Memorial Gateway

Memorial Gateway

Memorial archway is one of the architectural cultures with Chinese characteristics. It is a building built in feudal society for commendation of meritorious service, Kedi, virtue and loyalty. Some temples use memorial archways as mountain gates, and others are used to indicate place names. Also known as pailou, it is a memorial building with a door opening, which promotes feudal ethics and flaunts merits. The memorial archway is also a subsidiary building of the ancestral hall, which shows the noble virtues and great achievements of the ancestors of the family, and has the function of ancestor worship.

origin

Archway P á i f ā ng

The memorial archway was evolved from the Lingxing gate and began to be used to worship heaven and Confucius. Lingxing was originally called Lingxing, which is Tiantian star. In order to pray for a good harvest, Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty stipulated that Lingxing should be worshipped before heaven. In Song Dynasty, Confucius was respected by the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, and later changed Lingxing to Lingxing. The memorial archway originated in the Han Dynasty, matured in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It has evolved from a practical building into a monumental building. It is widely used to honor merits and glories. It is not only placed in suburban altars and Confucius temples, but also used in front of palaces, temples, mausoleums, ancestral halls, government offices and gardens, as well as at the starting points, intersections and bridges of main streets. It has strong landscape and plays an important role In addition, the effect of punctuation, frame scene and borrowing scene is also discussed. Another view is that in terms of structure, the original prototype of the archway is called "Hengmen", which is the simplest and most primitive door composed of two pillars and a beam. About "Hengmen", the earliest record we see is "Shi · CHENFENG · Hengmen": "under the Hengmen, you can live late." The book of songs was compiled in the spring and Autumn period, mostly from the early Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the spring and Autumn period. This kind of "Hengmen" was later applied to the "fangmen" between various residential areas in the city. From the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period to the Tang Dynasty, the Lifang system was adopted in urban residential areas in China. There was a wall between the "Fang" and the "Fang", and there was a door in the middle of the wall, which was called the "Fang men". At first, this kind of square door was like "Heng door", which was composed of two columns and a cross beam, but the door leaf was installed on the side of the column.

There are more archways in old Beijing than in other cities. Hundreds of years as the capital of China, there have been more archways in Beijing. In the Yuan Dynasty, the city was divided into 50 archways. In the Ming Dynasty, it was divided into four cities and 36 archways. In the Qing Dynasty, it was divided into five cities, but the archways did not change. This is one of the reasons why there are so many archways in Beijing. Beijing has several bustling business districts, including Dongdan, Xidan, Dongsi and Xisi, all of which are named after one or four archways. Later, the word "pailou" was gradually omitted. In the early 1950s, these pailou were demolished because they were thought to hinder traffic. But "old Beijing" is still very difficult to erase them from memory, because these archways and nearby street buildings constitute the place, not only the trading place, but also the open-air living room, full of humanity. "Da San Ba memorial archway" is the symbol of Macao and one of its landmark buildings. In history, there were many memorial archways in the streets and alleys of Suzhou. Unfortunately, a large number of them were demolished and moved after liberation. It is said that the design of Jinma square and Biji square on Jinbi Road in Kunming is mysterious. In the past 60 years, there was a double shadow phenomenon, which almost became the symbol of old Kunming and the treasure of the town. They were regarded as the "Arc de Triomphe" of Kunming, but they were destroyed in the 1960s. In Huizhou area of Southern Anhui, memorial archway is a famous building juxtaposed with folk houses and ancestral halls. It is known as the "three wonders" of ancient architecture and has almost become the symbol of Huizhou. Ancient Huizhou enjoys the reputation of "the land of Rites". There are more than 1000 memorial archways, but there are still more than 100 of them in different shapes. It is known as "the hometown of memorial archways". The tree archway is the highest pursuit of the ancients.

In modern urban construction, memorial archways are mostly used as symbols with traditional characteristics. They are built at the entrance of scenic spots or blocks. Among them, there are many rough and disorderly buildings, but there are also many beautiful and spectacular successful works.

origin

Archway is the ancient official name, common people call it archway. As a symbol of Chinese culture, the memorial archway has a long history. It existed in the Zhou Dynasty. Shi · Chen Feng · Heng men: "under the Heng men, you can live late. "The book of songs was compiled in the spring and Autumn period, mostly from the early Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the spring and Autumn period. It can be inferred that" Hengmen "appeared at the latest in the middle of the spring and Autumn period. Hengmen is a structure with two pillars and a beam. It was formerly called "Hengmen", which is the ancestor of the archway.

In fact, there is a significant difference between the archway and the archway. The archway does not have the structure of "building", that is, there is no bucket arch and roof, while the archway has a roof, which has a greater atmosphere. However, because they were all buildings used for commendation, commemoration, decoration, marking and guidance in ancient China, and they were mostly built in palaces, temples, mausoleums, ancestral halls, government offices, street intersections and other places. In addition, for a long time, the concept of "Fang" and "Lou" was not clear, so in the end, the two became a mutual appellation.

