Abstract:The study of stupor burial is one of the important topics of Buddhist archaeology, and the basic framework for the formation and development of the stupa burial system has been established in the past research. In recent years, new archaeological discoveries have emerged, especially the excavation of two royal Buddhist temples in the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods at the Site of Yicheng, which provides new materials for related research. Under the new academic perspective and concept, through comprehensive excavation and key dissection, information that was completely unknown in the past was obtained, which created a possibility for re-understanding the development and evolution of the relics buried in the process of sinification of Buddhism. Based on the archaeological analysis of the burial activities during the construction of the pagoda foundations of the two Buddhist temples in Yicheng, this paper attempts to re-explore the early Chinese burial methods of the relics. Proposed: At the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 7th century, when the Worship of The Buddha was becoming more popular, the burial activities during the construction of the pagoda were more complicated, and the content of the burial was not limited to the relics. During this period, the burial of the relics was closely related to the surface foundation, and the idea of burial, the form of expression and even the combination of containers profoundly reflected the continuous run-in process of Western tradition and local culture.
The study of stupor burial is one of the important topics of Buddhist archaeology. Since the 1950s, a number of Buddhist temple taji relics and relics related to the burial of relics have been discovered in China, which has provided important basic information for the study of the burial of relics and rich discussions. The following research can be roughly divided into two stages: the first stage, represented by Xu Pingfang, Yang Hong and other previous scholars, established the main framework thesis on the formation and development of the burial system, especially the academic boom triggered by the excavation of the Tang Dynasty Pagoda Base Palace of Fufeng Famen Temple in Shaanxi from 1987 to 1988. In the second stage, after entering the 21st century, new archaeological discoveries have emerged one after another, and scholars such as Ran Wanli, Yu Wei, and Gao Jixi have published papers and compiled books to refine and deepen the study of the burial of the relics on the basis of the previous research. Yang Hong divided the development and evolution of the five dynasties of the Northern Dynasty to the end of the Tang Dynasty into four phases: the early Northern Dynasty, the late Northern Dynasty, the Sui to the early Tang Dynasty, the Tang Gaozong to the Wuzong Extinction Law, and the Xuanzong Restoration to the Late Tang Dynasty. Among them, there are more archaeological discoveries in the third and fourth periods, and the burial of relics from the central to the local level, according to the differences in status and Buddhist beliefs, has formed a more standardized system; while the first and second phases are limited to archaeological discoveries, and the relevant discussions, especially the details of the burial process of the relics, have rarely been touched upon by scholars.
Since 2002, the Yecheng Archaeological Team, jointly formed by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Hebei Province, has excavated and discovered two large Buddhist temple pagoda remains at the Yecheng site, both of which have found remains related to the burial of relics, providing a new opportunity for us to improve the research on the first and second phases of the burial of the relics. It is worth noting that although some scholars have paid attention to the new archaeological discoveries in Yecheng since the new century, their understanding of the phenomenon of ruins is not consistent. This paper intends to start from the interpretation of archaeological materials and try to re-explore the burial methods of early relics in China.
One
In 534, the Northern Wei Dynasty split into two parts, the east and the west, with the eastern center at Yecheng. Located at the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, the North China Plain and the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Yicheng once again became the center of a divided dynasty after more than 160 years, and also became the political, economic, cultural and artistic center of the eastern half of the northern region of the Central Plains at that time. Yicheng Buddhism began in the Later Zhao Period, adhering to the Foundation of Buddhism since the Northern Wei Dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and reached its peak in the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods, "belonging to the prosperity of Gao Qi, buddhism is flourishing." All under the great temple, counting four thousand. See the monks and nuns who live there, only will be eighty thousand. The distance between the pulpits is more than two hundred. In the crowd heard, out of ten thousand. Gu Yunei Yingjie, Xian Gui Guo Bang". The Yecheng archaeological team has found a large number of Buddhist relics and relics in the investigation and excavation over the years, of which the Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple and the Walnut Garden Northern Qi Buddhist Temple are the two most important Buddhist relics found in recent years (Figure 1).
