The Grand Documentation: Ernst Boerschmann and Chinese Religious Architecture (1906–1931) 9783110401349, 9783110374940

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Eduard Kögel The Grand Documentation

Eduard Kögel

The Grand Documentation Ernst Boerschmann and Chinese Religious Architecture (1906–1931)

This publication was made possible through the generous support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

ISBN 978-3-11-037494-0 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-040134-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-040139-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover illustration: A side view of one of the temples for Bixia Yuanjun with a richly decorated gable made of terracotta. The lowest row on the relief included Chinese characters that told the story of the goddess. (© Boerschmann 1907, PAB). Copy editing: Edward Street Typesetting: Rüdiger Kern, Berlin Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH Co. KG, Göttingen Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com

Das Boot der Barmherzigkeit Ein kleines, gebrechliches Schiff zieht hinaus aus dem sicheren Heimathafen, wo friedlich und still, vor Wetter und Braus, geträumt es hat und geschlafen. Bewahr dich der Himmel, du keines Boot, in des Meeres grausiger Weite, es rast im schwarzen Sturme der Tod. Kein Stern, der zum Ziele dich leite. Und es bricht herein, es knattert und kracht, das Schifflein tanzt auf den Wogen, zum Schiffer kommt in dunkler Nacht des Lebens Sorge gezogen. Es betet im Angesicht vom Tod. Und sieh, in den grössten Nöten da naht im gnadenreichen Boot der Barmherzigkeit gütige Göttin. Sie fasst ihn mit milder Hand. Es versinkt sein Schiff im nassen Grabe, das Boot der Barmherzigkeit sicher ihn bringt zu der ewigen Heimat Gestade. Ernst Boerschmann, 21. Februar 1908, Schanghai

Table of Contents

Plates  9 Introduction  25 Sources and research  34 Preparation and research concept  38 The education of Ernst Boerschmann and his early work for the military  38 Heinrich Hildebrand and the documentation of the Temple of Enlightenment (1891–1897)  43 Joseph Dahlmann and religion in the Far East  47 Boerschmann’s memorandum about research in Chinese architecture (1905)  49 Karl Bachem and the German Reichstag  50 The Temple of Azure Clouds  52 Fritz Jobst at Jietai Temple (1905)  65 Franz Baltzer and Japanese architecture  68 Architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese  72 Field trips in China (1906–1909)  74 On the way to China (1906)  74 First winter in Beijing (1906–1907)  75 Trip to the Eastern Qing Tombs (March–April 1907)  86 Trip to Chengde (May–June 1907)  91 Beijing and the Western Hills (June–August 1907)  102 From the Western Qing Tombs to Mount Wutai (August–September 1907)  115 From Shanxi to Shandong Province (September–December 1907)  128 Trip to Zhejiang (December 1907–Spring 1908)  157 Mount Putuo (January 1908)  174 Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908)  187 The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908)  196 From Pingyao to Mengcheng, Shanxi Province (May 1908)  207 Feng Shui pillars and towers for Kui Xing in Shanxi Province  223 From sacred Mount Hua to Xi’an, Shaanxi Province (June 1908)  228 From Fengxian to Mianxian, Shaanxi Province (July 1908)  241 From Guangyuan to Chengdu, Sichuan Province (July–August 1908)  247 From Dujiangyan to sacred Mount Emei and Leshan, Sichuan Province (August–September 1908)  261 From Yibin to Fengjie, Sichuan Province (September–November 1908)  281 From Yichang to sacred Mount Heng, Hunan Province (November 1908–January 1909)  299 From Guilin in Guangxi Province to Wuzhou in Guangdong Province (February 1909)  314 In Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (February–March 1909)  322 In Fuzhou, Fujian Province and the return to Beijing (March to May 1909)  333 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)  340 Back in Berlin: Working through the collected material (1909–1911)  340

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The first book – Mount Putuo (1911)  352 Exhibition of Chinese architecture in Berlin (1912)  373 The book about memorial temples (1914)  385 A German Scientific Institute in Beijing and further publications about Chinese architecture in Germany  413 In the service of the army (1914–1921)  418 Asian Architecture in Germany after the First World War  419 Boerschmann’s return to research in Chinese architecture (1921)  427 Baukunst und Landschaft in China (Picturesque China) (1923)  427 Chinesische Architektur (Chinese architecture) in two volumes (1925)  435 Ceramics in Chinese architecture (1927)  450 Pagodas (1931)  465 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture  502 Boerschmann’s documentation of Chinese architecture in a changing socio-political environment  502 Working methods in China and in Germany  506 Space and distance: theoretical and practical problems with architecture in China  510 Exploring the sacred mountains in search of religious architecture  518 The layout of the city in relation to the landscape  526 Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape  537 The temple as an arrangement of spatial units  548 Boerschmann’s goals and achievements up to 1931  553 Postscript  556 Addendum  559 The Chinese religious pantheon in Boerschmann’s work   559 Ernst Boerschmann in the context of German-Chinese relations and research into Chinese architecture (1860–1949)  565 Literature  568 Archives  568 Literature  568 Chinese Dynasties and Emperors   583 Ancient  583 Imperial  583 Modern  583 Index  584 Historic Events, Persons and Deities  584 Persons  586 Places  589 Photocredits  592 Abbreviations for the images  592

Plates 

 9

Plate 1: Ernst Boerschmann with his parents in 1902, before he left for China. (Unknown photographer, courtesy of Emily Kachholz).

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 Plates

Plate 2: Ernst Boerschmann’s research trip around China between 1906 and 1909, based on his map without the western provinces of Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai, and the northern provinces of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and Jilin. (Redrawn by EK). 1: Beijing, 2: Chengde, 3: Kaifeng, 4: Qufu, 5: Taiyuan, 6: Xi’an, 7: Chengdu, 8: Chongqing, 9: Changsha, 10: Guilin, 11: Guangzhou, 12: Fuzhou, 13: Ningbo, 14: Hangzhou, 15: Suzhou. A: Wutai Shan, B: Emei Shan, C: Jiuhua Shan, D: Putuo Shan, E: Northern Heng Shan, F: Hua Shan, G: Song Shan, H: Tai Shan, I: Southern Heng Shan.

Plates 

 11

Plate 3: The area around the entrance gate of the Taoist Eastern Peak Temple in Beijing is today used as a parking lot. (© 2010, EK).

Plate 4: The Buddhist Mount Putuo has become a new pilgrim centre in the last 25 years. Many visitors gather in the court of the Foding Peak Temple. (© 2010, EK).

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 Plates

Plate 5: The Five Great Mountains. Each of them is assigned with a symbolic colour and represents one of the five directions. (© EK). North Great Mountain, symbolic colour black, (Heng Shan, Shanxi) East Great Mountain, symbolic colour green, (Tai Shan, Shandong) West Great Mountain, symbolic colour white, (Hua Shan, Shaanxi) Centre Great Mountain, symbolic colour yellow, (Song Shan, Henan) South Great Mountain, symbolic colour red, (Heng Shan, Hunan) The four sacred Buddhist Mountains represent the four cardinal directions. A: Mount Wutai (Wutai Shan, Shanxi) B: Mount Emei (Emei Shan, Sichuan) C: Mount Jiuhua (Jiuhua Shan, Anhui) D: Mount Putuo (Putuo Shan, Zhejiang)

Plates 

 13

Plate 6: Chengdu, Sichuan Province. (© EK). Analysis of the location and distribution of religious and administrative bodies in in the city, prepared on the basis of Boerschmann’s research. ■

Buddhist Temple Taoist Temple ■ Christian Church ■ Memorial Temple ■ Association ■ School and social service ■ State Temple ■ Administration ■ Military ■ Police ■

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 Plates

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8 9 10

Plate 7: The Chinese architect and art historian Hsia Changshi prepared this map of the former imperial Mountain Resort in Chengde with the temples around it in the 1950s. Hsia accompanied Boerschmann in 1934 on his trips through China. The imperial Mountain Resort is enclosed by a wall. (© Hsia, courtesy of Peter Bretschger). 1: Arhat Temple (Luohan), 1774, Chinese style. 2: Manjusri Statue Temple (Shuxiang), 1776, Chinese style. 3: Potala Temple (Potala Zongcheng), 1717, Tibetan style. 4: Panchen Lama’s Residence (Xumifushou), 1780, Tibetan style. 5: Temple of Universal Happiness (Puning), 1755, Sino-Tibetan style. 6: Vast Distant Land (Guangyuan), 1780, Chinese style. 7: Ili Temple (Anyuan), 1764, Sino-Tibetan-Mongol style. 8: Round Pavilion Temple (Pule), 1767, Sino-Tibetan style. 9: Universal Virtue Temple (Pushan), 1713, Chinese style. 10: Universal Benevolence Temple (Puren), 1713, Chinese style.

Plates 

Plate 8: One of the eight bottle-shaped stupas made of blue and orange glazed porcelain at the Temple of Universal Happiness in Chengde. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.VI).

 15

Plate 9: One of the eight bottle-shaped stupa made of glazed porcelain in orange and green at the Temple of Universal Happiness in Chengde. (© Boerschmann CB, 1927: T.IV).

16 

Plate 10: The walled city of Hangzhou with the location of the famous pagodas and temples around West Lake and at Qiangtang River. 1: Temple for Yue Fei, 2: Buddhist Lingyin Temple, 3: Liuhe Pagoda, 4: White Pagoda, 5: Leifeng Pagoda, 6: Baochu Pagoda. (© EK).

Plate 11: The regional map of the walled city of Suzhou and environs with the location of the most important pagodas. 1: Tiger Hill Pagoda, 2: North Temple Pagoda, 3: Twin Pagoda: Clarity-Dispensing Pagoda and Beneficence Pagoda, 4: Tower for Wenchang Wang and Clock Tower, 5: Pagoda of Auspicious Light, 6: Lengqie Pagoda at Mount Shangfang, 7: Pagoda at Lingyan Temple. (© EK).

 Plates

Plates 

 17

Plate 12: The layout of the irrigation system in the walled city of Dujiangyan, which was formerly known as Guan­ xian. 1: Anlan Cable Bridge, 2: Two Kings Temple, 3: Temple of Confucius, 4: Dragon Taming Temple. (© EK).

Plate 13: The layout of the walled city of Guilin in Guangxi Province with the picturesque karst topography and the organic settlement structure in the landscape according to Boerschmann’s depiction in 1908. (© EK). 1: Seven Star Hill and Cave, 2: Elephant Trunk Hill, 3: Wenchang Gate, 4: Governor, 5: Old Examination Halls, 6: Justice, 7: Flower Bridge.

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 Plates

Plate 14: The coloured line drawing of the temple complex for the mythical emperors Yao, Shun and Yu in Linfen, Shanxi Province. The western temple was added for Qing Emperor Kangxi. After the destruction during the Taiping Rebellion, local craftsmen rebuilt the complex in the 1870s according to new ideas in architecture. The rebuilding of the central compound for Emperor Yao absorbed the most attention, whereas according to Boerschmann the compounds for Shun and Yu both consisted of only one temple hall each. Later the complex was again destroyed and rebuilt according to an older layout. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914).

Plates 

 19

Plate 15: The huge coloured plan of the layout of the Temple of the Marquise of Liu in Shaanxi Province, shows the complex spatial relations between the geometry of the temple and the natural environment. The main axis of the complex is based on the topography and ignores the usual north-south orientation for buildings in China. The names of deities and buildings are printed in German and Chinese in the plan. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914).

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 Plates

Plate 16: The overall plan for the Two Kings Temple in Dujiangyan shows the geometric relation according to Boerschmann’s measurements in 1908. Today the layout of the temple has changed dramatically. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914).

Plates 

 21

Plate 17: The idealised overall plan for the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914).

22 

 Plates

Plate 18: The newly renovated Flower Pagoda in the centre of Guangzhou in a coloured photograph. (Unknown photographer from the collection of Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Plates 

 23

Plate 19: A coloured photograph of the stupa in Xilituzhao Temple in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Boerschmann visited the city in 1934. (Unknown photographer, UAK, Köln).

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 Plates

Plate 20: The coloration in the city plan of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, highlights the topography and the waterways. (Prepared in the 1940s, PAB).

Introduction This book about the German architectural historian Ernst Boerschmann’s work on China up to 1931 is the result of a research project at the Berlin Institute of Technology. In the early twentieth century, during the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Boerschmann systematically recorded aspects of Chinese religious architecture on the basis of professional on-site surveys. The material presented here explores for the first time Boerschmann’s preparatory phase (ending in 1905), during which he developed the research topic, his first major research trip from 1906 to 1909, and his subsequent analyses of the collected material up to 1931. This research on Ernst Boerschmann’s work was conducted over a two-year period with funding from the German Research Foundation. In order to keep the scope feasible, and the content clear, this study focuses on the period between 1906 and 1931. However, Ernst Boerschmann worked until his death in 1949 on aspects of Chinese architectural history. Although knowledge about Chinese architectural history in China and abroad changed fundamentally with the advent of professional Chinese research in the subject in 1930, and although Boerschmann conducted further field research between 1933 and 1935, the timeframe covered by this book is appropriate. Between 1911 and 1931 Ernst Boerschmann published a series of three books on the ‟architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese”, two further books on formal aspects of Chinese architecture, a photo-book about his travels, an exhibition catalogue, and many articles in books, journals, magazines and newspapers.1 Besides Boerschmann, only a few foreigners, first of all the Japanese architectural historians Sekino Tadashi (1868–1935),2 Tokiwa Daijo (1870–1945),3 Ito Chuta (1867–1954),4 and later the Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén (1879–1966),5 conducted comparable systematic research in the field of traditional Chinese architecture. The reprint of the twelfth century Song Dynasty building manual Yingzao Fashi (1103) in 1919 by the politician Zhu Qiqian (1871–1964)6 fostered architecture as an academic field in China.7 The growing need to understand architectural history as part of national identity shifted the issue of architecture in China from a vernacular heritage naturally embedded in the hands of carpenters to an intellectual discourse.8 Chinese politicians, intellectuals and architects understood that they, rather than foreigners, needed to determine the history of architectural heritage and pave a way for a new national identity in the future. It was not until 1930 that Zhu Qiqian was able to establish the first professional research foundation with the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture (the Society) in Beijing.9 With the Society, architectural

1 For a full list of his publications see Walravens, 2010. As the list of reviews of his books was not complete in Walravens’ work, they are added here in the literature list. The books by Boerschmann (EB) are: Putuo Shan, 1911; Chinesische Architektur, 1912 (Exhibition Catalogue); Gedächnistempel, 1914; Picturesque China, 1923; Chinesische Architektur (2 vol.), 1925; Baukeramik, 1927; Pagoden, 1931. 2 Tadashi Sekino began with the documentation of traditional Japanese architecture in the early twentieth century. In 1904 he published the first book about traditional Korean architecture. Sekino travelled between 1918 and 1920 in China, India and Europe, and published with Tokiwa Daijo five volumes of ‟Buddhist Monuments in China” between 1925 and 1929. He was a corresponding member of the Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst in Berlin. See Kümmel, 1935: 213–214. 3 Tokiwa Daijo was a Buddhologist who studied Chinese Buddhism and published several books in Japan. 4 Ito Chuta first came to Beijing in 1901 with the photographer Ogawa Kazumasa and measured the Forbidden City. He travelled several times in different Chinese provinces and later published his accounts in Japanese. In the 1930s Ito became Cultural Attaché in Berlin, where he discussed Chinese architectural development with Ernst Boerschmann in a public debate on 8 March 1938. See Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, NF 13. Jg., 6. Heft, 1937: 257. 5 Osvald Sirén first came to China in 1922–23 and began to photograph and investigate Chinese art and architecture. During the 1920s he was in contact with Ernst Boerschmann and exchanged materials with him. For a short description of his work see Thiriez, 1998: 113–114. For his German contacts see Törmä, 2012: 54–63. 6 Zhu Qiqian served as minister of communication, minister of internal affairs and acting prime minister of the Beijing-based government of the Republic of China. He was responsible for the first restructuring of the old capital and promoted cultural and public institutions. He withdrew from politics in 1916. Wang Jun, 2001: 50. 7 Glahn, 1975: 232–265. Li Shiqiao, 2003: 470–489. Qinghua Guo, 1998: 1–13. 8 For the role of carpenters see Ruitenbeek, 1993, or Ruitenbeek, 2009: 18–25. 9 With the advent of the Society Zhu Qiqian published his account of Chinese architecture. See Chu Chi-chien [Zhu Qiqian], 1931. Gustav Ecke published an account of the work of the Society in Monumenta Serica, 2.1936/37: 448–474.

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 Introduction

historical research in China became professionalised and focused on detailed studies of technical, local and historical aspects. When Ernst Boerschmann conducted a research trip between 1933 and 1935, he investigated temples and pagodas, and recorded his results in unpublished manuscripts. They are not included in this study, because they can only be discussed in comparison to the results produced by members of the Society like Liang Sicheng (1901–1972), Lin Huiyin (1904–1955)10 or Liu Dunzhen (1897–1968),11 and international scholars such as the Danish architect Johannes Prip-Møller (1889–1943),12 the German art historian Gustav Ecke (1896–1971),13 the Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén, the Japanese Sekino Tadashi and others, who published new findings with different areas of focus in the 1930s. The knowledge about the relationship between architecture and religion, as documented and interpreted by Boerschmann, dissolved after the first Chinese revolution in 1911–12 and the establishment of a secular political order. The power of religion and its influence on spatial order was probably at its weakest point around 1930.14 For the members of the Society it became essential to examine the potential of formal aspects in traditional timber construction and its development in history. They focused especially on the history and development of the modular timber construction system based on building manuals for carpenters.15 This study, however, closes with the publication of Boerschmann’s last book on pagodas in 1931, which coincided with the beginning of the first Chinese professional field work in traditional architecture and timber construction. Today the studies of historic Chinese architecture in Western languages have grown beyond the point where they can be listed here. To give an impression, a selection of books about ancient Chinese architecture by Chinese and foreign experts,16 on urban design17 or religious culture,18

Li Shiqiao published an insightful account about the agenda of Liang Sicheng, 2002: 34–45. 10 Both Liang Sicheng and his wife, Lin Huiyin, were educated at the Pennsylvania State University in the USA. For their life and achievements see Fairbank, 1994. 11 Liu Dunzhen was educated in Japan and became one of the first Chinese professors of architectural education. In 1932 he became director for the Documentary Division of the Society in Beijing. Alongside Liang Sicheng he became one of the most important architectural historians in China. For a brief account of Liu Dunzhen see Yang Yongsheng, 1999: 17. 12 Prip-Møller, 1937. For further aspects about his work as architect and researcher in China see Farber, 1994 and Madsen, 2003. Boerschmann was in close contact with Prip-Møller in the late 1930s and published a short obituary of him. See EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Heft 5/6, 1942–43: 196. 13 For a full list of Gustav Eckes’ publications see Walravens, 2010. 14 In the early period of the Republic, religion was seen as an obstacle and the leadership dismissed many old regulations. For a depiction of the discourse see Shu-Wah Poon, 2011. Temples were used for other purposes. See Naquin, 2000: 686. 15 Liang Ssu-cheng [Liang Sicheng], 1984. In 1934 Liang published the Qing Structural Regulations (Qing Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli), which was soon in the hands of Ernst Boerschmann. The Society published 20 issues of the Bulletin of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture between 1930 and 1937 (and two thereafter). In addition, Yue Jiazao (1868–1944) published a study based on ancient texts without doing fieldwork. Yue Jiazao, 1933. 16 The Western depictions of Chinese architecture based on the results of members of the Society began in 1940 and have grown immensely in the last twenty years. See for instance Mirams, Brief History of Chinese Architecture, 1940; Sickmann/Soper, The Art and Architecture, 1956; Su Gin-djih, Chinese Architecture, 1964; Shatzman Steinhardt, Chinese Traditional Architecture, 1984; Liu, Chinese Architecture, 1989; Luo Zhewen, Pagoden, 1994; Shatzman Steinhardt/Fu, Chinese Architecture, 2002; Sun Dazhang, Ritual and Ceremonious Buildings, 2002; Sun Dazhang/Zhong Duogong, Islamic Buildings, 2003; Wang Boyang, Imperial Mausoleums and Tombs, 1998; Wang Qijun, Vernacular Dwellings, 2000; Wei Ran, Buddhist Buildings, 2000; Qiao Yun, Defence Structures, 2001; Ru Jinghua/Peng Hualiang, Palace Architecture, 1998; Qiao Yun, Taoist Buildings, 2001; Cheng Liyao, Private Gardens, 1999; Cheng Liyao, Imperial Gardens, 1998. 17 The studies on urban design are mainly based on ancient texts and depictions, rather than on site surveys. See for instance Boyd, Chinese Architecture and Town Planning, 1962; Wu Liangyong, Brief History of Chinese Architecture, 1986; Shatzman Steinhardt, Chinese Imperial City Planning, 1990; Xu Yinong, Chinese City in Space and Time, 1990; Garrett, Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away, 2002; Madeleine Yue Dong, Republican Beijing, 2003. 18 Several scholars studied the field of religious life and the determination of behaviour by concepts such as Feng Shui, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. A very imperfect selection is given here: Feuchtwang, Chinese Geoman-

