In the history of our country, the material structure, layer number and plane shape of the tower have also changed differently. First of all, in terms of material structure, there are generally wooden towers, brick towers, stone towers, masonry mixed towers, iron towers, copper towers, glass towers and other types, of which wooden towers developed the earliest, mainly from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties; After that, masonry towers developed one after another, mainly in the Tang, Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties. Subsequently, various tower types appeared, including iron, copper, glass, pearls, ivory, enamel and so on. Followed by the number of towers and the number of wheels. Generally speaking, tower floors are mostly odd, that is, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, seventeen and so on. , while floors on the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth floors are rare. The plane shapes of the tower mainly include quadrangle, hexagon, octagon, dodecagon and circle, among which quadrangle mostly appeared in or before the Tang Dynasty, and it was changed to hexagon or octagon in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The transformation of this tower type is firstly to increase the seismic performance; The second is to expand the horizon of climbing the tower.
Modeling and classification of towers
The facade modeling of China ancient pagoda can be roughly divided into eight types: pavilion, dense eaves, pavilion, covered bowl, flower tower, king kong throne, crossing street tower and sutra depository.
The so-called pavilion tower refers to the pagoda with a pavilion-like shape in ancient China. For example, the pavilion tower with wooden structure appeared in China in the early days, and the pavilion tower with masonry imitating wooden structure appeared after Sui and Tang Dynasties.
The so-called dense eaves tower refers to a tower with more outer eaves than inner floors. Its basic characteristics are as follows: first, the proportion of towers on the first floor is particularly large. Above the towers on the first floor, the eaves of the towers are closely connected, and the distance between floors is particularly short; Second, on the first floor of the tower, the tower between the eaves of each floor has no pavilions such as doors, windows and columns.
The so-called pavilion tower refers to a square, hexagonal, octagonal or circular pavilion tower. The whole tower has only one floor, and some have added a small pavilion at the top.
Bowl-covered pagoda, also known as Lama pagoda, is characterized by its round bowl-covered body with different numbers of sumeru seats under it; Above the bowl is a big pagoda.
Flower Pagoda is a tower type developed in China in the later period. Its basic feature is that the upper part of the pagoda is decorated with various complicated floral ornaments, which looks like a huge bouquet. The form of decoration is from simple to complex, and the content is rich and colorful.
King Kong Throne Pagoda is a Tantric Pagoda of Buddhism. It worships the remains of Five Dhyani Buddhas and symbolizes the five shapes of Mount Sumi. Five Dhyani Buddhas is the five main buddhas in the diamond kingdom: Tathagata in the middle, Acheng Buddha in the east, Baosheng Buddha in the south, Amitabha Buddha in the west and Bukong Buddha in the north. Therefore, the layout format of the King Kong throne tower is five small towers supported by Sumeru on the King Kong throne, with the middle tower higher and the four small towers lower. The whole tower constitutes a unique pattern, with five towers, big and small, and a tower base.
Cross-street towers and portal towers appeared in the Yuan Dynasty, which are characterized by being built on streets or avenues. The lower part of the tower is generally built in the form of a doorway, which means that pedestrians and chariots can pass through, which means that everyone who passes under the tower should worship Buddha.
Baoji Jing Tower is a special type of tower. It was originally built by Yue in the Five Dynasties, imitating the story of Asoka in India who built 84,000 pagodas and used them as Buddhist scriptures. Because it looks like a sutra depository and contains Buddhist scriptures, it is named the sutra depository and sutra printing tower. This tower is generally made of metal with a gold-plated surface, so it is also called the gold-plated tower.
Tower material
Earth tower: Towers are generally tall and slender, and the mechanical properties of rammed earth are not suitable for building tall towers. In addition, it is difficult to build and preserve tall rammed earth towers in areas with soft soil and abundant rainfall. Therefore, the number of rammed earth towers preserved is very small, mainly concentrated in the northwest region with less precipitation and rich loess resources. The main shape of rammed earth towers is mostly short and fat bowl-covered towers.
Wooden pagoda: Making good use of wooden structure is a major feature of traditional architecture in China, and it is also the earliest pagoda in China. Wooden pagodas built in past dynasties draw lessons from many elements and technologies of palace architecture, from load-bearing structures such as arches, rafters, beams and columns to non-load-bearing structures such as door and window railings, which are very similar to contemporary palace architecture.
