Composition and function of the ancient Chinese pagoda

Three, the components of the ancient tower

China's ancient towers, although there are many kinds, their building materials and composition methods are not the same, but the basic structure of these ancient towers is largely the same. The ancient pagoda consists of four parts: the underground palace, the foundation of the pagoda, the body of the pagoda, the pagoda brake.

1. Palace

The Palace is also known as the "Dragon Palace", "Dragon Cave". This is the palace, altar and temple, pavilion and other buildings do not have. Why this part of the structure? This is because the tower is buried relics. In India, relics are not buried in the ground, just hidden in the tower. And when it came to China, it was combined with the traditional Chinese system of deep burial, which gave rise to the form of the underground palace. Where the tower is built, first of all, to build a dungeon in the ground, in order to bury the relics and burial artifacts. This is similar to the dungeons of Chinese imperial tombs. Of course, the pagoda's underground palace is far less than the scale of the emperor's mausoleum so large, buried things are also much less. The main thing placed in the dungeon of the pagoda was a stone box. Stone letter within the layers of the letter box set, but also used in stone or gold, silver, jade and cui made of small coffins. Inside a had that is placed for the place of relics. In addition, in the underground palace is also accompanied by a variety of artifacts, scriptures, statues and so on. Jigong is made of masonry square or hexagonal, octagonal, round basement. Jigong mostly buried deep underground, only individual half into the ground.

Hebei Dingzhou Jingzhi Temple real body relic tower tower base dungeon, also known as "relic pavilion". It is located in the center of the tower foundation, at a depth of about sixty centimeters from the existing ground. There is a stone-carved heshan-style roof. There is a square hole under the roof, which is the top of the Palace of Sheri Pavilion. Jigong plan for the quadrilateral, but not quite regular. The south side of the dungeon opened the door, for the arched coupon type. Inside the four walls of the palace are murals, for the heavenly kings, emperors, Brahma king, children, maids and other tasks image. The north wall of the front written "Shakyamuni real body relics" of the tablets, painted on both sides of the ten disciples worship pattern. Sheri Pavilion inside the columns, arches, Tan Fang, appendages of color painting, color and lustre as new, is the ground building can not be seen in the Song Dynasty works.

Once upon a time, because people did not understand the structure of the underground palace under the tower, superstitious claims that a tower is under the "eye of the sea", so there is a "tower of the town of the sea" legend. In fact, some towers are damaged, or waterproofing is not good, the groundwater seepage full, accidentally found this situation, it is blackmailed as the "eye of the sea".

After the founding of the country, around the cleanup and maintenance of the tower, found many of the underground palace and buried inside the relics and cultural relics, such as Jiangsu Zhenjiang Ganluo Temple Tower, Suzhou Huqiu Pagoda, Wuchang, Hubei, Huang Helou Shengxiang Pagoda, Beijing, West Changan Street, Qing Shouji Twin Pagodas, Jilin, Nong'an Wanguan Pagoda, Dali, Yunnan, Chongsheng Temple, Thousands of towers, etc. They are the study of the shape of the tower, the tower is the most important part of the tower, the Tower. They provide a lot of physical information for the study of the ancient tower dungeon form and structure.

2. Tower base

The tower base is the lower foundation of the whole tower, covering the dungeon. Many towers from the tower of the first layer of the center can be explored to the dungeon. Early tower base is generally low, only a few dozen centimeters. For example, the foundations of the two extant pre-Tang towers, the Songyue Temple Tower of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Lixing Si Men Tower of the Sui Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, some towers were built with taller foundations underneath them in order to make them more prominent, such as the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an during the Tang Dynasty. The foundations of pavilion-type towers also began to develop into tall pedestals in the Tang Dynasty, for example, the Panzhou Zen Master Pagoda in Shanxi, and the Longhu Pagoda of the Shentong Temple in Licheng, Jinan.

After the Tang Dynasty, the foundation part of the tower had a drastic development and was obviously divided into two parts: the abutment and the pedestal. The abutment is the relatively low tower foundation under the earlier tower. On the abutment, added a part of the seat specializing in supporting the tower body, known as the pedestal. In the architectural art effect, it makes the tower more majestic and prominent. The abutment, generally low, and without much decoration. Pedestal part of the great development, increasingly rich and beautiful, became the whole tower in the most ornate part of the carving.

In the development of the pedestal, especially in the Liao and Jin period of dense eaves tower pedestal is the most prominent. Liao, Jin tower base, most of the "Sumeru seat" form, shown for the meaning of stability. Tianning Temple Tower in Beijing, for example, the seat for the octagonal, built with a not very tall pedestal, **** there are two layers of girdle. Inside the first girdle, each side of six niches, carved lion's head. Niches and niches separated by carved columns. The second had the lower part of the girdle out of five niches, carved inside the Buddha. Niches and niches between the carving on the columns decorated with lions. The upper part of the arch. The arch supports the extremely fine brick carving balustrade. The railing is placed on the Yanglian triple, to support the first layer of the pagoda body. The height of the whole Sumeru seat accounts for about one-fifth of the height of the tower. It became an important part of the tower.

