top of Marble Pillar, there always sits a mythical animal named ‗Hou‘, which
means ‗bellow‘ in Chinese, as it likes bellowing in the legend. The Marble Pillars
inside the gates of basilica are always with ‗Hou‘ looking towards North, which
symbolizes that the King will go out from the basilica to save his people in calamity.
There are also Marble Pillars setting outside the gate of basilica with ‗Hou‘ looking
towards South, which symbolizes that the King will come back soon from a outward
journey.
The Marble Pillars at Peking University were once set in Yuanming Yuan. If you look
about them carefully, you will find that one of them is a little thinner than the other.
There is a literary quotation behind that.
Once, there were two pairs of Marble Pillars in Yuanming Yuan. In 1925, one pair
and a half of them had been moved into Peking University. When Library of Beijing
had been built, one of the Marble Pillars at Peking University was moved there to
match the forth one. But by some mistake, the wrong one went there, which made
the Marble Pillars before Library of Beijing and inside the Western Gate of Peking
University both unmatched till now.
Edited By : Wang Yi
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