CHINESE ARCHITECTURE—BOERSCHMANN. 553 
and the others at the corners. The numbers 4, 8, and 16 are apparent. 
The four great Bodhisatvas sit on the sides of the central pagoda, 
while the 4xX4=16 surfaces of the four side pagodas have the 16 
disciples. In the course of time two were added in China, and they 
now have 2X9=18 disciples of Buddha—a number that has a more 
profound significance for the Chinese. Here and there they have 
erected temples for as many as 500 disciples or Lohan. The bronze 
umbrella that surmounts the central tower on the terrace is pierced 
to display the eight trigrams between clouds, finely alluding to the 
order higher up in the air. Two bottle-shaped pagodas also stand 
on the terrace; these have bottle-shaped bodies, representing the soap 
bubble, indicative of the frailty of life. But, as symbolical of eternal 
life, lovely Buddhas are throned in niches with lotus flowers; the 
overhanging soles of their feet rest in lotus sandals so as not to come 
in contact with the imperfect world. 
The idea of sanctity in the interior of a pagoda has been, it is 
allowable to say, translated into practice, by placing the mummified 
gilded remains of a chief priest in the interior, as was done in the 
beautifully located city of Kiatingfu in Szech’uan. 
The important temples are preferably threefold. They have three 
parallel axes, again expressing the trinity in architecture. The 
entrances to the Confucian temples and the temples in the sacred 
mountains (pl. 8) are threefold. The middle opening faces the 
shén lu, the pathway of the ghosts, that one dare not cross. A strip 
laid off in the pathway is inlaid with dragon plates, as a notice that 
only ghosts pass there. Even the Emperor must enter the Temple of 
Heaven by the eastern entfance when he goes to sacrifice to his an- 
cestors and to Heaven. The middle is the incomprehensible, the holy 
(as it lies inclosed in the circle), the perfect, about which the two 
principles, male and female, contend. These conflicting forces of 
nature are embodied in the dragon, the national emblem of China. 
This is also conceived as double, male and female. In a celebrated 
ever-occurring representation two dragons are shown playing with a 
pearl. This motive is very cleverly executed on a bronze table of 
the Ming dynasty, in a temple on the summit of the sacred mountain 
Omeishan in Szech’uan. The dragons play with the pearl, the image 
of the highest purity and perfection. They play with it but never 
reach it. 
The dragons are the embodiment of the male and female force. I 
wish to emphasize that this dualism has nothing to do with good and 
evil. It is the symbol of life, that the conflict of two principles does 
not permit perfect truth to be attained. 
The combined beauty and artistic strength of this composition is 
repeated in a Confucian temple in Szech’uan. Two pairs of dragons 
are coiled upon the balustrade of the great bridge that crosses the 
