Longmen Monastery, west side hall  龍門寺西配殿

https://architecturasinica.org/place/000207

Names

  • west side hall (English)
  • 西配殿 (Traditional Chinese)
  • 西配殿 (Simplified Chinese)
  • xī pèidiàn (Pinyin)
  • hsi p`ei-tien (Wade-Giles)
  • Longmensi west side hall (English)
  • 龍門寺西配殿 (Traditional Chinese)
  • 龙门寺西配殿 (Simplified Chinese)
  • Longmensi xī pèidiàn
  • Guanyin Tang (English)
  • 觀音堂 (Traditional Chinese)
  • 观音堂 (Simplified Chinese)

Location

  • Coordinates:
    • Lat. 36.387495° Long. 113.6201617°
  • Building Information

    West Side Hall, also known as the Guanyin Hall (Guanyin tang 觀音堂), is the oldest structure with an overhanging-gable (xuanshan 懸山) roof as well as the earliest side hall extant in China (Miller 2011, 179). According to both the early structural characteristics and inscriptions, it was constructed in the third year of Tongguang reign period in the Later Tang (925) (Miller 2011, 179). The foundation of the hall is made of stone with a height of 0.20 meters. The hall is three bays wide and four rafters deep — 9.87 meters across the front facade and 6.8 meters across the side facade — with a single-eaves overhanging-gable roof (Miller 2011, 179). Inside of the hall, the four-rafter beams (sichuanfu 四椽栿) connect the front and back eaves. On top of the rafters, there are camel's-hump-shaped braces (tuofeng 駝峰) and large bearing blocks (dou 斗) to support the level cross beam (pingliang 平梁). The front eaves pillars (yanzhu 簷柱) are built into the front wall. The tops of the columns are rounded showing juansha 卷殺, often translated as entasis. The tie beam through the top of the columns (lan’e 闌額) is placed between the pillars with no pupaifang 普拍枋. The lan’e do not extend beyond the pillars and there is no intercolumnar bracketing (bujian puzuo 补间铺作). The central bay under the front eaves has a panel door (banmen 板门) and the secondary bays have windows. Both the door and the windows are slightly smaller than in later periods (Guojia wenwuju 2006, 304). 1

    Date 925
    Dynasty Later Tang 923 - 936 1

    Works Cited

    Any information without attribution has been created following the Syriaca.org editorial guidelines.

    • 1 国家文物局. 2006. 中国文物地图集. 山西分册, II:304; 32-C3-1.Link to Zotero Bibliographic Record; MILLER. 2011. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed: Local Style in the Architecture of Tenth Century China, 179-184.Link to Zotero Bibliographic Record; STEINHARDT. 2019. Chinese architecture: a historyLink to Zotero Bibliographic Record; 宋. 2010. 平顺龙门寺历史沿革考, 52-57.Link to Zotero Bibliographic Record
    • 2 WILKINSON. 2000. Chinese History: A Manual, 12.Link to Zotero Bibliographic Record

    Contained in Place


    How to Cite This Entry

    CHEN Zhuo 陈卓 et al., “Longmen Monastery, west side hall 龍門寺西配殿 ” in Architectura Sinica last modified February 26, 2022, https://architecturasinica.org/place/000207.

    Bibliography:

    CHEN Zhuo 陈卓 et al., “Longmen Monastery, west side hall 龍門寺西配殿 .” In Architectura Sinica, edited by Tracy Miller. Entry published March 21, 2018. https://architecturasinica.org/place/000207.

    About this Entry

    Entry Title: Longmen Monastery, west side hall 龍門寺西配殿

    Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:

    • Tracy Miller, editor, Architectura Sinica
    • CHEN Zhuo 陈卓 and Tracy Miller, entry contributors, “Longmen Monastery, west side hall 龍門寺西配殿

    Additional Credit:

    • Proof correction and revision by Tracy Miller
    • Adding citations by Song Qisen
    • Editing, data entry, adding images, and adding citations by CHEN Zhuo 陈卓

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