Introduction 

 27

on studies of timber construction,19 on single temples,20 on early centuries or dynasties,21 and on the biographical studies of the first generation of architectural historians22 are mentioned in the notes. Amazingly little has so far been published about Qing Dynasty architecture, the period on which Ernst Boerschmann focused.23 The reconstruction of temples and public buildings after the destruction carried out during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-nineteenth century has not yet been adequately studied. Some of Boerschmann’s photographs indicate that in this period some new ideas evolved, which disappeared again soon afterwards or dissolved in the modernisation process. Exceptionally few studies have been prepared over the last 100 years on the relationship of architecture, topography, composition and the networks of relational placement of religious buildings on the basis of site surveys and recordings on the spot.24 Boerschmann was especially interested in this aspect and in many of his writings he referred or speculated about religious geography and its role in the placing of buildings and the layout of cities. This study illustrates how Boerschmann developed his approach and depicted the ‟old China” with his religiously interpreted frame of reference. In his depiction he left out the simultaneous political development with the implications on the frame of reference specified here between the Chinese revolution of 1911–12 and 1931. However, Boerschmann was fully aware that this event changed the holistic framework he was attempting to establish. He therefore regarded his work as the only way of preserving the web of buildings located in accordance with religious concepts, at least on paper. The aim of this study is to reveal for the first time all Ernst Boerschmann’s work in one book and the discourse it provoked before Chinese colleagues began their work in 1930. To achieve this goal, three layers are presented: first, Ernst Boerschmann’s travels and studies between 1906 and 1909 in China; second, the description of the temples and buildings he covered in his publications between 1910 and 1931; and third, the discourse his publications provoked in the community of fellow scientists in different fields of research. This book reveals the transnational dimensions of research in traditional architecture in China in the early twentieth century and the unique approach to Chinese architecture by a foreigner, prior to the involvement of Chinese historians. However, as will be shown, the Chinese researchers followed the same aim as Boerschmann: to lift the manually produced traditional architecture in China from the lowly status accorded to it by imperial Western experts to a fully-fledged artistic concept, equal to other ancient architectural concepts discussed on a global level in this period. In this respect Ernst Boerschmann stated in 1931 in the preface of his last book: ‟Since my arrival in East-Asia, I have emphatically held the view about the equality of the Eastern nations, especially China, with the modern civilized people.”25 And he expressed in the same text that this view was accepted – at least in the community of scientists concerned with Chinese culture. He believed his idea would confirm that the people of Eurasia shared the same

cy, 1974; Naquin, Peking Temples and City Life, 2000; Naquin/Yü, Pilgrims and Sacred Sites, 1992; Weidner, Cultural Intersections, 2001; Chai, Confucianism, 1973; Bao/Tian/Lane: Buddhist Art and Architecture, 2004; Zhongjian Mou/ Junliang Pan, Taoism, 2012. On the idea of space in early China see Lewis, 2006. 19 Liang Sicheng, Chinese Architecture, 1984; Guo Qinghua, Chinese Timber Architecture, 1999; Guo Qinghua, Visual Dictionary of Chinese Architecture, 2002; Guo Qinghua, Chinese Architecture and Planning, 2005; Harrer, FanShaped Bracket Sets, 2010. 20 Here the two examples are from Shanxi Province: Miller, The Divine Nature of Power‬, 2007; Anning Jing, The Water God’s Temple, 2002.‬‬ 21 For instance Shatzman Steinhardt, Liao Architecture, 1997; Jiren Feng, Chinese Architecture and Metaphor‬, 2012. ‬ 22 For instance Fairbank, Liang and Lin, 1994; Kammann, Liang Sicheng, 2006. 23 The following works discuss aspects of Qing Dynasty space and landscape, but do not focus directly on architectural history: Anita Chung, Drawing Boundaries, 2004; Foret, Mapping Chengde‬, 2000. 24 However, it must be mentioned that Susan Naquin based her book about Beijing on the relational religious networks in the city. In her magnificent study, the history of architecture of the temples plays a secondary role. But the book also gives insightful accounts about the social, racial and political implications of religion in Ming and Qing Beijing. Naquin, 2000. 25 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VI.

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 Introduction

roots and influenced each other in their development, which he found evidence of in the findings of archaeologists and art historians. Apart from some minor methodological problems, mistakes in single evaluations or overestimation of religious influence, Ernst Boerschmann’s work was never condescending towards the subject of his studies. On the contrary, he lifted the perception of Chinese architecture from the belittled status of an ‟underdeveloped” art – it was perceived by many Westerners in the nineteenth century as a monotonous repetition without artistic quality or development – into a conceptual evolution, which, in his view, revealed its greatness in the continuation of the age-old principles of prefabrication that had followed more or less the same rules for hundreds of years. With a modern scientific approach, he revitalised the positive perception of Chinese design principles in the Age of Enlightenment in the West, when Chinese ideas of spatial arrangement changed the relationship between nature and culture in the European art of landscape design. Ernst Boerschmann was the first Westerner to dedicate his life’s work to the exploration of Chinese architecture. He sometimes got lost within his own records, speculating about the relationships of buildings and defining categories to present his findings, and was at times led astray by a strong will to interpret everything within a religious framework. But we should never forget that he was the first to set up an overall concept for the classification of architectural development, at least in its connection to religious culture and spatial arrangement. From the beginning Boerschmann was aware that his work would be only a collection of material for later classification. Compiling the documents and archiving the surveys became an important issue and kept him busy for many years. His critics sometimes expected more than he could produce on the basis of the material available and without the possibility of counterchecking the information collected. Despite all its shortcomings, the work of Ernst Boerschmann reveals the fascinating relational spatial arrangement of late Qing Dynasty culture and the living architectural heritage that had cautiously opened up to the ideas of Western architectural experts in the concessions and in the treaty ports. This part of the new development was fully ignored by Boerschmann and he never wrote anything about it. This study of the first phase of Ernst Boerschmann’s work up to 1931 is structured in four chapters, with an addendum. The first chapter discusses his professional education and the development of a research concept for use in studying religious architecture in China. The evidence relating to Ernst Boerschmann’s training as an architect in late nineteenth-century Berlin does not show that he was prepared for any kind of research in historical architecture. He first travelled to China as an architect for the German military forces in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion in 1902, and simply fell in love with the country’s architectural heritage. While working as an architect in Beijing, in the context of earlier preliminary studies by others and through a first documentation of a single temple, which he conducted in 1903, Boerschmann developed a basis for proving his expertise. As a practicing military architect he had to work hard to define an approach and to convince the German authorities in Berlin to support him. His working hypothesis – that Chinese architecture has to be studied in its religious context – was strongly influenced by Joseph Dahlmann (1861–1930), a well-known expert on Indian religions, with whom Boerschmann discussed the issue while staying in China. The subject was almost untouched, with only exploratory forays into documentation according to scientific Western methods having been made. Boerschmann took on what for him was a personal challenge – the inclusion of ancient Chinese architecture in written history as a fully developed cultural achievement, one comparable to Greek, Roman or Egyptian architectural history that was celebrated by the Western cultural elite in this period. Whereas Chinese religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism were already being eagerly studied by Western scholars in the nineteenth century,26 architecture in the early twenti-

26 In Germany several scholars had published on religious matter. See for instance Plath, Die Religion und der Cultus der alten Chinesen, 1864; Menzel, Die Religion der Chinesen, 1898; Heigl, Die Religion und Kultur Chinas, 1900; Tschepe, Heiligtümer des Konfuzianismus, 1906; Grube, Religion und Kultus, 1910; or de Groot, Religion in China, 1912.

Introduction 

 29

Fig. 1: Porcelain Tower (Liulita) of Nanjing, destroyed during Taiping Rebellion in 1850s. The 79 metres high landmark from early fifteenth century was sometimes listed as on of the Seven Wonders of the World. (Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 247).

30 

 Introduction

eth century was still seen by many as boring and dull, as an art that showed little variation. Ernst Boerschmann set out on his quest for a scientific depiction of religious architecture with the focus on space, but ignored the techniques and history of timber building construction. The assumption of spatial order and its dependence on religious preconditions led to his first research hypothesis. But he was challenged already in his first documentation of the Temple of Azure Clouds in 1903 by the overwhelming size of the temple complex, with its numerous halls and side halls, as well as by the complex relation within the religious pantheon venerated in them. Ernst Boerschmann was not an expert in religions, but was sensitive to the location of gods and deities, and he carefully documented his observations on-site in sketches and photographs. In the negotiations with the German Reichstag and the administration in Berlin in 1905, the scientific and maybe economic prospect played a major role in the evaluation of Boerschmann’s application for funding to document Chinese architecture. Why should the German state finance such an undertaking? The arguments by German politicians and experts were discussed together with the examples of published studies of Japanese and Chinese architecture to form the final research hypothesis about the ‟religious culture and Chinese architecture”. On the basis of original material from different archives, this first chapter brings out the development of the discourse and the struggle of all parties involved. The second chapter reconstructs for the first time Ernst Boerschmann’s routes around the country between 1906 and 1909, naming all the places he visited and documented. He travelled by horse cart, boat and train, but mainly walked through fourteen of the then-eighteen provinces of the late Chinese empire of the Qing Dynasty. Boerschmann began in Beijing and its environs, extended his tours to the neighbouring provinces, and finally went on a grand tour from Beijing, via Xi’an, Chengdu and Changsha, to Guangzhou, before returning to Beijing via Fuzhou and Hangzhou. In sometimes difficult struggles with the German authorities he fought for his aim to cover north, west and south China, in order to encode and describe the idea behind the architectural culture of the country. The concept of combining architecture with the religious culture provided a clear direction to his fieldwork. Boerschmann mainly documented temples and other sacred places in the context of religious geography. During the time when he travelled in China, the Mandate of Heaven still allowed the emperor to celebrate the rituals in state temples and other places of worship. The initial hypothesis about ‟religious culture and Chinese architecture” obviously developed further during the sojourn between 1906 and 1909 in China, and included the imperial spatial order of political self-conception from the cultural sphere of the whole country, down to the individual religious building and its local site. The idea of the Chinese empire as a spatially ordered sphere with decreasing influence at its fringes was structured in Boerschmann’s opinion by important religious centres such as venerated mountains. He identified the Five Great or Sacred Mountains,27 where emperors had conducted sacrifices for centuries, and the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism as the most important reference locations, distributed across the empire. He aimed to visit as many of them as possible on his trip. He was convinced of the need to find the most important religious temples and the most important cult places around those sacred places. This assumption only developed during the trip and played no role in the argumentation for funding through the German Reichstag. During his sojourn Ernst Boerschmann attended some of the rituals, which were celebrated on designated dates. He carefully recorded the places he visited through photography, sketches and notes, and he collected local chronicles, other documents and oral history. Many of these original materials are lost today or not accessible for research. The reconstruction of Boerschmann’s route is made on the basis of publications, and accessible unpublished archival materials such as letters, reports, sketches, drawings and notices. This captures for the first time all the places he visited and the material he prepared about them. The aim of this chapter is to give an introduction to his fieldwork by presenting the results, showing how he worked and documenting

27 Sometimes they are called the Five Great and sometime the Five Sacred Mountains.

Introduction 

 31

the struggles – with both the local circumstances and the German authorities – he had to overcome while collecting the material. The third chapter examines Ernst Boerschmann’s work after his return to Berlin. Here the real struggle began, not only with the authorities regarding financial support for his further studies, but also about the final concept of presenting the material collected. With perseverance he convinced fellow researchers in different institutions and found ways to continue the analysis until the outbreak of the First World War, during which he served in the army (1914–18). In the five years between his return from China in 1909 and the beginning of war in 1914, he tried to develop a logical way of structuring the content of his findings. He focused on the active socio-religious relationships and their architectonic expressions in the late Qing Dynasty, the time he observed and recorded. Many of the places he visited had witnessed major destruction during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-nineteenth century and had recently been rebuilt. These brand new buildings were often not reconstructed according to the original concept, but followed new ideas, probably partly for economic reasons, partly because of the arrival of new artistic ideals (possibly from the West) and partly because they followed pragmatic solutions on the basis of what remained after the destruction. The new buildings obviously made a big impression on Boerschmann, and since he was convinced that Chinese architecture had developed along age-old principles, he focused on the history of the place rather than the history of the individual temple halls. In the early years after his return to Germany Boerschmann relied fully on the material collected on the trip, as only a little additional material was available. Between 1918 and 1921 Boerschmann worked for the war grave administration in East Prussia and subsequently returned to Berlin to continue his studies. With the publication of Baukunst und Landschaft in 1923, a book featuring professional photographs of the architecture, and which was translated into French (La Chine Pittoresque) and English (Picturesque China), he became internationally well known, but was unfortunately seen as a photographer rather than a researcher. The following two-volume book published in 1925 and entitled Chinesische Architektur consisted mainly of photos with a few drawings and mere general introductions to a selection of twenty topics. This book became a visual reference work for Chinese and foreign architects alike and was used to aid design work in the ‟Chinese Style”. The books from 1923 and 1925 lack deeper scientific content but opened the subject to a wider field of practising architects and laymen interested in Chinese culture. Following these publications, Ernst Boerschmann became Honorary Professor for East Asian Architecture in 1927 at the Polytechnic University in Berlin, his alma mater. He taught Chinese and German students and continued with the analyses of the material he had collected from the research trip between 1906 and 1909. A full account of his teaching, and the work his students did, is not included in this study. The main impact on the scientific community came from Boerschmann’s three-volume work on the ‟architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese” (the first volume was published in 1911, the second in 1914 and the third in 1931). All three books were eagerly discussed in different specialist magazines in the fields of ethnography, Sinology, geography, architecture, religion, and missionary work, and in newspaper supplements and so forth. The basic depiction included religious buildings, mainly from the Qing and Ming Dynasties; his contemporaries criticised the scheme, because they expected a ‟history of Chinese architecture” according by time of construction, which – they believed – would reveal the stylistic development. Studying architectural development from the perspective of the present to the past was an anomaly at a time when archaeology was an important field of study. But even more important was the notion in Republican China that the ‟foreign” rule of the Qing Dynasty left no monuments worth documenting or that should be taken into consideration for the new challenge of building the Chinese nation.28 The third chapter also discusses Boerschmann’s publications and the reaction of the scientific community in Germany and abroad.

28 This even played a role in later times. Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt wrote that because the Japanese researchers worked during the Japanese occupation in Northern China (1932–1945), it was seen afterwards as ‟unpatriotic” to focus on monuments in this region up to the 1980s. See Shatzman Steinhardt, 1997: xii. For Japanese research during

32 

 Introduction

In a critical discourse on his working method, his German predecessors in related fields and the general structure of his work, the fourth chapter focuses on the concept and hypothesis of Ernst Boerschmann’s studies and the results he produced. By discussing his approach and the line of his analyses in the context of his knowledge and research, this part of the book considers his works from a fresh point of view, since many of the rituals and temples as well as regional dependencies vanished in the course of the twentieth century. Immediately after the first revolution and the establishment of the Republic in 1912, the new political class in China fought against the strong religious basis of Chinese society. The provisional president, Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925), viewed religion as a major hindrance to modernisation.29 The collapse of the relationship between religion and architecture was fostered by the vision of the new political leadership, who wanted secular, ‟scientific” development, as well as by the political confrontations of the subsequent years. In an early stage of his analyses Ernst Boerschmann took the opportunity to write about his approach, which seemed natural in the light of his experiences. Two texts outline the basic structure used to frame his search for the global and the local circumstances of the relationship between religion and architecture, as proposed by his hypothesis about the ‟architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese”. Probably because he had no opportunity to adapt to the new circumstances in China after the revolution of 1911–12, he continued with this concept after the First World War and throughout the 1920s.30 The way that Boerschmann worked in the field and how he used the findings is discussed on the basis of how he presented the material in his different publications. During the period of analyses he discovered German colleagues in related scientific fields, such as archaeology or Sinology, with whom he discussed his results and approach. Boerschmann formulated a structured research approach after his return to Germany in 1909, based on the spatial order of the country, embedded in and depending on the location of the sacred mountains. For him, the mountains served as agents of the imperial power distributed across the country; they had religious associations – partly overlapping Buddhist and Taoist associations – which were to some extent represented by state temples to honour ancestors and powerful deities representing the mythical connection between heaven and earth. In Boerschmann’s observations, the layout of the cities and towns depended on the landscape and topography, often based on Feng Shui regulations, which he never studied in depth. However, he attributed many aspects of temple or pagoda architecture to the local relationships between man-made religious or ritual practice and the religiously interpreted natural phenomena of the landscape. The pagodas seemed to him to be placed as balancing forces, creating a harmonious image of the overall regional setting, at a scale beyond the visual limits of the site. The spatial order and the function of the space in temples interested him in connection to rituals, the location of deities and religious transfiguration. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Ernst Boerschmann’s achievements and the development of his scientific methodology until 1931, the advent of professional research by Chinese architectural historians. For Ernst Boerschmann the spatial relations had been conditioned by religious significance, which had developed over a long period within a tight network between the individual and the family – as expressed in ancestral worship, and the rituals of Buddhist, Taoist

the time of the occupation see, for example, Tadashi Sekino, Summer Palaces and Lama Temples, 1935. Tadashi Sekino/Takuichi Takeshima, Jehol, 1934, or in Japanese Tadashi Sekino/Takuichi Takeshima, Ryo Kin jidai no kenchiku to sono butsuzo, 1934. The Japanese had a strong interest in covering the history of Qing Dynasty in order to legitimise the puppet regime of Qing Emperor Puyi (1906–1967) in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (1932–1945). 29 Sun Yat-sen, International Development, 1922. 30 In the years between the early 1920s and 1933 Ernst Boerschmann was strongly engaged in the Memellandbund, an organisation that fought for the return of the Memelland (or Klaipėda region, part of Lithuania today) to the German Reich. In the Treaty of Versailles the area was given the status Territoire de Memel. In 1923 Lithuania occupied the region. With the advent of the ‟Gleichschaltung” of all political and cultural activities by the National Socialists in Germany, Boerschmann resigned as head of the Memellandbund in 1933. His political engagement is not discussed in this book. He was never a member of any National Socialist organisation in Germany between 1933 and 1945. For his resignation from the post as ‟1. Vorsitzender” see the magazine Das Memelland, 10. Jg., Nr. 7/9, September 1933: 1.

Introduction 

 33

and Confucian traditions in the local context – from the communal relations with veneration of deities in the regional context to the universal spatial relationships within the Middle Kingdom, ruled and represented by the Mandate of Heaven.31 From this augmented basis, Boerschmann covered a vanishing religious culture, which lost many of its buildings in regional conflicts, war, civil war and later in the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), and which has now been affected by the recent radical urban development, with its major impact on monuments, in rural as well as in urban areas. The addendum provides some very basic information about the religious pantheon of the Chinese in the context of Ernst Boerschmann’s work. This cannot replace a full study of Chinese religion or deities. For those who wish to understand the relationship and the inter-dependence of the different aspects, further basic works on these topics should be consulted.32 This addendum introduces some concepts and deities for the ordinary reader with no previous knowledge of Chinese religions as understood by Ernst Boerschmann. The final chart presents a chronology of his work in the context of related scientific publications and the political developments in China and Germany between the 1860s and 1949. The official political issues and discourses in Germany and China as well as their changing relations in the period between 1900 and 1931 are omitted from the book. Only Ernst Boerschmann’s personal struggle, which here and there reflects the overall political climate, is discussed in order to understand the difficulties he faced during his studies. Boerschmann’s extremely positive depiction of China’s heritage, which was perceived as a declining culture in the West throughout the nineteenth century, did not always correspond to the aims of the political class.33 For the German-speaking world his positive presentation of Chinese architecture was a revolution and contributed a great deal to the changing perception of Chinese culture.34 His publications also influenced practising architects and planners in the West. One example are the brothers Max (1884–1967) and Bruno Taut (1880–1938), who both studied books by Boerschmann, which provided inspiration for their own expressionistic architectural concepts after the First World War. In Max Taut’s case, Robin Rehm has portrayed the discourse about Chinese architecture and philosophy in detail.35 This topic needs further and deeper studies than are possible here, but we can be certain that Boerschmann’s publications challenged creative minds to interpret how to ‟use” the Chinese examples. Some of them used Boerschmann’s books as sourcebooks for their Chinese clients in the West, as shown in two cases detailed in this book for the Chinatown in Chicago and the interior of a theatre in Seattle. Most probably his books were used in the same way in China by young architects returning home from their education in the West, and were challenged by clients who wanted them to design a ‟Chinese Renaissance architecture”, as Tong Jun (1900–1983) called the new architectural style in 1937, in which architects put a ‟pigtail” (as he called it) on top of otherwise modern constructions for the representative buildings of the young republic.36 In a more creative way Boerschmann’s work influenced the American planner Walter Burley Griffin (1876–1937) and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin (1871–1961) in their design for Canberra, the new capital of Australia, after 1912. Among other sources they studied Boerschmann’s depiction

31 Mark Edward Lewis described the Chinese spatial concept as developed in the Han Dynasty on the following levels and relationships: the human body, the household, cities and capitals, regions and customs, the world and cosmos. Lewis, 2006: 1–11. 32 See for instance Thompson, Chinese Religion, 1996, or Bauer, China and the Search for Happiness, 1976. 33 For documents about the official relationships see Kuo Heng-yü, Berlin und China, 1987. Gransow/Leutner, China. Nähe und Ferne, 1989. Steen/Leutner, Deutsch-chinesische Beziehungen 1911–1927, 2006. 34 Boerschmann was very positively recognised for his role in Sino-German relations in short depictions of his work by Leutner, Sinologie in Berlin, 1987: 31–56: here 48; and by Thiele, Chinaspezifische Ausstellungen, 1987: 139–150, here 141. 35 He discussed the influence of Chinese concepts and thought in the concept for the ‟Verbandshaus der Deutschen Buchdrucker” Berlin, designed and built between 1924 and 1926. See Rehm, 2002: 36–52. 36 Chuin Tung [Tong Jun], 1937: 308–312.

