A Preliminary Study On The Environment Of Representative Taoist Temples In Chengdu

Taoism is originated from beautiful scenery and profound unique culture in Chengdu, so Chengdu become one of important Taoism originated places. Since Zhang Daoling established Taoism in Dayi Heming Mountain and promoted the religious doctrine in Qinchen City, and then Lao Tze promoted the religious doctrine in Qing Yangsi, Taoism has been walking on China’s historical arena, and it becomes the only religion originated in China. Under the mutual influence of Bashu culture and Taoist culture, Chengdu Taoist temples concentrate animas from heaven and earth, and collect the magic of Taoism, which lively, vividly convey the spirit "Taoist rules are in natural order and unity of the heaven and human beings". Currently, the research on Taoism and Taoist temple in Chengdu mostly focuses on development of history, principles, doctrines and religious culture and so on. The research on architectural structure, spatial layout, landscape of Taoist temples is scarce. Therefore, this dissertation takes environment of Chengdu Taoism temple as the breakthrough point, and studies its origin and development, historical evolution, regions of distribution, characteristics of location, spatial layout, architectural form, architectural art, landscape and protection of Taoist temples in Chengdu. The research on the landscape of Chengdu representative Taoist temples is good to bring honor to Taoist culture and better use and protect Taoist temples.The author hopes it can provide some useful references for protection and utilization, etc. of Taoist temples in Chengdu.With the methods of combining field measurement, photography, literature preview, interview and other major investigation and typical investigation so as to obtain important literature, this dissertation makes analysis of seven representative Taoist temples in Chengdu, and sums up the following research results: Taoist temples in Chengdu have very profound social foundation in history, and have more characteristics of earthiness and regionalism than other places, which is one of the different points from other area’s Taoist Temples. The Taoist temples in Chengdu have distinctive features of "creation in accordance with form, and treatment in accordance with local condition" in location and spatial layout. The architectural layout of mountain and forest-type Taoist temples cleverly and flexibly mixes together with natural environment, and the space level is also rich in transformation. The architectural layout of city garden-type Taoist temples is embodied in courtyard layout. Chengdu Taoist temples put the Taoist aesthetic thoughts and values into building system, building structure, size, architectural decoration and other many aspects, and they also emphasis on functional partition for architecture. It highlights distinctive geographical features. The construction groups are flexible in space layout. It fully reflects religious art of "beautiful temples" and other aspects of characteristics. The garden layout of Chengdu Taoism temple emphasizes the conception of "learning from nature, unity of heaven and man", while the types of landscape can be divided into artificial courtyard-type of temple and natural mountain and forest-type temple garden total two types, so as to create a pure religious landscape. Chengdu Taoist temples and gardens with characteristics of religious culture and geomancy culture richly and profoundly express the simplicity, simple natural view, and represent the thoughts of "quietism" and "harmony". From the analysis of historical and cultural heritage, this dissertation thinks Chengdu Taoist temples carry on human’s ecological wisdom and Taoist philosophy, which played a underestimated guiding role in the process of human’s development and living. Therefore, the reinforcement of the protection and utilization of Chengdu Taoist temples, the continuation of historical context, and the enrichment of Chengdu’s historical and cultural connotation and city image have very profound practical significance, and it also has value of research.