Song, Liao and Jin Architecture

The remnants of the Great Tang were finally removed. After a brief period of strife during the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty ascended to the stage of Chinese history. Song America practiced a domestic policy of centralization of power, emphasizing literature over the military, suspecting and suppressing wise officials, and compromising policies of borrowing and accepting foreign currency. Coupled with the prevalence of Song Dynasty science, the feudal scholars strongly advocated reverence for reason and suppression of desire, which had a very bad influence on later generations. By the Song Dynasty, Han civilization had been challenged by the nomads of the north. - - years, the Northern Song Liao and Jin, the Southern Song Jin and Yuan, were all finally destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty. However, the Chinese American economy continued to grow: urban economies developed, the division of labor among craftsmen was refined, technological tools of production became more advanced, and the prosperity of commerce pushed the whole society forward.

Influenced by the spiritual realm, Song Dynasty architecture lost the vigor of Tang Dynasty architecture. It was small, ornate and varied, presenting an exquisite and beautiful style with various complex forms of halls, terraces, buildings and pavilions. The structure of the building also underwent great changes in the Song Dynasty, which was highlighted by the greatly weakened load-bearing function of the arch, and the ratio of the height of the arch to the height of the column was getting smaller and smaller. Some of the flowers that play an important role in the structure have been replaced by oblique volutes, and the number of staggered flowers has increased. The building components, construction methods and quantitative estimation of this period were further standardized on the basis of the Tang Dynasty, and books summarizing these experiences appeared - the Construction Method Style and the Wood Scripture. Among them, the Construction Method Style written by Li Jie is the most comprehensive and scientific work on construction in ancient China, and the earliest and most complete work on construction in the world, equivalent to the national standard for the construction industry in the Song Dynasty. In 916 A.D., the northern barbarian Khitan established the Liao Dynasty, occupying Shanxi and northern Hebei, absorbing Han culture and entering a feudal society. As the northern part of the Tang Dynasty became a vassal state, architectural styles were rarely influenced by the later Middle Kingdom and the south. Therefore, Liao Dynasty buildings maintained many styles from the Five Dynasties and Tang Dynasty, and with the nomadic and bold character, the buildings looked solemn and stable. Some of the temples in the Liao Dynasty faced east, which was related to the religious beliefs and living customs of the Khitan people who believed in ghosts and gods and worshipped the sun. Later, the Jin Dynasty came to prominence in the field of architecture. As the craftsmen were Han Chinese, the architecture was both Song and Liao styles, but closer to the softness of Song architecture, and many of the works became bulky.

City building

The capital of the Song dynasty was in Tokyo, now Kaifeng in Henan province, an ancient capital that prospered from the Grand Canal. It began to become a political and economic center in the Fifth Dynasty, and the Later Zhou Dynasty officially established its capital here. The Northern Song Dynasty was even wealthier, with a population of nearly one million. There are three sets of cities. The second inner city is the Tang Historical City, which is 20 miles and 50 paces old. The center of the inner city is the Palace City, which was rebuilt by the Northern State Government, and the outermost Guo City, which was expanded in the second year of the reign of Xian De of the Later Zhou Dynasty and is more than 40 miles old. From Xuan De Gate, the main gate of the Palace City, southward, through the Zhou Bridge over the Bian River, the main gate of the Inner City, Zhu Qiao Gate, to Nan Xun Gate, the main gate of the Guo City, is the longitudinal axis of the whole city. Near the Zhou Bridge there are east-west roads intersecting the vertical axis, which is the horizontal axis of the whole city. These are similar to the layout of the capital city since Yecheng of the Han and Wei dynasties. Outside the palace city there is the royal garden Gengyue in Manchuria, more than 70 temples in the city, and large gardens Jinmingchi and Qiongyuanlin outside the city, all of which enriched the cityscape. For the first time, a T-shaped vertical square was set up between the main gate of the palace city and the main gate of the inner city of Bianliang. All these had a great influence on the layout of the capital city after Ming Dynasty

