January 9, 2022, is the 50th anniversary of the death of Liang Sicheng, a famous architect in China. He left a landmark masterpiece "History of Chinese Architecture" for the study of ancient Chinese architecture, and as one of the important members of the Construction Society, Liang Sicheng and his colleagues conducted a series of field investigations on ancient Chinese architecture in the 1930s, which also left a valuable wealth for future generations of researchers.
At the end of 2021, the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology launched a series of short videos on the popularization of ancient architecture, the first of which, "The "Big Wood Works" of Sichuan Architecture", showed the four endangered processes of drawing, opening poles, drawing ink and bargaining in the traditional building construction process in Sichuan, which aroused strong interest from netizens as soon as it was released.
As a scientific research institution rooted in the protection of local ancient buildings, the Ancient Architecture Design Research Center of Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology (hereinafter referred to as the Ancient Architecture Center) has begun to investigate and study the early (Yuan and Ming) buildings in Sichuan since 2008, and has successively written investigation reports. Among them, the "Sichuan Ancient Architecture Survey Report Collection (Volume I)" was published last year, including a total of 7 ancient building survey reports and 1 wood species identification report.
These 7 ancient buildings are: Xiangshen Temple in Jiange County, Guangyuan City, WenMiao Temple in Zhaohua District, Wulong Temple in Langzhong City, Nanchong City, Zhang Huanhou Ancestral Hall, Guanyin Nunnery and Truth Temple in Southern County, Nanchong City, and Douding Temple in Pingwu County, Mianyang City, all distributed in the northern Sichuan area, built from the Yuan Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty.
Among them, the Zhang HuanHou Ancestral Hall (also known as Zhang Fei Temple) in Langzhong was also visited by members of the famous China Construction Society in the 1930s.
Cai Yukun, one of the main authors of the book and deputy director of the Ancient Construction Center of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, told the Red Star News reporter that in their several inspections and surveys in recent years, they will still adhere to the tradition of the Construction Society in that year, and follow the example of the construction society when conducting the ground wooden building survey before the construction society to write the report, that is, from the overall layout, to the flat, vertical and sectional aspects of the building unit, to the details of the bucket beam frame and the interior decoration painting, etc., and will also pay attention to the record of the inscription and the plaque. "The general specifications are similar to when they were doing the survey, but the technical means we use now will be more advanced."
The feat of the construction society
Star-studded members, unprecedented contributions
The China Construction Society (hereinafter referred to as the Construction Society) was founded in 1930 by the famous ancient architect Zhu Qizhao. In 1919, Zhu Qizhao accidentally found a copy of the "Construction of the French Style" at the Jiangnan Library in Nanjing (now the Nanjing Library), and was ecstatic, and with the help of scholars, he proofread the manuscript and printed it in 1925.
Written during the Northern Song Dynasty's Anshi Transformation, the Book of The Construction of the French Style is the earliest professional book on building regulation and technology in China, written by Li Jie, who was then the general supervisor (the head of the agency responsible for civil engineering). He is not only proficient in architecture, but also has in-depth research in the fields of literature, history, music, Chinese painting, geography and other fields, and has authored books such as "The Classic of Continuing Mountains and Seas", "Continuing the Same Name", "The Book of Horses", "Ancient Seal Sayings", "Pipa Classic" and so on.
Zhu Qizhao (According to the official website of the Memorial Hall of the China Construction Society)
The word "construction" in the book refers specifically to traditional Chinese architecture and its architectural techniques and norms, and the name of the construction society is also derived from this. Under the inspiration of Zhu Qizhao, the Construction Society gathered the best experts in the relevant fields in China at that time: Liang Sicheng served as the director of the French Department, and the architect Liu Dunzhen served as the director of the Literature Department; the archaeologist Li Ji, the historian Chen Yuan, the geologist Li Siguang, the architect Lin Huiyin, Yang Tingbao, and so on were all listed, which can be described as brilliant stars.
The construction society's research on ancient Chinese architecture is not limited to the technical level, but places it under the background of big culture and history, and connects with many disciplines for perspective and dissection. The society's work combined research texts with site surveys, which was also innovative at the time.