Later, various other types of tower base is also more and more to the direction of the development of tall and gorgeous. The pedestal of the Lama Pagoda developed to be very tall, with the volume taking up most of the whole pagoda and the height accounting for about one-third of the total height. The base of the Vajra Throne Pagoda has become the main part of the pagoda's body, and the seat itself is much larger than the smaller upper pagoda. The seat under the crossing tower is also much taller than the tower above. The tower of the base part of the greatly developed, and the ancient Chinese architectural tradition has always emphasized the role of the pedestal, has you cut relationship. It not only ensures the solid stability of the superstructure, but also receive the effect of artistic solemnity and majesty.

3. Tower

The tower is the main body of the tower structure. Due to the tower of different types of construction, the form of the tower body is also different. A variety of different types of towers, it is in accordance with the form of the tower body to divide.

From the internal structure of the tower body, there are mainly two kinds of solid and hollow. Solid tower of the interior, useful masonry all full paved full masonry, there are also used in the earth rammed and filled. Longitudinal or some solid tower also filled with wooden bones, in order to increase the overall connection of the tower, or to enhance the pick out part of the load-bearing force, but the structure is still relatively simple. Hollow towers are generally speaking towers that can be climbed. The structure of the body of this type of tower is more complex, and the requirements of the building process are also higher. Hollow tower body can be broadly divided into the following categories:

The wooden floor tower body. Prevalent in the late Han, Wei, Jin, North and South Dynasties. The structure is generally: the tower body from top to bottom is an empty cylinder, the tower body around the columns, each side of the three rooms, columns on the placement of beams Fang, arch, supporting the upper floors. Each floor has a pick out of the flat seat and balustrade corridor, you can look around. Each floor also has a pick out of the tower eaves, and the general practice of wooden building lofts, inside the staircase, floor boards, can be climbed. Pure wood structure, brick wall wooden stairs, wooden floor and brick wall wooden eaves, wooden flat seat structure of the pavilion type tower, such as Shanxi Yingxian wooden tower of the tower, is this form.

Brick wall wood floor tower body, also known as empty cylinder tower body. The interior seems to be an empty cylinder, the early cabinet type or dense eaves type brick tower, most of this structure. Such as Xi'an Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Hangzhou Lin'an Gongchen Pagoda, Suzhou Luohan Yard Twin Pagodas, Dengfeng Songyue Temple Pagoda and so on have this kind of tower body.

Brick and wood mixed masonry tower body. Masonry with brick, tower eaves, flat seat, railings and other parts of the wooden structure. This kind of structure is popular in Song towers, such as Shanghai Songjiang Square Pagoda, Hangzhou Six Harmonies Pagoda, Suzhou Ruiguang Pagoda, Suzhou North Temple Pagoda and so on.

Wooden center column tower body. Pagoda body with a center column, the early wooden tower tower body has a center column, and from the top of the tower straight through the bottom of the tower. Now this type of tower body of the ancient tower, now can not be seen. Tianning Temple Tower in Zhengding, Hebei is a half-wooden structure, the wooden center column inside the tower is only half a section, only in the upper half of the tower. However, it is this kind of only half of the carpenter center column tower body ancient tower, in the country is also very little, very precious. This kind of physical object indisputably shows that this kind of tower body without a large wooden center column, in the construction of the ancient tower in our country exists. With the increase in the types of materials used to build towers and the development of construction technology, the center columns of some ancient pagodas were built not of wood but of masonry. The Falmen Temple Pagoda in Fufeng, Shaanxi, the Youguo Temple Pagoda in Kaifeng, Henan, and the Lingyun Temple Pagoda in Leshan, Sichuan are such examples.

Masonry tower center column tower body. All built with bricks, the center of the tower is a large masonry pillar from top to bottom. The structure of this tower body is the product of the development of China's ancient masonry structure to the peak. Such as Henan Kaifeng Youguo Temple Pagoda, Sichuan Leshan Lingyun Temple Pagoda, Shaanxi Fufeng Famen Temple Pagoda, Sichuan Dazu Baodingshan Pagoda, etc., most of them were built in the Song and Ming Dynasties, and the level is quite high.

High platform tower body. Pagoda body built with masonry, built into a tall platform, from the interior of the platform masonry ladder circling up, or from the outside of the seat to ascend to the top. The main one mentioned here is the Vajra Throne Pagoda. Beijing Zhenjue Temple Vajra Throne Pagoda, Beijing Biyun Temple Vajra Throne Pagoda, Hohhot Cideng Temple Vajra Throne Pagoda, etc., are such examples.

