Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/564

 464 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. BOOK IX. is very simple, rectangular on plan, with five bays in the front, which always faces the south ; and three at the side ; with a verandah and flight of steps in the centre of the south front leading to the central doorway. Exceptions to the ordinary type are found in two temples, one of which, T'siang Cha, the Buddhist temple of the sleeping Buddha in the Summer Palace near Pekin (Woodcut No. 494 and Plate LVIII.) is perhaps the finest architectural achievement in China. The building consists of two lofty storeys, built in brick and faced with glazed terra-cotta in bright colours, imitating the timber framed construction of the usual T'ing Temple. The spaces between the terra-cotta columns are decorated with an immense series of miniature niches, one above the other, and side by side, each occupied by a cross-legged figure of Buddha. This temple is erected on an eminence, forming a conspicuous feature in the landscape, and has perhaps the richest ridge cresting to be found in China ; there are three finials in the centre, dragons at each end and others between ; the roof belongs to the Frimoya type, and has heavy hip rolls termin- ating in dragons. What is most unusual in this temple is the range of circular-headed windows to each floor (Woodcut No. 494) ; in the ordinary temple there are no clerestory windows, all the light to the interior is supplied through the doorway and the windows at the back of the verandah. This temple and a small bronze pagoda near it were the only buildings preserved in the Summer Palace on its destruction in 1860, the former on account of its beauty, and the latter its indestructibility. There is a second Buddha's hall near Pekin of the same type of design, with a double eaves-course and balcony, which has destroyed its simplicity. In this latter, built in the Shao-hu-t'ien grounds, the circular columns and squared beams of its timber prototype have been reproduced in glazed terra-cotta, these features being purely decorative as they are carried on the brick wall below. Another type of temple, dating from the i5th century, and known as the Wut'a-Ssu near Pekin, consists of a lofty square pedestal, which recalls the lower portion of the celebrated temple at Bodh-Gaya (Woodcut No. 19). The pedestal is subdivided into five storeys by string-courses, each storey enriched with arcaded niches containing statues of Buddha, the whole crowned with five square dagabas, the centre one with thirteen projecting eaves, and the angle towers with eleven projecting eaves like the Pa-li Chwang Pagoda (Plate LIX.), 15 miles east of Pekin.