34 

 Introduction

of Chinese architecture and its relationship to the landscape in order to develop the plan for the new capital embedded in the natural environment.37 In Germany the architects Hugo Häring (1882– 1958), Chen Kuen Lee (1915–2003) and Hans Scharoun (1893–1972) studied aspects of Chinese architecture in the 1940s in order to enhance their own ideas about organic architecture. Lee got part of their study material directly from Ernst Boerschmann and also began a dissertation about Chinese urban planning with Boerschmann as supervisor, which he could not finish due to the Second World War.38 The Danish architect Jørn Utzon (1918–2008) also studied Chinese architectural principles by using Ernst Boerschmann’s works.39 There have been many others too, but these uses are not a central aspect of this book. Boerschmann always wanted to institutionalise his topic in the German academic landscape, but failed. For many years after his death, no German architectural historian conducted studies in Chinese architecture. It was only in the 1970s that the research was taken up again by individuals such as Alfred Schinz (1919–1999),40 the Austrian architect Roland Rainer (1910–2004) and the Swiss architect Werner Blaser (*1924). Rainer and Blaser published China photo books in the 1970s, in which they depicted mostly everyday architecture at the end of Cultural Revolution without deeper research.41 Ernst Boerschmann’s work, both in scope and content, is outstanding. A comparable accomplishment has not been achieved by any other Western researcher. Since almost all his publications were published in German and many of them appeared in small specialised magazines or newspapers, which are often difficult to access, I decided to write this book in English, in order to give those who are unable to read German a chance to learn about his achievements. Boerschmann’s impact on Chinese architects and architectural historians has not yet been analysed; this is another project, one to be done by Chinese colleagues. In addition, the outcome of his research trip between 1933 and 1935, and the following analysis, has not yet been examined and should be studied in a further project. However, the material discussed in this book provides a detailed overview of Boerschmann’s achievements in the first three decades of twentieth century. The most important aspect is his early professional documentation at the end of Qing Dynasty, long before other Western or Chinese colleagues focused on the subject.

Sources and research So far only very little research on Ernst Boerschmann’s approach and results has been conducted, although many colleagues in different scientific fields used his publications as sources of reference.42 This study uses primary materials from different archives, unpublished manuscripts, letters, notes, sketches, photographs and other visual material that have been examined for the first time in this research, as well as books and articles published by Boerschmann and further authors from this period. In a critical discourse made with today’s knowledge, Ernst Boerschmann’s achievements are discussed and used to indicate major changes in spatial arrangement, rituals or replaced buildings from recent years. The majority of Boerschmann’s surviving drawings are kept today in the university archive in Cologne. There are also some photos, reports, many rubbings of stelae and handwritten or typed manuscripts about different aspects of his topics. Boerschmann’s archive has not yet been developed for scientific use. However, for this study relevant information was

37 See Proudfoot, 1994. There was only one text in English available at that time. EB, in Smithsonian, 1912. 38 For a detailed account of their discussions see Kögel, in Florian Reiter (ed.), 2011: 113–128; also Wen-chi Wang, 2010. 39 Chen-yü Chiu, 2011, or see also Frampton, 1999: 25–53. 40 Schinz wrote a dissertation about urban design and later published two books. See Schinz, Chinesischer Städtebau, 1976; Schinz, Cities in China, 1989; Schinz, The Magic Square, 1996. 41 Rainer, Die Welt als Garten, 1976; Blaser, Chinese Pavilion Architecture, 1975; Blaser, China Court-houses, 1979. 42 There are so many of them that I have refrained from naming any.



Sources and research 

 35

inspected and analysed by the author. I am very thankful to Dr Andreas Freitäger for allowing me to see the material in the archive and to use parts of it for this work.43 Ernst Boerschmann’s communication with the Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) between 1904 and 1931 is documented in their archive.44 This includes reports from his sojourn between 1906 and 1909, memoranda regarding further research and the foundation of a German research institute in Beijing,45 letters about the struggle for funding, reports by the German Legation in Beijing to the Foreign Office in Berlin and communication between different ministries within the German government about the issue. Ernst Boerschmann’s grandchildren still hold some material, especially about his education, letters from colleagues and with the publishers, unpublished drawings, photos, maps and manuscripts. The biggest set of prints was sold in 2008 to a private collector and several other private collectors hold further prints, which were only partly accessible for this research. Ernst-Christian Boerschmann and Emily Kachholz kindly helped in reconstructing the professional record of their grandfather. A set of prints mounted on cardboard, shown by Ernst Boerschmann in an exhibition in 1912 in Berlin and 1926 in Frankfurt am Main, is still in the Sammlung Fotografie der Kunstbibliothek at the State Museums of Berlin. Some of the photos were shown in 2008 in an exhibition in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin.46 The Archive of Berlin University of Technology, Boerschmann’s alma mater and where he taught between 1925 and 1944, lost almost all the documents during the Second World War. His own material at the university was partly destroyed during the war when a bomb hit his studio in 1943. The archive of Humboldt University, where he taught additional courses between 1940 and 1944, still holds some material related to his teaching, but no substantial material on research or results. The Archive of the State Library in Berlin holds some letters exchanged between Ernst Boerschmann and the publisher Walter de Gruyter about the preparation and development of the first two books from 1911 and 1914.47 The materials in the Archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg are of only secondary value, since they hold paper copies of contact prints of Ernst Boerschmann’s publications without further reference. Some letters are also held in the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, but they are not relevant to the period discussed here. However, the archives named also hold materials that document different aspects of his work and its relation to authorities. This material helped shed light on specific aspects of his professional career as researcher, educator, activist and networker. The family sold some material (which is not documented) of Ernst Boerschmann to an American institution, but the ship that was carrying it – the Andrea Doria – sank on the way from Genoa to New York on 26 July 1956. The first chapter about his education and preparation is based mainly on documents, letters, notes, unpublished manuscripts and articles published by Ernst Boerschmann, still held in the private archive of the family (PAB). Further documents used were found in the political archive of the Auswärtiges Amt (PAAA), and additionally the Session Reports of the German Reichstag in 1905 from the German Bundesarchiv were consulted. This first chapter gives an overview of the knowledge about Chinese architecture and related fields in Germany and the discussion around the final research proposal by Ernst Boerschmann, and his preparation and education up to 1906. The second chapter about his trips through the country between 1906 and 1909 is based on newspaper reports, archival materials from the Political Archive of the Auswärtiges Amt, published and unpublished excerpts from his diary, publications by Ernst Boerschmann in books, magazines and newspapers, and unpublished materials from the private archive of the family. Additionally the publications of his contemporaries as well as newer research has been added, if this leads to

43 The archive can be found at http://www.uniarchiv.uni-koeln.de/4821.html. Accessed 18 July 2013. 44 Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office at http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/AAmt/PolitischesArchiv/ Uebersicht_node.html. Accessed 18 July 2013. 45 The correspondence of Ernst Boerschmann about a German Research Institute in Beijing was published in Walravens, 2002. 46 Kögel, 2008: 4. 47 Neuendorff/Ziesak, 1999: 27.

36 

 Introduction

a better understanding of the places he visited and their current condition. I also prepared additional analytical maps of Boerschmann’s routes through the country on the basis of his descriptions. Further drawings, images, maps, plans and rubbings are taken from the private archive of the family, unpublished prints, archives or books and articles. The third chapter about the scientific analyses between 1909 and 1931 is based on the correspondence held at the Political Archive of the Auswärtiges Amt, materials from the private archive of the family, publications by Ernst Boerschmann in books, magazines and newspapers and publications of critical reviews of his books and exhibitions. In the third chapter reports and publications by Boerschmann’s research, mainly from Germany, as well as contemporary scientific descriptions, have been included if they shed light on the context or the condition of the site today. For the research on Ernst Boerschmann’s work I travelled twice to China to visit places that he had documented a hundred years earlier. On the first trip I went to Beijing in 2009, where I met Professor Wang Lu and Professor Wang Guixiang from Qinghua University. I thank them both for their contacts and information. With the help of Professor Wang Lu I was able to look at some archival material of Liang Sicheng at Qinghua University. I further visited the Temple of Azure Clouds in the Western Hills of Beijing in the company of Li Xie from ICOMOS China. With the help of some of Professor Wang Lu’s students I visited Dajue Temple and Jietai Temple, also in the Western Hills. I visited other places on my own and compared material prepared and documented by Ernst Boerschmann with the current condition. These places include the pagoda of Tianning Temple, the Five Pagoda Temple (Wutasi), Miaoying Temple with the White Dagoba, the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) and the Big Bell Temple (Dazhongsi) among others. During the same trip I visited Tongji University in Shanghai. Professor Chang Qing helped with advice about several places in and around the city. I visited Longhua Pagoda Temple and the Square Pagoda Garden in Songjiang. I am most thankful to Hou Binchao for his help in researching the reception of Ernst Boerschmann in the Bulletin of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture at the Berlin Institute of Technology. In Shanghai he was very helpful in arranging trips and visits to Hangzhou, where Professor Shen Hong from Zhejiang University guided me to places documented by Ernst Boerschmann. Professor Shen is an expert in the history of the city and has researched the visual documents of foreign and Chinese photographers for many years. In Hangzhou we visited buildings around West Lake, such as the Memorial Temple for Yue Fei, the Imperial Library, the Buddhist Lingyin Temple, and places like the Zhenqiao Mosque in the historic district of the city. In Hong Kong Professor Ho Puey-peng was kind enough to show me the archival material held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong about Danish architect and researcher Johannes Prip-Møller. In 2010 I again visited Beijing and several places in and around the city. Liu Jun accompanied me on a visit to the Ming Tombs and in the city I went to the Temple of Ancient Monarchs, the Buddhist Zhihua Temple from the Ming Dynasty, the Taoist Dongyue Temple and the Taoist White Cloud Temple. Professor Wang Guixiang from Qinghua University again gave me valuable advice. From Hangzhou I travelled with Professor Shen Hong to the island of Putuo Shan to visit the temples documented by Ernst Boerschmann in 1908. From Shanghai Hou Binchao accompanied me to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, in Shandong Province, where we visited the temples in the city and the graveyard. Nearby in Yanzhou we visited the Xinglong Pagoda Temple. For all the visited places, the same simple fact applies: many things have changed – sometimes dramatically – since Ernst Boerschmann was there more than a hundred years ago. Due to the budget and the time available it was not possible to visit places farther afield, but it is certain that they have also changed in many ways. Some of the changes are shown by comparing photographs or plans and are mentioned in the text of this book. In 2011, at the end of the research period, we held an international symposium at Berlin University of Technology with Professor Dr Peter Herrle (Habitat Unit) under the title ‟Ernst Boerschmann and Early Research in Traditional Chinese Architecture”.48 The following experts participated in

48 See Kögel, in China Heritage Quarterly, 12/2010.



Sources and research 

 37

the conference and their insightful presentations and discussions contributed to the final result of this book: Dr Hartmut Walravens from Berlin, Professor Wang Guixiang from Qinghua University in Beijing, Professor Ho Puay-peng from the Chinese University in Hong Kong, Professor Hirase Takao from Tokyo University, Professor Xu Subin from Tianjin University, Dr Alexandra Harrer from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Eva Sternfeld from the Centre for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China at Berlin University of Technology, Dr Martin Hofmann, Research Fellow in East Asian Intellectual History at Heidelberg University, Professor Chang Qing from Tongji University in Shanghai, Professor Guo Qinghua from the University of Melbourne, and Professor Dr Klaas Ruitenbeek, the Director of the Asian Art Museum in Berlin.49 The different aspects presented and discussed helped me to better understand the role and work of Ernst Boerschmann. In 2011 the Society of Architectural Historians in the USA invited me to New Orleans to present the paper ‟Research in Chinese Architecture: Ernst Boerschmann versus Liang Sicheng” at their annual meeting. I would like to thank the Society for awarding me the Scott Opler Emerging Scholar Fellowship for that event. I also thank the German Academic Exchange Service, who supported a 2012 trip to Melbourne, Australia, to present the paper ‟Networking for Monument Preservation in China: Ernst Boerschmann and the National Government in 1934” at the conference Senior Academics Forum on Ancient Chinese Architectural History at Melbourne University. The research on the work of Ernst Boerschmann was financed from 2009 to 2011 by the German Research Foundation, and conducted at Habitat Unit, based at Berlin University of Technology under the supervision of Professor Dr Peter Herrle. I thank him for his advice and help in conducting this work. I thank Rachel Lee for her proofreading and the corrections she made to my writing. However, all mistakes made are my own. I thank Ernst-Christian Boerschmann, who provided his grandfather’s materials for this research and gave permission to print the images in this book. Additionally I would like to thank Emily Kachholz, the granddaughter of Ernst Boerschmann, who provided further images and shared her knowledge with me. A special thank you goes to all my student research assistants: Claudia Woschke made translations from the Chinese and a valuable compilation of all buildings visited by Ernst Boerschmann; Steven Zimmerman, David Jun, Josefine Krause and Hou Binchao contributed graphic work, literary research and drawings, which greatly helped me in understanding the results. I thank them all for their useful contributions. Finally I would like to thank my wife and my family for their support, because without their substantial contribution, this book would never have materialised.

49 See Kögel, in China Heritage Quarterly, 4/2011.

Preparation and research concept The education of Ernst Boerschmann and his early work for the military

Fig. 2: The Chinese Folly on Prolangen-Straße in Memel on a postcard around the turn of nineteenth to twentieth century. (Postcard, courtesy of Peter Bork).

Ernst Johann Robert Boerschmann was born on 18 February 1873 in Prökuls (today Priekule), near Memel (today Klaipeda), in the Province of East Prussia.1 His father, Robert (1835–1919), worked as account councillor for the Court of Justice2 in Marggrabowa (today Olecko) in northeast Masuria and belonged to a family of craftsmen. His mother, Antonia (née Dultz), originated from a family of legal professionals. He had an older brother, Friedrich Gustav Robert, born 1870, a doctor in medicine who became a member of the parliament for the Social Democratic Party in 1920. His sister, Anna, was born in 1871. The family belonged to the Protestant church and had no direct or indirect connection to architecture or to China. On his way to school in Memel every day, as a boy, Ernst Boerschmann passed by a barbershop in a small pavilion in Chinoiserie style at the corner of Polangenstraße. This image, he later recalled, probably unconsciously guided his decision to study Chinese architecture.3 Ernst Boerschmann graduated from the Humanist Gymnasium in Memel in February 1891. In October the same year he enrolled as a student in the field of architecture at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg (Berlin). The Lithuanian Peace Society (Litauische Friedens-Gesellschaft)4 supported his studies from October 1892 for three years with a grant.5 After two years he achieved good marks in the preliminary examination in the field of building construction.6 Between September 1895 and February 1896 he worked as an intern on the new neo-Gothic garrison church in the East Prussian town of Thorn.7 In October 1896 Boerschmann successfully passed the first main examination in the field of building construction,8 and in December

1 The province belonged to Prussia and later to the German Empire until 1945. However, the Memel Territory was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. After the Second World War it became part of Poland and the enclave around Königsberg, renamed Kaliningrad in 1946, became part of the Soviet Union. 2 Rechnungsrat/Gerichtskassen-Rendant. 3 After the death of Ernst Boerschmann someone wrote a five-page article about his relation to his hometown. PAB; document without date and name; and: PAB: EB: ‟Meine Erinnerung an China”. No date (fragment, 4 pages): 1. 4 The Lithuanian Peace Society supported students from poor parents. 5 PAB: Documents, Litauischen Friedens-Gesellschaft, 26.10.1892; 25.10.1893; 24.10.1894. 6 PAB: Document, Königlich technisches Prüfungsamt, 28.10.1893, (2 pages). 7 PAB: Certificate, 25.4.1896, (2 pages). Baurat Schönhals designed the church, see Sarrazin/Hofsfeld, in Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Nr. 1, 7.1.1899: 1–3. 8 PAB: Document, Königlich technisches Prüfungsamt, 28.10.1896, (2 pages).



The education of Ernst Boerschmann and his early work for the military 

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he was given his patent as a Regierungsbauführer in the name of the king.9 From then until November 1897 he worked for the garrison architect in Spandau, near Berlin.10 In February 1897 the Architects Association of Berlin (Architekten-Verein zu Berlin),11 where the most prominent architects of the time, such as Ludwig Hoffmann, Paul Wallot, Peter Behrens or Alfred Messel, were members, accepted Boerschmann to their ranks.12 From October 1897 Ernst Boerschmann served in the military for one year as a volunteer in the ‟4ten Kompagnie [des] 2. Badischen Grenadier-Regiments Kaiser Wilhelm I. Nr. 110” in Mannheim.13 After his military service, he continued his education as an architect in the service of the army in Mühlhausen in Thuringia until February 1899. From there he was displaced to Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea, serving in a military unit until September 1900.14 In a note written after 1945, Boerschmann mentioned that in Wilhelmshaven on 2 July 1900 he saw the German troops preparing to leave for China, a reaction to the killing of German plenipotentiary Clemens von Ketteler (1853–1900) during the Boxer Rebellion on 20 June in Beijing.15 In January 1901 Boerschmann was given approval for his second main examination as the basis for promotion to Regierungsbaumeister. He passed the exam in November of the same year.16

9 PAB: Document, Königlicher Regierungs-Präsident, 2.12.1896. 10 PAB: Certificate, Garrison Baumeister Spandau, 8.11.1897, (2 pages). 11 The Architekten-Verein was founded in 1824 and had about 2,400 members in 1906. 12 PAB: Document, Architekten-Verein zu Berlin, 4.2.1897. 13 PAB: Certificate, Kompagnie-Chef in Mannheim, 1.10.1898. 14 PAB: EB: ‟Meine Erinnerung an China”. No date (fragment, 4 pages): 1. 15 PAB: Manuscript, ‟Kulturaustausch Deutschland – China seit 1900”. No date, (20 pages): 20. 16 PAB: Documents, Königliches technisches Prüfungsamt, 12.1.1901; Zeugnis 23.11.1901 (2 pages); patent, Minister der öffentlichen Arbeiten, 29.11.1901 (3 pages).

Fig. 3: The new Garrison Church in Thorn. Ernst Boerschmann worked as an intern during construction. Oberbaurat Schönhals from the Ministry of War designed the church. (Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Nr.1/1899: 2).

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 Preparation and research concept

Fig. 4: The formal entry of the royal court across the Tian’anmen into the Forbidden City on 7 January 1902 after their return from Xi’an. (Mumm, 231).

The Ministry of War (Kriegsministerium) in Berlin employed him in the department of the Garrison Building Administration in Posen (today Poznan), East Prussia, as Regierungsbaumeister, where he worked until the end of January 1902.17 From February until the end of July 1902 Ernst Boerschmann served in Wreschen (today Wrzesnia), in the Province of Posen, before being transferred to the German contingent of the Ostasiatische Besatzungsbrigade (Eight-Nations Alliance) in China, as the replacement for another architect. He was required to register for his new job on 1 August 1902 in Berlin.18

On military service in China (1902–1904) Ernst Boerschmann left Germany on 6 August on the steamship Preussen from Bremerhaven bound for Shanghai, from where he continued on a small coast-steamer to Tianjin and then overland to Beijing.19 In the following two years in China he spent most of his time in Qingdao, Tianjin and Beijing, and worked as an architect for the German troops. In 1903 for instance, he designed a

17 PAB: Document, Kriegsministerium, 11.12.1901 and 19.12.1901 (2 pages). 18 PAB: Document, Kriegsministerium, 29.7.1902. 19 PAB: EB: ‟Meine Erinnerung an China”. No date (fragment, 4 pages): 1.



The education of Ernst Boerschmann and his early work for the military 

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Fig. 5: The Tian’anmen overgrown with vegetation. The photo was obviously taken in 1901, when the royal family stayed in Xi’an due to the presence of the Foreign Forces in the city of Beijing. (Unknown photographer, PAB).

shooting range for German troops near Qingdao and in the following year a hospital in Beijing. Later he recalled that the hospital was built when he came back in 1906.20 However, he did not keep documents of his own designs in China or Germany in later years. During a radio broadcast in 1939, Boerschmann remembered that during those two years he met some Chinese intellectuals and members of the royal family in the house of the German ambassador Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein (1859–1924). In Tianjin he attended a celebration for Yuan Shikai (1859–1916), then the viceroy of Zhili (the old name for Hebei Province) and later self-proclaimed emperor in 1916.21 But his experience with the local culture and people remained rather alien, because his status as a member of the occupying forces prevented any closer contact. Boerschmann later stated, ‟[…] the overall impression was very superficial.”22 He also remembered sometimes dreaming of a life of research in the field of Chinese architecture, but could not imagine how to go about achieving this. As a first beginning he started to document the Temple of Azure Clouds (Biyunsi) in the Western Hills near Beijing. There he measured the pagoda and the temple

20 PAB: Manuscript, ‟Kulturaustausch Deutschland – China seit 1900”. No date (20 pages): 8. 21 PAB: EB: ‟Meine Erinnerung an China”. No date (fragment, 4 pages): 2. 22 Walravens, 2002: 114.