(1) Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple Taji
Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple is located in the Nanguo District of Qi Ye City in the Eastern Wei Dynasty, and its west side is close to the central axis of the capital, Zhumingmenwai Avenue. The temple is large in scale, with a square wooden pagoda located at the southern end of the central axis of the temple, and the rammed earth of the pagoda base remains (Fig. 2). In 2002, the Yecheng archaeological team conducted a comprehensive excavation and found bricks and pillar foundations related to the burial of the relics in the rammed soil of the Taki (Figure 3), and the excavators were keenly aware of its important position in the formation and evolution of the system of the burial of the underground palace.
The excavation briefing refers to the remains of bricks found under the foundation of the brake pillar as the "brick letter", which is located near the horizon in the center of the rammed earth foundation trough of the tower base, built of delicate black-gray bricks, nearly cube-shaped, and the outer rim is about 0.7 meters long, wide and high (Fig. 4). Although most of the ruins were stolen and destroyed, the original state can still be roughly restored, its bottom surface is rammed earth, no bricks, surrounded by a combination of square bricks and strip bricks on all sides and the top surface, and then coated with white ash on the outer surface of the bricks. It is certain that such "brick letter" remains are built in rammed earth and are immovable components, so there should be other containers for holding relics and offerings in the burial ceremony, that is to say, the brick letter is only a protective layer outside the relics container.
According to the excavation and dissection of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, we can roughly reverse the process of building the wooden pagoda of the Buddhist temple and the burial of the relics, which should mainly include the following links (Figure 5):
1. In the early stage of the construction of the tower foundation, first excavate a large base trough, and then begin the ramming of the foundation part, according to the dissection, the lower half of the foundation is composed of ten layers of loess, pebble mixed rammed layer and rammed earth layer alternately.
2. When rammed to the point where the base trough opening (construction surface) is approached, a container containing relics and offerings is placed directly on the rammed earth surface in the center of the base trough, and the burial and offering ceremony of the relics is held.
3. Build a protective layer (i.e. brick letter) with bricks around the outer part of the container containing the relics, and brush the outer surface of the bricks with white ash.
4. Carry out the ramming of the foundation part and the above-ground platform, and when the ramming is about 0.9 meters away from the top surface of the brick letter, another ceremonial activity is carried out, that is, the central brake pillar and the square brake pillar are installed, and then the ramming of the above-ground platform foundation is continued.
5. When the ramming continues to a certain height, the rammed earth is placed in the rammed earth according to the design of the wooden tower pillar network, and then the ramming work of the above-ground platform foundation is continued.
6. After completing the construction of the above-ground platform foundation, start the wooden construction of the wooden tower, and carry out decoration works such as tile laying and painting, and finally pave the ground around the wooden tower foundation.
7. Re-excavate a nearly square small base trough (about 3 sides and 1.5 meters deep) in the four corners of the rammed earth foundation trough, and alternately construct two layers of masonry mixed rammed layer and rammed earth layer. It is covered with a cubic single-storey bowl, a dense eaves or a small pavilion-style tower.
In summary, we can see that for the construction of the entire Buddhist temple foundation, the relics and burials, the placement of the brake pillar foundation and the brake pillar all have special needs in the ceremony, so they are sandwiched between the two independent links in the construction process. Because of the number of participants and identity, the two ceremonies should be held on a relatively flat plane, which I call the "ceremonial surface". Judging from the excavations, there is some correspondence between the two ceremonial surfaces and the moving surfaces found by archaeology, such as the ritual surface of the stump burial is basically close to the opening surface of the base trough of the tower (that is, the construction surface), and the top surface of the brick letter is roughly consistent with the brick paving ground (that is, the use surface) outside the tower foundation. It can be seen that the holding of ceremonies such as the burial of relics should be an organic part of the construction plan, and the entire construction process is carried out in an orderly manner according to the plan.