The scale of the palace buildings in this period was smaller than that of the Tang Dynasty, with more detailed decorations, heavy colorful paintings and sculptures, and the overall image was gorgeous and soft. After the female genitals broke through the prosperous Song Dynasty Tokyo City, in accordance with the style of the Song and Jin Tokyo Palace City, the Jin Dynasty Palace was built in the Central Capital. Palace City Palace is located in the city, slightly southwest, from Fengyi Gate to Xuantong Gate, south of Yang Xuanmen, north of Chen Gongmen tearing cowhide books, east of Xuanhua Gate, west of Yuhua Gate. The former is the official residence, the latter is the palace. The main hall is the Daan Hall, the north is the Renzheng Hall, the northeast is the East Palace, **** there are 36 halls. In addition, there were many pavilions, gardens and ponds. At that time, people recorded that the palace of Jindu was opulent, skillful and so-called extravagant. There was a departure palace on Qionghua Island in the northeast of the city for the emperor to visit. The surviving mural paintings of Yanshan Temple in Shaanxi Fan, depicting the heavenly palace and reflecting the image of palace architecture at that time, are rare materials.

Palace Imagery in the Mural Paintings of Fanjingshan Temple

Floor Plan of Jindugong Palace

Ching Ming Shanghe Tu

Rock Temple Mural II

Created by Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty in the year of the Qingming Shanghe Tu, another mural painting of the Yanshan Temple faithfully depicts the image of palaces of the period as well. The former depicts a day when Zhao Ji was in power, a piece of auspicious cloud floated to the palace, circled around a pillar and attached to the hall, and everyone looked up. Surprised, a group of cranes flying in the air, and the auspicious cloud into one, long time. Reflected in the grim moments of the Northern Song Dynasty, the emperor prayed to heaven to send the auspicious cloud to save the Song Dynasty in peril; the latter is a set of huge high-rise buildings built on a high platform.

Buildings

The Chuan Tang, located at the foot of Wuru Peak, 2 kilometers northwest of the Shaolin Temple in Dengfeng, Henan Province, was built in the seventh year of the Northern Song Dynasty's Xuanhe reign in honor of Dharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. Built only 20 years after the promulgation of the Pingjiang Tu, this hall is the closest thing in existence to the laws of the Ruihe Tu, the most typical Song-style architecture. The main hall sits in the north and faces south, with three wide rooms and three deep rooms. It is crowned with a single-eaved hiatus roof with graceful curves and glazed tiles. It is built on a stone platform with lime stone pediments in front and behind, and there is a door on the back wall. There are huge arches under the eaves of the main hall, two doors in Ming style, two-dimensional rectangular windows, four eleven-pointed stone pillars in the front gable, and columns with relief carvings of sea pomegranates, tumbleweeds, flying birds, Geisha music, and so on. Ming Temple has a Buddhist niche with four stone pillars, on which there is a god king, Panlong, consort. Daxiongbao Hall east, west and north of the lower part of the three walls inside and outside, paving stone foot guards, carved clouds, flowing water, dragons, elephants, fish, clams, Buddha, figures, buildings. Although its size can its image of soft and elegant, is not comparable to the Ming and Qing dynasties of large-scale official-style buildings can not be compared with . Comparison.

Jin Temple was rebuilt in the Northern Song Dynasty during the Tian Sheng. Now, the main building, the hall of the Virgin Mary, seven wide and six deep, heavy eaves hysterical roof. The glass on the top of the hall was made in the Ming Dynasty. The main hall is surrounded by corridors, with a deep front porch and spacious entrance hall, which is unique in Tang and Song Dynasty architecture. There are eight wooden flat dragons carved on the columns of the front corridor, graceful and sinuous, which are the authentic works of Yuan You of the Northern Song Dynasty. The shape of the dragon pillars was seen in stone pagodas and shrines during the Sui and Tang dynasties. It is a forerunner among the known ancient wooden structures in China. The corner pillars of the temple are quite prominent and the gables are particularly rich, giving the whole building a soft shape that is quite different from the ornate simplicity of Tang Dynasty architecture. The upper arch leaps out, the lower gable spreads five stores, the upper gable spreads six stores, and the overhead leaping spreads are used. There are different rules for over-the-top jumping throws, such as true over-the-top, false over-the-top, flat over-the-top and over-the-top hitting. The shapes of the arches are so complex and varied that they make the building more and more beautiful. There are no pillars in the hall, and there are six ra dragon symbols

