Perceiving Buddhist Architecture In Luoyang Of Northern Wei Dynasty From The Record Of The Monasteries Of Luoyang

Northern and Southern Dynasty is a turbulent time in the history of China, with the frequent changes of regimes, endless wars, China is in the long-term division of the land.At the same time, the Northern and Southern Dynasty is also the history of a religious fanaticism, particularly in the spread of Buddhism to promote the case. During the time of the Northern Wei Dynasty political power, the society obtained the relative stability, the economy, the culture developed considerably.Northern Wei Dynasty took Buddhism as the national religion, constructed large quantities of Buddhist temples. Capital city Luoyang was the national Buddhism center, made an important impact on the development of Buddhism to other areas as well as later generations. Researches on the Buddhism architecture in Luoyang of Northern Wei Dynasty would have a vital academic significance on the studies of the construction of China's ancient architectural history and the history of religion.The Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang is a masterpiece of the Northern Wei period, which gives us a detailed description of the many Buddhist temples in Luoyang at that time, has the practical instruction significance to this topic research. Perceiving The Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang as the clue, reorganizing systematically other historical ancient books and the related records, combining with modern archaeological findings, to thoroughly study the developing conditions of the Buddhist temples in the capital city Luoyang of Northern Wei Dynasty.First, to analyze the distribution of Buddhist temples in Luoyang, to classify the construction origins and to study the reasons for the Buddhist architecture boom.Next, to study the construction layout of the Buddhist temples in Luoyang of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Dividing the Buddhist temples layout into two categories according to whether the Buddhist temple has a tower, discussing separately the causes and the characteristics, and to analyze the pagoda, the auditorium, the lecture room , the meditation abode, the monks' room main body constructions in turn as well as the attached buildings, the temple walls, Buddhist gates and steles etc. Combining of literature and modern archaeological information, in a bid to reappear the temple construction style of the Northern Wei Dynasty.Again, the Northern Wei Dynasty architectural features of the Buddhist temples in Luoyang be summarized and analyzed.The first is about the technical level of the Buddhist temples construction, the focus of the analysis is the most magnificent Buddhist architecture - Yongning Temple's building materials, construction practices and etc. The second is to analyze Buddhist temple architectural decoration methods from the colors used in constructions, paintings and carvings. The third is to study the tendency on the gardening of the Buddhist temples from three aspects, the temple sites, landscapes and the relationship between each other, the production aspects of the garden. The fourth is the secularization of Buddhist architecture. Through the Buddhist temple activities like grand occasion ,six vegetarians, entertainments and public plays, revealing the Northern Wei Dynasty Buddhist temples in Luoyang are not purely the Buddhist retreat any more, but have gradually become public activity locations.The capital Luoyang of the Northern Wei Dynasty has history of more than 1,500 years, and many important vestiges are passing along with the time, Studies on The Record of the Monasteries of Luoyang is an urgent and positive work on the protection of our precious historical and cultural heritage as well as carrying forward the outstanding traditional culture.