Typological study on the evolution of early Chinese buddhist monasteries: layout of pagoda, buddha hall, lecture hall and pavilion tower

Abstract

在以塔/浮图为中心的佛教寺院原型传入中国之后，经过“舍宅为寺”的汉化发展过程，在南北朝的后期进入了形态发展的高峰。以永宁寺和日本法隆寺等几个寺庙作为这一时期形态配置的例证看来，由于对佛像崇拜的宗教需求，金堂的地位日益重要，寺院开始将金堂与塔的位置，作或左右、或前后地并置。这种形态学上的多样发展一直延续到了唐代，在金堂的地位日渐巩固后，才确立了在中轴线上以山门、金堂和法堂为主体建筑的寺庙配置。从初唐开始，塔的重要性进一步降低，配置上开始将塔列入别院；同时，汉化的建筑元素如钟楼和楼阁也配合着中轴线的组成逐渐成为寺院配置的重要组成。这一系列佛寺配置的演变过程，也反映了这段时期各种佛教思想的产生与变迁以及寺院使用模式的本土化，从而导致的建筑形制的改变。 本文试图从形态发展的角度，就中国及东亚的实例与文献记载，包括敦煌壁画、《洛阳伽蓝记》及《法苑珠林》等诸多文献中出现的佛寺描绘，以及近年来永宁寺，青龙寺等考古资料的发现，将文字记载、考古发掘与现存的实例进行图面的排比，作为寺院形态演化的推测。这个图面排比的研究，以时间为主轴探讨从东汉至南北朝一路到晚唐和五代，佛教寺院配置的可能形式发展轨迹；并就金堂、法堂、寺塔与大殿或楼阁等的形制关系，提出一些初步的观察和问题。 Chinese Buddhist monastery originated from its Indian prototype, adopted the form of timber pagoda and the layout of courtyard in the vogue of “donating one’s residence to the service of Buddha” among aristocrats after the Han dynasty, reached its typological climax during the fifth and sixth century. Looking through key examples like Yongning Monastery and Horyuji at the time, the Buddha hall had became increasingly important as the result of popular needs on worship of Buddha image. Variations of arrangements on the location of Buddha hall and pagoda during the period, implied a trend of new interrelation between key building elements along the main axis. This diversity of typological transformation continued to develop until the preeminence of Buddha hall was commonly accepted in Tang dynasty,while the dominance of layout sequence on gate hall, pagoda, Buddha hall and lecture hall had also finally established. Meanwhile, the significance of pagoda continued to decrease during the Tang, and it eventually developed into a separate building cluster outside the central monastery enclosure. During the same period, traditional Chinese architecture forms such as pavilion tower (ge) and belfry, gradually established their importance and became key elements of Chinese Buddhist temple. This series of formal transformation on Buddhist temple in this period was not only a reflection of the development of Buddhism philosophically, culturally and socially, but was also the major change of use pattern as the result of localization on monastery layout. By mapping diagrams of temple layout adopted from materials including archive documents,pictorial representations in Dunhuang murals, archeological excavations and few surviving monuments in China, Japan and South Korea, This paper finally arranges all available samples in a chronological order for examining their evolution typologically. By building up the tentative traces of their development from late Han through Northern and Southern Dynasty, all the way to late Tang and the five Dynasties, this paper intends to look into key questions on the formal transformations of monastery in early China, addressing the role and layout on pagoda, Buddha hall, lecture hall and pavilion tower in the temple complex.