Xiangguo Temple In Bianzhou(Dongjing): A Research On The Developement Of The Temple Composition In Tang And Song Dynasty

The Xiangguo Temple(相国寺)is one of the most glorious royal temple inDongjing City in Song dynasty. It was just a simple and crude buildingcomplex when Monk Huiyun(释慧云)first built it in 711. It was said in theancient documents that there were a series of supernatural events happened tobring the royal supports to Xiangguo Temple. The building complex ofXiangguo Temple was made a great progress rapidly with its templecomposition after all the events. The thesis is going to trace the developingprocess of the building complex composition of the temple. Around the maintopic more information will be collected and some reason on the developmentof the building composition will be explained in my own way. By a study of the early literature of Xiangguo Temple, nine steps on thedevelopment of the temple composition could be found. If we put all theevents on a series properly, we could get the key element of the development. The Xiangguo Temple that Monk Huiyun built it in 711, was a simple courtyard building complex with a surrounding corridor in the very beginning. At the center of the courtyard a main hall was located, and a status of Buddha was erected in the hall. It was the general way of worship process at that time. It was a kind of basic temple model, which came from private worship. Monk Huiyun's idea on the process of Buddha worship was continued during the subsequent years. And the example is the ideal scene which Monk Daoxuan (释道宣)described in "Qihuan Sutra"(《祗洹图经》). After adding a Buddha pavilion, stupa and a number of side halls, Xiangguo Temple made a great progress in building complex composition. The main purpose of the arrangement was to collect more worship symbols in the temple. In early period of the temple, there is not a very detailed spatialarrangement. The temples in Tang Dynasty introduced the Sub-courtyard - II -System, which divided the temple into several parts, according the functionand sects. And the Sub-courtyard System introduced in Song Dynasty wasconcerned with the rule and organization of the temple. Through therearrangement in 1083, Xiangguo Temple improved its Sub-courtyard System. Another trend is to emphasis on the function of the temple. Monk Huaihai(百丈怀海)attempted to plan the Zen-temple in another way, attention wasextremely paid on the functional aspect of the temple. On one hand, heabandoned the Hall of Buddha, destroyed the basis of the old templecomposition. On the other hand, he claimed that the daily life in the templeshould also be ruled by the religion, and every aspect of the templecomposition should be controlled under a religion way. Monk Huaihai made anorder of the temple himself. After Monk Huaihai's death, the monks of Zen recognized the value ofBuddha. A new Zen-temple model was established, at the center of thebuilding complex a Buddha hall was located again. Not only it continued theway that how Monk Huaihai had kept the temple composition in order, but alsoit took the traditional process that was based on the way of Buddha worship.The new model had a powerful influence and had been the ordinary model ofthe temple composition for a long time.