Historical Materials No.47
THE YONGNING-SI TEMPLE IN NORTHERN WEI LUOYANG
Excavations by The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
NARA NATIONAL CULTURAL PROPERTIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
1998
Contents
Chapter 1 The plan of the temple compound and the main architectural remains
1 Topography and stratigraphycal deposit
2 The plan of the temple structures
3 The main architectural remains
1 Tamped wall
2 Southern gate
3 Western gate
4 Eastern gate
5 Buddha hall
6 Wooden pagoda
4 Some problems on the foundation platforms
Chapter 2 Unearthed artifacts (1)
1 Large-sized clay figures
1 figures of head
2 figures of body
3 fragments of dress and ornaments
2 Middle-sized clay figures
1 figures of head
2 figures of body
3 fragments of dress and ornaments
3 Small-sized clay figures
1 the figure of head
2 fragments of body
3 fragments of dress and ornaments
4 Scenic clay figures
1 figures of head
2 figures of body
5 Other clay figures
1 trimming, halo and pedestal of clay figures
2 trimming of niche and parts of clay figures, lotus, arbor and beast
Chapter 3 Unearthed artifacts (2)
1 Fragments of wall painting
2 Construction materials
1 earthen materials
2 others
3 Other artifacts
1 ceramics
2 metal objects and coins
3 jade, stone, bone, antler, shell and glass objects
Chapter 4 Scientific significance of Yong ning-si site
1 Problems of Buddhist Temple structures
1 the arrangement of temple buildings
2 main architecture in the temple compound
3 construction materials and structural parts
2 Problems on clay modelling
1 Investigation of the date and the theme of images
2 method of modelling clay slatues
3 the style of art
Conclusion
Table
A list of the clay figures unearthed from Yong ning-si site
English Abstract
Appendix
THE YONGNING-SI TEMPLE IN NORTHERN WEI LUOYANG: EXCAVATIONS DURING 1979-1994
(Abstract)
The Yongning-si Temple in Luoyang City of the Northern Wei period, located to the west of the imperial road (Tongtuo Street) 0.5 km in front of the Imperial Palace, was built by Empress Hu in the first year of Emperor Xiaoming’s Xiping reign (AD 516). It stood first among the numerous Buddhist temples in Luoyang and was virtually the then state temple. All the main buildings in it were “superlative in both design and construction, and all the Buddhist affairs were unimaginably wonderful.”
In the spring of 1963, during the exploration of the ruins of Han and Wei Luoyang, the Luoyang Archaeological Team (present-day Han and Wei Luoyang City Archaeological Team), Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (since 1978 the Institute has been under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) discovered and preliminarily surveyed the limits, plan and general layout of the temple. From 1979 to 1981, extensive excavations were carried out on the site for five seasons, which resulted in the revelation of the foundations of a nine-storeyed wooden pagoda, a Buddhist hall, southern (frontal) and eastern gates; and in the autumn of 1994, foundation platform of the western gate was also excavated. Thus all the main buildings of the temple recorded in the Luoyang Qielan Ji 《洛陽伽藍記》 a little later have scientifically been explored, the only pity is that the remains of the more than one thousand of monks' dormitories and towers mentioned in the book have not been found yet, which calls for further work in the future.
One of the important achievements in the research on the Yongning-si Temple is the clarification of its architectural layout. In whole it is regularly rectangular, measuring 301 meters from the north to the south and 212 meters from the west to the east. In the perimeter there are tamped earth walls with a gate on each of the four sides. The prime building within the walls is the lofty and magnificent nine-storyed wooden pagoda, which contains Buddhist images and stands roughly in the centre of the temple, being directed to the four temple gates. North of the pagoda is the Buddhist hall. It is also large in size, but apparently inferior to the pagoda in importance. This structural pattern of the Yongning-si Temple with the pagoda as principal and the hall as subordinate reflects a strong air of the times and contains a representative quality. According to the Luoyang Qielan Ji, the southern gate of the Yongning-si Temple “looks like the present-day Duanmen Gate” of the Imperial Palace and the Buddhist hall “like the Taiji Hall.” Either of them is a building with a certain typical quality in the architectural history of ancient China, but what is more striking is the nine-storyed wooden pagoda. It is always world-famous for its loftiness and splendour, and is praised as a miracle in ancient Chinese architectural history. How could such a great building be constructed in the Northern Wei period when there was no well-advanced architecture. This historical puzzle now can be solved on the valuable material date and scientific ground got through the excavation of the pagoda’s foundation.
Another important achievement in the exploration of the Yongning-si Temple is the discovery of 1560-odd fragments of painted sculptures. There are large-, medium- and small-sized human/divine images ( including sculptures attached to walls and producing the effect characteristic of the works in high relief), as well as various shrine decorations, statue pedestals and representations of the lotus, tree, dragon, elephant, etc. The human and divine figures embrace statues of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, disciples and donors different in statues, such a multiform repertoire obviously constitutes a batch of valuable material for studying the subjects of the images in Northern Wei Buddhist temples. Graceful in shape and exquisite in workmanship, the painted sculptures have a strong aesthetic charm and represent the highest level of the Northern Wei sculptural arts.
It has been known through researches that the architectural layout and sculptural arts of Buddhist temples represented by Yongning-si exerted great influence on the development of the Buddhist temple and art in other regions of China as well as in neighboring countries.
The excavation of the Yongning-si Temple drew extensive attention from academic cycles both at home and abroad. The present volume, in the form of an archaeological report, makes an attempt to offer a detailed description of the scientific date obtained in every survey and excavation to colleagues in related academic cycles and broad readers for further, joint studies and popular appreciation.
Additional four articles are included in this Japanese version. The contents of them are as follows:
1. HAMASHIMA Masashi, “The Nine-storied Pagoda of Yongning-si Temple and its influence on Japanese Pagodas.”
In this article, HAMASHIMA tried to reconstruct wooden pagoda which had composed the central part of Yongning-si temple, and he also mentioned prototypes of Chinese pagoda and pagodas in Korea and Japan.
2. SAGAWA Masatoshi, “Reconstruction of rooftiles of the Yongning-si Wooden Pagoda.”
In this article, SAGAWA suposed that the eaves tiles of different layers were differ with each other, and on this basis he emphasized the existence of idea of birth of heavenly being fom lotus flower.
3. YAMAZAKI Takayasu, “On Producing techniques of clay statues in the Yongning-si Temple.”
In this artcle, YAMAZAKI analyzed the variety and size of clay statues, and concluded that most of their heads and bodies were produced separately and then joined together.
4. MATSUURA Masaaki, “The World of Buddha Reconstructed by Clay Statues in The Pagoda of Yongning-si Temple.”
In this article, MATSUURA supposed five nitches on three of the four walls of pagoda’s core, and reconstructed the Buddha’s world composed by clay figures.
平成10年3月31日 発行
奈良国立文化財研究所史料 第47冊
北魏洛陽永寧寺
