雷峰塔，是被一塊塊偷倒的
1924年杭州雷峰塔倒塌——推倒它的不是法海，而是百姓长年偷挖回家的塔砖。
The pagoda carried away one brick at a time
一九二四年九月二十五日午後，杭州西湖南岸的雷峰塔轟然倒塌。推倒它的不是法海，也不是白娘子，而是一塊塊塔磚——民間相信塔磚能辟邪、利生育，長年有人偷偷挖回家，塔基日漸空虛。塔倒之後，人們在殘磚之間發現了木刻經卷《寶篋印陀羅尼經》，卷首寫明是吳越國王錢俶所造，紀年乙亥，即西元九七五年，自稱造經八萬四千卷。一個月後，魯迅寫下《論雷峰塔的倒掉》。一座塔，壓著傳說裡的白蛇，也藏著真實的千年經卷。如果你是當年的杭州人，會不會也想帶一塊磚回家？
On the afternoon of 25 September 1924, Leifeng Pagoda (雷峰塔) on Hangzhou’s West Lake fell down — the tower that, in legend, holds the White Snake prisoner. No monk’s magic did it. For years locals had prised out bricks, believing they warded off evil and helped with childbirth, until the base gave way. In the rubble lay woodblock-printed sutra scrolls commissioned in 975 by Qian Chu, king of Wuyue, whose preface claims 84,000 copies. A month later Lu Xun wrote his famous essay on the fall. Would you have taken a brick home?
倒塌日期、塔磚民俗、西元九七五年的經卷與魯迅的文章，皆有文獻可查；「偷磚致塌」是通行的解釋。
The date, the brick folklore, the 975 sutras and Lu Xun’s essay are all documented; brick theft is the standard explanation for the collapse.