The Records Of Buddhist Temple In Jinling And Buddhist Temples Of Ming Dynasty In Nanking

This thesis is a research on Buddhist temples of Ming Dynasty in Nanking, based on the book called the records of Buddhist temple in Jinling, written by Ge Yin-liang, who was an assistant in the Ministry of Rites in feudal China during Wanly, Ming Dynasty.As the capital of Ming Dynasty, Nanking enjoys a significant historical status and exerts great influence upon the development of Buddhism. The first chapter expounds the general situation of Buddhist temples of Ming Dynasty in Nanking. The second chapter respectively studies the temples'distributing in the inner city, the outer wall of city and peripheral villages and towns, as well as its reasons.The third chapter analyses the evolvement and underlying causes of the Nanking temples'principal layout respectively during the early, mid-, late Ming dynasty, according to the approximate positions and settings of the temple's halls recorded in the records of Buddhist temple in Jinling. Meanwhile comparisons with those of typical contemporary temples in Peking, Hangzhou and other cities were made. In one section of this chapter, the imaginary ichnography of the supreme temple, Linggu Temple, built by the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty in 1382, was established on the analysis.The forth chapter reviews the shapes and structures of the temple's main halls and discusses their alternation and variation, as well as their differences, and the causes of their evolvement.