The Investigation About Type And Decorative Art Of Beijing Tianning Pagoda

In907ad, the nomadic Khitan conquered China’s Shanxi, Hebei and the north of Mongolia, a large area north to Mongolia plateau and Xingan mountains, at last estabalished the Liao dynasty. With the increase of the ruling class’s beliefs towards Buddhism, at the end of the Liao dynasty almost people believed in Buddhism. As a result, the ruling class built a large number of Buddhist temples and pagodas in the vast area of their dynasty. In addition to Shanxi, Liaoning and other regions, where still remains a few wooden structure Pagoda, the other existing Liao temple and Liao Pagoda all belongs to masonry structures. The Liao Dynasty pagoda had a idencital style and a lots of features, such as large size, standard type, elegant modeling. Besides theose features, the stupa had numerous and exquisite carving decoration, not only did the toewrs reflect the theme of Buddhism, but also demostrate the high level of carving skill. In the history of the Liao Dynasty pagoda, especially the masonry Miyan Pagodas reached their peak from the aspects of the construction quantity and construction techniques, and also left a lot of China traditional architectural art treasures for future generations.As the representative works in the final phase of the Liao dynasty, the type of Beijing Tianning Temple’s Tianning pagoda has the typical characteristics of the its dynasty. The Statues on the Pagoda used Buddhist Hua Yanzong’s Huayan Sutra as the theme, mixed the exterior context with the interior context. Both the vivid carving and rich content formed the unique style of Buddhist art. All the items above played an important role in the studies of the propagation and development of Buddhism and the type of process.This paper regards the Tianning Temple Pagoda as the main object of study, by using the research methods which is combined the field survey analysis with theory, the paper mainly from two aspects to analyze and investigate the type of the Pagoda and the decorative art of the Tianning Temple Pagoda, and then summarizes its type characteristics and artistic features. Provides full and accurate reference materials for the study of the pagoda’s protection work. This paper will discuss the Tianning Temple from four parts:The first part mainly introduces the origin and evolution of the Pagoda, by analyzing the historical reforms about the Tianning Temple and the Tianning Temple Pagoda, the paper reveals the nine hundred years changes of Tianning Temple Pagoda nearly.The second part summarizes the Liao Pagoda type and focuses on the analysis of the type of the Tianning Temple Pagoda. It mainly talks about four parts:the Pagoda base, the Pagoda body, the dense eaves, and the Pagoda spire. In these four parts, the paper introduces and analyzes the type characteristics and summed up the characteristics of the type of the Tianning Temple Pagoda.The third part studies the Tianning Temple Pagoda of decorative art. The paper puts emphasis on two keys:one is the Xu Mizuo and the other is Pagoda body. These two keys illustrates the Tianning pagoda’s pattern form and religious significance, and finally concludes the artistic characteristics of the Tianning Temple Pagoda of decorative art.The last part of the essay evaluates and prospects the Tianning Temple Pagoda. As an important representative of Liao’s final works, and the oldest buildings in Beijing, Tianning Temple has an extremely important value in history and cultural. By studying the shape and decorative arts, the paper pave the way for further researches. It also provides the accurate data and theories to protect this important cultural relics. This part concludes the previous parts, and at the same time it explains the author’s thoughts and conveys his viewpoints.