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 4X4=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 aitd the temples in the sacred 

 mountains (pi. 3) are threefold. The middle opening faces the 

 shen 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 entrance 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 