In Tang Dynasty, cities in China adopted the Lifang system. The city was divided into several square residential areas by crisscross chessboard roads. These residential areas were called "square" in Tang Dynasty. The square is the basic unit of residential area. There is a wall between the square and the square. There is a door in the center of the wall to pass through, which is called the square door. Later, because the door didn't play a very important role, so only this form was left, so the people gradually called this kind of door archway.

type

By form

From the form, there are only two types of archways: one is called "skyrocketing", and the other is called "column protruding". As the name suggests, the columns of this kind of archway are higher than the top of minglou, and the other kind is "not to stand out". The highest peak of this kind of archway is the main ridge of minglou. If more detailed, each archway can be based on the number of rooms and floors. No matter whether the column comes out or not, there are "one room two columns", "three rooms four columns", "five rooms six columns" and other forms. The number of buildings on the top can be divided into the first floor, the third floor, the fifth floor, the seventh floor and the ninth floor. Among the archways in Beijing, the largest is "five rooms, six columns and eleven floors". Most of the archways in the palace are not in the style of the head, while most of the archways in the street are in the style of the sky.

By structure

There are six types of archways in Beijing

The first type is the wooden archway, which has the largest number. Its underground part is made of cypress piles, which are called dice. The lower part of each column above the foundation is wrapped with "rod clamping stone", and then bound with iron hoops outside. The top eaves of the wooden buildings in the streets and alleys are very short, and they are made into suspended hills or verandahs. The end of each column rises out of the ridge, and the top of the column is covered with a cloud jar (also known as piluca) to prevent wind, rain and insects. The tiles used on the roof are mostly black cloth tiles.

The second type is the glazed archway. This kind of archway is mostly used in the Buddhist temple complex. There are only three rooms, four pillars and seven floors in Beijing. Its structure is to build a 6-8-foot brick wall on the stone foundation, with trumpet columns in the wall and wannianfang as the skeleton. On the brick wall, there are three Yuanquan doors, and under the wall are Qingshi and baishixumizuo, which are carved with various styles of art patterns. The columns, Fang, queti, huaban, Kaizhu, longfengban, minglou, zilou, Jialou and bianlou on the wall are similar to mufang. The difference is that this kind of square is built with yellow and green glazed bricks, which is majestic and spectacular.

The third type is stone archway. Most of these archways are in front of gardens, streets and mausoleums. From the structural point of view, there are many differences. Some are very simple, with only one room and two columns, but no open building; others are complicated, with five rooms, six columns and eleven floors. Because of its own structural characteristics, some of them are of three rooms and four columns, but they only have flower boards without open buildings. The Ming Lou in Shifang is complex, and the relief carving is also very distinctive. If the stone is hard and fine, not only the relief is vivid, but also the fine pattern has been going through hundreds of years.

The fourth type is cement archway. This is the product of modern architectural art. The number of new buildings is small, and most of them are used for the relocation and reinforcement of ancient archways.

The fifth type is caipailou, which is a kind of temporary decoration. It is mostly used at the entrance of Daling, Temple market and market. It is demolished as soon as the order period is over. It is generally made of fir pole, bamboo pole and wooden board, and the top is equipped with colorful electric light bulbs.

The sixth type is the bronze archway, which was designed and built by Zhu Bingren, a master of Chinese arts and crafts. It is 6.1 meters high, 7 meters wide and weighs nearly 100 tons. The archway is carved with lotus and other patterns. At the entrance of miaogangwei Road, an ancient road to Putuo Mountain, the archway is engraved with the inscription "Cihang Pudu" by the president of China Buddhist Association On the other hand, Ye Xiaowen, the former director of the State Bureau of religion, inscribed "Miaozhuang ancient road", and Wen Huaisha, a great master of Chinese culture, wrote a couplet "Yasong sound is as far as the Sanskrit sound, cloud and moon follow the Dharma Drum and preach together". On the other hand, Zhu Bingren, the calligrapher of Xiling Seal Engravers' Association and the architect of the memorial archway, wrote a couplet "solemn six seasons, painstaking efforts to fulfill the Buddha's heart, Miaoli Sancheng ancient road has always been a way of enlightenment". The completion of the bronze archway not only added a fine scenic spot to Putuo Mountain scenic spot, but also opened the prelude to the renovation project of miaogangwei Road, a thousand year old Buddhist road. Copper is not easy to damage, more visual effect, but also conducive to heritage preservation.

According to construction intention

In terms of its construction intention, the memorial archway can be divided into four categories: one is the memorial archway of merit and virtue, which records merit and virtue for someone. For example, the memorial archway of "the fourth palace guard" in Xincheng Town, Huantai County, Shandong Province was built by Emperor Wanli of Ming Dynasty for Wang Xiangqian, then Minister of the Ministry of war of Xincheng people. Wang Xiangqian's military strategy was powerful in Jiubian, and he made great contributions to the crown prince of Jin Dynasty

Chinese PinYin : Pai Fang