The Interior Decoration Art Of Wen Temple In Regions South Of The Yangtze River In The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Wen Temple is commonly known as Confucian Temple or Confucius Temple. According to the ancient law in China, the official school and Confucius Temple must be built together, so people use Xue Gong (the study hall) in all regions of China to refer to Wen Temple. And such buildings are categorized as "temple architectures". Dacheng Dian, which is located in the center of the complex, is both the main hall and the core of Xue Gong. Dacheng Dian, in which the statue or the portrait of Confucius is worshipped, is the place for sacrificial ceremonies. The role of Dacheng Dian complex to the ancient China’s official schools is as that of western on-campus churches today to western schools, which can guide students in thinking and continuously instill the values that they advocated in students at school. Temple architecture is widely distributed in our country. With Wuhu Xue Gong as one of them, Wen Temples in regions south to the Yangtze River are generally in small scale except Nanjing Confucius Temple. Being in Anhui Province and located on the south bank of Yangzhe River, the ancient city area of Wuhu, had been greatly influenced by the culture of Huizhou in architectural style and ideology. Huizhou in the late feudal society of China was a holy land of Confucian culture, and was once the origin and practicing place of neo-confucianism which had once dominated Confucian culture since Song Dynasty. Located in Ru Lin Street in the ancient area of the city, Wuhu Xue Gong was first built in the third year of Yuan Fu in Northern Song Dynasty. Having been destroyed and rebuilt for several times, it now only has its main building, Dacheng Dian, survived. As its existing decorative style is basically in line with that of "Wen Temples" in Ming and Qing dynasties, it can be categorized as of Ming and Qing decorative style. As one of the earliest temple architecture in Anhui, Wuhu Xue Gong has not been well protected and developed, which is indeed a pity. In Wuhu Xue Gong, the decorative design of Dacheng Dian building is concise, beautiful, colorful, and in elegant form, which is on the one hand in line with the general decorative law of temple architecture, and on the other blended with Hui Zhou architectural style in Wuhu region. As the unique form of official educational institution, temple architecture’s position in China has remained unchanged for thousands of years, so it might have its own distinctive places. Not only the design of Wen Temple’s interior decoration has the aesthetic value, but its content also possesses the cultural functions. Good expectation is placed in the decoration, and history has been recorded in the process of beautifying its architectural structure. It has multiple significances to the environmental artistic design field. Taking the artistic interior decoration design of Dacheng Dian in Wuhu Xue Gong as the research object, this thesis explores the used-to-be ignored art features of Wen Temple interior decoration art. The existing indoor decoration will be analyzed in the aspect of color, line, carving and pattern so as to explore the cultural connotation imbedded in the color and pattern of the interior painting of Dacheng Dian in Wuhu Xue Gong. Then, by a comparative study of Wen Temples in other places and through data inquiry, the original appearance of the devastated indoor furnishing will be explored. In this way, the humanistic and historical significance in this interior furnishing and design will be taken into reflection in the process of restoration and comparison. The research on the interior decoration art of Dacheng Dian in Wuhu Xue Gong may on the one hand be in response to Wuhu city council’s policy of developing and transforming the ancient area of the city, and on the other hand harvest some enlightenment to the interior designing of modern buildings of education.