DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0514
Chap. II. TEMPLES AND OTHER STRUCTURES.
451
CHAPTER II.
CONTENTS.
The origin and development of the Chinese temple and other structures—
The materials employed in their buildings.
At one time it was thought that it might be possible with
further information on the subject to describe the buildings
appertaining to each of the religions, Confucian, Taoist, and
Buddhist, to which they belonged, but externally the temples
are nearly all of the same type, and it is only from their
interior decoration and by the statues placed in them that any
distinction can be made. The Muhammadan mosques, which
in other countries have always developed a type of their own,
are in China—all in general form—identical with the Buddhist
and other temples, and can only be distinguished by their
external decoration with texts from the Qoran, and are not
even to be recognised by the minaret which in other countries
has been their chief characteristic feature.
The same similarity in design and style of all the religious
buildings obtains equally in their civil structures, there being
no essential distinction between sacred and secular work, and
the further we go back the closer the affinity they have to one
another—the temple, the tomb and the dwelling being sym-
bolically repetitions of each other. The general effect, in fact,
of a Chinese city, as seen in a bird’s-eye view is one of extreme
monotony in which every building seems to be covered with
the same kind of roof, differing only in dimensions, and in some
cases with a more elaborate decoration—and this applies not
only to the Forbidden City in Pekin, where the buildings are
mainly palaces or public monuments, but to any other city of
importance: this arises from the circumstance that the pre-
vailing ordinary type of Chinese architecture is that known as
the T'ing, which consists of a roof of concave section carried on
short columns. If the roof is of great dimensions and elabor-
ately decorated, it covers either a temple, an Imperial hall of
audience, or the official residence of a mandarin, if of small size
and light construction, it is that of a house ; this almost universal
451
CHAPTER II.
CONTENTS.
The origin and development of the Chinese temple and other structures—
The materials employed in their buildings.
At one time it was thought that it might be possible with
further information on the subject to describe the buildings
appertaining to each of the religions, Confucian, Taoist, and
Buddhist, to which they belonged, but externally the temples
are nearly all of the same type, and it is only from their
interior decoration and by the statues placed in them that any
distinction can be made. The Muhammadan mosques, which
in other countries have always developed a type of their own,
are in China—all in general form—identical with the Buddhist
and other temples, and can only be distinguished by their
external decoration with texts from the Qoran, and are not
even to be recognised by the minaret which in other countries
has been their chief characteristic feature.
The same similarity in design and style of all the religious
buildings obtains equally in their civil structures, there being
no essential distinction between sacred and secular work, and
the further we go back the closer the affinity they have to one
another—the temple, the tomb and the dwelling being sym-
bolically repetitions of each other. The general effect, in fact,
of a Chinese city, as seen in a bird’s-eye view is one of extreme
monotony in which every building seems to be covered with
the same kind of roof, differing only in dimensions, and in some
cases with a more elaborate decoration—and this applies not
only to the Forbidden City in Pekin, where the buildings are
mainly palaces or public monuments, but to any other city of
importance: this arises from the circumstance that the pre-
vailing ordinary type of Chinese architecture is that known as
the T'ing, which consists of a roof of concave section carried on
short columns. If the roof is of great dimensions and elabor-
ately decorated, it covers either a temple, an Imperial hall of
audience, or the official residence of a mandarin, if of small size
and light construction, it is that of a house ; this almost universal