A County’s Pride: Discovering Liao-Era Architectural Masterpiece (I)

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll talk about how two very distinct Liao-era temples reveal the ingenuity, grandeur, and spiritual vision of ancient Chinese wooden architecture.

Transcript

A County’s Pride: Discovering Liao-Era Architectural Masterpiece (I)

In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’ll talk about how two very distinct Liao-era temples reveal the ingenuity, grandeur, and spiritual vision of ancient Chinese wooden architecture.

Dule Temple is quiet, with only a few visitors wandering inside. Beneath the towering statue of Guanyin, the bodhisattva, a tourist from Shanghai lifts his heavy camera, whispering in awe. The 16-meter clay figure, over a thousand years old, is the largest surviving clay statue housed in an ancient Chinese hall. Its weathered presence feels strikingly different from the usual golden Buddhas. Sunlight pours through the second floor, casting the upper half of the statue in a brilliant glow.

Most who come here aren’t seeking blessings, but history. Architect Chen Mingda, from the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture – a group of pioneers in modern Chinese architectural studies, dedicated to the preservation of traditional Chinese buildings, once said: “By age, Dule Temple ranks only seventh among ancient structures. But in technique and artistry, it deserves to be called number one – the finest example of ancient Chinese architecture still standing.”

The Guanyin Pavilion, the Shanmen gate, and the eleven-headed Guanyin statue were all rebuilt in 984, during the Liao Dynasty’s Tonghe reign. Of the eight great surviving Liao wooden structures in China, two stand right here.

Emerging after the Tang and overlapping with the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song, the Liao Dynasty carried forward the grand Tang style. Dule Temple’s Guanyin Pavilion and gate bear that legacy vividly – even larger, more intricate, and more magnificent than the few Tang-era halls that remain. For anyone seeking the pinnacle of ancient Chinese architecture, Dule Temple is the place to go.

Dule Temple sits in Jizhou, Tianjin, about a hundred kilometers from both Beijing and Tianjin’s city centers. It has never been a major tourist destination, but among architecture lovers, it holds a special significance. The temple is part of the “Eight Great Liao Structures,” a route that spans Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, and Liaoning. Checking off all eight sites – from Yingxian’s Wooden Pagoda to Datong’s grand halls – is seen as a must-do pilgrimage for any true fan of ancient architecture.

In April 1932, the young architect Liang Sicheng set off from Beijing in a worn-out Ford to Jixian. The year before, Japanese scholar Sekino Tadashi had stumbled upon Dule Temple on his way to the Eastern Qing Tombs and suggested it might be from the Liao Dynasty. News of that claim spread quickly in Beijing’s academic circles.

For Liang, the trip was far from carefree. On one hand, Dule Temple posed a serious scholarly challenge. On the other, the sound of war was drawing closer from the northeast. Just months earlier, he had planned to visit the site, only to cancel after Japanese troops staged an armed clash in Tianjin.

Today, the journey is far easier: a short drive from Jizhou Station brings you to the old temple. At the end of an ancient street, the first sight is its vast gatehouse roof. The deep eaves hold both the gravity of age and the lightness of flight. Behind it rises an even larger, more intricate roof – the Guanyin Pavilion.

Step through the Shanmen gate, and the Guanyin Pavilion comes fully into view. The eaves, columns, and threshold of the gate frame the pavilion perfectly, like a natural picture frame. Professor Ding Yao of Tianjin University points out another striking detail: the two towering guardian figures flanking the gate. Their fierce eyes glare downward, converging at a single point – the very spot where generations of worshippers and visitors have stopped, bowed, and felt the weight of their presence. From here, if you look up and ahead, you’ll see the gaze of the Guanyin statue on the pavilion’s second floor, her eyes framed neatly within the doorway.

The design grows even more astonishing upstairs. Stand beside the statue and follow her line of sight, and you’ll discover what she is watching: a white pagoda, built in the same Liao Dynasty, rising 30 meters high just a few hundred meters away.

This is masterful design – statue and pagoda, temple and tower, locked in silent dialogue across space and centuries. The gaze itself breathes life into the layout, binding the architecture into a living whole. For the ancients, space was never empty; it was spiritual.

Architectural scholars have long marveled at Dule Temple, calling it “harmonious yet overwhelming,” “indescribable,” “without equal.” Liang Sicheng, the first Chinese architect to stand here, summed it up in just four characters: “an incomparable national treasure.”

