A Study Into The Landscape Design Theories Of Buddhism Temples In Mount Emei

Landscape, the writing of human survival on land, is the solid expression of civilization.As a non-renewable cultural resource and historical heritage, the overall landscape sequencing and individual spatial organization of the temples in Mount Emei represent the local culture, religious culture, natural and cultural information, and the long-time amalgamation and evolution of the cultures, and show unique external form, spatial structure and aesthetics.Since 1982, China has established the system of scenic areas. The government has gradually paid attention to the unique landscape of China. In 2013, China formally proposed the establishment of National Park System of China. In 2015, China’s National Development and Reform Commission officially launched the pilot project of China National Park. In the conservation, research of the local landscape is essential.This thesis aims to research from the perspective of the Design Theories of Mount Emei, which located in southwestern part of Sichuan, as an example to explore the core of cultural landscape and the art of temple landscape.In this thesis, there is summery of the evolution of the history and culture of the Emei Mountain area, with the rise and fall of religion as the core concept, reviewing the formation and development process of Mount Emei Temple landscape from the Xi Zhou Dynasty to present. It restores the sequence of landscape development from Xizhou Dynasty to now, focusing on landscape nodes, circulation and the overall form. The thesis shows the unique geographic condition sets up foundation for temple landscape in Mount Emei. Besides, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and support of the ruling class dominate the development of temple landscape. Meanwhile, the development of local economy, esthetics and social values influences the development of temple landscape.Based on the comprehensive application of landscape architecture, architecture, urban planning theories, combined with the theories of linguistics, aesthetics and philosophy, it discusses the method of Mount Emei Temple Landscape in three dimensions of space, culture and time. It discusses spiritual and spatial core of temple landscape in Mount Emei. It interprets spatial form and development of temple landscape in Mount Emei from whole to part. It summaries spatial features of Mount Emei, including the overall spatial arrangement character of following the shape of mountains and waters, the artistic method of form following object, the functional zoning of combined religion and tourism, the landscape and cultural awareness of nature.The landscape of traditional scenic areas is the product of space as well as time. Landscape of temples in Mount Emei has gone through several generations of the rise and fall of the construction, showing the unique charm of space and time. This thesis explains the implication of time of landscape of temples in Mount Emei, studies about the expression of time in place and explores methods to continue landscape of temples in time and space, and summaries the wholesome system of time and space mixture.The innovation of this thesis lies in the following aspects:1. It explores the mountainous scenic area landscape based on general landscape design principles.2. It studies landscape theory systematically from the perspective of space, culture and time.3. It utilizes GIS to integrate cultural and geographic data. It manages to digitalize temple landscape information in different periods of history. It analyses historical development, site selection and spatial form of temple landscape quantitatively.