(2) Walnut Orchard Northern Qi Buddhist Temple Taji
Coincidentally, 10 years after the excavation of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, we found a large Buddhist temple pagoda base about 600 meters east of the temple, that is, the Walnut Garden Northern Qi Buddhist Temple Taji (Fig. 6). The tower base is composed of three parts: the above-ground rammed earth platform foundation, the surrounding auxiliary facilities and the underground rammed earth foundation trough, of which the above-ground rammed earth platform foundation is seriously damaged, and the surrounding auxiliary facilities and the underground rammed earth foundation trough are slightly better preserved.
What is more interesting is that if the Pagoda Base of the Buddhist Temple is compared with the Pagoda Foundation of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng, it can be found that the two have a high degree of consistency in terms of architectural scale, shape and structure. Both are square building foundations, the ground platform side is about 30 meters long, the underground base trough side is about 42 meters long (Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple Pagoda base trough is slightly larger, about 45 meters), both base trough rammed soil can be divided into upper and lower two parts, the upper half is a pure rammed earth layer, the lower half is alternately rammed with pebble layer and rammed earth layer.
The difference is that due to the serious damage to the rammed earth platform foundation on the base of the North Qi Buddhist Temple Pagoda in walnut orchard, we have not found any remains such as bearing stones and central brake pillars related to the structure of the column network, nor have we found the remains of brick letters buried under the foundation of the pillar like the foundation of the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng. However, when we dissected the underground rammed earth foundation trough, about 1.87 meters from the opening of the tower foundation trough (that is, the construction surface at that time), we found a group of remains that may be related to the bury, including a nearly square stone letter and a blue glazed jar placed around it (Figures 7 and 8), and this group of remains was neatly designed on the surface of the topmost pebble layer in the geometric center of the base trough. This set of stone and glazed jars contains a wide variety of relics, including beads of various textures, stone products, copper coins and glass fragments in addition to decaying organic matter items.
According to the phenomenon of excavations and anatomical findings, we can also reverse the construction of the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in walnut orchards and the process of burying relics, which should generally include the following main links (Figure 9):
1. At the beginning of construction, a large foundation trough is excavated in advance, and then the alternating ramming of the lower half of the foundation (that is, the pebble layer and the rammed earth layer) begins.
2. When the foundation ramming of the local underground foundation is carried out to about half the depth of the base trough, the alternating ramming of the pebble layer and the rammed soil layer is completed. It should be noted that there are differences between the alternate layers of pebbles and rammed earth in the corresponding positions of the tower base platform and the treadway, and the base groove at the corresponding platform is slightly deeper, so the lowest pebble layer is thicker than the upper layer. The pebble layer above the lowest layer should be simultaneously constructed at the corresponding Taiming and the treadway, and when half the depth is completed at the treadway, it means that it is roughly flat with the bottom of the four-sided ramp of the base trough. At this time, another layer of rammed earth and a layer of pebbles were added to the corresponding Taiming position, thus forming a countertop slightly higher than the surrounding area in the middle of the base trough. This process is undoubtedly prepared for the burial ceremony.
3. At this time, stone letters and blue-glazed jars are placed in the center of the cross of the rammed earth foundation trough and on the surface of the topmost pebble layer, and the worship and burial ceremony is held. The solemnity of this ceremony can be seen from the related relics phenomenon, such as because the depth of the ceremony is deeper than the ground (construction surface) at that time (about 1.87 meters), so six gentle slope passages are set up on the four sides of the base trough to reach this depth, the slope passage is about 6 meters long and 2.5 to 3.3 meters wide, and a thick layer of road soil layer can be seen on the ramp surface (Figure 10, Figure 11). The laying of the topmost pebble has a relatively obvious regularity, along the north-south and east-west axis of the platform base with two columns of pebbles as cross-shaped partitions, the diagonal area of the four zones in the pebble size is close, and the size of the pebbles in each zone is comparable (Figure 12). Thus, from the laying of the pebbles, the cross axis of the underground base trough is formed, and the stone letter is accurately placed on the cross center of the base trough.
4. When the offering and burial ceremony is completed, continue with the ramming of the underground foundation. About 40 centimeters to the south side of the stone letter, a group of pebble-based remains are placed, with a slightly arrow-shaped arrangement and a lacquered wooden container in the center of the arrow (Fig. 13). This set of remains also seems to correspond to a small ritual.
