| Jiming Monastery in Nanjing is a monastery which has been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.After its reconstruction,Jiming Monastery has been greatly enlarged,and becomes much bigger than its previous scale.Besides,as a place of interest,a scenic spot,a cultural site,and a public interest institution,Jiming Monastery is always a popular place in Nanjing.It was restored by imitating traditional styles and it was among the first Buddhist temples which were restored in such styles in the early 1980s.In fact,its reconstruction is far more complicated than imitating traditional styles.Focusing on contemporary Nanjing city after the reform and opening-up,and on the reconstruction of Jiming Monastery in the 1980s,this thesis will discuss the relation between the temple and Nanjing society,and try to explore the complexity and polysemy behind the antique style reconstruction.This thesis unfolds from two perspectives:The first part combines the reconstruction of Jiming Monastery with the development of contemporary Nanjing city.By investigating its survival strategies in current Nanjing,this part will show the phase-based and purposeful choices and results of this reconstruction.The choice of imitating traditional styles seems a natural choice for Jiming Monastery.However,the thesis suggests that the choice actually plays an important role for the temple in constructing an image of place of interest,forming a new scenic spot,and becoming a part of Nanjing culture.Besides,it is the constructing of these images that facilitates the development of the temple in the aspect of religion.The complexity behind such reconstruction implies the structural connection between the temple and the city.The second part probes into the second meaning of traditional style imitating.Literally,traditional style imitating means reconstructing old and traditional forms.Actually,Jiming Monastery is treated as a historical building rather than a traditional style imitating by many contemporary visitors.As is shown by the research,the misapprehension is not only related to its architectural appearance,but also correlates with other reasons.Its architectural design,its religious characteristics,written records about it,along with visitors’ impression and memory about it all leads to such misapprehension.Meanwhile,the historical account about Jiming Monastery in the period of the Republic of China should be important collective memory for the public in contemporary society,and should directly connect the temple with the public,but in fact it is overlooked in the macro-history of Jiming Monastery.Therefore,this part compares the records about Jiming Monastery during the Republic of China with the result of its reconstruction,and suggests that Jiming Monastery manipulates relevant historical memories,through replacement,continuation and extension,circumvention and transformation,and remaining forces of religious factors.The manipulation successfully renders the misapprehension that Jiming Monastery is a "historical" site,makes it a current society guided history reconstruction,and reconnects it with the public.In this sense,architects and operators of the temple can make selective presentation of the history except merely imitating traditional styles,and that’s the second meaning of traditional style imitating.Finally,this thesis points out that such reconstruction of Jiming Monastery from the 1980s to 2010s effectively helps it gain the favor from the citizens and other visitors after the reform and opening-up,and transforms it into a "new Jiming Monastery"which is cohesive with contemporary city structures.Reconstructing architectures following traditional styles is not the full meaning of traditional style imitating.Architectural strategies or city strategies,which are indispensable to the city development and social requirements in a specific era,are also what traditional style imitating mean.In other words,traditional style imitating is not merely constructing or reconstructing architectures according to architectural styles,materials,and structures in history.More importantly,it is a kind of manipulation of the history which makes the modified history adapt to the contemporary society.Under such manipulation,"history" will become modified "presence" and will serve the contemporary society. |
