diàntáng 殿堂

Note (brief)

Diantang, a building type sometimes referred to as dian 殿 or even diange 殿閣, is arguably the highest ranking structure in the traditional Chinese building hierarchy. Meaning, literally, “palatial-type” or “rear” (dian 殿 Kroll 2015, 86) "hall" (tang 堂 Kroll 2015, 444), in historical sources diantang is likely a compound word inclusive of dian and tang-type structures, and can be used generally to refer to all main buildings in an architectural complex. When describing a single building it denotes a higher rank structure than ting 廳, 堂 tang, or tingtang 廳堂. Diantang is usually used to describe imperial buildings and the main buildings in religious complexes. The earliest use we have found for diantang is in the "Rhapsody of the Goddess" (Shennüfu 神女賦) traditionally attributed to Song Yu 宋玉 (298-263 BCE), but the compound became more common after the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Diantang is a major term used throughout the Song Dynasty Yingzao fashi.7

Early textual sources suggest that the terms dian and ting 廳 (or tingshi 廳事) served to distinguish between the ways a "tang" was used in an architectural compound. From Spring and Autumn and Warring States period records we can deduce that the term tang originally referred to a building placed on a podium (see tang 堂). The related terms ting and tingshi appear in Han literature and refer to the main buildings in government offices (yashu 衙署) and residences. The appearance of these new terms reflect how changes in the social structure were expressed in architecture between the Spring and Autumn period and Han Dynasty (Zhuge 2016a).8

The Luoyang qielan ji records a story about converting a residence into a Buddist monastery in 531CE “the front ting was used as a Buddha dian, and the rear tang was used as the lecture shi" (yi qian ting wei Fodian, hou tang wei jiangshi 以前廳爲佛殿，後堂爲講室) (Zhou and Yang 2010, 32-35). Therefore, we can infer that the composition of ting-tang in a residential compound is similar to dian-shi in a Buddhist monastery.9

In terms of the usage of diantang in the Yingzao fashi, most modern scholars agree that it is a general name for multiple types of buildings. Scholars also suggest that diantang may also refer to a structural type (diantang shi 殿堂式, also called diange shi 殿閣式). What the Yingzao fashi authors’ (Li Jie et al.) primary intention in mentioning these different structural types is still open for discussion (陈 1981, 57, 65-67；潘 1980, 1981). On the one hand, the authors may have only wanted to define different structural types; on the other hand they may have been primarily interested in using technical details of different structural types to establish a building ranking system (Zhuge 2021).10

殿堂是等級高於廳、堂或廳堂的高等級建築物，通常用於皇家建築，也可作為寺觀祠廟的主要建築。 “殿堂”連用最早見於战国文獻 (宋玉 (298-263 BCE)《神女賦》)， 南北朝（420-589）後使用漸頻繁。在宋《營造法式》中殿堂是核心術語之一。歷史文獻中的“殿堂”可能是殿、堂兩類建築的合稱；也可能延伸為對一組建築群中主要房屋的泛稱，有時也用作對多類建築的統稱。

與殿、堂相關的廳或廳事則出現于漢代文獻，為用於衙署、宅第的建築物。基於春秋戰國時期的各類文獻可知，堂本意为為坐於台基上的房屋 。(參見 "堂")。 由此可以推測，殿與廳（廳事）可能是堂在建築羣中使用方式分化的產物，新的名詞及其出現的時間反映出春秋至漢社會結構的變化及其在建築組羣中的表現 （诸葛 2016a）。8

《洛陽伽藍記》記普泰元年（531）樂平王尓朱世隆將原劉騰宅改爲建中寺，有“以前廳爲佛殿，後堂爲講室”之句（周和杨 2010, 32–35)，也可見宅第與寺院建築組羣中核心部分廳-堂和殿-堂的同構關係。9

學者一般都同意《營造法式》（1103）中的殿堂是幾類建築物的統稱，並在對《營造法式》的研究中提出，殿堂也是一種構架類型，即殿堂式構架（另一些學者使用“殿閣式構架”），與廳堂式構架一起構成《營造法式》中的主要構架類型（陈 1981, 57，65-67；潘 1980, 1981）。 但《營造法式》的本意就是要定義不同的構架類型，還是說不同的構架只是《營造法式》用於建立建築等級體系的技術手段之一，這似乎仍有商榷的餘地（諸葛，2021）。10

Related concepts

diàn 殿

jiǎngshì 講室

shì 室

táng 堂

tīngtáng 廳堂