The Remaining Buddhist Architecture in Fu'an, the Core Hinterland of the Changxi River Basin

The Changxi River Basin is a small root-like watershed, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea to the southeast. It is located on the border between Fujian and Zhejiang on the southeast coast of China. The area gave rise to the Changxi Culture that began in the Sui and Tang Dynasties and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Buddhism in the Changxi Basin was introduced no later than the 9th century. As the core hinterland of the Changxi Basin, Fu'an has always been an important center for Buddhism in Eastern Fujian. It reached its peak in the 10th to 13th centuries during the Song Dynasty. This article conducts a comprehensive investigation and study of the existing Buddhist temple sites and relics in Fu'an. It highlights these structures' single-bay pattern of construction, based on rectangular plans in which the longitudinal axis extends along the plan's direction of depth. This is a pattern rarely seen in the history of Chinese Buddhist architecture. The paper also summarizes a common element in these temples, their petal-shaped corrugated stone pillars which are divided into eight segments. Lastly, it illustrates the evolution of the temples in the Changxi River Basin from single-bay layouts to those with widths of multiple bays and indicates the unique status and associated values of single-bay Buddhist temples in the history of southern Buddhist architecture. The study examines new local findings and ideas for the study of Chinese Buddhist architectural history, providing academic support for the protection and research of Buddhist architectural heritage in Southeast China

Ancient history · Archaeology · Bay · Buddhism · China · Geography · Structural basin · Watershed · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · Architecture · Geology · Paleontology

• Reconstruction of Single-Bay Buddhist Architecture Based on Stylistic Comparisons in Northeast Fujian, the Core Hinterland of the Changxi River Basin-Using Gonghoulong Temple as an Example

  Open Access•Y Ding, Yuqing Cai et al.•Religions•2024

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