Geteng Pavilion, located on the banks of the Gan River in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, was built in the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty's Yonghui era, and is famous for its Wang Bo Ruihe picture. Afterwards it was rebuilt 28 times, the old Tang and Song sites have long collapsed into the river. Today the Song painting Construction Method Style is the earliest known illustration of Wang Teng Ting, reflecting the image of the Song Ting. Its elegant posture and delicate structure are impressive. As can be seen in the picture, the pavilion stands on a raised platform, a ding cross of two two-story pavilions. The pavilion has 28 internal and external corners, which are well structured and ornate. Although there are many pillars on each level of the pavilion, the space is open and circular, and there are verandas on the upper and lower levels for easy viewing. This cultural spirit that attaches importance to the harmony between man and nature makes the pavilions in the ancient architecture of China and Europe in the spirit of the pavilions in the obvious differences: the latter is a masonry structure, only small windows, no corridors outside the building, rather isolated inside and outside, emphasizing the vertical upward pointy and thin figure, seems to be disdainful of the earth, revealing the gap between man and nature. China's pavilions are quite open, the circulation and penetration of space inside and outside the building, each floor has a corridor around, for people to ascend to view; each level around the horizontal layers of eaves, corridors, railings, greatly weakening the overall vertical height graphic upward tendency to rise, so that it is always able to look back at the earth; curved roofs and houses warped corners, avoiding the modeling of the stiffness and coldness, the beautifully embedded in nature, as if it became part of the earth and sky It embodies the infinite nostalgia of man for nature.

Painting style Song Dynasty, this period of architectural groups in the molding combination is full of changes. Surrounded by halls and pavilions surrounded by lower buildings, a number of courtyards are arranged along the axis in the overall general plan. Longxing Temple in Zhengding, Hebei is an important example of the general layout of existing Buddhist temples of the Song Dynasty. The entire temple building according to the central axis of the deep arrangement, from the outside to the inside, overlapping halls, courtyard changes, staggered heights, the main and secondary clear. Temple in front of a tall glazed wall, the door is a rectangular courtyard, the left and right have a bell tower and drum tower. In the center, the six-part hall of Dajue Temple has been destroyed, but there are still ruins. The entrance to the north of the hall is the Mani Palace, with side halls to the right and left, forming another vertical courtyard. Entering the second gate to the north is a magnificent spatial ensemble consisting of the main building, the Buddha's Fragrance Pavilion, its two sides of the Rotary Hall, the Ci Shi Pavilion and other secondary buildings, pavilions and pavilions. It is also the climax of the entire Buddhist temple complex. Behind the temple there is the last Amitabha Temple. Both the Buddha Temple and the Amitabha Temple utilize a system of three concurrent halls. This layout with the high pavilion as the center of the whole temple is undoubtedly due to the fact that since the Middle Tang Dynasty, while enshrining the tall Buddha statues, the main building had to develop into multi-storey, and the accompanying secondary buildings increased, reflecting the characteristics of the Buddhist temple architecture from the Late Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty.

Hebei Zhengding Longxing Temple Mani Palace was built in the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty. It is the only existing large Buddhist temple in China with a cross-shaped plan, and the oldest surviving example of a wooden structure that is a mansion on all sides. There are five halls in the center and five deep halls with a nearly square base and a cross-shaped plan. The center has a heavy eaves with a hermetically shaped roof, and there are two halls in the center of each of the four sides, all facing forward. The halls are surrounded by thick walls, and only the fronts of the halls are open to doors and windows. The beam structures in the hall all conform to the Tengwangge Preface. This hall is full of changes in three-dimensional layout, overlapping and majestic, dignified and serious, and shows a lively and vivid character. It is the only heirloom example of this architectural style in Song Dynasty paintings. This unique architectural style was not common before the Song Dynasty

