Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple

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The Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple in Ji County, Tianjin is the earliest existing pavilion in China. It was famous for the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva (Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit) inside it. It has prominent projecting eaves and grand dougong brackets. Though it was built in the Liao Dynasty, it still retained the features of the architecture of the Tang Dynasty, which is majestic, striking, tall and straight. The designers of the Guanyin Pavilion exclusively exercised their inventive minds. Judged from the structure, the pavilion seems to have only two f oors. But actually it can be divided into three parts: the f rst f oor, the hidden f oor and the top f oor. The setup of hidden f oor greatly improved the anti-seismic ability of the building. The double-layer eaves and the central cloister-like projecting platform (flat seats) are supported by dougong brackets.

Inside the Guanyin Pavilion there is a hexagonal space that connects the upper part to the lower part. A 16-meter-high standing statue of One-thousand-hand Guanyin is erected and worshipped there. People can not only worship and look up at the statue on the f rst f oor, but also climb to the upper f oor to watch the delicate statue. The head of the One-thousand-hand Guanyin statue has ten smaller Buddha heads, which have gentle and solemn expressions and look very mysterious in the dim light inside the pavilion. It is said to be the tallest existing Guanyin statue in China. Given the deformation of Guanyin’s face for people who look up at the statue, the craftsmen purposely made the statue incline forward when building it.

T h e r o o f slopes gently a n d l o o k s simple, light and stretched.

The columns among f rst, hidden and top f oors are not the same straight columns; instead, they are independent from each other . Among them, the columns supporting the hidden f oor and the top f oor are established on the dougong brackets of the f oors below them. This construction pattern was called “Forked Column Construction” in the ancient times.

The dougong brackets at the corners support the eaves, making them look like unfolded wings.

The pavilion is 23 meters high from bottom to top and 43 meters away from the gate tower of the temple. This distance gives the best visual angle to watch the Guanyin Pavilion from the gate tower. The dougong brackets at the corners support the eaves, making them look like unfolded wings. People of later generations worried that the eaves which projected too much might collapse, so they specially added columns (eavesupporting columns) to support the eaves at the corners.

The entire construction is stable and solemn. It seems to contain unlimited power.

Dule Temple

The Dule Temple is located inside Ji County, Tianjin. It was estimated to be initially built in the Tang Dynasty. The folk legends said that An Lushan staged the revolt against the Tang Dynasty here. He wanted to monopolize the joy in the world and therefore changed the temple’s name into “Dule Temple” (Temple of Solitary Joy). The gate tower of the temple is also a construction from the Liao Dynasty . It has sturdy peripheral columns, majestic dougong brackets and prominent projecting eaves. It is the oldest existing building with a hip roof in China. The study into the Guanyin Pavilion marked the start of the Chinese modern and contemporary architecture history.

The Architecture in the Liao Dynasty

The architecture in the early Liao Dynasty was deeply inf uenced by the architecture from the Tang Dynasty. The constructions were grand and majestic. The details of constructions had some features of the architecture from the Five Dynasties. In the middle and late period, the architecture of the Song Dynasty began to inf uence the constructions in the Liao Dynasty, which gradually became refined and delicate.

Pavilions

In ancient China, the wooden structures with two floors or more were called pavilions. They f rst came out in the Spring and Autumn Period and began to be popular in the Western Han Dynasty. They had become very common by the Eastern Han Dynasty. After the Three-Kingdom Period, the pavilions were combined with towers and got great development. From then on, a lot of famous pavilions were built in different dynasties. These grand and magnificent buildings were mainly used in the palaces and temples.