中国人建，世界上最危险房子，摇摇欲坠却1500年屹立不倒
The Most Precarious House in China, Tottering but Standing there for 1,500 Years
中国人最擅长什么？创造奇迹。无论是我们世界第一的人口数量，还是月球上据说能看到的长城，还是天人合一的哲学思想，都是世界鼎鼎大名的，今天，我们就来说一说号称世界上最危险的房子。
What can we Chinese be best at? Work wonders! World-famous wonders include number one population around the globe, the Great Wall said to be visible on the moon, and the theory that man is an integral part of the nature etc. Today, we are going to talk about the most precarious house in the world!
这种房子有两处，一处在陕西镇安县城西南35公里处的塔云山，金顶就是观音殿，建于高两千米的山顶之上，不足6平方米，三面悬于万丈深渊，有500年的历史了。每当阳光照射而来，这里便是万丈金光，远远望去，与蓝天白云浑然一体，宛若仙境。
There are two houses in China. One is located at Tayun Mountain, 35 kilometers southwest of Zhen’an County, Shaanxi Province. On the golden peak lies the Hall of Guanyin (referring to the Goddess of Mercy, or Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit) with an area of less than six square meters. Three walls of the Hall stand on the cliff with bottomless chasms down there for almost 500 years. Whenever there is sunshine, golden lights are everywhere. Looking afar, the temple, blue sky and white clouds, all blended into one harmonious whole like a fairyland we can ever imagine.
但是，今天我们要介绍的是另外一处，位于山西大同浑源县的悬空寺，是中国仅存的佛、道、儒三教合一的独特寺庙。它建设于北魏后期，距今约有1500年了，在当地老一辈的传说中，这处寺庙来历非常离奇，"悬空寺，半天高，三根马尾空中吊"。人们直到今天也没能弄明白古代人究竟为什么要建设这样一处寺庙，并且选择在这样的特殊环境中。
However, what we are going to introduce to you is another place named Xuankong Si (literally, Xuankong Si means Hanging Temple), located in Hunyuan County, Shanxi Province. It is a unique monastery syncretized with Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Built in Late Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534AD), it has a history of 1,500 years. As the legend goes, the origin of the temple is quite odd, ‘it is hung in the middle of the sky and hoisted by three horsetails.’ Until now people still cannot figure out why the ancients had to build this kind of temple at such an extraordinary place.
悬空寺距离大同并不远，只有70公里左右的路程，有专门的大巴车旅游线路，更有很多专车租赁游。寺庙建在距离地面60米的悬崖峭壁之上，超越了地球的引力，远远望去，像浮在空中一样，明代大旅行家徐霞客叹其为“天下巨观”。它曾被美国《时代》周刊评为世界上看似“岌岌可危”的奇险建筑之一。
Xuankong Si is only 70 kilometers away from Datong City, Shanxi Province, where you can find some tourist buses and more car rentals for the tour. The monastery is built on a precipice 60 meters above the ground. Look afar, it were like floating in the sky beyond the earth’s gravity. Xu Xiake, a legend traveler of Ming Dynasty, marveled at ‘the grand view of the universe’. And it was also listed by Time magazine as ‘One of the Top 10 Precarious Buildings in the World’.
大家都知道，山西的地质状况并不稳定，1500多年以来，悬空寺有41间殿堂经历了无数次的地震、山体滑坡、暴雨侵袭。最近五十多年来，悬空寺所在的浑源县曾经遭遇过两次六级以上地震，最严重的曾摧毁了县城近三分之一的房屋。但悬空寺依然风采如故。
As we all know, geological conditions in Shanxi Province is not stable. Over 1,500 years, 41 Halls of Xuankong Si have gone through numerous earthquakes, landslides and torrential rains, and in the recent 50 years, Hunyuan County where the temple is located has suffered two times of earthquake higher than six magnitude on Richter scale, the worst of which had destroyed one third of the county buildings. However, Xuankong Si was miraculously intact.
游客来这里都好奇：这么大的建筑规模，靠什么依附在恒山山脚边的悬崖壁上？最初的时候，人们认为寺庙是依靠上接楼阁栈道、下至岩石的30根红色立支撑，但不久研究人员发现，这30根立木中，竟然有可以活动的，并且，木头最细的仅为十厘米左右，根本不足以支撑近百吨重的楼宇。
Tourists coming here are all curious at how such a big complex can cling to a vast rock face at the foot of Mt. Hengshan? At the very beginning, people believed that the temple must be propped up by 30 pieces of red logs sustaining the pavilions and plank paths. But soon after, researchers found out among the 30 vertical logs, some were even movable! Besides, the thinnest one has a diameter of only 10 centimeters, simply not strong enough to support 10-ton buildings.
那么，答案究竟是什么呢？直到上世纪90年代末期，专家们才又发现，托起木栈道和楼阁的，是下方的木质横梁，每个直径50公分，镶嵌在岩石凿洞内，就好像从崖壁中长出来的一样，根本拔不出来，正是这些立木和横梁共同构成了一个有力的支撑体系，托起了中国人的奇迹。
So, what will be the answer? Not until the late 1990s that the experts began to find out the real supporters were the wooden crossbeams sized at 50cm in diameter. They were fitted into holes chiseled into the rock but like its natural protrusions in no way they can be taken out. It was just these vertical logs and crossbeams jointly form a strong support system, holding up a miracle of the Chinese people.
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[中文原文摘自：影像大众，图像来源：百度，头条]