5. Continue to ram the foundation, and when the ground (i.e. the construction surface) is reached, slightly broaden the rammed area and begin the rammed earth platform on the ground. When rammed to the height equivalent to the use surface, we found an irregular disturbance pit in the center of the platform, which was roughly equivalent to the location of the brick base of the Pagoda of the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng, but no traces were found.
6. After completing the rammed earth platform foundation and the rammed road of the four-way treadway on the ground, carry out the process of wood construction, tile laying and decoration, and complete the construction of the surrounding auxiliary facilities.
Relatively speaking, the construction and burial process of the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Orchard seems to be more complicated than that of the Zhao Pengcheng Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple, but it should be noted in advance that as far as archaeological phenomena are concerned, the limitations of the later theft and destruction and excavation itself also restrict our cognition to a certain extent. In the case of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, due to the well-preserved foundation of the underground rammed earth, only a partial dissection was carried out using the robbery hole at that time, so the remains of the brick letter were found, but the part below the brick letter in the center of the foundation was not dissected, so it is not possible to confirm whether there are still stone letters and other remains similar to the base of the North Qi Buddhist Temple pagoda in the foundation center. For the walnut orchard Northern Qi Buddhist Temple pagoda base, due to the serious damage to the rammed earth platform foundation on the ground, only a disturbance pit was found in the location of the brick base of the Pagoda of the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng, and the large foundation stone that exists in the Santai Ruins Park can basically be confirmed to be the brake pillar foundation stone transported back from the tower base in the early years, so it is impossible to confirm whether there is also a brick letter under the brake pillar foundation.
The age and attributes of the Pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Garden are relatively clear, and it is a pagoda of the Great Solemn Temple built in the ninth year of Northern Qi Tianbao (558), and the date of destruction should be roughly the same as the destruction of the late Northern Qi City. The age and attributes of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist temple of Zhao Pengcheng are slightly more complicated, and it can only be judged from the excavations that it is from the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi periods. He Liqun once sorted out buddhism in the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Cities, and listed more than 20 Eastern Wei and Northern Qi monasteries recorded in the literature, of which only three national temples can be clearly located in the south of the city are the Dazhuangzhuang Temple, the Da Zongzhi Temple, and the Daci Temple. The Scale of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng is grand and should belong to the National Great Temple, and the possibility that the Great Temple of the State, which is close to the central axis, should be relatively small in the main history. If the Walnut Garden Northern Qi Buddhist Temple is presumed to be the Great Solemn Temple, it seems that the Zhao Pengcheng Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple corresponds to the Great General Holding Temple. There are very few records of the Dazongzhi Temple, and there are slight differences in the records of the Northern Qi Shu Wucheng Gaozhan and the Northern History Qi Ben Jixia, and the seventh volume of the Northern Qi Book, Wucheng Gaozhan: "(Heqing 2nd year) At noon in May, the garden of the Shuangtang Leap Seat in the south of the city was built. "The History of the North", vol. 8, "Qi Ben Jixia": "(In the second year of Heqing) in the afternoon of May, the court of the Shuangtang in the south of the city was rebuilt. What is confusing is that based on these two documents alone, we cannot know for sure whether the specific reference to the Shuangtang in the south of the city is related to the Ming Hall, or whether it refers to the southeast and southwest courtyards of the Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple, while "Nai" and "Hui" are only the differences in literature transmission or records, or whether it specifically refers to the characteristic that the Zhao Pengcheng North Dynasty Buddhist Temple is surrounded by square water ditches. If it is assumed that the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng is the Great General Holding Temple, it should be built in the second year of the Northern Qi River Qing Dynasty (563), only 5 years later than the Great Solemn Temple, and the age of destruction should be equivalent to the Great Solemn Temple, at the same time as the destruction of the northern Qi Dynasty Yecheng. From this point of view, as two large Buddhist temple foundations with similar locations, similar construction eras, and the same national temple, the architectural shape, scale and structural height are consistent, and the way of worship and burial of relics should be consistent, and the difference between the above archaeological phenomena should be considered more from the perspective of the limitations of theft and destruction and excavation itself.
