Types of memorial archways
The first category is the wooden archway, with the largest number. Its underground part uses cypress piles, which are called Diding. The lower part of each pillar above the foundation is wrapped with a "pole-clamping stone" and an iron hoop is tied outside. The eaves at the top of the wooden archway on the street are very short, which is a style of hanging mountains or temples. The end of each column extends out of the roof, and the top of the column is covered with a cloud pot (also called a pilu hat) to prevent wind and rain from eroding insects. The tiles used in roofs and streets are mostly black tiles.
The second category is the glazed archway. This kind of archway is mostly used in Buddhist temple buildings. There are only three archways with four columns and seven floors in Beijing. Its structure is to build a 6-8-foot brick wall on a stone foundation, with a trumpet column in the wall and a 10,000-year-old square as the skeleton. There are three circular ticket gates on the brick wall, and there are green and white stone sumeru seats under the wall, which are carved with various artistic patterns. The pillars, squares, sparrows, flower boards, dragon and phoenix boards, open buildings, second floors, mezzanine buildings and side buildings on the wall are all similar to those in the carpentry room. The difference is that the walls of this workshop are inlaid with yellow-green glazed tiles, which are magnificent.
The third category is Shipailou. Most of these archways are gardens, streets and graves. From the structural point of view, the complexity is different, and some are extremely simple, with only one two-column building and no bright building; There are five complicated rooms with six rows and eleven floors. Due to its own structural characteristics, some have three rooms and four columns, but there are only flower boards and no bright buildings. The Ming-style buildings in Shifang are more complicated and the reliefs are also very distinctive. If the stone is firm and fine, not only the relief is vivid, but also its fine patterns will not disappear after hundreds of years.
The fourth category is the cement archway. This is the product of modern architectural art, and the number of new buildings is small, most of which are used for the relocation and reinforcement of ancient archways.
The fifth category is colored archways, which are temporary decorations. It is mainly used at the entrance of Daling, Shi Miao and market. After the deadline, it will be demolished. It is generally made of Chinese fir poles, bamboo poles and wooden boards, and colorful light bulbs are installed at the top.
The sixth category is the bronze archway, the first bronze archway in China, designed and created by Zhu Bingren, a master of arts and crafts in China. It is 6. 1m high, 7m wide and weighs nearly 100 tons. The archway is carved with patterns such as lotus flowers. At the entrance of Miaosolemn Road, the ancient incense road in Putuo Mountain, there are upturned glass, exquisite bronze art and lifelike dragon, lion and crane carvings. The memorial archway was written by the President of the Chinese Buddhist Association with the title "Ci Hang Pu Du, the master of Chinese studies inscribed the couplet" The voice of praise is far away in Sanskrit, and the clouds and the moon are the same as the drum ".The calligrapher of Xiling Printing Society, the designer and builder of the memorial archway printed and wrote the couplet" It is a kind of Taoist feeling to be a Buddha's heart at six o'clock and take the ancient road wonderfully ". The completion of the bronze archway not only added a fine scenic spot to Putuo Mountain Scenic Area, but also opened the prelude to the reconstruction project of Miaosolemn Road, a thousand-year-old ancient incense road in Buddha country. Copper is not easy to be damaged, which has more visual effects and is also conducive to the preservation of generations. As far as its construction intention is concerned, memorial archways can be divided into four categories: one is merit archways, which record merits for someone. For example, the "Four Seasons Baogong" archway in the new town of Huantai County, Shandong Province was built by Emperor Wanli of the Ming Dynasty for Wang Xianggan, the then Minister of Military Affairs of the new town. Wang Xianggan's martial arts skills are superb, and he was named Prince Taibao on nine sides, which was a posthumous gift from his great-grandfather, grandfather, father, Prince Taibao and Minister of War. Therefore, it is entitled "Gong Bao IV". Second, chastity moral archway, which is a heroic woman to commemorate chastity women. There are many such archways in Shexian County, Anhui Province. There is a filial piety workshop in Heijing Town, Chuxiong, Yunnan Province, which was ordered by Empress Dowager Cixi at the end of Qing Dynasty to commend local virtuous women. The three categories are symbols of the achievements of the imperial examination, mostly family archways, aiming at glorifying ancestors. The fourth category is the sign square, which is mostly located at the entrance of villages and towns and on the streets as the separation of spatial paragraphs.
According to Zhang Yujian's book The story of the memorial arch in China, it can be divided into six categories: first, temple workshops, such as Qufu Confucius Temple archway; The second is the merit archway, such as the above-mentioned "Four Seasons Bao Gong" archway and Shandong Qingzhou Hengwangfu Stone Square. The third type is Baishoufang (also known as Bai Shou Square), which is much less than other types, such as Baishoufang in Hanlou, Qingzhou City, Shandong Province and Baishoufang in Jiu Feng Village, Jingxian County, Anhui Province; Fourth, the filial piety square; The fifth is the sign square; Sixth, Mausoleum Square, memorial archway of Dayu Tomb in Shaoxing and Tangwangling Road Square in Nantong.