What was Liang Sicheng’s first impression of Dule Temple? According to Ding Yao, it was “Tang.” Before coming to Dule Temple, Liang had just finished an article titled What We Know About Tang Dynasty Temples and Palaces. At that time, no Tang wooden structures had yet been found in China, and all the architectural images he cited came from Tang-era Dunhuang murals. Day after day, he studied those paintings, steeped in the grand Tang style of “eaves stretching like wings, brackets bold and mighty.” So, when he first laid eyes on the Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple, it was as if the murals had come to life before him.

The Guanyin Pavilion and Shanmen of Dule Temple were rebuilt in the year 984, only seventy-seven years after the Tang Dynasty, and still 119 years before the Song Dynasty’s official architectural manual Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods) was published. 

The discovery of Dule Temple’s Liao structures sent shockwaves through the architectural world. At a time when scholars doubted whether any Tang wooden buildings had survived, here stood two structures, steeped in Tang style, intact and stirring in their presence. For years they were regarded as the oldest wooden buildings known in China. The discovery of the Tang-era main hall of Foguang Temple, which broke that record, would not come until five years later.

Equally significant was the report Liang published that same year: An Investigation of the Guanyin Pavilion and Shanmen of Dule Temple in Jixian. Its influence continues to this day. The methods, frameworks, and even the language he employed set the bar for architectural scholarship. It was the first time a Chinese scholar had used modern architectural methods to interpret the scientific, historical, and artistic value of the nation’s ancient buildings.

Ding Yao has worked in architecture for nearly 30 years and has visited the Liao structures countless times, conducting in-depth studies of many. To him, the most remarkable is always this northern Jibei temple. He says: “Liao architecture can be divided into two categories: Dule Temple and the rest.”

In June 1949, just months before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a Catalogue of Important National Architectural Relics was issued to the military, instructing that ancient buildings be protected during the nationwide liberation. The catalogue, compiled under the supervision of Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin, ranked existing sites by importance, with the highest level marked by four circles.

The “four-circle” standard was extremely selective – only about a dozen sites nationwide: two in Beijing (the Forbidden City and the city itself); two in Hebei (Zhaozhou Bridge and the Hua Tower of Guanghui Temple); and four in Shanxi, despite its dense concentration of historical sites, which included Foguang Temple, Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, Yungang Grottoes, and Tianlongshan Grottoes. Dule Temple’s Guanyin Pavilion and Shanmen each received four circles. One site with eight circles nationwide – unique to Dule Temple.

Since Liang Sicheng opened the path for scientific study of Chinese architecture at Dule Temple in 1932, half a century later Chen Mingda continued to advance along the route laid by his teacher, completing detailed analyses of the architectural composition and large timber systems of the Guanyin Pavilion and Shanmen, exploring ever deeper subtleties. The successive research by these two generations reflects the aesthetic of scholarly inheritance. 

How should one appreciate the beauty of Dule Temple? Ding Yao reflected for a long time and, without using technical architectural terminology, he could only compare it to a symphony: there is a key, variations, ornamentation, and accent. Liang Sicheng noticed it on his first visit – the upper-level brackets of the Guanyin Pavilion are the accents. The overall design is both expansive and exquisitely detailed; every element resonates with the others, forming a seamless, infinitely intricate masterpiece.

The integrated design of structure, sculpture, and painting is a defining feature of Chinese Buddhist architecture and a hallmark of Chinese architectural excellence. The nearly sixteen-meter-tall eleven-headed Guanyin statue at Dule Temple is the core of the entire complex. The pavilion was built specifically to house the statue, resulting in a design in which architecture and sculpture respond to and complement each other.

This holistic approach is equally evident in another major Liao structure – the main hall of Fengguo Temple in Yixian, Liaoning Province.

In the autumn of the year Liang Sicheng visited Dule Temple, Sekino Tadashi made another important discovery in the northeast – Fengguo Temple in Yixian. The following year, his survey article was published, and Fengguo Temple gained worldwide recognition. Decades later, director Wong Kar-wai filmed scenes for The Grandmaster at Fengguo Temple, with Zhang Ziyi’s character Gong Ruomei paying respects before the statues and wandering among the murals. Through light and shadow, the temple’s extraordinary beauty was captured on film.

Yu Fenglei, director of the Cultural Tourism Development Service Center in Yixian, told The Context: “Each of the Eight Great Liao Structures has its own character. Dule Temple is the most Tang in style, the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda demonstrates the highest technical skill, and Fengguo Temple shows the grandest royal style.” Indeed, Fengguo Temple was a royal Liao monastery, likely built by Emperor Shengzong Yelü Longxu. Its main hall spans nine bays and covers 1,829 square meters, making it the largest and most complete surviving single-eaved timber structure in early China, with an area equivalent to 77% of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City.