Two
After sorting out the process of building and burying the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng and the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Garden, it is necessary to compare and analyze the cases of the same period that have been found in China.
The only cases in the Northern Dynasty period are the Taji of Dingxian County, Hebei in the fifth year of the Great Dynasty (481) and the Pagoda of Yongning Temple in Luoyang, Henan in the first year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (516). According to the description of the briefing, the Dingxian stone letter was excavated in a rammed soil layer 1.5 meters deep, but the condition of the tower base and the specific location of the stone letter are unknown. There is a square vertical pit in the center of the tower base of Luoyang Yongning Temple, with a side length of 1.7 meters, the pit mouth is neat, the four walls are upright, the wall surface is flat, and the excavators speculate that it is the location of the wooden pagoda underground palace.
In the Sui Dynasty, there were six cases, including the Pagoda Of the Qingchan Temple in Xi'an, Shaanxi in the ninth year of the Kai Emperor (589), the Pagoda of the Shende Temple in Yaoxian County, Shaanxi in the fourth year of Renshou (604), the Pagoda Base of the Baidian Village in Zhengding, Hebei in the first year of Daye (605), the Pagoda Base of the Northern Song Dynasty in Dingxian County, Hebei Province, the Relic Letter of the Northern Song Dynasty Jingzhi Temple in the Second Year of Daye (606), the Relic Letter of the Twelve Years of Daye (616) in the Fangshan Yunju Temple in Beijing, and the Sui Relic Stone Letter of the Sui Relic in Pingyin Hongchi, Shandong. In the above discoveries, Qingchan Temple found that the "underground palace" is rectangular, 89 meters long from north to south, 37 cm wide from east to west, and 36.4 centimeters deep, and the relationship with the base of the tower is unknown. Found at a depth of 2 meters above the ground, the stone letter of Yaoxian Shende Temple is placed in the pagoda inscription, and there are long strips or square stone envelopes around and on the cover of the stone letter, and there are brick walls around it. The stone letter is 103 cm long and 119 cm high. Zhengding Beibaidian Village Shihan is located 1 meter deep underground, and bricks are built around the outside of the letter. In the second year of Dingxian Daye (606), the relics were excavated in the underground palace of Jingzhi Temple in the Northern Song Dynasty. Shandong Pingyin Relic Was excavated in rammed earth, rammed earth platform base length of 16 meters from east to west, north and south due to unknown damage, no signs of masonry, underground palace and other signs were found around the stone letter. The stone letter is divided into two parts, the inner letter is composed of a top letter cover and a square letter body, and the outer letter is a combination, with a height of 135 cm and composed of six stone slabs.
It is a little regrettable that the above cases are mostly obtained from informal excavations, and the details of the excavation of the relics and the relationship with the taki are vague. However, from the perspective of the residual information, there are several aspects that can be slightly laid out.
(i) Brick letters and stone letters
According to existing archaeological findings, Mr. Yang Hong once concluded that "during the Northern Wei Dynasty, no underground palace was built, but the stone letter where the relics were placed was buried directly into the rammed earth of the tower." The Sui Dynasty began to construct simple burial chamber-like buildings in brick and stone, and no longer buried the stone letters where the relics were placed directly into the soil. According to this, the burial method of the stone letter in the base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in the walnut orchard is more in line with the characteristics of the Northern Wei "directly buried in the rammed earth of the pagoda", while the setting of the brick letter in the pagoda of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng is closer to the burial method that began in the Sui Dynasty.
If you compare the stone letters and blue-glazed jars found in the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in walnut orchard with the brick letters found in the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, it can be found that the biggest difference between the two is the difference in spatial location. Although both are surrounded by rammed earth, in terms of depth, the former is located in the middle of the tower base trough, and the latter is roughly equal to the opening of the tower base trough. Considering that when we dissect the center of the Pagoda Base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in the Walnut Orchard, we will find all kinds of mutilations from time to time, including copper coins, green glazed jars, etc., the author tends to think that there are many burial processes in the pagoda bases of these two Buddhist temples, the most important of which should be the burial of the brick letter corresponding to the base of the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng. The remains of the stone letter found at the base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in walnut orchards are important, but they should be only a part of the process of burial.