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in detail.23 Nothing is known about his reasons for such documentation, but most probably he had met Heinrich Hildebrand (1853–1924), then an engineer and architect in Qingdao, responsible for the German railway line in Shandong Province. Hildebrand had documented the Temple of Enlightenment (Dajuesi, HH: Ta-chüeh-sy), which was published in 1897 in Berlin and was known by Boerschmann.24 Hildebrand’s documentary work was the first attempt to use Western standards to document Chinese architecture.25 In mid-December 1904 Ernst Boerschmann was back in Germany and dismissed from the duty of the Reich. He became garrison architect in Lyck (today Elk), Masuria, and on 30 December 1904 he was promoted to Military-Building Inspector.26 In April of the same year he won the commission to supervise the construction works of the military training area in Arys (today Orzysz), also in Masuria. In November 1905 Boerschmann received a testimonial for his supervision of the extensions in Arys that showed his work to be wholly satisfactory.27

23 PAB: EB: ‟Meine Erinnerung an China”. No date (fragment, 4 pages): 1; and Walravens, 2002: 115. 24 Hildebrand, 1897. 25 In 1893 he published an account of the Ming Tombs without illustration. See Hildebrand, in Centrallblatt der Bauverwaltung, Nr. 4, 28.1.1893: 37–39. 26 PAB: Document, Kriegsministerium, 30.12.1904. 27 PAAA: R 138420, 15.7.1906, CV in a letter from Ministry of War to AA.

Fig. 6: The east–west oriented layout of the Dajue Temple as documented by Heinrich Hildebrand. (© Hildebrand, 1897: T.I+II).

Heinrich Hildebrand and the documentation of the Temple of Enlightenment (1891–1897) The book by Heinrich Hildebrand on the Buddhist Temple of Enlightenment served as model for Ernst Boerschmann in his description of Chinese buildings, especially for his first documentation at the Temple of Azure Clouds. Hildebrand’s monograph of a specific temple in China was the first documentation based on measurements made on-site. Hildebrand carried the title of Secret Government Building Officer and went to China in 1891 as an advisor to the Chinese imperial government in questions concerning the development of a railway network across the country. By the end of nineteenth century he knew the Chinese political elite in Beijing well.28 During the summer vacation he worked on the temple documentation, which he finished and sent to the Prussian government in Berlin in September 1892.29 The officer responsible gave the manuscript to the Association of Berlin Architects (Vereinigung Berliner Architekten) for publication.30 Hildebrand had no camera at hand, but made descriptions and prepared line drawings of the different main halls and secondary buildings in the temple. The editor of the publication, Karl Emil Otto Fritsch (1838–1915), asked the travellers F. Henneberg and P. Gelpcke, both court assessors from Berlin, to take photographs of the temple during their stay in Beijing. The two court assessors had no idea about architecture and the local monks did not allow them to photograph the interior of the temple buildings. As a result they took some photographs of the different courtyards and façades, but failed to give a whole picture of the complex.31

28 K.Sch., in Ostasiatische Rundschau, Nr. 9, 1924: 179. 29 Hildebrand, 1897: 34. 30 See preface of the editor, Hildebrand, 1897. 31 Ibid.

Fig. 7: The central Mahavira Hall with the front terrace in an image taken by Heinz von Perckhammer in the 1920s. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

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Fig. 8: In Hildebrand’s drawing the Mahavira Hall is shown half with the ground floor plan and half with the ceiling plan. The section leaves out the construction of the roof framework, but shows the three statues of Buddha. (© Hildebrand, 1897: T.III).



Heinrich Hildebrand and the documentation of the Temple of Enlightenment (1891–1897)  

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Fig. 9: The Sarira pagoda at the rear of the complex contains the relics of monk Jialing from the early eighteenth century. The pagoda was built in 1728. (© Hildebrand, 1987: T.VII).

Hildebrand had also faced many difficulties with the measurements. The temple is located in the Western Hills about forty kilometres northwest of Beijing, and Hildebrand thought that the complex exemplified typical Buddhist architecture of North China. ‟Among themselves, these temples are only different in size, whereas arrangement, construction and architecture of the buildings – may they be small or tremendous – only show minor changes.”32 Hildebrand talked to the monks about the history of the temple, but they had no records (or did not show him them) and provided no credible information. However, he then discovered how to ‟make the old stones to speak for themselves”.33 Within the temple area he found five old stone stelae with inscriptions. A Chinese person copied the inscriptions, but was unable to translate the text. The Sinologist Alfred Forke (1867–1944), who worked as an interpreter at the German Legation in Beijing from 1890 to 1903, translated them. On these stelae Hildebrand found some information about the history of the place. In the final book, he included seven texts translated by Forke. According to the inscriptions, the temple dated from 1069, in the time of the Liao Dynasty. In 1428 the Emperor Xuande (1399–1435) of the Ming Dynasty built a new temple to replace the old one, which had collapsed, and named it Dajuesi – the Temple of Enlightenment. In 1446 and in 1476 the temple was twice repaired and extended. Because Hildebrand found no other written records, he believed that the 1892 temple reflected the building of 1476. He stated: ‟The present external condition of the building also fully fits this assumption.”34 But within the temple another stelae – obviously unknown to Hildebrand – stated that the temple was twice repaired during Qing Dynasty, first by Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) in 1720, and secondly by Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799) in 1747.35

32 Hildebrand, 1897: 2. 33 Ibid: 2. 34 Ibid: 8. 35 Arlington/Lewisohn, 1987: 306 (first published in Beijing, 1935). Naquin, 2000: 435.

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Fig. 10: The three statues of Buddha from the interior of Mahavira Hall on a photo from the 1920s. Today the original statues have been replaced by other sculptures of Buddha. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

In his description of the site and the arrangement of the space, Hildebrand discussed the question of ‟Feng-Schuei” [Feng Shui]. He saw a specific agency with competent officers at work for the application of Feng Shui, but no priests from the monasteries or temples were involved. However, he argued that ‟the Feng-Schuei-question is a religious question.”36 He further wrote that the buildings were located, laid out and arranged in such a manner that evil ghosts would have no bad influence, and so that the ghosts or spirits of the ancestors on their nightly way through the air would not be irritated or opposed by the building. The regulations were defined by religious tradition and it was up to the ‟Feng-Schuei-Yamen”,37 to make any decision in the matter. ‟The power of this agency is accordingly almost without restriction.” About the Temple of Enlightenment he wrote, ‟the Feng-Schuei regulations determine the position of the complex – expressed in the figurative language of the Feng-Schuei-Ritus – on the left side the dragon, on the right the tiger, and in front a waterway that takes away evil influence.” In the case of the temple, Hildebrand was aware that he described Feng Shui with the ‟profane conception of a European technician”.38 He then gave a straightforward and simple description of the environment and the position of the temple. The layout was composed within the given topography with the main axis stretching from east to west. The basic Chinese concept of a dominant north–south direction in architecture was turned ninety degrees to relate better to the natural conditions. Hildebrand stated: ‟Even with our [Western] ideas, the choice of this place for such an arrangement that more or less corresponds to a big European monastery, has to be acknowledged as very favourable.” Hildebrand then speculated whether the local conditions had been the main force for the selection of the site and composition of the layout, or whether the religious elements were only added later and developed independently. He came to the conclusion that over the course of time, the real meaning of the rules was lost and that Feng Shui was forced into a stereotyped system of regulations. The measurement and the detailed line drawings most probably impressed Ernst Boerschmann the most. He never

36 Hildebrand, 1897: 9. 37 A yamen was an administrative office in the Chinese empire. 38 Hildebrand, 1897: 9–10.



Joseph Dahlmann and religion in the Far East 

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referred to any detailed aspect of Feng Shui, but rather made vague suggestions about it in his own documentations. It is not evident whether Ernst Boerschmann met Heinrich Hildebrand during his service for the German Army in Beijing and Qingdao, but it is very likely. Hildebrand’s book surely made a deep impression on Boerschmann and served as a model for his first studies at the Temple of Azure Clouds in 1903.

Joseph Dahlmann and religion in the Far East Jesuit Father Joseph Dahlmann (1861–1930) was a well-known German expert on Indian culture, art and philosophy who had published several books on the subjects.39 He left Europe in September 1902 for China, where he stayed at Xujiahui (Zikawei) near Shanghai. From October 1903 he journeyed to Japan for several months, then returned to China in July 1904 and left the following month for India. Ernst Boerschmann met Joseph Dahlmann for the first time in the officer’s casino in Beijing in October 1903. He remembered: ‟We met in mutual enthusiasm about the greatness of Chinese culture and in awareness of the need to study the problem from all kinds of possible sides, but principally on the basis of studies of the sources about architecture, especially the religious [architecture].”40 Before the meeting Boerschmann had already studied and documented substantial parts of the Temple of Azure Clouds in the Western Hills near Beijing. The meeting and discussion with Dahlmann obviously offered an outlook for his own possible future as a researcher. At a second meeting with Dahlmann in August 1904 in Xujiahui, the issue of a research project was further discussed and ‟still more sharply focused,” as Boerschmann remembered some years later.41 In August of 1904 Dahlmann left Shanghai – via Vietnam, Kampuchea (Angkor), Singapore, Java, Thailand and Myanmar – for India.42 After returning to Luxembourg in the late summer of 1905, he started to work on the manuscript for a book about his trip through all these countries, excluding China and Japan. The two-volume book on the journey, with the title Indische Fahrten (Indian Journeys), came out in 1908. He included more than 500 images, many of them of buildings, and even line drawings of floor plans, sectional drawings and side views, prepared by other authors. In the manner of a diary he described temples and religious buildings connected to the religious life, but gave no statement on the reason why he excluded China and Japan. Maybe Dahlmann was thinking of a separate volume on the two countries, or perhaps, as an expert on India, he felt insufficiently qualified for the subject. However, the connection of architecture and religious culture was one of the central topics of the book. In the first chapter ‟Ways and Aims” (Wege und Ziele) he also gave some brief general impressions about China and tried to formulate some answers about the ‟basic religious powers of East Asian cultural life”.43 Focusing on China he wrote: Peking is in a real sense a Buddhist pagoda city. Based on the number of temples and pagodas, the Chinese capital would be the most devotional city in the Middle Kingdom, a true ‘city of godliness and devotional fashion’. It was argued by long-time connoisseurs of Beijing that there are about 5,000 pagodas, including big and small.

39 Dahlmann, Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen, 1891; Dahlmann, Das Mahabharata als Epos und Rechtsbuch, 1895; Dahlmann, Nirvana, 1896; Dahlmann, Buddha ein Kulturbild, 1898; Dahlmann, Genesis des Mahabharata, 1899; Dahlmann, Der Idealismus der indischen Religionsphilosophie, 1901. 40 EB, Putuo, 1911: VIII. 41 Ibid. 42 Dahlmann, 1928: 9. 43 Ibid, 2.

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Fig. 11: The “Great Stupa” in Sanchi, India, was commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the Third century BCE. (Dahlmann, 1927: image 188).

Maybe the number is too high; however it does not sound implausible,44 because it is really astonishing how in all angles and corners of the streets and plazas in Peking, Buddhism is established in small pagodas.45

He continued that in China Buddhism dominated all other religious directions, specifically Confucianism and Taoism. In his opinion Buddhism also dominated Japan, like China, and had its original roots in India. The discussions of Boerschmann and Dahlmann in Beijing are not recorded in detail. What did the experienced scholar tell the young architect? It is clear that he indicated the connection between religious culture and architecture, and most probably Dahlmann thought that a specialist from the architectural field was needed to describe the connections between the built environment and the cultural practice of the people, especially in the area of religion. When the second edition of his book Indische Fahrten came out in 1928, Ernst Boerschmann wrote in a review: ‟The work can and has not claimed to deliver a compendium of art history or even an architectural history conclusion.” He continues that the ‟constant and deep connection of spiritual and natural elements with ancient monuments give the basis of a completed cultural image”.46 Before Dahlmann returned to Luxembourg in the late summer of 1905, he got in contact with the lawyer Karl Bachem (1858–1945) from Cologne. Bachem’s father owned the Catholic daily newspaper Kölnische Volkszeitung, and Karl served as Member of the German Reichstag from 1890 until 1906 for the Catholic political party Deutsche Zentrumspartei (the German Centre Party). He was also known for his interest in China and the work of the missionaries there.47 His brother Franz Xaver collected Chinese bronzes.48 Dahlmann, the Jesuit Father, connected Boerschmann with Karl

44 Susan Naquin counted 2,564 temples for the end of Qing Dynasty in her monumental work on temples in Beijing. See Naquin, 2000: 709. 45 Ibid, 3. 46 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1929: 23. 47 Rivius, Mission und Politik, 1977. 48 Franz Xaver Bachem, Sammler-Erlebnisse, 1933.



Boerschmann’s memorandum about research in Chinese architecture (1905) 

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Fig. 12: The Durbar Square in Patan, Nepal. (Dahlmann, 1927: image 149).

Bachem to discuss the issue of research on Chinese architecture. Boerschmann later wrote that it was due to the eager lobbying of Father Dahlmann that Karl Bachem brought the issue to the Reichstag.49 On 12 February 1905, only two months after his return from China and while active as a building inspector in Lyck, Ernst Boerschmann published a memorandum (Denkschrift) about research in Chinese architecture in Bachem’s newspaper Kölnische Volkszeitung.50

Boerschmann’s memorandum about research in Chinese architecture (1905) With the memorandum Boerschmann sought public attention for his interest. Evidence of the discussion with Joseph Dahlmann, as well as some of Bachem’s political and national sentiments, can be found in the text. Boerschmann sketched out the huge task of documenting the architecture in China, but also included what it could mean for the imperialism of the German Empire. First he outlined the difficulties with the language, the so far unknown history of architecture and the problems of the immense size of the country. For this reason, he wrote, ‟we want to refrain from the tectonic and the architectural history mysteries”, which were hard to understand without many detailed singular studies. However, he gave an overview of what should be documented in order to understand China better and enhance economic relations. By 1905, this implied the political aspects of the newly established colonial order of the German Empire in Shandong Province. He put the task in the context of the armed conflict in 1900 (the Boxer Rebellion) and hoped that now the German Empire could attain a leadership role in research. In the memorandum Boerschmann expressed his confidence that with such research it would be possible to examine how ‟artistic ideas travelled from West to East”. With the German archaeological research in the Orient, Greece, Egypt and new documentations of monuments in India,

49 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Nr. 6, 1930: 262–263. Also EB, Putuo, 1911: VIII. 50 EB, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, Nr. 124, 12.2.1905: 1–2.

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China and Japan, it would be possible to uncover the ‟laws of development” of art in ‟unknown dark primeval times”. For China he sketched the whole range of topics to work on: from the imperial buildings in the Forbidden City to the simple homes of the artisans; and from temples, monasteries and pagodas to technical infrastructure, such as city walls, canals, streets and urban design. Success, he insisted, could only be achieved by measuring the monuments in detail. ‟Therefore, in the first place only geometric documentations, especially floor plans, […] and secondarily perspectives and photographs” were needed to achieve the desired insights. He called it shameful that so far only the work of Hildebrand from 1897 existed, and argued that only a fraction of the total money spent on the excavations in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece would be needed in order to operate ‟a similar, but much more comfortable investigation in China”. At this point, he said that the traditional architectural culture was still alive in China, and the only thing one had to do was document it on the spot. Whereas in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, following significant expenditure, ‟the conformation of a long-known design” came to light, in China new things would come out, especially since the Chinese society had just undergone reforms in many aspects of politics, culture and economy. Boerschmann expressed his fear that this could mean the Chinese would lose their traditions, as the case of Japan showed him, with their programme of Westernisation in the Meiji Period since 1868. ‟Then drop the temples and towers and pagodas in rubble and debris, as they now already slowly decay, then you will search in vain for remnants of the lost culture and then only in stories, and exploration, no matter how astute, of the contemporary life and art forms of the Chinese will become impossible.” Naturally, his words carried a certain urgency in order to impress the public, and to put his desire in the context of imperial German cultural politics. With this article in hand, Karl Bachem was prepared to take the case to the German Reichstag in Berlin.51

Karl Bachem and the German Reichstag At the 166th session of the Reichstag, on Friday 17 March 1905, Bachem asked the parliament to ‟support scientific, particularly ethnological work in China” with a grant of 16,000 Marks.52 He argued that in China further scientific and artistic fields awaited investigation: I would like to point first to the great development in architecture, which is indicated by all travelogues from China. […] The Chinese architecture that is shown here and there in illustrated magazines and travelogues seems at first sight bizarre, strange, unfamiliar, incomprehensible. […] Without doubt, the study of architecture in China will help to ground essential conclusions regarding the general development of culture in this country.53

He continued to talk about the different influences of religion – in particular Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and Islam – on the cultural development in China. Bachem assured his peers in parliament that so far only ‟Baurat Hildebrand, the constructor of the Shandong railways”, had published a work of scientific significance about architecture in China. With the support of such a new research project, he argued, the German nation could gain substantial scientific knowledge about culture and art history in return for little expense (compared to the money which was being spent for the archaeological research projects in Egypt and Mesopotamia by the German government). Since the financial problems of the state prevented a large budget for such a venture, Bachem asked the Foreign Office to look at the project and to develop suitable suggestions on how to finance the undertaking. His peers in parliament applauded. The State Secretary of the Foreign Office, Oswald von Richthofen (1847–1906) – a relative of geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), who studied geographical, geological, economic and ethnological aspects in China

51 In the book on Mount Putuo he reprinted the memorandum with ‟minor deletions” to the original. EB, Putuo, 1911: IX–XIII. 52 http://www.reichstagsprotokolle.de/Blatt_k11_bsb00002813_00518.html, accessed 10.10.2011. 53 Ibid.



Karl Bachem and the German Reichstag 

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in 1860s and 1870s – answered that he was delighted by the suggestion and promised to look for a solution to realise the project in the near future.54 After Bachem discussed the matter in the Reichstag, Boerschmann applied on 1 April 1905 for leave from the Ministry of War to take the opportunity for the proposed research expedition to China. To prove his expertise, he mentioned the memorandum published in the newspaper Kölnische Volkszeitung from 12 February, his two years of experience as building inspector for the German part of the Eight-Nations Alliance in China, his private studies during that time, and a lecture given on Chinese architecture at the Architects Association in Berlin on 12 December 1904. He also referred to his basic knowledge of the Chinese language and in addition offered to handle the architectural problems of the German Legation in North China. Boerschmann applied for two years’ leave from his post in Lyck.55 A day before he sent the letter, the memorandum from the Kölnische Volkszeitung was reprinted in the Ostasiatische Lloyd, the leading German newspaper in East Asia.56 On 8 July 1905 Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein, the representative of the German Legation in Beijing, sent a letter to the Imperial Chancellor Graf Bernhard zu Bülow (1849–1929) in Berlin. He expressed his opinion about the proposed research investigation into Chinese architecture. Alfons Mumm fully supported the idea of delegating an architect to the Legation and suggested that the stay should last at least two years. He further demanded that the person selected should know something about ‟related art fields like painting and sculpture, and, most important, he should be able to recognise the adaptation of Chinese buildings to the landscape with a cultivated eye. It is also essential that he knows the art of photography and that he is equipped with a good camera.” A passionate photographer, Alfons Mumm had taken many photographs of Beijing and its environs since arriving in China in 1900. He suggested appointing the new person as an attaché. After four to six months in Beijing, he should travel the whole country. Mumm further noted that the study should shed light on the ‟remains of former glory” as well as the ‟difference through climate and way of living in the housing conditions of the poor and wealthy”. He calculated 16,000 to 18,000 Marks annually, of which 7,200 counted as salary (not including accommodation in Beijing). Finally he mentioned Ernst Boerschmann, whose article had just been published in the newspaper Ostasiatischer Lloyd, as a good candidate for the job. Mumm also proposed that the new researcher should study his own publication Tagebuch in Bildern (Diary in Photographs) from 1902,57 in which he had published a few hundred photographs of Chinese buildings, landscapes and people, mainly in and around Beijing.58 Additionally, the Ministry of Culture (Ministerium für geistliche, Unterrichts- und Medizinalangelegenheiten) asked F.W.K. Müller (1863–1930), directorial assistant of the East Asian department of the Museum of Ethnology (Museum für Völkerkunde) in Berlin, for advice in October 1905. Müller answered, that, so far as he knew, only three books dealt with the topic of architecture in China: two monographs on temples, published in the ‟International Archive for Ethnology” in Leiden and one on ‟Pin-Jün-Leu Temple”.59 He also mentioned the publications of German railway engineer Franz Baltzer (1857–1927) on Japanese architecture. Because his publications were much praised, Müller recommended him for research in China. The Reich Treasury (Reichsschatzamt) announced a yearly budget of 32,000 Marks and a lump payment for the equipment in mid-October 1905.60 On 26 November 1905 the Reichstag published

54 Ibid. 55 PAAA: R 138420 (Gesandtschaft Beijing, April 1905–April 1908). Letter, 1.4.1905, Kriegsministerium to AA. 56 EB, in Ostasiatischer Lloyd, 31.3.1905: 573–576. Reprint from Kölnische Volkszeitung, Nr. 124, 12.2.1905: 1–2. 57 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 8.7.1905, Mumm to Graf zu Bülow. 58 Mumm, 1902. 59 It is unclear which publications he meant. Maybe the ‟International Archives of Ethnography” published in Leiden/Netherlands. It was not possible to identify the temple. 60 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 13.10.1905, Reichsschatzamt. However, this sum referred to two scientific experts – one for research and the other to buy art and artefacts for German museums.

