in northern China. The example shown (FIG. 7-22) is a vase of the
high-shouldered shape known as meiping.Chinese potters devel-
oped the subtle techniques ofsgraffito (incising the design through a
colored slip) during the Northern Song period. They achieved the
intricate black-and-white design here by cutting through a black
slip (see “Chinese Earthenwares and Stonewares,” page 196). The
tightly twining vine and flower-petal motifs on this vase closely
embrace the vessel in a perfect accommodation of surface design to
vase shape.
FOGUANG SI PAGODAFor two centuries during the North-
ern Song period, the Liao dynasty (907–1125) ruled part of northern
China. In 1056 the Liao rulers built the Foguang Si Pagoda (FIG.
7-23), the tallest wooden building ever constructed, at Yingxian in
Shanxi Province. The pagoda,or tower, the building type most often
associated with Buddhism in China and other parts of East Asia, is
the most eye-catching feature of a Buddhist temple complex. It
somewhat resembles the tall towers of Indian temples and their dis-
tant ancestor, the Indian stupa (see “The Stupa,” Chapter 6, page 163).
Like stupas, many early pagodas housed relics and provided a focus
for devotion to the Buddha. Later pagodas served other functions,
such as housing sacred images and texts. The Chinese and Koreans
built both stone and brick pagodas,but wooden pagodas were also
common and became the standard in Japan.
The nine-story octagonal pagoda at Yingxian is 216 feet tall and
made entirely of wood (see “Chinese Wooden Construction,” page189). Sixty giant four-tiered bracket clusters carry the floor beams
and projecting eaves of the five main stories. They rest on two con-
centric rings of columns at each level. Alternating main stories and
windowless mezzanines with cantilevered balconies, set back farther
on each story as the tower rises, form an elevation of nine stories al-
together. Along with the open veranda on the ground level and the
soaring pinnacle, the balconies visually lighten the building’s mass.
The cross-section (FIG. 7-23,right) shows the symmetrical place-
ment of statues of the Buddha inside, the colossal scale of the
ground-floor statue, and the intricacy of the beam-and-bracket sys-
tem at its most ingenious.
SOUTHERN SONG PERIODWhen the Jin captured Bian-
liang and Emperor Huizong in 1126 and took control of northern
China, Gaozong (r. 1127–1162), Huizong’s sixth son, escaped and
eventually established a new Song capital in the south at Lin’an.
From there, he and his successors during the Southern Song period
ruled their reduced empire until 1279.
Court sponsorship of painting continued in the new capital,
and, as in the Northern Song period, some of the emperors were di-
rectly involved with the painters of the imperial painting academy.
During the reign of Ningzong (r. 1194–1224), members of the court,
including Ningzong himself and Empress Yang, frequently added
brief poems to the paintings created under their direction. Some of
the painters belonged to families that had worked for the Song em-
perors for several generations.China 1997-23View (left) and cross-section (right;after L. Liu) of Foguang Si Pagoda, Yingxian, China, Liao dynasty, 1056.
The tallest wooden building in the world is this pagoda in the Yingxian Buddhist temple complex. The nine-story tower shows the Chinese wooden
beam-and-bracket construction system at its most ingenious.7-23A
Bodhisattva
Guanyin seated
on Potalaka,
11th or early
12th century.