In the short period of 5 years after its establishment, the members of the Society have investigated 137 counties and cities in China, 2783 relics of various ancient temples and houses, surveyed and mapped 206 groups of buildings in detail, and drawn 1898 mapping drawings. The precious architectural relics that were rediscovered after their investigation were distributed in various historical periods from the Han and Tang dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and sorted out a clear context for the development of ancient Chinese architecture.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Construction Society was forced to move south through Wuhan, Changsha, and Kunming, and finally settled in Lizhuang, Yibin, Sichuan. The Construction Society in the Rear Area insisted on the investigation and research of ancient buildings under extremely difficult conditions, and published a large number of professional works during this period.
Many precious ancient buildings that are now famous in the sea, such as the ZhaoZhou Bridge in the Sui Dynasty, the Wooden Pagoda of Ying County in the Liao Dynasty, the Dule Temple in Jixian County, and the Guanyin Pavilion, have been re-recognized by the members of the Construction Society through fieldwork and detailed surveying and mapping. As a non-governmental academic society, the contribution made by the Construction Society to the research and protection of traditional Chinese architecture is described as unprecedented, and it is no exaggeration to describe it.
In 2006, the former site of the China Construction Society in Lizhuang was announced as a national key cultural relics protection unit. The journal of the Construction Society, the Journal of the China Construction Society, is also an important historical material for the study of traditional Chinese architecture.
The regret of Sichuan's ancient architecture
Climate and war causes, before the Yuan Dynasty, very few survived
When it comes to sichuan ancient architecture, the most easily associated with it is the Han Que. As early as the early 20th century, Western sinologists who examined China had noticed this kind of stone architecture similar to Western monuments. In the 1930s, when the Construction Society was surveying the Sichuan area, it also surveyed and mapped Ya'an Gaoyique.
In addition to the Han Que, a large number of Han Dynasty pottery towers, pottery houses and Han portrait bricks have been excavated in Sichuan, and the Structure and Decoration of Imitation Wooden Buildings are also found in the Han Dynasty Cliff Tombs. These archaeological objects, together with the Han Que standing on the ground, outline the image of the architecture of the Han Dynasty in Sichuan.
Due to various reasons such as war and climate in the southern region, the number of existing Song and Yuan wooden buildings is far less than that in the north. Sichuan, as one of the areas with the most existing Song and Yuan wooden buildings in the southern region, has not exceeded 10 single buildings.
Young people conducting surveys of ancient buildings
Most of these buildings are located in hilly areas far from the town, so they have been able to survive repeated wars and survive to this day, such as the Southern Lifeng Temple Hall, the Langzhong Yong'an Temple Hall, and the Pengxi Jinxian Temple Hall. There are also some brick pagodas of the Song and Yuan dynasties, which are not easy to burn, and have also survived in the city, such as the White Pagoda of Jianyang, the White Pagoda of Nanchong and the Pagoda of Pengxi Vulture Peak Temple.
Although Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty was not as prosperous as the Song Dynasty, it still left a large number of ground buildings due to its relative proximity. These buildings are rich in variety, mainly temples, including Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, ancestral temples, etc., of which the largest number of Buddhist temples is the largest. There are such large-scale architectural complexes as Pingwu Bao'en Temple and Zitong QiquShan Grand Temple, as well as some small village temples that are not well-known.
The late Ming and early Qing dynasties were a major historical turning point in Sichuan, and the western Sichuan Plain was the most severely damaged by war, taking the old city of Chengdu as an example, no wooden structure before the Qing Dynasty has survived to this day.
In the process of field investigation, if conditions permit, the ancient construction center will also collect wood samples of ancient building components for later laboratory tree species identification or carbon fourteen dating. They found that most of the wood used in these ancient buildings was cypress wood, which is the most commonly used construction wood in Sichuan and is still a common wood for large pieces of furniture in many Sichuan people today.
Each of the seven ancient buildings has a legend
The Iron Lion of Huanhou Ancestral Hall and the Journey to the West of Douding Temple
The Marquis Of Zhang Huan (commonly known as "Zhang Fei Temple" and "Zhang Fei Tomb") in Langzhong is one of the most famous monuments in Langzhong City. Zhang Fei's tomb is said to have been built in the Three Kingdoms period, and from the documentary records, it can be clear that at the latest in the Five Dynasties period, Zhang Fei's tomb has been built in front of the ancestral hall. Today, the existing Zhang huanhou ancestral hall complex was rebuilt in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and was announced as the fourth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 1996.