Letters, boxes also. Strictly speaking, it seems that the brick structure found in the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng is neither suitable for being called "brick letter", nor can it be called "underground palace", but it is more accurate to use "brick parapet wall". In the construction process of the tower base rammed earth, the container used to hold the relics in addition to the stone letter, whether it is copper, glass or ceramic any texture, if the rammed earth is directly superimposed on it, it is bound to cause damage, which is also contrary to the original intention of the bury, on the contrary, the brick parapet can effectively protect the container containing the relic, and the brick parapet wall surface is painted with white ash, which shows the special attention to the burial space of the relic, which also means that the status of the bury in the tower foundation construction process is further improved. Archaeological discoveries of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist temple in Zhao Pengcheng presuppose the era of the burial method of the parapet wall with masonry to the late Northern Dynasty.
In the first year (601) of the Sui Wen Emperor Renshou, he issued an edict to set up stupas in the thirty states, and bury the relics under the tower, "Thirty places will be selected in the prefectures of Hainei, and each stupa will be raised." The emperor then personally offered thirty relics with a chest of seven treasures, came out from within, placed them in the case of royal sitting, and burned incense and prayed with zhu Shamen. May the disciples always uphold the Three Jewels with the Dhamma and save all sentient beings. Thirty gold vases and thirty glass bottles were taken, and the golden vases were filled with glass, and the relics were placed in them, and the incense was smoked as mud, and the lid was coated and printed. Thirty states are carved at the same time, and at noon on October 15, they enter the copper letter and the stone letter, and the tower rises at one o'clock. From the second year of Renshou (602) to the fourth year of Renshou (604), the number of states that built stupas expanded from fifty-three to more than one hundred, spreading throughout the country. Among these stupas, the Ruyao County Shende Temple and the Zhengding Daye First Year (605) Stupa Base mention that there are brick walls around the shihan in the stupa, and the Hongfanchi in Pingyin, Shandong Province, built the outer letter with six stone slabs on the outside of the shihan. Since among these archaeological discoveries in the Sui Dynasty, only the discovery of Hongfanchi in Pingyin, Shandong is accompanied by a wired map (Figure 14), the details of the remaining brick walls are not clear, in contrast, the stone letter of Hongfanchi in Pingyin, Shandong is more like a combined form of external letters, while the brick letters of the pagoda base of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng lack the bottom and appear more primitive. The origin of this kind of burial regulation formulated by the emperor during the Sui Renshou period probably began with the pagoda of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, Yicheng, but it has been improved, and this practice also affected the burial of relics in the early Tang Dynasty, such as the square bricks found at the site of the Tang Fachi Temple in Lantian, Shaanxi. Of course, for the container applied to the burial of relics, the traditional Chinese style of the Cup Cover Fang Letter that appeared from the Northern Wei Dynasty also continued through the Sui Dynasty until the early Tang Dynasty, and Tang Gaozong was replaced by a golden coffin and silver rafters.
It should be added that, unlike the regularity of stone letters such as the Northern Wei Pagoda in Dingxian County and the exquisite and rich collection of excavated relics, the stone letters excavated from the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Orchard are not only simple in shape, but also relatively simple in offerings, which is extremely incompatible with its identity as a royal Buddhist temple. In the ninth year of Tianbao, when the northern Qi state was relatively strong, there was no possibility of being buried in a rudimentary manner due to economic recession and lack of materials, but if you learned that "the shape of the early relics container in Central India was simple and mostly stone, far less exquisite than that of the later Gandhara and the Relic Container in China", combined with the historical background of the Buddhist art of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties, which was undergoing a transformation from Gandhara to the pursuit of Mora art, under the political orientation of strongly pursuing Xianbei and Xihuization, Walnut Orchard Northern Qi Buddhist Temple Pagoda Cornerstone Letter shows a retro trend, but this "does not mean that its sacredness is reduced". The simplicity of the stone letter excavated from the pagoda base of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in the walnut orchard also shows to a certain extent that this is not the most important burial in the process of pagoda construction.