Just as the Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple was built to house the eleven-headed Guanyin, Fengguo Temple’s main hall was designed specifically for seven large Buddha statues. These seven so-called “Past Buddhas” of Buddhism sit on a raised platform, over nine meters tall, arranged in a single line, creating a breathtaking spectacle.

Ding Yao said that “From a distance, the main hall of Fengguo Temple looks like an IMAX screen. Up close, the seven Buddhas lined up together still feel like an IMAX.” Over the past two decades, he has conducted detailed surveys of the hall. Using modern technology, it is clear that the building’s dimensions were designed to accommodate the seven statues while leaving space for worshippers around them. In effect, the colossal statues themselves dictated the creation of the largest surviving Liao-era hall.

More detailed research has brought astonishing new discoveries. The main hall of Fengguo Temple preserves over 2,400 square meters of painted decoration, featuring a variety of motifs including Buddhist radiance patterns. Using 3D laser scanning, the full spatial layout of the paintings was revealed, and Ding Yao realized that the arrangement was carefully designed to depict the effect of Buddha’s light illuminating all around. Uncovering this secret left by millennia-old master artists was deeply exciting for him.

Liao architecture itself exudes an outward, spirited energy. In Ding Yao’s words, the Liao style features a bold, expansive posture, full of passion, vitality, and exuberance. Liang Sicheng categorized Tang and Liao architecture together as the “majestic and vigorous period” of Chinese architecture. The late Northern Song, Jin, and Yuan he calls the “refined and harmonious period,” and the Ming and Qing are the “restrained and upright period.” He argued that in terms of the artistry of individual buildings, Ming and Qing architecture had become rigid and far less impressive than earlier dynasties.

What does majestic and vigorous mean visually? Tang, Liao, and early Song buildings convey it through “eaves stretching like wings and massive bracket sets,” giving an immediate sense of power and grandeur. In contrast, post-Song refined and harmonious architecture reflects an elegant and graceful style.

Ding Yao explained that the spirit of majestic and vigorous architecture was passed down from the Northern Dynasties through the Tang and Five Dynasties, a period when Buddhism flourished in northern China. A series of large grottoes – Yungang, Longmen, Gongxian, Tianlongshan, Xiangtangshan, and Maijishan – were carved near the capitals. Mahayana Buddhist sculptures were deliberately arranged and carved according to the order and hierarchy of Han and Jin traditions, inaugurating the distinctive style of the Sui and Tang periods. Thus, the majestic and vigorous era represents the fusion of traditional Chinese architecture with Buddhist artistic spirit and the result of extensive cultural exchange among northern ethnic groups.

He added: “From Yungang to Longmen, and then to Dule Temple, Fengguo Temple, Huayan Temple, and the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, the style matured over time. Six centuries of accumulation – this is the depth and breadth of Chinese culture. Liao architecture took a further step, revealing all the secrets of Tang architecture. In many ways, Liao buildings are ‘more Tang than Tang,’ expressing the original Tang style more fully; for example, statues in Liao structures are more three-dimensional than in Tang counterparts.” Liao architecture inherited Tang cultural values, while the more southerly Song Dynasty, influenced by the revival of Confucianism and southern aesthetics, developed a peaceful, elegant reinterpretation of the past.

Today, the majestic and vigorous legacy can even be seen in the Yangtze River region, where the Liao never ventured. Liang Sicheng’s design of the Jian Zhen Memorial Hall in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province as well as the main hall of the Nanjing Museum were built in Tang-Liao style. “To say a Chinese building has the Tang-Liao spirit is the highest praise,” Ding Yao said. “The Jian Zhen Memorial Hall is essentially a new ‘Liao-era’ building.”

In 1973, one year after Liang Sicheng’s death, the Jian Zhen Memorial Hall was completed. It was the last of his architectural designs to be realized. Ding Yao believes that Liang Sicheng was the greatest Chinese architect of the 20th century. In his pursuit of a new path for Chinese architecture, he emulated the healthiest examples of ancient Tang and Liao buildings – the majestic and vigorous style.

Well, that’s the end of our podcast. Our theme music is by the famous film score composer Roc Chen. We want to thank our writer Ni Wei, translator Wang Yuyan, and copy editor Pu Ren. And thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please tell a friend so they, too, can understand The Context.