The wooden tower in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province in Liao Dynasty is a technical breakthrough in wooden tower construction. Yingxian wooden tower has no central column, but two circles of wooden columns around each tower body transfer the load of the tower layer by layer. This unique mechanical design is more reasonable and stronger than the central column structure, which also makes Yingxian wooden tower stand still after nearly a thousand years of wind and rain and become the oldest existing wooden tower.
Brick tower: Brick tower is the largest number of all kinds of towers, and the number of brick towers preserved through wind and rain is much more than other materials. With the rapid development of brick-making industry in Ming and Qing dynasties, a large number of brick towers appeared, so that it is difficult to see towers built of other materials.
Brick towers also have some disadvantages. Because there are many cracks in the brick tower, it is very easy for plants to grow on it, from small weeds to big trees. Their roots will greatly destroy the structure of the tower and lead to its collapse. In addition, the building materials that make up the brick tower are very small and easy to take down. The famous Leifeng Pagoda in Hangzhou fell down because of people's brick-stealing activities.
Stone Pagoda: The use of stone is not the specialty of traditional architecture in China, but because the nature of stone itself is very suitable for building towers, there are not a few people who use stone as the main material in towers. Stone pagodas are mostly small pagodas in volume and mostly tomb pagodas in use. Only a few stone pagodas are huge, and the construction of such stone pagodas requires relatively high architectural techniques and skills. Many stone pagodas are made in Shi Zhuan, and their volume is relatively small. They are built according to the architectural style of brick towers, and their load-bearing structures are mostly modeled after wood structures.
In addition to the above materials, there are towers made of other materials, such as ivory carved towers, metal towers, fragrant mud towers, jade carved towers, bone carved towers, ceramic towers and so on. Most of these towers are not used as buildings, but as religious tools or handicrafts. Towers are made of various materials, besides the single tower mentioned above, there are also towers made of mixed materials, such as brick-wood mixing, masonry mixing, stone-wood mixing and so on.
Frame structure
Underground Palace: Its name with China characteristics is "Dragon Palace". The underground palace should be built after the foundation, mostly square, hexagonal, octagonal and round. There are big stone letters or small stone pagodas filled with Buddhist relics, as well as Buddhist scriptures, Buddha statues, offerings and other funerary objects.
Pedestal: Covered on the underground palace, it is the foundation of the tower, including Sumeru and King Kong. Xumi Mountain originated in India, symbolizing the center of the Buddhist world-Xumi Mountain, with the meaning of exclusive respect and stability. With the help of this model, the tower with dense eaves is more majestic. There is a pot-door-shaped niche on both sides of the mountainside of Sumeru, which is often decorated with various patterns. There are lux or dependent figures in niches or corners.
Tower body: the tower body is located on the base and is the main body of the tower. Pavilion-style towers and pavilion-style towers worship Buddha statues on all floors of the tower body. No matter whether it is hollow or solid, the dense eaves tower can't get in, and the Buddha statues are carved outside the tower body. Among all kinds of towers, pavilion towers and dense eaves towers are the most decorated.
Although China also embodied Buddhist thoughts everywhere in the construction of the tower, Buddhism in China is different from that in ancient India and has a strong local color. In ancient Indian Buddhism, the number of towers is the same as that of the top of the tower, which is even; However, influenced by China's theory of Yin-Yang and Five Elements, the number of towers and phase wheels is always singular. In Buddhist classics, it is named after the function of stupa, such as stupa, which is built to support Buddha's hair; Claw tower, a tower built to support Buddha's nails. After Buddhism was introduced into China, pagodas were built in imitation of India, usually in Tallinn, a Buddhist temple, and claw pagodas were rarely built. After all, there are very few Buddhist relics, and some towers are buried with fake Buddhist relics as symbols.
Tower gate: located at the highest part of the tower, it is an important part of the top of the tower. "Brake" comes from Sanskrit, which means "earth field" and "country", and Buddhism means "Buddha country". All kinds of pagodas have pagodas, so-called "no pagoda and no brake". As a prominent symbol of the tower, the tower gate is generally made of metal or masonry. Generally, the tower gate itself is like a tower with a small bowl cover, which is divided into three parts: gate seat, gate body and gate top.