Overlapping bowl type tower body. That is, the body of the Lama Pagoda, shaped like a bottle. After the Ming and Qing dynasties, the architects added the flame light door in the center of the tower belly, shaped like a small niche.

In our country's existing tower, there are some special shape of the tower: some in the mantle on the multi-layer plus the pavilion, some of the pavilion, the mantle, pavilion, pavilion combination, there are also the tower like a pen-shaped, spherical, cylindrical and so on, the form of diversity, each presenting a different color.

4. tower brake

The tower brake is commonly known as the top of the tower, is set on the top of the tower. Our country's tower a lot of ancient towers, each tower tower brake shape and construction materials are not the same. However, no matter what material is used to build the tower brake, regardless of its form, they are important, the position of the highest part of the tower. In ancient India, the pagoda brake is only as a "Zui堵波 "的表象而存在，结构简单，装饰也不复杂。 But to China, and China's original pavilion-style architecture together, the construction of the tower brake has been a great development, its structure, the form has become more complex, more delicate, more beautiful. From the architectural structure, the tower brake is used as a closing top. Both to fix the rafters lookout board, tile Long and other parts, but also to prevent rainwater leakage, the tower brake played a major role. From the view of architectural art, the tower brake is often exquisite and exquisite straight into the sky, giving people a transcendent, sublime aesthetic pleasure. Therefore, people put the tower brake "brake" also as a Buddhist temple alias, the temple is also known as the brake, the ancient temple is also known as the ancient temple.

In terms of the structure of the pagoda, it is a complete pagoda. Pagoda brake consists of brake seat, brake body, brake top, brake pole and other parts.

Brake base is the foundation of the brake, overriding the top of the tower, pressed rafters, lookout boards, corner beams after the tail and tile Long, and wrapped with a brake rod. Most of the brake seat masonry for the Sumeru seat or Yang Penglian seat, Lonicera leaf-shaped seat, there are also masonry for the vegetative platform seat, in order to support the body of the brake. In some cases, there is also a cave similar to the underground palace, known as the Shakya. The caves can be used for enshrining relics, storing scriptures and other offerings. Dali Qianxun Pagoda in Yunnan Province and Myoying Temple Pagoda in Beijing are such examples.

The main image of the brake body is characterized by a ring on the brake rod, known as the phase wheel, also known as the gold plate, Chenglu disk, "Acting Myriad" cloud: "people look up, so the cloud phase". Visible, the brake body is as a tower of a sign of looking up to the role of honoring the Buddha and salute the Buddha. Generally, the phase wheel of the big pagoda is more and bigger, and the phase wheel of the lower pagoda is less and smaller. Early tower system, the phase wheel is not fixed, some towers up to dozens of phase wheel, some as few as three or five. For example, the original Luoyang Yongning Temple large wooden tower, there are thirty heavy phase wheel. Existing two earlier tower - four door tower and songyue temple tower were five rounds and seven rounds. Later the number of phase wheels gradually formed a pattern of one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven and thirteen. Most of the lama pagodas used thirteen phase wheels. Therefore, people call this part "Thirteen Heavens". On top of the phallic wheels, there is the Huagai, also known as the treasure cover, which serves as the crown of the phallic body.

Shakti top, is the whole tower is the top of the spire, on top of the treasure cover, generally for the moon, the treasure beads, but also for the flame, the treasure beads, some in the flame on top of the treasure beads, there are treasure beads placed in the flame. For avoiding the word "fire", some are called "water smoke".

Brake pole, is through the central axis of the tower brake. Metal tower brake parts of the components, all wearing sets in the brake rod above, relying on the brake rod to string and support the various parts of the solid tower brake. Is relatively low brick tower brake, there are wooden or metal brake rod. According to the sutra, the brake rod and have brake column, gold brake, table brake and other names. The construction of the brake rod, there are wooden or iron rods inserted into the top of the tower; if the tower brake is very high, that is, with a large wooden branch inserted into the top of the tower of one, two or three layers. Growing brake rod is called the brake column. Some of the brake column and the center of the tower is coherent with each other, straight to the bottom of the tower above the underground palace.

The structural form of the above mentioned tower brake, is relatively representative. In addition, each era, different types, different building materials of the tower, the tower brake has also changed. There are three, five, seven, nine metal balls in series on the brake rod as a tower brake, such as Liaoning was the town of Chongxing Temple Twin Pagodas; some tower brake in the brake seat through a huge roof, such as the Beijing Tianning Temple Tower. The form of the roof is different, there are round, square, octagonal and so on. Yinchuan sea treasure tower of the top of the brake for square gourd-shaped, or garlic-shaped, may be affected by the influence of Islamic architecture. Guangzhou Huaisheng Temple light tower is another situation, the tower brake into a weathervane, it is completely different from the Buddhist meaning of the tower brake.