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the budget for the following year for ‟scientific works and studies in Chinese architecture”. The newspaper Tägliche Rundschau reported the announcement and Ernst Boerschmann kept this article among his documents.61 In December the Architects Association of Berlin answered a letter by Boerschmann; they said that they had given the memorandum he had sent about the study of Chinese architecture to the Royal Museum, the Royal Academy of Science and the Royal Academy of Architecture.62 Possibly due to the fact that Oswald von Richthofen died in January 1906, nothing was decided about which researcher was to be sent to China. One year after his speech at the Reichstag, on 14 April 1906, Karl Bachem recommended Ernst Boerschmann directly to the Foreign Office.63 By the end of May, the Ministry of War sent Boerschmann’s personal records to the Foreign Office. In the accompanying letter, the ministry made allegations about the reputation of Boerschmann as an architect in China during his stay between 1902 and 1904. They wrote that his work for the Ostasiatische Besatzungsbrigade was unacceptable. The brigade had asked for his removal from his position because of unsatisfactory results. In the certificate from Tianjin, written in February 1904, his supervisor noted: The inspector is technically gifted and brave, but, since he is comparably young, he had no independent experience as Regierungsführer nor as Regierungsbaumeister […]. During his employment in Syfang [northeast of Qingdao] Building Inspector Boerschmann made considerable mistakes during the building of a shooting range. He also did not consider the economic side of his practice enough.64

It seems that financial problems caused the negative evaluation. But the ministry praised his public lecture on Chinese architecture in December 1904 at the Architects Association in Berlin in the letter. The Ministry of War finally agreed to a leave of absence.65 Early in June 1906 Karl Bachem wrote again to the Foreign Office and mentioned his correspondence with Joseph Dahlmann and the connection between architecture and religion.66 Meanwhile at the Foreign Office the officer in charge drew up instructions for the Legation in Beijing on how the new architectural expert should be integrated within the staff and how he should report the results of the work to his principals: the candidate should meet the conditions of becoming a civil servant and belong temporarily to the Legation. He was only subordinate to the head of the Legation and his deputy. He had no duty hours. All trips within the country had to be discussed with the emissary. The further duties included that all reports had to go to the emissary in Beijing and to the Foreign Office in Berlin. A journal was compulsory. All documentations and photographs had to be recorded. All files had to be in a good order. The person should buy books and give suggestions for the collection of documents. He had to administer a stock-book of all items belonging to his office. For the year 1906 the person had a budget of 5,000 Marks for journeys. After his recall, the person had to hand over all materials to his principals.67

The Temple of Azure Clouds Meanwhile Ernst Boerschmann published the result of his studies on the Buddhist Temple of Azure Clouds (EB: Pi-yün-ssu) in the first issue of the new professional journal Wochenschrift des Architekten-Vereins in March 1906. In a two-part article he described the temple in the Western Hills near

61 PAB: Aus dem Reichshaushalt 1906. Tägliche Rundschau, Morgen-Blatt, 5. Beilage, Nr. 555, 26.11.1905. 62 PAB: Letter, 4.12.1905, Architekten-Verein to EB. 63 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 14.5.1906, Bachem to AA. 64 PAAA: R 138420, certificate of employment from Feb. 1904 in the letter from 15.7.1906, Ministry of War to AA. 65 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 30.5.1906, Ministry of War to AA. 66 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 2.6.1906, Bachem to AA. 67 PAAA: R 138420, document, no date, AA.



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Fig. 13: A model of the Temple of Azure Clouds on the basis of Boerschmann’s information. It is clearly visible how the complex is integrated into the existing topography. Today few secondary halls at the east side, the internal enclosure of the royal quarters at the west side and the gallery in the central court are missing. (© EK).

Beijing.68 It seems that Boerschmann had to prove his expertise once again. The paper came out exactly one year after the debate in the Reichstag. A site plan and thirteen photographs accompanied the text. The site plan was based on his own measurements from October 1903. For a model of how to prepare and write about the new subject, we can look at the publication of Heinrich Hildebrand and the works of Franz Baltzer on Japanese architecture, published in 1903. But of similar significance was the approach of Joseph Dahlmann and his idea of the religious content as the basis of Asian culture. First, Ernst Boerschmann described the geographical position of the temple, which was located on a ridge facing from northwest to southeast. The geographical situation determined the position of the axis on the ridge, which was accompanied by a ravine on each side that joined in front of the temple. During the rainy season in summer, the surface water passed down the hill through these ravines. In other periods of the year they were dry. From today’s viewpoint, what is most astonishing is the barren landscape around the temple on the photos taken by Boerschmann. Trees only grew inside the walls of the temple, giving it an additional appeal as a kind of paradise. The temple complex developed along the ridge, terrace after terrace, reaching about thirty metres in height along an axis of several hundred metres. Boerschmann described each court with the halls and the sculptures within them. Two lions on pedestals flanked the entrance across a bridge. The lion is actually alien to the Chinese, his symbol of power and strength is really the tiger, which he knows from the south, and from Korea and Manchuria. Meanwhile, since the introduction of Buddhism from India, the lion is preferred, which the Indians had taken only from the Persians and Assyrians. This is an example of the influence of Western art in China [...].69

68 EB, in Wochenschrift des Architekten-Vereins zu Berlin. Vol.1, No.11 and 12, 17/24.3.1906: 47–48 and 49–51. 69 Ibid, 48.

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1

2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12

Fig. 14: The placing of sculptures according to Ernst Boerschmann’s description from 1905. However, he did not study all of the sculptures and was therefore not able to identify all of them. (© EK). 1. A black polished marble statue of Guanyin stood behind the portal in a niche of the Diamond Throne Pagoda. 2. Two stone pavilions, each with a stone turtle in the centre, which carries a stela with inscriptions. 3. Hall with Buddha images. 4. Hall with 500 life-size gilded Luohans. 5. Stone pavilion with a stone turtle in the centre, which carries a stela with inscriptions on its back. 6. Entrance to the Hall of the 500 Luohans gated by a set of the Four Heavenly Kings. 7. Hall with a pantheon of countless Bodhisattvas. 8. Hexagonal memorial stones. 9. Depictions of Buddhist heaven and hell with delicate sculptures in wood and stucco. 10. Entrance hall with the sculptures of Maitreya Buddha in the centre and the Four Heavenly Kings as guards. 11. Two warrior statues made of stucco. 12. Two lions on pedestals.

The entrance hall contained two temple guardians. In the following court stood the clock and drum tower, which were used every morning, noon and evening to call the monks to prayer. The first main court followed the entrance hall along the central axis. It was entered through a pavilion with the Four Heavenly Kings to the left and right and the Maitreya Buddha in the centre. In the centre of the court stood the main hall, but Boerschmann omitted it from the description. However, he translated the inscription of Emperor Qianlong on the stelae in the octagonal pavilion in the following court. Next, he described the Hall of the 500 Luohan,70 amazed by the quality of the gilded, almost life-size sculptures. The square plan of the hall with four patios and a central tower impressed him. Four Heavenly Kings guarded the central entrance gate.

70 Luohan is the Chinese word for Arhat, which derives from Sanskrit. He is a spiritual practitioner who has attained nirvana.



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Fig. 15: At the centre of a ground floor plan prepared by Ernst Boerschmann is a gallery that no longer exists and which housed the Buddhist heaven and hell around court 6 and 7 (Hof 6 and Hof 7). In the halls the placing of sculptures is indicated without further description. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 16: The photo by the Austrian photographer Heinz von Perckhammer shows the complex of the Temple of Azure Clouds from the east in the 1920s. At the front, with the central tower, stands the Hall of the 500 Luohan and the Diamond Throne Pagoda rises up among the trees behind. A part of the temple halls was in ruins. The trees survived only in the temple ground. Today the hills are covered with forest. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

The royal quarters and private garden of the emperor were attached at the opposite side to the northeast. Boerschmann praised the intimate details, the quiet atmosphere with rock compositions and the small stream, which flowed from the spring in the corner. ‟The biggest triumph is celebrated by the garden art in connection with airy architecture, while ensuring religious sternness in the last court, the well court.”71 He referred to the history of the temple as well as to the religious practice in 1903, the year when he made the inventory. The central element and focus of the vista, the Vajra Pagoda,72 with two small bottle-shaped pagodas and five pyramidal square pagodas on the platform, dominated the following section. On the platform of the pagoda grew a cypress tree with nine branches, planted by Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908).73 Today a sign says that the founding father of the Republic, Sun Yat-sen, fostered the tree.74 In a chapel on the platform stood a polished black marble statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy (EB: Kuan-jin-po-ssa). The last section in the complex was dedicated to the graveyard, with six relic stupas of former abbots. In Ernst Boerschmann’s description it sounds as if the temple was well kept. But a few months earlier, in spring 1903, Bavarian Prince Rupprecht von Bayern (1886–1955) visited the temple too. He went there on horse with the military attaché count Max von Montgelas (1860–1938), who had already visited the Temple of Azure Clouds in 1902. According to Prince Rupprecht, in the spring of 1903

71 EB, in Wochenschrift des Architekten-Vereins, 1906: 50. 72 The Mahabodhi Temple in India marks the spot where Shakyamuni Buddha attainted enlightenment. The location is called Vajrasana, the Diamond Seat. See Swart/Till, in Orientations, Vol. 16, Nr.2, Feb. 1985: 28–39. 73 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin (53 pages): 42. 74 After his death in Beijing in 1925, his corpse was kept in the Temple of Azure Clouds until 1928, when he was moved to the new memorial in Nanjing.



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Fig. 17: Boerschmann prepared a drawing of the later destroyed gallery for the display of heaven and hell in the central court. (© Boerschmann, CA. 1925: 64).

only a few monks lived there. ‟More than half of the halls were in ruins, and hundreds of coloured clay figures were lying around amid debris.”75 However, in the main court, on one side the buildings contained the cycle of Buddhist paradise in wooden sculptures and the cycle of Buddhist hell on the other. Both cycles were in a state of ‟great completeness”, wrote Prince Rupprecht.76 The depictions of Buddhist hell and paradise were later completely destroyed.77 The 500 sculptures of the Luohan in the side hall were also in good condition.78 However, despite the idealised image that Boerschmann shaped of the temple, his 1906 article was the first opportunity that German architects had had to read about Chinese architecture in one of their leading magazines. After the publication of the article and letter by Karl Bachem, Boerschmann soon became appointed attaché, attached to the German Legation in Beijing. On 19 June 1906 the Foreign Office informed him that the budget for 1906 would be 11,000 Marks. An additional 5,000 Marks were reserved for travel expenses for the trip to China and return home. The Foreign Office asked him whether he would be prepared to take the job under the given preconditions.79 He immediately gave his written agreement to take the job subject to the following conditions: the Ministry of War

75 Rupprecht von Bayern, 1906: 248. 76 Ibid. 77 Arlington and Lewison wrote in 1935: ‟[We] find the once-beautiful buildings mouldering in decay, the gods capsized and lying about in all directions – in many cases broken to bits by the collapse of the roof – wind and rain peeling off their once-beautiful coats of gilt. In a few side buildings may still be seen the ‘Gods of Heaven and Hell’, poor relics of the past, resembling tattered scarecrows in a cornfield.” Arlington/Lewison, 1935: 298. 78 Rupprecht von Bayern, 1906: 248. 79 PAB: letter, 19.6.1906, AA to EB:

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Fig. 18: The delicately carved wooden sculptures from the cycle of heaven and hell. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

 Preparation and research concept



Fig. 19: Details of the scenes in the gallery of heaven and hell. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart – above, © Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl – right).

The Temple of Azure Clouds 

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Fig. 20: Sectional drawing of the Hall of the 500 Luohan prepared by Ernst Boerschmann. The tower stands in the centre and is surrounded by four small courtyards. Boerschmann estimated the height of the tower at about 18 metres. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 58).

granted him a leave of absence with preservation of all his acquired rights and privileges; and the yearly payment of 11,000 Marks was to be divided into a monthly rate, beginning on the day of his leave at the Ministry of War, with an extra monthly payment of forty-five Marks. In addition to the 5,000 Marks travel expenses, he asked for 800 Marks to cover the cost of materials. To prepare for the work, he demanded visits to both Paris and London, four days in each city. An unsolved question remained the cost of local helpers to carry his materials during the trip.80 In early July 1906 all problems were resolved and Boerschmann gave his final agreement to carry out research in the name of the German imperial government in China.81 In mid-July the Ministry of War approved a year of leave from Arys in Masuria and in early August Boerschmann travelled to

80 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 22.6.1906, EB to AA. 81 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 4.7.1906, EB to AA.



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Fig. 21: The entrance and the central tower of the Hall of the 500 Luohan. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.75). Fig. 22: The image shows a standing, almost life-size sculpture in the central corridor among the 500 Luohan. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

Fig. 23: Some of the gilded sculptures of the 500 Luohan in the hall. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

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Fig. 24: Two of the five pyramidal stupas on top of the Diamond Throne Pagoda. The image was taken by Japanese photo­ grapher Yamamoto. (© Yamamoto, 1909: 56, reprinted in BL, 1923: 19). Fig. 25: A line drawing (b) prepared by Ernst Boerschmann shows the front view of one of the bottle shaped stupas (a) on top of the platform. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 26: The Diamond Throne Pagoda, commissioned by Emperor Qianlong in 1748, in a front view drawing prepared by Ernst Boerschmann. On top of the platform two smaller bottle shaped stupas stood at the front and the pavilion with the entry to the stairway was in the centre. Behind them follow the five stupas. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.331).

Fig. 27: A side view of the Diamond Throne Pagoda prepared by Ernst Boerschmann. At the back of the top platform grew a nine-branched tree (Nine-Dragon Cypress), which was planted by Empress Dowager Cixi. (© Boerschmann, CA. 1925: T.329).

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Fig. 28: The ground plan of the bottle shaped stupa and the bronze umbrella with decorations. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 Preparation and research concept



Fritz Jobst at Jietai Temple (1905) 

 65

Berlin.82 By the middle of the month he announced the proposed travel route. Boerschmann planned to visit Paris on 3 September and to continue from there to London. For 19 September 1906 he booked a ticked from Southampton to New York. From there he planned to visit Washington and San Francisco. The trip would continue across the Pacific to China, where he expected to arrive on 10 November.83 In August 1906 Joseph Dahlmann wrote a letter to Boerschmann and sent his congratulations on the successful negotiations with the Foreign Office. He advised him to document the temples and their symbolic meaning with the camera. Furthermore Dahlmann named some authors and books he should read for reference: Fergusson’s History of India and Eastern Architecture and Albert Grünwedel’s Mythologie des Buddhismus (Mythology of Buddhism).84 He expressed his hope of seeing him in Luxembourg before leaving and already showed a keen interest in Boerschmann’s further work.85

Fritz Jobst at Jietai Temple (1905) While Boerschmann was negotiating the terms of his employment with the Foreign Office in Berlin, two colleagues from the Besatzungsbrigade published a small book on the Buddhist Jitai Temple (FJ: Tjä Tai Tze) in the Western Hills of Beijing.86 Fritz Jobst worked as an interpreter for the German troops and translated inscriptions from stelae in the temple, edited sixteen pages of text and printed them together with sixteen photographs, one map of the area and a site plan prepared by his colleague Braun.87 The German military base in Tianjin published the booklet in an edition of 530. The publication was made as a souvenir for the members of his company, who stayed during the ‟hot summer” in the ‟beautiful temple”, as Jobst noted in the preface. He compiled a short history according to the information on the stelae and from oral history recorded on-site. Jobst translated the texts from the stelae and published two poems by Qing Emperor Qianlong, which were also inscribed on a stelae at the temple court. In the description of the environment, Jobst mentioned three caves, two dedicated to Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, and one to a sacred Taoist monk. Opposite the valley, in the north, was another ruined temple ‟from the twelfth century”, famous for the gilded mummy of a priest. Most probably he was referring to Tanzhe Temple, which had a 1,700-year history. At Jietai Temple Jobst described all the different halls and their interiors. Today the two-storey main hall is missing. According to Jobst, in this hall stood ‟the god of healing diseases”,88 accompanied on each side by nine Luohan. In front of the main sculpture stood a large bronze ritual vessel from the times of Qing Emperor Kangxi. In this hall, the abbot taught his disciples and served food on special occasions. On the second floor Jobst found three statues; these represented the Buddha of the past, present and future in the form of a man, a youth and a child. The main Buddha sat on a lotus flower, decorated with a ‟thousand” small Buddha figures, while another ‟thousand” Buddha statues were placed along the walls. Behind the sculpture stood the ‟bed of Empress Li” with ten images of deities. ‟Empress Li” was Xiao Ke, the mother of Ming Emperor Wanli (1572–1620). According to the legend recorded by Jobst, the Empress had sent 500 virgins to stay in the nearby village. The monks of the temple broke their vows and had contact with the girls. The 500 monks, each with a girl, were burned on the pyre and flew to heaven with the

82 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 15.7.1906, Ministry of War to AA. 83 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 17.8.1906, EB to AA. 84 Fergusson, 1876. Grünwedel, 1900. 85 PAB, letter, 28.8.1906, Dahlmann to EB: 86 For the Religious Associations related to the temple see Naquin, 2000: 548. 87 Jobst, Geschichte des Tempels Tjä Tai Tze, 1905. 88 Most probably he meant the Baisajyaguru, the Buddha of healing and medicine.

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Fig. 29: The sketch plan of Jietai Temple as published by Jobst around 1905. The main axis of the temple points almost East-West towards Beijing. (Jobst, 1905).

smoke. The local people saw this as a wonder and believed that they had been the 500 Luohan.89 To commemorate this event, the bed of Xiao Ke was included in the main hall of the temple. According to Jobst, the temple dated back to the Tang Dynasty (744), but the basic layout derived from the Liao Dynasty (1070). After the first abbot died, his ash was kept as a relic in a pagoda built in 1091. ‟Gradually the temple perished,” wrote Jobst. Reconstruction took place during the Ming Dynasty (1434–1440), and about hundred years later, in 1550, the temple underwent renovation. Again the buildings perished and were rebuilt in Qing Dynasty in 1760. In 1861 Prince Gong (FJ: Prince Chung) stayed at the temple to prepare for negotiations with the British, French and Russians on behalf of the Qing Government following the Second Opium War (1856–1860). After being

89 Jobst, 1905: 3.



Fritz Jobst at Jietai Temple (1905) 

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Fig. 30: Heinz von Perckhammer took this photo during 1920s and, as in many other cases in that period, the trees outside the temple compound have been cleared and only the barren landscape is visible. In the centre stands the two-storey hall that no longer exists. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

Fig. 31: A front view of the later destroyed two-storey main hall. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.31).

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Fig. 32: The pine trees are said to be more than 1,000 years old. The pagoda at the back is one of two pagodas in the temple from the Liao and Yuan dynasties. (© von Perckhammer, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

criticised for being pro-Western, Prince Gong – who had spent money on the renovation – moved to the temple in 1888 and died there ten years later. During the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 his son fled to the temple and, according to Jobst, allowed German troops to stay there during the hot summer months two years later. When Jobst did his research there in 1905, about thirty monks were actively involved in religious service.90

Franz Baltzer and Japanese architecture In the preface of his first book in 1911 – on Mount Putuo, sacred to Buddhists – Boerschmann named the influential sources of his approach. Besides the book of Hildebrand, he mentioned the work of Franz Baltzer in Japan.91 During the process of the selection of an architect for research in traditional Chinese architecture, Baltzer’s name had been mentioned. Baltzer worked between 1898 and 1903 in Japan as advisor to the Ministry of Transport and designed the new railway station in Tokyo. But the proposal failed, because the Japanese thought his design was too Japanese.92 While there, Baltzer used his spare time to research the traditional architecture. First, he published – on the basis of a book review – an introduction to Japanese architecture in 1902. He used materials from the architect and architectural historian Ito Chuta (1867–1954), which had been shown during the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900.93 For the later publication, about the Japanese house and temple, he travelled the country to visit the buildings, prepare drawings and take pho-

90 Ibid: 1–5. 91 EB, Putuo, 1911: XV. 92 Coaldrake, 1996: 232. 93 Baltzer, in Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Nr. 83, 18.10.1902: 507–510 and Nr. 91, 15.11.1902: 559–560.



Franz Baltzer and Japanese architecture 

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Fig. 33: The half sectional and the front view drawing of the wooden pagoda tower of Horyu-ji in Nara Prefecture in Japan. (Baltzer, 1903: 14).

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Fig. 34: The construction drawings of a wooden Japanese summerhouse. (Baltzer, 1903: 232).



Franz Baltzer and Japanese architecture 

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Fig. 35: The Karamon Gate at the Shinto temple Yemitsu in Nikko in front of the main hall from 1652–53. Among many other religious buildings, Baltzer described this shrine in his second book in 1905. (Unknown photographer, archive EK).

tographs. Ito Chuta, who also gave him some material to use, advised him.94 Baltzer published his findings in two books, first in 1903 Das japanische Haus. Eine bautechnische Studie (The Japanese house: a structural engineering study) and two years later Die Architektur der Kultbauten Japans (The architecture of religious buildings in Japan).95 Although as a railway engineer he had no professional training in architectural history, he described the timber construction of Japanese architecture exactly using his own observations, documenting them in detailed technical drawings. In his first book Baltzer showed in a logical way the structural foundations of a timber house, along with the interior layout and decoration. The book is illustrated with mainly technical drawings and sketches and very few photos. The second book, about religious buildings, is illustrated with more than 260 images, many of them drawings and sketches. He included examples from Buddhism and Shintoism, such as the Buddhist Hôryûji Temple with the oldest five-storey timber pagoda, dating back to the sixth century, and the Shinto Ise Grand Shrine, which is rebuilt every twenty years, among many other temples. An additional special chapter on the Noh theatre stage with an example from the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo is included, and Baltzer closed with a rough overview of architectural development in Japan, which covered almost 2,000 years of history.96 Boerschmann wrote in 1911 about the ‟excellent manner” of Baltzer’s work and that his publications could be seen as an introduction to his own approach. But Hildebrand’s publication,

94 Ito Chuta was one of the first architects to research traditional Japanese architecture during the 1890s. See Tanaka, in Chow/Doak/Fu (ed.), 2001: 135. 95 Baltzer, in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, 1903: 5–56, 229–276, 409–428, 587–612. In the same year the articles were published as a book with the same title. The second topic was published in 1905 and 1906 in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen (1905: 260–290, 415–438; 1906: 33–64, 285–310, 549–612) and in 1907 as book. 96 See also Speidel, in archimaera architektur. kultur. kontext. 2007.