The Mani Palace Great Pavilion of Compassion is the main building within Longxing Temple, and the existing pavilion was remodeled around 1940. Pavilion is about 33 meters high, *** three layers, resting on the top of the hill, the upper two layers of heavy eaves, seat flat, giving people a higher than the actual feeling. Thousand-handed Goddess of Mercy in the pavilion is 24 meters high. It was cast during the construction of the pavilion in the fourth year of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kai Bao, and was the largest bronze statue in ancient China.In 1992, the government restored the Imperial Library Building and the Keiki Pavilion. The three pavilions are juxtaposed and connected by a rainbow bridge, which is majestic. The Revolving Zang Hall and Ci's Pavilion are both on the second floor, with heavy eaves and hermetic roofs. The size is the same, but the structure is different. These two buildings have been remodeled many times by later generations, while the Runner's Hall retains the style of the Song Dynasty. In order to accommodate the hexagonal wheel storage, the two center columns in the lower columns of the Runner's Hall were moved out to form a network of flat hexagonal columns, and there is no flat dark floor between the upper and lower levels, unlike the Guanyin Pavilion of Liao Du Le Temple. The rest of the temple's halls are single-story.

The Guanyin Pavilion of the Turning Wheel Hall of the Du Le Temple in Jixian County, Hebei Province, was rebuilt in the second year of Liao. The existing gate and Guanyin Pavilion are authentic Liao Dynasty monuments. The gate is the main entrance of Du Le Temple, with three wide doors and two deep doors. It has a single-gable roof with mild folds, deep eaves, and flying buttresses. Twelve wooden pillars are erected on the base of the mountain platform, with the four corner pillars having slightly inwardly retracted capitals and slightly outwardly protruding bodies. The technique of planting side pillars not only stabilized the structure and prevented the building from tilting outwards, but also enriched the image of the building. Above each column head, a large dipper arch is stacked. There is no ceiling inside the mountain gate, and all the components such as the arch, beams and purlins are visible and highly decorative. The kisses at the ends of the ridges are very evocative, with the head visible and the tail curled inward, like a pheasant in flight. This is an example of the evolution of the Tang Dynasty Ming and Qing Dynasty tail dragon's kiss.

The Guanyin Pavilion of the Dule Temple in Jixian County, Hebei, is a tall and majestic Guanyin Pavilion through the mountain gate. In terms of modeling, it has both the mellowness of the Tang Dynasty and the gentleness of the Song Dynasty. It is an important representative of Liao Dynasty architecture and the tallest surviving two-story pavilion building in China. It is famous for its high architectural skills. The Guanyin Pavilion has two floors on the outside and a dark floor inside. It is actually a three-story building. Guanyin Pavilion is 23 meters high with five wide rooms and four deep rooms. It sits on the top of a hill and has only one roof. The first and second floors have waisted eaves with flat seats on the eaves. The pavilion is covered with caissons on the third floor and flat rafts between the right and left. The Guanyin Pavilion has majestic eaves arches, sparsely arranged, and obviously has the style of the Tang Dynasty lodging. Guanyin pavilion column network layout using inside and outside the two weeks of the configuration of the way, forming a large trap a small circle of double-layer circular column plane. Guanyin dougong **** there are 24 kinds. Although there are thousands of beams, columns and buckets, they are arranged in an orderly manner to form a solid and beautiful whole. Meanwhile, the width-to-depth and height-to-depth ratios of the pavilions are all around four to three. With such a complete and unified structure and delicate and stable design, the Duluo Temple has survived 28 earthquakes since its reconstruction in the Liao Dynasty, and almost all the houses have collapsed except for the Guanyin Pavilion and the Shanmen River. Guanyin statues*** 11, 16 meters high, slightly leaning forward, with plump faces and sagging shoulders. They are among the largest clay Buddha statues in China.

Guanyinyan Temple is located in Datong City, Shanxi Province, the date of its foundation is unknown. At the end of the Liao Dynasty, it was destroyed by fire. According to inscriptions, Jin rebuilt it on the same site in 1140, but it was far from the original scale of Liao. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the temple was divided into two floors, each with its own door, forming its own system. The main temple of this temple faces east, which is related to the custom of pilgrimage

Detailed drawing of the Daxiongboden of Huayan Temple Shangyin Temple II:

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