East Hall of Foguang Temple

The East Hall of Foguang Temple was completed in 857, in the eleventh year of the Tang Dazhong era, paid for by Ning Gongyu, a female lay Buddhist from the capital Chang'an. In June 1937 Liang Sicheng, Liu Dunzhen, Lin Huiyin, Mo Zongjiang and others found and examined the temple, and an inscription on a beam and a stone dharani pillar both carry Ning Gongyu's name, which fixed the date of building. Liang Sicheng described it as the only Tang timber hall his society had found after years of fieldwork. On the altar the hall keeps Tang statues, and traces of Tang and Song wall paintings survive inside. It is a representative example of Tang timber building.^1,2

The East Hall faces west and stands on a base of cut stone. It is seven bays wide, about 34 meters, and four bays deep, eight rafter spans or about 17.66 meters, under a single-eave hip roof. Inside, an inner and an outer ring of columns of equal height form the column grid, the outer columns lean inward and rise slightly toward the corners, and the arrangement matches the type the Yingzao Fashi calls the double-ring plan. The bracket sets on the outer column heads are seven-tier, with two projecting arms and two slanting lower arms; they are very large, and the outer eaves project about 3.69 meters. No king post stands under the ridge purlin, only angled struts, and the hall has a flat ceiling of the pingan type.^1,2