(ii) Combination of burial containers
In the process of creating the foundation of the pagoda foundation of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in the walnut orchard, there were many burial processes, most of which showed the characteristics of both random and seemingly intentional, but the combination of stone letters and blue glazed pots as the core of the fistula was quite meaningful. When this group of remains was found, the stone was located in the center, four small blue-glazed jars were placed in the four corners of the stone letter, slightly deviated, and the large blue-glazed tanks were located in the southeast corner, next to the small blue-glazed tanks (Figure 7). Judging from the structure and construction of the tower base, the author tends to think that this large blue-glazed jar should be placed on top of the stone letter during the ceremony. In addition to the two pieces of cake-shaped feet on the west side of the stone letter and the two pieces on the east side of the flat bottom, the other morphological characteristics of these five small blue glaze jars are basically the same, and the lid is decorated with jewel buttons, the body is round and drum, and there are multiple circles of string patterns around the body (Figure 15), which is more similar to the relics container excavated in Central India (Figure 16).
Cases that are similar to the base of the Pagoda of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Garden in the combination of the burial vessels are: a Northern Zhou "Yongtong Wanguo" copper coin is placed in each of the four corners of the bottom plate of the Outer Letter of the Pingyin Hong Fan Chi Sui Relic Letter in Shandong Province; the jade plate is divided into upper and lower layers in the relics of the West Pagoda of Baekje Maitreya Temple in Yishan, South Korea, and four small copper boxes are placed on the jade plate, the four corners of the relics hole, and the large copper box is on one side. An earlier example is the archaeological discovery of Tower Ii in the Sanchi Pagoda Group in India, "according to the survey records of archaeologists in the 19th century, the relics were generally stored in stone chambers paved with strips of stone inside the overburden of the pot, located longitudinally or near the axis of the bowl. In the case of Sanchi Tower 2, for example, inside the bowl, there is a space paved with long stone slabs, and a square stone box is placed inside. The stone box is lined with four relics containers, similar in style and size, and are made of talc,...... Four relics are inscribed in Brahmi at the top of the lid, recording the source of the relics and the names of the devotees, and the dates of these relics are extrapolated from the time of the construction of the stupa, around the end of the 2nd century BC. "If we expand to the architectural space, we can also see that the base of the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple in Zhao Pengcheng, in addition to the central rammed earth, has a small square pit in each of the four corners of the foundation, if there is a small pagoda on it, then this architectural form is similar to the Mahabodhi Temple Pagoda built in Bodh Gaya in India in the 5th to 6th centuries, the Cao Tiandu Stone Pagoda in the first year of the Northern Wei Dynasty (466), the stupa at the upper corner of the central pillar of the 6th cave of the Yungang Grottoes, the Northern Wei Stone Pagoda of the Southern Zen Temple, The image of the pagoda in the mural painting of Cave 428 in the Northern Zhou of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and the Vajra Throne Pagoda built under the influence of Buddhist tantra after the Tang Dynasty have similarities. According to this, the author speculates that the combination of stone letters and green glazed jars in the pagoda of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in walnut orchard should be a simulation of the real-life stupa, the stone letter symbolizes the pagoda base, the large green glaze jar and the four small green glazed jars represent the bowl pagoda of different sizes, and the whole is combined together like Bodh Gaya, reproducing the symbiosis of the relics and the stupa in a miniature form.
(3) Burial of relics and the establishment of the Pagoda Camp Temple
As a symbol of the Buddha, the stupa was originally built as a burial relic, so it is often called "stupa" in some inscriptions, such as the "Yishan Mingdao Temple Newly Created Stupa Wall" excavated in Linqu, Shandong. For ordinary people, the main thing that can be seen on a daily basis is the tall and splendid stupa, which in the slow process of the sinification of Buddhism, highlights the sacredness of the relics with a strong and direct visual shock, and constantly conquers the rulers and the vast number of believers through some supernatural events.
