Comparison of Traditional Chinese Temples and Western Gothic Churches

張燁沂

Abstract: The traditional Chinese temple and the western gothic church are two forms of religious architecture. However, on the one hand, their origins, features and religious meanings are really different, and on the other hand, they all just convey their own religious cultures by the way of architecture.

Traditional Chinese Temples and western gothic churches are undoubtedly precious cultural heritage of the world. As they are built for different religions, there are many distinctions between them.

To begin with, the origins of the traditional Chinese temple and the western gothic church are significantly different.

The traditional Chinese temple is an important part of Chinese architecture. However, at first, ancient Chinese temple actually was not built for Buddhist activities, it could also be called ancestral temple where people offered sacrifices to their ancestors. Besides, in the Han Dynasty, the place where the eminent monks from the west lived in was called temple. As Buddhism became popular, many Buddhist temples were built but they were only for Buddhism. Whereas, as time went by, traditional Chinese temple became a place not only for Buddhist activities, but also for sacrificial activities.

Western gothic church is famous all over the world and it has already been on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Gothic style was really popular from 12th to 15th century. The first gothic church was built in France in 1143. At that time, handicraft industry and commerce were well developed, in addition, early democracy thoughts appeared in some French cities. Therefore, people enthusiastically built churches to represent their cities as well as show people their cities prosperity. Of course, most were gothic churches. However, the church then was not only for religion, it also served as a public hall and even could be used as a market or a theatre.

In addition to their different origins, they certainly have their own architecture features.

The traditional Chinese temple was always built on the mountain or somewhere with beautiful scenery and peaceful environment.

There was no doubt that the layout of temples varied from one religion to another. For most traditional Chinese temples which were mainly for Buddhism, the layout was quite similar. For example, there was the Hall of Heavenly Kings in the middle and the Bell Tower as well as the Drum Tower on the two sides, just behind the Hall of Heavenly Kings was the Main Shrine Hall and then was the Tripitaka Sutra Pavilion. So, it was clearly that main halls in the traditional Chinese temple were on the central axis and the overall layout was symmetrical.

Whats more, tou-kung and overhanging eave were two characteristics of the traditional Chinese temple. Tou-kung was a set of brackets on top of the column supporting the beam within and roof eave without. And overhanging eave was the corner of the roof, stretching upward and always had auspicious decorations on it. In addition, wood was the main building material of the traditional Chinese temple. The wooden structure with tou-kung and overhanging eaves always gave people visual enjoyment and it was undoubtedly a beautiful architecture form.

Nevertheless, unlike the traditional Chinese temple, the western gothic church can easily be seen in the city, even in the most prosperous area.

Generally, the plane of gothic church was in the shape of a Latin cross. And there were many features possessed by the gothic church.

To begin with, the pointed arch was the most obvious one and it was extremely important for the whole architecture. Through dispersing the force to four springers, the pointed arch provided the possibility to make the church high enough which was believed to be closer to the God.

Moreover, the gothic church had flying buttress. Not only can it play a role in sharing the pressure of main wall, but also with intricate sculpture decorations, flying buttress had extremely appreciation value.

Finally, the beautiful stained glass window made the interior of the gothic church mysterious and brilliant. The tall and large stained glass window in gothic church acted as a part of the wall, as a result, it allowed sunlight shining into the church and well solved the insufficient light problem of romanesque architecture. Many religious stories were showed by lots of stained glass, therefore, even illiterate people could know something about the religion. And the main colors of stained glass were red and blue—red symbolized the blood of Christ, while blue was related to the kindom of heaven. Undoubtedly, the stained glass window created a strong religious atmosphere for the gothic church.

Furthermore, both the traditional Chinese temple and the western gothic church convey their own religious meanings.

The traditional Chinese temple combined natural and humanistic landscape. The outdoor space of the temple delicately decorated by people was always like part of the nature. And the sides of hall, veranda and pavilion were open to the nature. All these contributed to the temple being in harmony with nature. When people were in the temple, they were likely to be affected by the peaceful and comfortable circumstance, and at the same time, the temple would leave people a thought that the dwelling place of the gods was the same with the peoples. Hence, the traditional Chinese temple subtly conveyed the view that the promised land was the present, certainly in the human world.

Quite different from the traditional Chinese temple, the western gothic church implied the antithesis between the kindom of heaven and the human world. The high, straight as well as pointed style of the gothic church gave people a feeling of upward trend, and it also indicated that there existed an upper space which was undoubtedly the kindom of heaven. It was widely believed by Christians that only the heaven was the land of promise, and the human world was miserable. In addition, the huge space and bible stories on the stained glass inside the church would make people think themselves weak, thus, they hoped to be protected by the God. Therefore, the gothic church exactly conveyed the antithesis between these two worlds.

Though there are so many differences between the traditional Chinese temple and the western gothic church, we cannot deny that these two kinds of architecture are all magnificent and they just convey religious cultures by the way of architecture.

Literature Review:

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