How many corners does this ancient pagoda have? How many floors do you usually have?

The plane shape of the ancient masonry pagodas in China is generally square, hexagonal, octagonal, and dodecagon in special cases (only Song Yue Temple Pagoda in Dengfeng, Henan). In addition, the Buddhist pagodas in the Tang Dynasty were built of masonry materials, and the planes of these pagodas were all round, but they were rare. Although pagodas in China are pagodas, they all appear as an architectural image. The development of ancient buildings in China is mainly wood structure, because it can't be round. Therefore, in the past, building towers with masonry materials was also to imitate the style of wood structure, so square, hexagon or octagon were produced to make them as close as possible to the circle (because? The woman who blocks is round. This is how the plane shape of the stupa developed. This is not "angular uniformity". There is no such concept in stupa.

Why do you teach the story of the tower in singular? Judging from most pagodas, from the first floor to the fifteenth floor, there are clear regulations in Buddhist classics. According to the ancient Indian Buddhist system, the number of pagodas is equal to the number of chakras. Buddhism in China is very different from that in India. The number of pagodas in China is determined by the masters, monks and abbots who presided over the pagodas when they were built. The number of pagodas and chakras should be the same, which is the number stipulated by Buddhism. Some towers in our country have thirteen floors, while chakras are only three to five or seven floors. There are many examples In fact, this is very inconsistent with the provisions of Buddhist classics. For a long time, the saying that "the mountain is high and the emperor is far away" has spread all over the country, and the monks in temples have different ideas. Moreover, from the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more and more monks, and their historical and cultural literacy was not enough. They read few Buddhist scriptures, so they built towers in the local area and walked at will, regardless of any regulations and requirements. Under such circumstances, it is more and more bizarre for some places to do this and others to do that. Therefore, it is not clear what the tower and disk of the phase wheel are like.

According to the provisions of the twelve karma sutra of the true meaning of Buddhism, the number of phases is one, two, three, five, six, seven and eight. Indian tower wheel is even. However, after it was introduced into China, influenced by the theory of "Yin-Yang and Five Elements", even numbers were not used, but odd numbers were used, because even numbers in "Yin-Yang and Five Elements" were yin and odd numbers were yang. In order to worship Buddha and absorb the "essence" of various theories, the construction of China stupa is strange.

The construction of pagodas in China depends on the social status and economic strength of Buddhist temples, elders and saints. Most of the tombs are from the first floor to the fifth floor. Only pagodas, pagodas and pagodas can build tall pagodas, including from the seventh floor to the thirteenth floor. As for the number of phase wheels and the number of towers, it is not strictly enforced. Generally speaking, this is how it developed.