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‟based on the geometric survey”, had a much stronger influence and served in many ways as a model for him.97 Whereas Baltzer tried to introduce the technical aspects of traditional Japanese architecture, Hildebrand also focused on the religious conditions, the spatial arrangement and the history of the temple.

Architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese By combining the aspects of the three authors, Baltzer, Hildebrand and Dahlmann, a basic first concept of Ernst Boerschmann’s approach becomes visible. Like Dahlmann, Baltzer and Hildebrand, he travelled through the country and collected information on the spot. If possible, he took measurements in the buildings, as did Hildebrand, but never considered the possibility of going as far into details of construction as Baltzer did in his books on traditional Japanese architecture. However, as Boerschmann still lacked a general guideline or framework, these influences could only serve for a first approach. Boerschmann understood his overall historical work as a collection of information – as he stated many times – for later classification. From his point of view it did not matter where he started. The simplest thing seemed to begin with easily accessible buildings. Since temples were always also guesthouses for travellers, he visited these places naturally on his way. By staying overnight and taking photographs, sketching everyday life, collecting information on the history of the temple, and possibly also taking measurements of single buildings, he could bring together many aspects of architecture and cultural life for the first time. This perfectly fitted his approach of focusing on architecture and its connection to the religious culture. In the later elaboration of the material collected he hoped to build up an archive of Chinese architecture and how this linked to religious life. From the beginning he made no attempt to search for the oldest buildings first, or to begin with the biggest ones. Boerschmann simply said that he had to start with the documentation of all the reachable buildings, since these would disappear in the course of modernisation. So he focused on Qing and Ming Dynasty buildings and hoped to reach buildings from earlier periods as well. His research approach concentrated on spatial arrangement in the landscape and the religious practice he recorded on the visits. While many Western visitors to China spoke of a degeneration of Chinese culture (and architecture) in the late Qing Dynasty, Boerschmann proposed thinking about the great continuation of the same concept over hundreds of years. He never considered the history and development of timber construction as part of architectural history in the early period of his work. With this basic framework for examining development from the contemporary practice, he stood in opposition to the usual Western model of historiography, which, especially at that time, focused on ancient records. Whereas in the Orient archaeology formed a new image of the past, Boerschmann believed that he could record the past from contemporary life, religious practice and buildings – from a living culture. In some aspects his approach secured information about the temples and religious life that disappeared soon afterwards. Many aspects of state cult and religious practice vanished following the first revolution in 1911–12. The power of religious geography and the relation of buildings to the natural environment were sacrificed to the profit-seeking of Western powers and their influence on the new political class. Soon urban planning, architecture and religion had a new meaning for the elite. Boerschmann, of course, could not foresee history, but his documentation took place at a time when change was already in the air. His holistic research concept looked at architecture in a way that went far beyond the technical aspects, revealing many now-lost arrangements in space and time. A further aspect of his approach may be found in the discourse on space in architecture in late nineteenth-century Germany. While Boerschmann had been studying at Technische Hochschule

97 EB, Putuo, 1911: XV.



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Charlottenburg in the last decade of the nineteenth century, August Schmarsow (1853–1936) had published the book Das Wesen der architektonischen Schöpfung (The essence of architectural creation). He focused for the first time on space as a matrix for architecture or as Raumgestalterin.98 In the same year two other books about this new aspect of architecture were published in Germany.99 However, we have no evidence that this discourse influenced Boerschmann’s approach directly, and he never wrote about his theoretical background in such a way. But in his results, he always focused on spatial arrangement, use and relationship to the environment. The technical development of construction, which became central to the research of Chinese historians in the 1930s, was never a focus of his attention. Whereas the Chinese historians – educated in Western universities – followed the Western model of historiography, Boerschmann envisioned a unique model, one which should reflect the specific aspects of a living culture. During his first stay in China between 1902 and 1904 Ernst Boerschmann had already taken some photographs. However, he never wrote what type of camera he used or how many photos he took at that time. But he published some of the images with his first article on the Temple of Azure Clouds in 1906, before he began his extensive research trip. Between 1906 and 1909 he used a Goerz Doppel-Anastigmat with a telephoto lens, and he wrote that the negatives were 13 x 18 centimetres in size, but he revealed no further details about the equipment he used.100 Boerschmann never mentioned any details about the technical aspects or the problems that he encountered with photography.

98 Schmarsow, Des Wesen der architektonischen Schöpfung, 1894. 99 Hildebrand, Probleme der Form, 1893 and Lipps, Raumästhetik und geometrisch-optische Täuschungen, 1893. For a short discussion see the first chapter in Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture, 2001: 1. 100 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: XXI.

Field trips in China (1906–1909) On the way to China (1906) Ernst Boerschmann left Berlin in September 1906 for Paris, where he spent five days visiting the Louvre, Musée Guimet and the Museum Les Arts Décoratifs to learn about their Chinese collections.1 He continued to London to visit further Chinese art collections in the British capital from 12 to 19 September. From Southampton he sailed to New York and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the USA he continued by rail to Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco. At all these destinations, Boerschmann tried to learn as much about Chinese art and architecture as possible. On 20 October he left San Francisco aboard the steamer Doric and headed across the Pacific for Japan,2 where he visited the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Nikko, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and Nagasaki between 7 and 20 November, before arriving in Shanghai on 24 November. With his fresh impressions of Western collections of Chinese art, as well as his first-hand experience of Japanese architecture, he finally arrived in Beijing on 11 December. Boerschmann never reflected upon the experiences of this trip in any of his writings.3 This is surprising, since the Japanese architecture at least should have served as an introduction to the Chinese and sharpened his eye for the development of architecture in China.

1 PAB, letter and accounting, 11.9.1908, EB to Legation. 2 His departure in San Francisco was reported in the newspaper London and China Telegraph, 12 Nov. 1906: 2; and his arrival in Honolulu was reported in the newspaper Hawaiian Gazette, 30 Oct. 1906: 8. 3 The route and the places he visited are only found in his accounting documents. PAB, letter and accounting, 11.9.1908, EB to Legation.

Fig. 36: The photo of the Itsukushima Shrine with the torii gate in the water is from Boerschmann’s collection. He never revealed whether or not he visited the Shinto shrine in Hiroshima Prefecture. (Unknown photographer, courtesy of Empore Kahl).



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First winter in Beijing (1906–1907) At the German Legation Boerschmann immediately presented a schedule for the next months. First, he proposed to stay in the capital until April 1907 to study the buildings there. In May he planned a trip to Chengde (EB: Yekol) with a further visit in June and July to Shenyang (EB: Mukden). For August and September he proposed a journey to the Western Tombs (Qing Xiling) of the Qing emperors and further to Mount Wutai, sacred to Buddhists. From October to December 1907 Boerschmann hoped to travel to the sacred Taoist Mount Tai in Shandong Province. Finally, after his return to Beijing, he planned a first analysis of the materials collected. The plan envisioned focused on the northern part of the country, but in the letter to the Legation he already announced further destinations for 1908, such as a two-month trip in Mongolia, and further studies in the Provinces of Henan, Sichuan, Tibet and along the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang). However, the planning for 1908 sounded rather vague.4 From December 1906 to March 1907 he studied ‟relevant literature” in Beijing, especially about art history. He took lessons in Chinese with private teachers and became accustomed to local habits and culture. During Chinese New Year (12 February) 1907 he visited the Forbidden City as a member of the diplomatic corps. The official ceremony made a lasting impression on him.5 In addition to the language studies, Boerschmann took some photographs and made sketches of buildings in Beijing, but the cold prevented preparation of any proper drawings. He visited several places in and around the capital, but did not list them in later reports. The following outline of where he went is reconstructed from his later published images and drawings. One of the buildings he photographed, the so-called South Mosque, stood exactly south of the Southern Sea (Zhongnanhai), with ceramic decoration on the portal and a lofty three-storey open pavilion on top of the entrance gate. The mosque was destroyed soon afterwards.6 Later he published photos of the big Drum and Clock Tower (Gulou and Zhong­lou) north of the Forbidden City, the Lama Temple (Yonghegong, 1694) in

4 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 12.12.1906, EB to Legation. 5 Walravens, 2002: 115. 6 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 19, 63 and P. 12.

Fig. 37: Japan with the places visited by Boerschmann during his stay in 1906. (© EK).

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Fig. 38: Ernst Boerschmann in his office in Beijing learning Chinese in the winter of 1906–1907. (Unknown photographer, UAK. ZUG.606-II.8.002).

the northeast, and next to it the Confucius Temple (1302). In the Forbidden City he took photos of the Imperial Ancestral Hall (Taimiao), in the south of the city he sketched the Temple of Agriculture (Xiannongtan, fifteenth century) and outside the city wall to the northwest, he measured the Big Bell Temple (Dazhongsi, EB: Ta chung sze, 1733). North of the city wall he visited the East and West Yellow Temple, also known as the Temple of Universal Purity (Pujingchanlin, 1645) and the Temple of the Dalai Lama (Dalaimiao, 1652). Boerschmann was most interested in the marble pagoda in the West Yellow Temple, which he documented in detail.7 In the inner city he recorded the White Stupa Temple (Miaoyingsi) with the large White Dagoba8 (Baita, 1271–1279) as well as the White Dagoba (1651) on Qionghua Island in Baihai Park. He took some photos of the remains of the Five Pagoda Temple (Wutasi) in the northwest, outside the city wall.9 The temple had vanished and only the Vajra-Stupa (1473) with its five pagoda towers stood on a derelict plot of land. These first documentations became the basis for many publications. In most of the cases he used his collected sources, such as local chronicles or publications by Western experts, or he asked friends in Beijing about specific details. In some cases young German and Chinese architects or historians helped him in the 1920s and 1930s by taking measurements he needed during the time he worked on the material in Berlin. Because Boerschmann was experiencing difficulties because of his insufficient language skills, he studied hard in the winter of 1906–1907 to improve his grasp of Chinese. In these days he made the acquaintance of some Chinese master-builders, who mentioned the issue of Feng Shui

7 For the foundation see Naquin, 2000: 342. 8 Dagoba comes from the Sinhalese and refers to a domed shrine with relics of Buddha or a Buddhist saint. 9 For renovations see Naquin, 2000: 322.



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Fig. 39: Ernst Boerschmann with Prince “Tung-ling” in a courtyard in Beijing during his stay between 1906 and 1909. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/ picture perfect GbR).

in the selection of the site and the placement of buildings. One of them was responsible for the reconstruction of the Qianmen City Gate (EB: Ch’ien-men), which had burned down during Boxer Rebellion around 1900.10 Here he could study on-site the new construction of a building according to the ‟old rules”. However, he never discussed details of the ‟old rules” or the impact of Feng Shui on the craftsman.

10 German architect Curt Rothkegel rearranged the gate again in 1914 to accommodate transport infrastructure. Warner, 1994: 28–33.

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Fig. 40: The central court of the Forbidden City on an image from the 1930s. (Unknown photographer, archive EK).

Fig. 41: The White Pagoda at Beihai Park in Beijing on an image from 1930s. (Unknown photographer, archive EK).

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Fig. 42: An honorary gate in the streets of Beijing on an image from 1930s. (Unknown photographer, archive EK).

Fig. 43: A line drawing from the central hall in the Big Bell Temple, west of Beijing, prepared by Boerschmann. The hall dated from 1735 and the big bell from the period between 1403 and 1424. The square ground plan and the circular upper storey reflected the Chinese concept of symbolizing the earth as a square and heaven as a circle. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.73/74).

80  Fig. 44: A drawing of the side view of the marble pagoda behind West Yellow Temple, called the City of Complete Purification, built in 1782. The compound is located north of the city wall in Beijing. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.335/336).

Fig. 45: The richly decorated octagonal base of the central pagoda displays the biography of the Panchen Lama. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 46: A drawing of the front view with the entry gate. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.337).

Fig. 47: The central pagoda and one of the four spires decorated with Buddha images. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 48: Boerschmann’s drawing of the floor plan shows the strict layout of the pagoda, which was built in 1782 behind the West Yellow Temple. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.335).

82  Fig. 49: A view of the Diamond Throne Pagoda in the Five Pagoda Temple (Wutasi), west of the city of Beijing. The image was taken by the Japanese photographer Yamamoto and published by Boerschmann without naming him. This pagoda, completed in 1474 under Ming Emperor Chenghua, became a model for the Diamond Throne Pagodas at the Temple of Azure Clouds (1784) in Beijing and the almost similar structure in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia (1732). (BL, 1923: 5; originally published by Yamamoto, 1909: 37).

Fig. 50: A perspective drawing of the Diamond Throne Pagoda in the Five Pagoda Temple, prepared by Boerschmann’s student Woo Shao­ ling in the 1930s. The basement is reconstructed in the drawing. Today the basement is a simple brick platform without further decoration or railings. (© Woo, UAK).

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Fig. 51: Two sectional drawings of the Diamond Throne Pagoda at the Five Pagoda Temple highlight the interior stairway and the space inside the base cube. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 52: A side view of the Diamond Throne Pagoda at the Five Pagoda Temple. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 53: View across the pond in the Garden of Harmonious Interest at the Summer Palace northwest of Beijing. (Unknown photographer around 1930s, archive EK).

Fig. 54: View across Kunming Lake to the central Temple of Buddhist Virtue in the Summer Palace. (Unknown photographer around 1930s, archive EK).

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Fig. 55: The Jade Belt Bridge in the Summer Palace. (Unknown photographer around 1930s, archive EK).

Boerschmann found ‟essential new information about the character of Chinese architecture” on a visit to the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan), in the northwest of Beijing. Empress Dowager Cixi twice ordered the rebuilding of the garden in 1886 and 1902, after the foreign looting in the First Opium War in 1860 and then during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.11 There he could study brand-new buildings in perfect condition. In his report for the Legation he described his work over these first months as follows: ‟The production of my wintertime in Beijing adds up to numerous sketches, some descriptions of temples, about 200 photographs and a number of drawings and paintings of architectonic details, made by Chinese craftsman according to my specifications.”12

11 In 1860 the Anglo-French troops had attacked the Summer Palace, as did the Allied Forces in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. 12 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation.

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Trip to the Eastern Qing Tombs (March–April 1907) On 25 March 1907 Boerschmann requested 800 Marks from his account at the Legation for a trip to the Eastern Qing Tombs (Qing Dongling, EB: Tung ling) in Zunhua.13 The first Qing Emperor Shunzhi (1638–1661) selected this burial ground for the Qing Dynasty and the last tomb derives from the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) in early twentieth century. In April 1902 German Ambassador Mumm von Schwarzenstein had taken photos during the construction of this last tomb. The buildings, including the tumulus and the main hall, were temporarily covered with sheet metal plates, decorated with a cloud pattern. The interior photo shows the timber construction before it was covered by decoration.14 When Boerschmann arrived in Beijing at the end of 1906, Mumm had already left his post. Nevertheless, Boerschmann had most probably seen Mumm’s book in 1903 (and maybe further photographs) during his first time in China. From Beijing the 120-kilometre trip to Zunhua took two and a half days. Many local Chinese officials greeted Boerschmann as an attaché of the German Legation upon his arrival on 27 March. They soon left him alone in the tomb district after he really started measuring the buildings.15 For the Chinese officials it seemed strange that an attaché of the Legation was working on-site and preparing plans of existing buildings. Boerschmann, however, was fascinated and found the ‟circa fifteen single burial sites ingenious”; they were set within the natural environment with

13 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 25.3.1907, EB to Legation. 14 Mumm, 1902: 509–511. 15 Walravens, 2002: 116.

Fig. 56: Boerschmann’s regional topographic sketch of Beijing and environs with the Ming Dynasty Tombs and the Western and Eastern Qing Dynasty Tombs in relation to the layout of the city. (© Boerschmann, 1912: 332).



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Fig. 57: Boerschmann prepared the topographic sketch of the area around the Eastern Qing Tombs on the basis of his own records. (© Boerschmann, 1912: 335).

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a subtle difference in each arrangement.16 He hoped to disprove with this ‟heterogeneity of the single buildings” the ‟myth of the everlasting monotony” in Chinese architecture. During his stay he filled a sketchbook, sketched a cartographic map of eight square kilometres of the surroundings and took 140 photographs.17 The map shows the topography and the placement of the burial sites together with the Great Wall in the north. The centre of his plan is the basin, six kilometres in diameter, where the tombs are placed at the foot of the mountain ridge towards the north. A huge wall enclosed the whole complex with its dense sacred grove. The main axis, nine kilometres long, between the southern mountain cone and the Xiaoling Mausoleum (EB: Hsiao Ling), the tomb of the Emperor Shunzhi, was structured with gates, bridges, towers, inscription plates and animals made of marble.18 There he took measurements of the Dragon and Phoenix Gate (Lingxingmen) and the stone archway with five bays on the spirit way.19 The positive assessment of the Eastern Qing Tombs mentioned above was written in July 1907, before he had seen the Western Qing Tombs (Qing Xiling, EB: Siling), which date from 1730.20 Boerschmann later wrote that the Eastern Qing Tombs could not rival the beauty of their western counterpart. However, he noted that the placement of the single burial site was always seen in con-

16 The Eastern Qing Tombs date from 1661; five emperors, thirteen empresses and many other members of the royal family are buried there. Naquin gave the number at 157 people. See Naquin, 2000: 326. 17 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation. 18 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 336. 19 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 29. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: 35/38 and P. 272–275. 20 Three emperors are buried there – Jiaqing, Daoguang and Guangxu – together with 73 other members of the royal family. See Naquin, 2000: 326.

Fig. 58: The interior of the main hall at the tomb of Dowager Cixi under construction. The huge timber beams are composed of several smaller parts and tied together with metal bands. This later disappeared behind the decoration. (Mumm, 1902: 249).



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Fig. 59: The tomb for Dowager Cixi under construction. The construction site was covered with sheets that were decorated with clouds. German delegate Mumm von Schwarzenstein visited the building site between 1900 and 1902. (Mumm, 1902: 248).

Fig. 60: The isometric drawing of the Eastern Qing Tombs and its environment as published by Emil Sigmund Fischer. (Fischer, 1929).

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nection with a good Feng Shui in a specific geographical situation, and the three imperial burial sites around Beijing (the East and West Qing Tombs and the Ming Tombs) must be seen as a unit in the context of the layout of the capital. About the Eastern Qing Tombs he wrote again in 1912: ‟The unbelievable magic of the sacred grove with its marble buildings and the coloured glaze, the calm grave temples in the valleys, and the freedom of the isolation in front of the gigantic massif – one enjoys the unbelievable space of this structure.”21 Several mountain ranges created a perfect setting for the burial site; the vast valley opens only to the southeast. The Eastern Qing Tombs were looted in 1928 by the warlord Sun Dianying (1887–1947) and later reconstructed. Since 2000 the Eastern Qing Tombs, together with the Ming Tombs and the Western Qing Tombs, have formed part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. Nearby, Boerschmann documented a temple (EB: Mao shan miao) with a floor plan and sectional drawings. According to the drawings, the massive brick building had five vaults with a footprint of 6.7 by 22 metres. Four of the vaults served as a living space (possibly for the monks), whereas the central vault held religious items. Boerschmann gave no further details, but mentioned that the original wooden pavilion on top had already been destroyed.22 In the late 1920s, when Boerschmann taught as a professor at Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (Berlin), the Chinese architect Fozhien Godfrey Ede (after 1949 Xi Fuquan, 1902–1983) wrote his doctoral dissertation on the tombs of the Qing Dynasty under Boerschmann’s supervision. Ede described sixteen tombs and illustrated them with photos taken by Boerschmann. In the

21 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 336. 22 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 30. The miao in the name refers to Taoist use. For the definition of the suffix to the name of temples see Shatzmann Steinhard, in Little, 2000: 255–274.

Fig. 61: The path towards the Guandi Temple at the South Heaven Gate of the Great Wall northeast of Beijing. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 37).



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case of the tomb of Emperor Guangxu (FGE: Kuang Hsü, 1871–1908) from the Western Qing Tombs, he used some models from the Ethnological Museum (Völkerkundemuseum) in Berlin. Ede prepared accurate drawings on the basis of the models and original Chinese plans. For the dissertation he used many Chinese sources and ‟sketches and descriptions, which were given to me by Prof. Boerschmann”.23 Here we learn that Boerschmann had obviously prepared many materials and collected descriptions about the Qing Tombs, and that the German museums in Berlin had collected other sources, which Ede could use for research on the topic. He wrote in the introduction that it was unnecessary to visit the tombs, because he found such superb material in Berlin. In this way he continued the Chinese tradition of hermeneutics and avoided fieldwork, referring instead to the available documents.