Aerial view of the Zhang HuanHou Ancestral Hall group
People who have seen the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" must be impressed by Zhang Fei's death: in 221 AD (the first year of Zhang Wu), the same year that Liu Bei claimed the title of emperor, Zhang Fei in ZhenshouLang was killed in his sleep by two rebellious subordinates, at the age of 55.
After Zhang Fei was killed, people respected his loyalty and courage and built a shrine for him. However, when the original building reached the fifth generation, it lasted for more than five hundred years and was basically destroyed. In order to commemorate Zhang Fei, the fifth generation of Langzhou Thorn Shi Cuishan also carried out a large-scale renovation of the dilapidated Huanhou Ancestral Hall.
Schematic map of the location of the respondents in the "Sichuan Ancient Architecture Survey Report Collection (Volume I)"
In this "Collection of Investigation Reports on Ancient Architecture in Sichuan (Volume I)", a little-known historical detail is also mentioned: in the first year of the Tianhan Dynasty (917 AD), the Former Shu court also gave this hero more than 700 years ago a title: Lingying Wang.
At the same time as Zhang Fei, there were also the Wei general Deng Ai and others, and one of the things they had in common was that they did not receive a "good death" (after Deng Ai destroyed Shu, he died because of the false scheme). Therefore, for the reigning emperor Wang Jian at that time, it had a meaning of "early sacrifice of powerful ghosts" in it.
Liang Sicheng (Picture according to the official website of the Memorial Hall of the China Construction Society)
In late August 1939, Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen, Mo Zongjiang, Chen Mingda and others from the Construction Society set out from Kunming to investigate the cliff tombs, grottoes, stone carvings, moyans, Hanques, and ancient buildings in Guizhou, Chongqing, Sichuan and other places. In December of that year, they also came to Langzhong and visited the Huanhou Ancestral Hall, the Iron Pagoda Temple, Wenchang Palace, Xiangcheng Temple and other monuments.
Liang Sicheng mentioned the iron lion at the entrance of Huanhou Temple in his diary. "Huanhou Ancestral Hall is in the county government, southbound ... There are two iron lions outside the temple gate, cast in the 47th year of the Ming Dynasty (1619 AD), although confined to the customs, the posture is slightly clumsy, but it is a rare example in Sichuan Province. (The Complete Works of Liang Sicheng).
According to researchers at the Gujian Center, the pair of iron lions should have been cast during the Ming Dynasty (1612). Unfortunately, this pair of iron lions, which were clumsy in Liang Sicheng's eyes, were first damaged by shrapnel during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and then destroyed in the 60s and 70s of the last century, and we never had the opportunity to see them again.
One of the "Journey to the West" theme murals in The Doudeng Temple (a scene of Sun Wukong's first theft of purple golden bells)
The last ancient building described in the "Sichuan Ancient Architecture Survey Report Collection (Volume I)" is the Doudui Temple in Pingwu County, Mianyang. The founding date of this temple is unknown, in the past it was considered a Ming Dynasty building, and after two on-site investigations by the Ancient Construction Center, careful study using three-dimensional laser scanning, infrared photography and other techniques, it was finally confirmed that this temple was rebuilt in the 10th year of Qing Yongzheng (1732), which is nearly 300 years old.
The murals in the main hall of this Doudang Temple are quite distinctive - unlike the Buddha statues, lotus petals, and various patterns commonly found in the other six ancient buildings in the book, the theme of the murals here is the story in "Journey to the West": the Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace, the First Thief purple golden bell, the three borrowed banana fans... The researchers noticed that Monkey King occupies an important position as the "absolute protagonist" in these pictures, and seems to be loved by locals or painters.
Whether zhang fei or Sun Wukong, are invincible and loyal heroes, their image has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for thousands of years, even in the few ancient buildings that exist in the world, they can also glimpse people's unchangeable admiration and admiration for them from the thick shadows of time.
Red Star News reporter | Qiao Xueyang
Intern | Liu Renjie
Edited | Duan Xueying
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