Longxing Monastery, Tianwang Hall 隆興寺天王殿

Building Information

Tianwang Hall is the first major wooden structure on the central axis of the Longxing Monastery complex. Since there is no mountain gate in the monastery, Tianwang Hall plays the role of the main entrance to Longxing Temple (河北省正定縣文物保管所 2000, 3). We have found no textual information to document the initial creation of this building, but it can be dated to the Northern Song dynasty based on its framework and bracket features. The hall is five bays or 23.28 meters wide, two bays or 9.62 meters deep, with a single-eaves, green glazed tile, hip-gable (shaliangtou 厦兩頭 or xieshan 歇山) roof. The total building area is about 380 square meters. The column tops are decorated with five-layer, double-stolen heart (touxinzao 偷心造) bracket sets. The bracket sets of Tianwang Hall underwent additions and modifications in the 45th year of the Qing dynasty Qianlong reign period (1780), when the first step of the Song dynasty column top layout was changed and smaller (pingshenke 平身科) were added as intercolumnar bracket sets (bujian puzuo 補間鋪作).1

天王殿為隆興寺中軸線上第一座主要木構建築。因隆興寺未設山門，天王殿起到了隆興寺大門入口的作用 (河北省正定縣文物保管所 2000，3)。此殿的創建年代未被文字資料記載，但根據架構以及斗栱特征可推斷其為北宋建築。該殿面闊五間，寬23.28米，進深兩間，深9.62米，為單檐歇山綠琉璃瓦剪邊頂。總建築面積約為380平方米。柱頭施五鋪作雙抄偷心造斗栱。天王殿的斗栱在清乾隆四十五年（1780）經歷了增補修改，改製了宋朝柱頭鋪作原構的第一跳華栱，並在柱間添加了補間鋪作（平身科）。1