Trip to Chengde (May–June 1907) On 26 April Boerschmann requested 2,500 Marks from his account at the Legation for a trip to Shenyang (EB: Mukden).24 But he only made it to Chengde, formerly Jehol (EB: Yekol), the Qing summer retreat and mountain resort chosen by Emperor Kangxi in 1703. To get there, Boerschmann walked or used horses, and on one occasion took a boat on the river. From 15 May to 6 June he stayed in the area of Chengde. On the way he passed the South Heaven Gate at Gubeikou Pass at the Great Wall,

23 Ede, 1930: 6. He was the first Chinese architect to receive a German doctoral degree in the field of architectural history. 24 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 26.4.1907, EB to Legation.

Fig. 62: The interior of the Guandi Temple at the South Heaven Gate of the Great Wall on the way to Chengde. (Mumm, 1902: 224).

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Fig. 63: The southern bridge to the Saihu lake island in the imperial Mountain Resort of Chengde. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 67).

where Mumm von Schwarzenstein had taken photos of the interior of the Guandi Temple.25 The emperors would stop there for refreshment on the way to Chengde. The buildings documented by Mumm von Schwarzenstein and Boerschmann were destroyed during the conflict between the Japanese and Chinese armies in 1933. The Japanese puppet regime of Manchukuo rebuilt the complex in 1936. During the Cultural Revolution in 1966 the Red Guards of the Gubeikou Middle School destroyed the buildings again and today nothing is left.26 Boerschmann never clearly stated whether he could access the Qing Imperial Summer Residence (Bishu Shanzhuang) in 1907, because he published only one image of the bridge across Saihu Lake from the royal park.27 He used the time to measure several temples in the surrounding area. In his opinion, most temples were built according to models from Tibet, such as the Potala Temple in Lhasa, or from Turkistan. The overall impression proved his earlier statement about the elaborate taste and artistic expression of Chinese architecture. The casual composition of the forest, meadow and water, the pavilions, theatres, libraries, temples and other buildings, he wrote, moves the ‟Chinese aesthete as well as the foreign visitor. […] The main fame is due to the lovely overall impression of the Yekol-valley [Jehol] which was sung of by Kang hsi [Emperor Kangxi] and Ch’ien lung [Emperor Qianlong] often and enthusiastically.”28 (For a plan see plate 7). During this trip, Boerschmann produced several sketchbooks with drawings and notes, including the documentation of several temples. Boerschmann also bought cartographic maps from the area between Beijing and Chengde. He took about 240 photographs and collected numerous stone rubbings of inscriptions in the temples.29 On the basis of the rubbings and local chronicles he later tried to reconstruct the history of the places. He published some of the line drawings prepared

25 Mumm, 1902: 223/224. 26 San Ye with Bárme, South Heaven Gate at Gubeikou Pass, 
in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 24, 2010. 27 For a detailed description of the Summer Residence and the temples see Foret, 2000. For the image of Boerschmann see EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 67. 28 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to AA (8 pages): 6/7. Images EB, Baukeramik, 1927: P. 154–159. 29 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation.



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Fig. 64: View across the imperial park in Chengde. The Japanese researcher Tadashi Sekino published the photo in 1935. (Sekino, 1935: P.8).

according to the sketches he made on-site in the book Chinesische Architektur in 1925. Unfortunately in this book he only gave cursory notes on the temples and places he visited. The photos and drawings of floor plans and sections cover six of the so-called Eight Outer Temples in Chengde. They are placed to the north and east around the Imperial Summer Residence. In order to give an idea of how Boerschmann used the material, I will show in this case where he published the drawings and photos. He published two images of the Putuo Zongcheng Temple or Potala Temple (Putuo Zongchengzhimiao, EB: Putala) in Picturesque China in 1923. Boerschmann added a brilliant older photo of an overall view of the complex from the library of the Arts and Crafts Museum (Kunstgewerbemuseum) in Berlin.30 The view in the image goes from a high point on the northern edge of the Royal Park across all the buildings of the huge complex. One remarkable feature is the number of trees inside the walled compound in the photo, contrasting with the bare landscape around. Twenty years later, Japanese scholar Tadashi Sekino (1868–1935) published an aerial photo, which showed that the landscape inside the temple compound had been emptied, and now had almost now trees left.31 Boerschmann published a second image of the massive main complex of the temple.32 In Picturesque China he added no further description of the buildings. Two years later, in the book Chinesische Architektur, he published further material on the Putuo Zongcheng Temple. In the chapter ‟Massive Buildings” he used a front elevation and a section of the platform for illustration.33 A sectional drawing and a ground floor plan of the central square wooden hall on top of the main building are used as illustrations in the chapter ‟Central Buildings” in the same book.34 In the caption of a further photo of the main building, the construction date is given as between 1767 and 1771.35 The glazed niches in the façade are shown in another

30 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: XXI. 31 Tadashi Sekino, 1935: 16/17. At that time the Japanese army already occupied the area. 32 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 38/42. 33 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 41. 34 Ibid: 51. 35 Ibid: 89 for the caption and P. 52.1 for the photo. The dates are correct. Qianlong Emperor commissioned the building of Putuo Zongsheng Temple after the model of Potala Palace in Lhasa.

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Fig. 65: A photo of the Putuo Zhongcheng Temple in Chengde published by Boerschmann. He was not the photographer, but the image perfectly illustrates that trees were only left within the temple compound. The landscape around was stripped of any vegetation. (BL, 1923: 38, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek). Fig. 66: The same situation with all trees cut down within the temple compound in the 1930s. (Sekino, 1935: T.17).

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photo as an example of decoration.36 Further information is found in the book Chinesische Baukeramik (Chinese architectural ceramics), published in 1927. There he showed small ‟bottle pagodas” on the platform and the Buddhist symbols used for decoration.37 A further image and a coloured drawing of the glazed ceramic niche are included in the same book.38 With the colours he tried to give a realistic image in an otherwise fully black and white book. The legends to the images give a cursory introduction to the composition and history of the temple.39 The images on plate 156 and 157 in the book show – according to the description by Boerschmann – two different entrance gates of Putuo Zongcheng Temple, each crowned with five bottle-shaped pagodas. The corner pavilion of the same monastery is shown with sculptures of deer on the ridge.40 However, Boerschmann prepared and published a drawing of the floor plan of the so-called ‟Golden Pavilion” from the central part of the temple in Chinesische Architektur. In 1933 Sven Hedin (1865–1952) managed to exhibit a replica of the Golden Pavilion in the Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago.41 In this case – and also for all other documentations by Boerschmann in Chengde – the illustrations were used in at least three separate books for different purposes, such as material or spatial arrangement and decoration. He never wrote in detail about his findings there or about the overall composition. Although a comprehensive description is given in none of the publications, the captions for the images show that he had much factual information about the history of those places. A second example for his documentations in Chengde is the Temple of Happiness and Longevity of the Sumeru Mountain (Xumifushou zhimiao, EB: Hing kung) built in 1780 by Emperor Qianlong for the Panchen Lama (Lobsang Palden Yeshe, 1738–1780) in a fusion of Chinese and Tibetan

36 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P. 209. 37 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: P. 40/41. 38 Ibid: P. 94/96. 39 Ibid: 86/87. 40 Ibid: P. 117. 41 Montell, 1932.

Fig. 67: The 25 meter wide square hall in the centre of the main temple in Putuo Zhongcheng Temple. (© Boerschmann, CA: 1925: 51). Fig. 68: The side view from the west towards the main part of Putuo Zhongcheng Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 42).

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Fig. 69: The Temple of Happiness and Longevity of the Sumeru Mountain next to the Putuo Zhongcheng Temple. Here too the only trees were within the compound. (© Limperich, Pag, 1931: 269).

Fig. 70: The double-eaved roof of the Hall of Auspiciousness and Joy with bronze tiles and decorated with eight gilded dragons on the ridge. (© Boerschmann 1907, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

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Fig. 71: A sectional drawing of the central three-storey Hall of Auspiciousness and Joy, which was enclosed by a three-storey wooden construction to the interior, whereas the building had a solid wall to the outside. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.76).

architectural styles. Boerschmann included three photos of the temple in Picturesque China,42 and further illustrations, such as floor plans with a sectional drawing of the three-storey wooden main hall, enclosed by a massive wall, is included in the book Chinesische Architektur.43 Photos of details of the bronze roof of the Hall of Auspiciousness and Joy (Jixiangfaxidian) are published as well.44 A coloured drawing of a glazed ceramic decoration above a window is published without further information.45 A photo of the octagonal seven-storey Tile Pagoda of Longevity (Liuli Wanshouta) in the temple is included in Picturesque China.46 A detailed description of the temple and the green glazed pagoda is found in the book Pagoden from 1931. There he also included two overall photographs taken by German botanist Wolfgang Limpricht.47 The pagoda was approximately thirty meters high and stood on a square platform. Boerschmann suggested that it had a close relationship with the ruined glazed terracotta pagoda in the Fragrant Hill Park in the Western Hills near Beijing, a building destroyed by Anglo-French forces in 1860.48 The Temple of Universal Happiness (Pulesi, EB: Pu lo sze) illustrates a further example from Chengde. Boerschmann included a photo of the circular main hall and a detail photo of the bot-

42 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 39–41. 43 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P. 52/76/77. 44 Ibid: P. 130/136. EB, Baukeramik, 1927: P. 95/97. 45 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P. IV. 46 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 45. 47 Limpricht was part of the expedition of ethnographer Walther Stötzner (1882–1965) in 1913/14 to Tibet. It is unknown when he came to Chengde to take the photos he gave to Boerschmann. Images see EB, Pagoden, 1931: 268/269. 48 Ibid: 268–270.

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Fig. 72: A sectional drawing and the ceiling of the circular pavilion of the Temple of Universal Happiness (Pule Temple). (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.72).

Fig. 73: The westeast oriented floor plan of the Temple of Universal Happiness. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 52).

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Fig. 74: A view of the circular pavilion on the terrace and five of the eight bottle shaped stupas on the front terrace. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 43).

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Fig. 75: The ceiling decoration in the circular pavilion in the Temple of Universal Happiness. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

tle-shaped stupas on the terrace in Picturesque China.49 Two of the eight stupas around the central hall were published as coloured drawings, an overall plan and a section is included in Chinesische Architektur, and a detailed drawing of the circular ceiling of the main hall and a further section is published together with a photo in the same book.50 But there is no description of the temple in any of the publications. By putting all the different drawings and images together, one gets an impression of Boerschmann’s immense diligence in preparing proper drawings on the basis of his measurements and photos after returning to Berlin. (For the bottle-shaped stupas see plate 8/9). In the case of the other three temples he followed the same pattern. The main hall of the Pacified Distant (Land) Temple (Anyuanmiao or Ilimiao) is documented with drawings of four floor plans, a section and a front view in Chinesische Architektur. A photo of the central entrance is also included, as well as one showing details of the construction in the main hall.51 A set of six sketches of the ground floor and section of the Temple of Universal Peace (Puningsi) is used as an illustration to the text about ‟Central Buildings” in Chinesische Architektur. A photo of the central hall is published in the same book.52 The Manjusri Statue Temple (Shuxiangsi) is represented with a single photo of the clock tower.53 As already mentioned, Boerschmann worked on the collected materials of his trip to Chengde for many years, but he never prepared individual documentation for any of the temples that he visited. Most images and drawings are published in Chinesische Architektur or in Picturesque China.

49 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 43/44. 50 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 52 and P. 70/71/72; CA II, 1925: P. VI. 51 Ibid: P. 78/10/85. 52 Ibid: 56/57 and P. 75. 53 Ibid: P. 54.

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Fig. 76: Drawings of the floor plans, front view and section of the three-storey main hall of the Pacified Distant (Land) Temple. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.78).

He definitely knew the book of Sinologist Otto Franke (1863–1946) about the region from 1902,54 where he described all the temples, and the publication of Otto Franke and Berthold Laufer (1874– 1934) from 1914 about Lamaist inscriptions in temples, including in Beijing and Chengde.55 After the first revolution, new regional political and military leaders used the place as their quarters. They sold or destroyed the interior of both the temples and the former Royal Summer Retreat.56 Swedish explorer Sven Hedin gave a description of the temples and the sell-off after his visit in 1930.57 However, Japanese scholar Tadashi Sekino wrote that after the invasion of 1931, the new Japanese government of Manchuria – then Manchukuo – collected the artefacts to show them in the new museums in Mukden (today Shenyang).58 This was of course done to restore the legacy of the Qing Empire, which the Japanese used, in the person of Emperor Puyi (1906–1967), to legitimate their puppet regime. The Qing Mountain Resort and the Eight Outer Temples became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. During the time Boerschmann stayed in Chengde, the Legation sent his accounts to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. In the covering letter the new minister of the German Legation,

54 Franke, Beschreibung des Jehol-Gebietes, 1902. 55 Franke/Laufer, Epigraphische Denkmäler, 1914. 56 Sekino, 1935: 7. 57 Hedin/Bergman, 1943: 121–144. 58 Sekino, 1935: 7.



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Fig. 77: The view across the Temple of Happiness and Longevity of the Sumeru Mountain towards Putuo ­Zhongcheng Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, glass-slide, PAB).

Arthur Count von Rex (1856–1926),59 asked whether he could use the trained architect for design work – ‟preparation for the summer quarters in Beidaihe, wells for the Legation in Beijing and other building projects.” The Legation had its own ideas how to use an architect in its service. In order to do justice to his research, Boerschmann had to quietly turn down such requests. In Berlin the Ministry of War extended his leave of absence from 21 June 1907 until 31 July 1908.60 Another letter from the Foreign Office to the ambassador Count Rex in Beijing stated that this should be the last extension, because otherwise, the Ministry of War feared, Boerschmann would become too detached from the military.61

59 Count Rex succeeded Mumm von Schwarzenstein in this position in 1906, before Boerschmann arrived in Beijing. 60 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 21.6.1907, Ministry of War to AA. 61 PAB: letter, 9.7.1907, AA to the Legation.

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Beijing and the Western Hills (June–August 1907) His curiosity about pagodas led Boerschmann to study them in Beijing and its environs after his arrival in the winter of 1906–1907. The Pagoda of Tianning in the Monastery of Celestial Peace (EB: Tien ning sze), outside the walled city to the west, was among the first he documented. He later calculated the height of the pagoda to be 55 metres (57 metres is correct) and dated it to the early seventh century.62 Earlier he had reported to the Foreign Office on the pagoda, ‟with its wonderful, but unfortunately heavily damaged sculptures from Mongol times – the pagoda itself is about 1,500 years old.”63 Establishing and checking the age of buildings obviously involved a step-bystep approximation. The ‟Mongol times” Boerschmann referred to are the Yuan Dynasty (1271– 1368). Today the pagoda is dated to the Liao Dynasty (between 1100 and 1120) and the ornamentation and structures remain from the original building. The brick and stone pagoda obviously impressed Boerschmann more than any timber building. The tower is entirely solid and decorated with ornamental arched doorways and Buddhist guardians. Boerschmann made sketches on-site of the octagonal floor plan and later prepared detailed drawings of the decoration. In the drawings he reconstructed an idealised pattern of the partly destroyed sculptures. After his return from Chengde, he continued from 8 June to visit different temples in the Western Hills near Beijing. On the way he again passed the Pagoda of Tianning on 4 June. Its sister pagoda, the Pagoda of Cishou Temple (EB: Palischuang), in the Western Hills, dated from 1576 to 1578 and measured about the same height.64 Boerschmann called the pagoda Palischuang, which refers to the name of the village Balizhuang. The date given for the construction was correct. The octagonal pagoda has thirteen tiers of eaves and follows the model of the Pagoda of Tianning very closely.65 In the Western Hills he also visited ‟Pi-yün-ssu [Biyunsi or the Temple of Azure Clouds], where I completed my previous Fig. 78: Boerschmann prepared a reconstruction drawing of the central relief-band around the Tianning Pagoda with depictions of Buddhist deities. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

62 He based his dating on a report ‟Memoirs from Shuntianfu” (EB: Shun t’ien fu), translated by Sinologist de Groot in his book about the stupa: de Groot, 1919: 40. According to this source, the pagoda was first built in 601–605. EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: 203. 63 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to AA (8 pages): 7. 64 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 96. 65 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 8/11. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P. 320–325. EB, Baukeramik, 1927: P. 136–143.



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Fig. 79: The elevation of the massive Tianning Pagoda at the Monastery of Celestial Peace west of the city wall in Beijing. The pagoda dates from the twelfth century Liao Dynasty. Boerschmann prepared the drawing on the basis of his own measurements and documentations. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.320).

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Fig. 80: Boerschmann’s photo shows the relief band in a state of decay with broken sculptures. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 81: The decoration of the basement. The small delicate sculptures had already lost parts of their limbs and heads. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 82: A sketch plan of the basement of the pagoda with notes about the relief band. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 83: A sketch with notes about the elevation of the pagoda. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 84: A drawing with reconstructed details of the decoration above the blind doors (top) and details of the basement with depictions reflecting wooden construction in stone (bottom), at Tianning Pagoda at the Monastery of Celestial Peace based on the photos Boerschmann took in 1907. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 85: The pagoda of Cishou Temple in the Western Hills of Beijing, the sister pagoda of the Tianning Pagoda, was built in the sixteenth century and looks very similar at first sight. However, the relief band has blind arched windows and doors in alteration whereas the relief band at the Tianning Pagoda at the Monastery of Celestial Peace has blind arched doors in alteration with rectangular windows with bars. (© von Perckhammer 1920s, courtesy of Renate Erhart).

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Fig. 86: Emperor Qianlong built the massive towers near the Western Hills of Beijing in the eighteenth century for military training. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 40).

inventory, especially of the ornamental aspects […].”66 He made several rubbings from inscriptions and pictures of Buddha on marble stone slabs. With this second study he collected additional information after his first inventory in 1903, the information from which he had used for the earlier publication about the temple. In the case of the foundation inscription for the Temple of Azure Clouds, Sinologist Erich Haenisch (1880–1960) translated the text in 1924 into German and illustrated it with two of Boerschmann’s photos.67 Boerschmann continued all his life to study the Temple of Azure Clouds, preparing plans and collecting new materials, but never got the chance to publish his findings. During his stay at the temple, the art collector Adolf Fischer (1856–1914)68 visited him with his wife Frieda and discussed the principles of Chinese temple architecture.69 Boerschmann continued to the Ordination Terrace Temple (Jitaisi, EB: Kieh tai sze)70 to the southwest of Beijing, which the German Fritz Jobst had already surveyed and published on in about 1905 (see section 1.8). In his 1921 book, the German art historian Bernd Melchers included an image of the temple (BM: Djiä-Tai-Si), which he had bought from Hartung’s Photo Shop in Beijing. All three researchers show photos of the – later destroyed – main hall, which is still missing today. According to Melchers, the temple ‟had collapsed completely in the 1880s”.71 However, the hall was rebuilt, though later lost again. In the report to the Legation, Boerschmann mentioned that he had also documented the surrounding temples in the Western Hills (though he did not name them), especially in the Fragrant Hill Park (Xiangshan, EB: Hien-shan) and the Jade Spring Mountain (Yuquanshan, EB: Yü-t’süanshan).72 In the Summer Palace (Qingyiyuan, EB: Tsing yi yüan) he documented two gates with eighteenth-century decorations and suggested that this style had developed under the strong influence of the European buildings designed by the Jesuits in Yuanmingyuan.73 He photographed the three-parted archway (Pailou or Paifang) in the Fragrant Hill Park, the Tibetan-style entrance to the Bright Temple, which Emperor Qianlong had built in honour of the visit of the sixth Panchen Lama in 1780.74 Anglo-French forces destroyed the temple in 1860, leaving the ruin of the glazed pagoda

66 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to AA (8 pages): 7. 67 Hänisch (translation), 1/1924: 1–19. 68 Adolf Fischer was from Austria, but served the German Foreign Office, collecting art on behalf of German museums in China, Korea and Japan. 69 Fischer, 1942: 152. 70 In his English translation Terraced Monastery of the Vows, EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 13. 71 Melchers, 1921: 27, images, P. 28–30. For the reconstruction in the late nineteenth century see section 1.8. 72 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation. 73 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 62/63 and P. 10/11. 74 Ibid: P. 76/80/81.