Buddhism spread to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago through china in the 4th to 5th centuries, and the visually stunning tall stupas and stupas were also accepted and imitated. However, what is quite different from China is that japan, South Korea and other countries are more popular to set up concave seats or relics holes directly below the brake pillars of wooden towers for burial. According to Mr. Masatoshi Sagawa's statistics, in Japan from the end of the 6th century to the beginning of the 7th century, with the transformation of the brake column from the underground type to the semi-underground type and the above ground type, the concave seat and the relichole under the brake column developed from roughly equal autumn color to the direction of more and more concave seats and fewer and fewer relic holes, and there was a high proportion of coexistence between the recess hole and the brake pillar foundation.
Whether it is the three-level pagoda image on the portrait brick collected from the tomb of the Three Kingdoms of Xiangfan Caiyue in Hubei Province, the three-level pagoda image collected from the Baiguo Village of Shifang, Sichuan, or the stupa image in the Stone Pagoda of Gaoshan Muzhu in Beiliang, the wooden pagoda of Yongning Temple in Luoyang, Northern Wei, the mural of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, and even the wooden pagodas of China and Japan, Korea and other countries after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, we can see the continuous integration process of Indian-style bowl towers and traditional Chinese pavilion architecture, due to the needs of high-rise building technology, the bowl is constantly shrinking, but the central brake pillar always occupies an important position in the Middle Ages. It has also become an important part of the stupa. The strengthening of the relationship between the brake pillar and the burial of the relics was first seen in the North Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng in Yecheng, and then further highlighted in Korea and Japan, and the emergence of this close relationship probably shows the important symbolic significance of the stupa as a space for the burial of the relics. After the Sui and Tang dynasties, the status of stupas in monasteries has deteriorated day by day, and they have gradually been replaced by Buddhist halls or courtyards centered on Buddhist temples, but under the stubborn belief of relics worship, stupas have not completely disappeared, and have always occupied a more important position in Buddhist temples.
Three
In summary, we can mainly draw the following three points of understanding:
(1) At the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 7th century, when the worship of The Buddha was flourishing, the burial activities during the construction of the pagoda were more complicated, and the content of the burial was not limited to the relics. Depending on the level of the stupa, the participants in the burial activity are constantly changing during the burial process. Archaeological discoveries of the pagodas of two late Northern Dynasty Buddhist temples at the site of Yecheng reveal that all classes of society at that time, up to the emperor and members of the royal family, officials and nobles, down to monks and nuns and builders of various floors, may have participated in the construction of the pagoda and various burial activities including the burial of relics. ...... Take off the royal clothes and merge them into the sandalwood treasures". The participants in these burial activities intermittently carried out various kinds of worship and burial of different scales during the construction of the pagoda, of course, most of these acts are not related to the relics.
(2) The burial of the relics and the foundation of the brakes are the two most important links in the construction process of the pagoda, and the in-depth analysis of the architectural construction stage helps to understand the process of the burial of the relics and the development of the ceremony. Through the combing of the construction process of the Pagoda Foundation of the Northern Dynasty Buddhist Temple of Zhao Pengcheng and the Pagoda Foundation of the Northern Qi Buddhist Temple in Walnut Garden, the author tends to believe that the two Buddhist Temple Pagodas have the same structure and religious ritual behavior, and the current differences are mainly due to the theft and destruction and incomplete archaeological work. Judging from the existing findings, the multiple burial activities that occur under the opening of the base trough should be mainly carried out by the builders; the more complex burial activities carried out at half the depth of the base trough may be related to the abbots of the temple construction or officials, nobles and other believers; the most important burial of the relics occurs at the depth of the base trough opening, and this activity is closely related to the "table base brake" and should be related to the empress and members of the royal family at that time. From the perspective of buried ideas, forms of expression and even container combinations, the continuous process of running into The Western tradition and local culture is fully revealed.
(3) From the perspective of materials, appropriate dissection of key locations based on academic purposes during excavations will not only help to understand the structure and creation of architectural relics, but also enrich our understanding of the process of ancient religious rituals.
Stubbery burial is a very complex academic topic, this article only combs the way of burying, the burial container and the content of the burial and even the change of the idea of burial is also a very important component, limited to space, this article is not convenient to expand, will be discussed in another article.