Page 48 - JCAU-4-2

Tiangong Louge in Eastern Pure Land Illustrations You & Zhu

tiangong louge in illustrations. In the “theory” tortoise-head porches, and corridors. Except
of the Commentary on the Sutra of the Master the tortoise-head porches, all other elements
of Healing, Master Taixu argued: are in the Eastern Pure Land illustration, but
with slight differences in usage. Furthermore,
The method of Master of Healing and
Amitabha Buddha is to entrust the task there are rainbow bridges that are not
mentioned but exist in drawings.
of rescuing sentient beings to Eastern (1) Hall body (or hall): The hall body is the
Healing Master, and entrust the task of highest level of individual building type
traversing death to Western Amitabha. in tiangong louge in the Fashi. Fashi
East ranks number 1 of the four cardinal stipulates that the hall body should be a
directions and represents spring in the 3-story building . As it is a multi-story
4
four quarters, which denotes the growth building, Fashi calls it “hall body” to
of everything, and the task of nurturing distinguish it from a single-story “hall.”
life and extending life is assigned to it. Moreover, Fashi also provides that the
West ranks number 3 in the four
cardinal directions and represents hall body should be on the central axis
with a nine-ridge roof of double eaves,
autumn in the four quarters, in which flanked by wing rooms and sometimes
everything looks declining, so the task additionally equipped with tortoise-head
of saving from death and traversing porches. Most of the hall bodies in the
.
death is assigned to it [10]
Western Pure Land illustration meet
The essence of rescuing the living beings these conditions, but those in the Eastern
by Eastern Healing Master is to keep its Pure Land illustration rarely meet the
illustration closer to the present life, including conditions, except those buildings as the
the selection of individual buildings in the main part of the central axis. Generally,
tiangong louge in it. they do not have roofs of double eaves
In addition, it is worth noting that, in the and do not have tortoise-head porches,
timeline, Eastern Pure Land illustration is a and even have only one story [Figure 3].
process of gradual evolution starting from the Wing rooms are rare in the front tier
Sui dynasty (581‒618), while tiangong louge [Figures 3 and 4], but occasional in the
in Fashi is the “well-established” product in rear tier, such as Cave 85 in Dunhuang
the Northern Song dynasty (960‒1127). Mogao Caves [Figure 7]. Seemingly, the
Murals and rock carvings as the carriers of “hall body” in the Healing Master Pure
Pure Land illustration are more abundant than Land illustration is at a lower level,
joinery work (Xiaomuzuo) in the Fashi in actually it is because buildings in the
spatial expression modes. To more Healing Master Pure Land illustration
comprehensively reveal its correlation with are secularized. It is important to note
Fashi and its own peculiarities, in this paper, that in the picture of illustrations,
we analyze individual elements of “tiangong including Healing Master Pure Land
louge”in the Eastern Pure Land illustration by illustration, the column grids on the
following two clues, with Fashi as a reference upper and lower floors of the tower are
system. not aligned with each other. They are
constructed in accordance with the logic
2.1 Clue 1: Types of existing individual of “storied house,” with the column grid
buildings in the tiangong louge in of the upper floor standing on the
Fashi balcony, an equivalent of the platform of
Six kinds of individual elements that the upper floor.
constitute “tiangong louge”are given in the
Fashi: hall bodies, teahouses, corner towers,

4 The balcony in Fashi amounts to a one-story building, actually it is a two-story building.

AccScience Publishing 8