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nearby. He saw in the style a reference to the pagoda at Xumifushou Temple (EB: Hing kung)75 in Chengde and called it a smaller version of the so-called Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing.76 In addition he made some sketches of defence towers in the Western Hills; these had been built by Emperor Qianlong as the military training area Tuancheng in the eighteenth century. Qianlong had constructed walls, towers and castles to train his army.77 According to Arlington/Lewison there had been at least sixty-eight of the towers in the area, but only a few were still surviving in the 1930s.78 At Juyongguan (EB: Chu yung kuan), at the Great Wall, he documented the Cloud Platform Gate, built in 1342. The base of the gate consisted of marble and measured almost ten metres in height on a rectangular layout. In earlier times, three stupas had stood on the platform; later, during the Ming Dynasty, a temple hall replaced them. In the early Qing Dynasty the hall disappeared. Today the surroundings have been cleared and the gate stands free on a parking lot in front of a tourist spot at the Great Wall. The special features at the gate are the engraved Buddha images in the arched portal. Boerschmann took photos and made detailed drawings of the platform – the cracks and traces of the time can be seen in the engravings. In 1931 Boerschmann published a general article on the city of Beijing, though without giving detailed information about the architecture or urban planning and leaving out his own experience in the city. ‟In the geographical and scenic location of Beijing […] it seems that nature itself has followed the rules of good Feng Shui, the lucky consistency of wind and water, of climate and ground relief, in the Chinese sense.”79 However, his interest in religious geography and the placement of pagodas in relation to the layout of the city continued and he prepared analytical plans of Beijing in the 1930s and 1940s, in which he looked at the placement of temples and pagodas in relationship to geography and history. From early on, Boerschmann paid attention to the ideal arrangement in the capital. ‟Peking reflects the world. The four sides of the city contain the temples of heaven, agriculture, the sun, the moon, and the earth.”80 He was very proud to attend the rite of the great sacrifice at the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) and the state sacrifice at the Temple of Confucius in 1907.81 In the Temple of Heaven, which dates back to the Ming Dynasty and was built between 1406 and 1420, Boerschmann measured the circular Sacrificial Altar in detail, discovering that the stone plates on the three levels of the altar were laid out on the basis of the number nine: Ancient China had nine provinces that are represented by bronze vases. Present China has 2x9=18 provinces that are often identified with the eighteen Lohan [Luohan], the disciples of Buddha. This ancient symbolical number 9 constantly recurs in their architecture; for example, the Altar of Heaven in Peking is so constructed that the two uppermost platforms consist of rings of free-stones, each divisible by 9 (9, 18, 27, etc.).82

With this work he detected the value of exact measurement for temples and ritual buildings, something he had missed in Chinese documentations or general literature accessible to him. But the work also seemed to prove to him the religious symbolism he had suspected that he could see in all the architectural design and in the placement of the buildings in their natural context.83

75 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 45. 76 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 99 and P. 152. 77 Rupprecht von Bayern, 1906: 249. See also Xiao Shiling, 1995: 258f. Naquin, 2000: 315. 78 Arlington/Lewison, 1935: 301. 79 EB, in Atlantis, 1931: 76. 80 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 556. 81 In 1905 the Qing Court announced the termination of the age-old civil service examination. With this edict Confucian learning and state service began to separate. However, the state sacrifice at the Confucius Temple in Beijing was still held in 1907. 82 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 550. 83 For images see EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 4/5. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P. 69/70/79/171/172/262.

110  Fig. 87: The arched gate under the Cloud Terrace (Guojielou) at Juyongguan. The strategic pass at the Great Wall lies 50 kilometres north of Beijing. All sides in the tunnel interior of the gateway are decorated with carvings of Buddha, the Four Heavenly Kings (Si Tianwang), and the inscription of Buddhist Sutras in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Mongolian, Uyghur and Tangut. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.210/211).

Fig. 88: The relief of Vaisramana, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, at the northwest of the arched gateway. He guards the North and is usually depicted with a green body. In his right hand he carries an umbrella and in his left hand a magic mouse. Vaisramana uses them to protect the people’s wealth and subdue the demons. (© Boerschmann 1907, PAB).

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On 16 July 1907, Boerschmann, still at the Temple of Azure Clouds, wrote a report for the Foreign Office about his trips and achievements in the first half of 1907.84 His enthusiasm about the different summer residences in the Western Hills, as well as in Chengde, led to his proposal to include a whole chapter on such park and garden buildings in his later elaboration of the material. This never happened though. He wrote in the report that in all his studies he paid great importance to the ‟queer ornamentation, […] religious expressions […] and the connection to the art forms in India and the Occident.” He regretted not yet being able to meet a Chinese official responsible for the modern conception of state buildings. Boerschmann feared that new developments would fast replace age-old traditions, but he also saw opportunities for foreign architects and hoped that the German building industry would be able to develop a good export business. He mentioned the need to keep an eye on the economic opportunities for the German building industry in the future, obviously believing that this consideration would support the need for his own scientific work. After complaining about the budget, which did not allow him to purchase original wooden models, drawings or glazed tiles, stone rubbings of inscriptions or drawings, he asked the Foreign Office to provide him with more money and suggested the museums in Berlin could finance him.85 He blamed the failure to exploit the material collected on delays and expressed his hope of taking up

84 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation in Beijing. 85 In December 1907 the AA in Berlin answered his request for more money to buy original materials. Only the Museum of Decorative Arts provided money – 500 Marks to buy selected glazed tiles. PAB: letter, 7.12.1907, AA to EB.

Fig. 89: A ground floor drawing of the three circular platforms at the Altar of Heaven (Huanqiu). Boerschmann analysed the symbolic layout of the altar design. Each platform is divided into nine segments, with one central piece. The first ring consists of nine plates, the second of 18, the third of 27 and the ninth of 81 plates. The symbolism of numbers was a field in which Boerschmann sustained a research interest throughout his life. (© Boerschmann, EB, 1911: 552).

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Fig. 90: The stepped circular basement made of marble with the circular wooden pavilion of the Hall of Prayer for a Good Year in the Temple of Heaven. (Unknown photographer 1930s, archive EK).

Fig. 91: The Temple of Heaven in a drawing by Ernst Boerschmann. The circular Hall of Prayer for a Good Year is situated to the north, the circular Altar of Heaven to the south of the main axis. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 92: The Altar of the Earth with a square layout reflects the fact that earth was considered as square, whereas heaven was considered as circle, as reflected in the layout of the pavilions and altar in the Temple of Heaven. (© Boerschmann 1906–1909, PAB).



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Fig. 93: The city of Beijing with intact city wall based on an early twentieth century map. During the Qing and Ming rule the emperors negotiated in rituals with heavenly powers on up to nine sacrificial altars. They played an important part in ritual life. (© EK). 1 Altar of Heaven, 2 Altar of the God of Agriculture, 3 Altar of the Gods of the Earth, 4 Altar of the God of the Heaven, 5 Altar of Land and Grain, 6 Altar of the Moon, 7 Altar of the Sun, 8 Altar of Earth, 9 Altar of the Goddess of Silkworms

Fig. 94: The Feng Shui compass (Luopan). With the help of this instrument the geomancers negotiated the influences between heaven (for instance represented by stars) and earth (for instance represented by water and mountains) to find the right location of buildings or burial sites. (© EK).

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that challenge after a trip to Shandong Province.86 Boerschmann announced that his studies in the Western Hills would conclude by the end of July, after which he would undertake a long trip to the Western Qing Tombs, to sacred Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province and further to Shandong Province. On 18 July Boerschmann travelled from Beijing to Qinhuangdao (EB: Tsingwangtao) and Baidaihe (EB: Peitaiho), most probably for his summer vacation.87 On 7 August the Legation transferred 1,000 Marks for the proposed trip.88 In Berlin the Foreign Office eagerly awaited Boerschmann’s report and demanded this in a letter to the Legation in Beijing on 20 August 1907. However, the Legation replied that Boerschmann had left already for a trip to ‟the interior” and that his route was not clear. The officer at the Legation expected him to return to Beijing in December.89 From the tone of the letters exchanged between the Foreign Office and the Legation, as well as with Boerschmann, it seems that they treated him as alien to the usual diplomatic routine. The desire to get further support for a scientific programme of research into architecture therefore became a controversial subject. The diplomats saw his passion as the hobby of a private, somewhat strange connoisseur. In contrast to the art collectors sent by the government, Boerschmann brought back nothing of value in the eyes of the officials. But his constant and unrelenting attitude towards the German officials allowed him time and again to continue his research.

86 PAAA: R 138420, report, 16.7.1907, EB to Legation. 87 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 18.7.1907, EB to Legation, also PAB: letter, 18.7.1907, Legation to EB. 88 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 7.8.1907, EB to Legation. 89 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 20.8.1907, Legation to AA.

Fig. 95: A temporary tent in front of the main hall at the Temple of Agriculture. The roof of the main hall is damaged. The tent is decorated with a dragon and was obviously put there to perform a ritual. (Collection Boerschmann, with courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).



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From the Western Qing Tombs to Mount Wutai (August–September 1907) On the way to Mount Wutai in Shanxi Province, one of the Four Sacred Mountains of Chinese Buddhism, Boerschmann stopped at the Western Qing Tombs near Baoding in Hebei Province. These consist of four large tombs where more than seventy members of the royal family are buried. In the large area Boerschmann visited the tomb (Tailing) of Emperor Yongzheng (EB: Yung Dscheng, 1678– 1735), the tomb (Muling) of Emperor Daoguang (1782–1850) and the tomb (Changling) for Emperor Jiaqing (1760–1820). The last tomb (Chongling) for Emperor Guangxu (1871–1908), who died the following year, was only finished in 1913. No written account was ever published of this visit, and only photos and some of his drawings indicate what he saw. However, his report to the Foreign Office lists seventy photographs and forty pages of notes and sketches made at the Western Qing Tombs.90 Boerschmann gave his findings and collections about the tombs to Fohzien Godfrey Ede for his dissertation in 1929.91 In 2000 the UNESCO classified the Western Qing Tombs as a World Heritage Site. On 23 August Boerschmann left the tombs and continued to the Mount Wutai region. This was the only trip he made in the company of another Westerner, the German post office official from Beijing:92 ‟At all other times I travelled alone with my Chinese followers, who at times numbered thirty, including the burden bearers.”93 On the trip to Mount Wutai they went via Lingqiu from the north to the sacred mountain region of Buddhism, dedicated to the Bodhisattva of Wisdom,

90 For images see EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 25–31. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P. 15/22/79/98/112/152 and many further images in Chinesische Architektur II. 91 Ede, (Diss.) Berlin, 1930. 92 PAB: EB: Lagepläne und Verzeichnisse der Bauanlagen am Wu t’ai shan in der Provinz Schansi [Shanxi], unpublished manuscript (13 pages) dated April/May 1945. 93 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 540.

Fig. 96: The tomb Changling for Emperor Jiaqing (1760–1820) in the Western Qing Tombs 140 kilometres southwest of Beijing. The spirit way is lined with stone animals and human figures. (© Boerschmann 1907, with courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

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Fig. 97: In 1929, Fozhien Godfrey Ede prepared the line drawing of the tomb of Emperor Guangxu, who died in 1908, for his dissertation in Berlin. The tomb was finished in 1913. Ede used for the drawing materials available in Berlin museums and in the archive of Boerschmann. (Ede, 1930: T.1, courtesy of Max Ede).

Fig. 98: The Dragon and Phoenix Gate on the spirit way at Changling in the Western Qing Tombs. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).



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Fig. 99: The dotted line indicates Ernst Boerschmann’s route from Beijing to Mount Wutai in 1907. From the railway station in Baoding he took the train to Kaifeng. The drawing is based on a depiction by Boerschmann. (© EK).

Manjusri, or in Chinese, Wenshu. This mountain region was the first of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains in China which he aimed to visit. From the Western Qing Tombs it took seven days on foot to reach the destination, which they reached on 29 August 1907. The scientific expert and collector for German museums, Adolf Fischer, and his wife, Frieda, had spent the previous week at Mount Wutai and left the day Boerschmann arrived by the same route without meeting him. The Fischers had come from Beijing on 12 August by train via Taiyuan from the south into the region of Mount Wutai. From 23 to 29 August they stayed in the central area at Tayuan Temple (FF: Ta-yuan-sse) and visited the surrounding temples in search of art objects.94 Boerschmann never mentioned them and maybe did not know about their programme. In the budget planning of the Legation, Boerschmann and Fischer belonged to the same section, the difference being that Fischer bought art to supply German museums, whereas Boerschmann only collected ‟stories” and sketches for later classification and study.

94 Fischer, 1942: 153–168.

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Fig. 100: The plan of the Tayuan Temple and the adjoining Buddhist temple at the core area of Mount Wutai. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 101: The valley between the five peaks of Mount Wutai with the White Pagoda of the Lamaist Tayuan Temple in the centre. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 70).

Fig. 102: The 50 metre high, bottle shaped Great White Pagoda in the centre of Tayuan Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 71, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 103: The two-storey rear hall at Tayuan Temple with a yurt in front and a prayer mill inside. (© Boerschmann 1907, 1937: 36).

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On 6 September Boerschmann left the central area via Longquanguan and arrived after a journey of three days on foot at the railway station in Baoding, from where he continued by train to Kaifeng in Henan Province. He obviously did not visit the huge 84-metre-high Liaodi Pagoda in Dingzhou, because in his later publication he used images made by the Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén, and his description relates to materials in Buddhist Monuments published by the Japanese researchers Sekino Tadashi and Tokiwa Daijo.95 The collected material from the trip added up to forty pages of sketches and notes, and eighty photos on the way to Mount Wutai. In addition to another hundred photos taken in the temples and main buildings, he had seventy pages of notes and sketches in his diary and collected several original site plans of the places visited.96 In his report to the Foreign Office, Boerschmann never mentioned the names of the temples or places he went to, but the materials later published and prepared give an idea of the route as well as the names of the places he saw. Since Boerschmann needed two weeks for travelling, he only had six days in the central area of Mount Wutai (literally, the ‟five terrace mountain”). During the visit he also collected and prepared material for a geographic map of the five important peaks (North, South, East, West and Central) in the region. Using simple tools such as a watch, a compass and his sketchbook, he recorded the basic geography and the location of the different temples. Back in Germany, in 1913 Boerschmann got hold of a book published in 1907 by the American geographer Bailey Willis (1857–1949).97 Willis’ book lists some cartographic and geological information for the region, but this did not suit his purpose. Throughout 1942, thirty-five years after the visit, with the help of cartographer Paul Milde, Boerschmann prepared a map containing all the information regarding the topography and placing of the temples and other important buildings. Since he had not visited all the temples and monasteries in the area, the location of some of them is not accurate, as he explained in the manuscript in 1945.98 For the unpublished book Pagoden Vol. II, he had prepared five plans to different scales in order to give an overall impression, and had also described the individual temples.99 He hoped future research would clear up the questions left unresolved in his work. During the visit of 1907, two temples obviously made a big impression on him and probably led to the decision that limited time made it necessary to select and focus his attention. First, he made a detailed study of Tayuan Temple (EB: Ta yüen si) with the Great White Pagoda (Dabeita) or Sarira Dagoba,100 which was built during the Ming Dynasty, and acts as a landmark in the area. Secondly, he studied the nearby Xiantong Temple (EB: Hien tung sze). In Picturesque China he published a photo of the valley with the Tayuan Temple in the centre and the other temples at the foot of the surrounding mountains. A further detail photo focuses on the dagoba and shows, like the overall view, the landscape devoid of trees outside the temple walls.101 He first published on some aspects of the temple in 1937, in a paper dedicated to the prayer mill in the two-storey rear hall.102 To prepare this article, Boerschmann used several other resources. In China he had bought a historic chronicle of Mount Wutai and the history of Shanxi Province, and further descriptions by different Tibetan hutuktu (one of the four highest lamas in Tibetan Buddhism and responsible for the Mount Wutai

95 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 69–71. Sekino, Tadashi; Tokiwa, Daijo: Buddhist Monuments in China (five folio volumes and five text volumes). Tokyo, 1925–1929. The English text volumes are dated as follows: Part I, 1926; Part II, 1930; Part III, 1931; Part IV, 1937 and Part V, 1938. Presumably Boerschmann used the Japanese version and the folio volumes. 96 PAAA: handwritten report, 6.12.1907 Qingdao, by EB (36 pages). 97 Willis, Blackwelder, Sargent, 1907. 98 PAB: EB: Lagepläne und Verzeichnisse der Bauanlagen am Wu t’ai shan in der Provinz Schansi [Shanxi], manuscript dated April/May 1945: 4. The manuscript was published by Walravens, 2012. 99 This drawings are kept today at the university archive in Cologne. 100 Sometimes also called a stupa, which has a Sanskrit origin; dagoba comes from Sinhalese and means relic chamber. In Chinese it is simply ta, a transliteration from stupa. 101 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 70/71. 102 EB, in Sinica-Sonderausgabe, 1937: 35–43.



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region).103 The description of Mount Wutai and its monasteries by the Russian Pokotilow from 1889 was translated by Wilhelm Alexander Unkrig (1883–1956) into German. Unkrig published a version of the text with commentary in 1935, and this became an important reference for Boerschmann’s article in 1937.104 Furthermore, he used a description by Rupprecht von Bayern made after a visit in 1903.105 Boerschmann illustrated the article about the prayer mill in 1937 with several floor plans and sectional drawings of different parts of the temple. A site plan gives the exact location of the stupa and the two-storey hall for the prayer mill. This hall is shown in the floor plan, ceiling plan and section, and the prayer mill itself is shown in detail. In addition, he published several photos: an overview with the stupa in the centre; a front view with the two-storey hall; and four images of the interior showing different sculptures. In front of the two-storey hall a yurt stood in the court. The detailed description was based on his own observations and was obviously evaluated using the texts mentioned here. The prayer mill is described in detail. Four monks or pilgrims were needed to turn the octagonal mechanism of the mill, which was over eleven metres high and had eighteen storeys, with eight openings on each platform for the placement of sacred texts or small sculptures of Buddha. All together he counted 144 ‟chapels” for the placement of sacred objects.106 Along the three closed walls of the hall, many sculptures were placed in niches of different sizes, as can be seen in the photographs that accompany the article. The second temple Boerschmann investigated in 1907 was Xiantong Temple, published in Picturesque China in 1923 with three photos of different halls and two photos of details of two of the five bronze pagodas on the platform at the rear, without further description.107 A year later in 1924 he had the opportunity to publish a detailed description of the five bronze pagodas in the temple.108 In this article he included a site plan of the temple and a detailed plan of the placement of the five metal pagodas on the rear platform. In addition to the detail photographs of two of the metal pagodas published in Picturesque China, four further photos of the pagodas on the platform appeared in the article. In Chinesische Architektur, a detailed ground plan, section, and front and side drawing of the Great Prayer Hall are shown together with a front façade photo.109 All the images and plans mentioned were reprinted in 1931 in the book Pagoden, with the exception of the plans of the Great Prayer Hall.110 Boerschmann speculated that all the five metal pagodas dated from the Ming Dynasty. In the course of the twentieth century two of the five pagodas were lost and recast in the 1990s. The pagoda in the central axis (no. 1 in Boerschmann’s drawing) had a strange design. It consisted of three ‟twenty-four angled”, crystal-formed bodies, one above the other and crowned by a ‟plate-visor”. The pagoda today is different in detail and shows much more decoration. Another of the reconstructed pagodas was given as no. 4 by Boerschmann in his description. It consisted originally of several parts: a stone foundation, a circular bronze basement, a central cubic crystalline section in an octagonal shape, twelve rings in a Tianning form above, and a rather abstract composite top made of circular elements. The reconstructed pagoda consists of thirteen rings and the octagonal crystalline central section is decorated with Buddha sculptures on each facet of the cubic element.111 The massive beamless brick main hall in the central position contained the library, but also housed altars. The bricks of the building were whitewashed on the exterior, similar to the two

103 Boerschmann listed at least three of those texts (Unkrig translated two, Grünwedel one). PAB: EB: Lagepläne und Verzeichnisse der Bauanlagen am Wu t’ai shan in der Provinz Schansi [Shanxi], manuscript dated April/May 1945: 7. The manuscript was published by Walravens, 2012. 104 Protokilow, in Sinica-Sonderausgabe, 1935: 38–89 (translated with commentary by W.A. Unkrig). 105 Rupprecht von Bayern, 1906. 106 EB, in Sinica, 1937: 38. 107 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 72–75. 108 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924. 109 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.26/27. 110 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 352–364. 111 Baumer, 2009: 132.

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Fig. 104: The floor and ceiling plan of the rear hall with a section that shows the two-storey prayer mill. (© Boerschmann, 1937: 39).

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Fig. 105: A detailed drawing of the almost 14 metre high octagonal prayer mill with three sectional drawings, indicated by a, b and c. (© Boerschmann, 1937: 41). Fig. 106: The prayer mill on the top and ground floor. (© Boerschmann 1907, 1937: 38).

smaller brick buildings on the terrace, with an entrance that had an arched opening with a decorative terracotta doorframe, which showed two dragons with a pearl in the centre. Like the bronze pagodas, he dated the brick buildings to the Ming Dynasty though without giving an exact date.112 Boerschmann never wrote in detail about the history of the temple, which originally dates back to the Han Dynasty and was rebuilt several times. From the publication of photos and the resources he used, we get an idea about places he visited during his stay. The short period of six days in the central region of Mount Wutai allowed him to make only two detailed measurements of temples, and the survey of the regional geography mentioned above also kept him busy. He missed the nearby Foguang Temple, one of the earliest surviving timber structures, which dates from 857 (Tang Dynasty). The Japanese researchers Tokiwa and Sekino described the temple in 1929, but did not give a date of construction.113 The Chinese architectural historian Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin investigated the temple in 1937 and discovered the real age and its meaning for the architectural history of China.114 The temple is the third earliest preserved timber construction in China. But even if Boerschmann had visited the temple, it would be extremely doubtful that he would have realised the true meaning of the timber construction. After his return to Germany in 1909 and during later elaborations of his material, he used other Western and Chinese resources as the basis for the descriptions and interpretations of the two temples that he had visited. He was aware of possible misinterpretations, but he lacked the opportunity to cross-reference the information. But Boerschmann hoped that future research

112 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 86 and P.90–93. 113 Tokiwa/Sekino, 1929 (Buddhist Monuments, Vol. 5, English version 1938: 32f). 114 Fairbank, 1994: 94.

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Fig. 107: The ground plan of the 205 metre long and more than 60 metre wide Xiantong Temple at Mount Wutai. The entrance was from the east. In the centre of the first court stood the smaller prayer hall, followed by the big wooden prayer hall, which separated the front part from the rear part of the temple. In the centre of the second court stood the massive beamless hall. Further massive buildings followed on the final terrace, with a bronze pavilion in the centre. On the terrace below stood five extraordinary pagodas. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 108: The front and side elevation, ground plan and section of the main prayer hall with an integrated porch addition in front. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.26).

Fig. 109: The view towards the porch of the main prayer hall. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 110: The view to the two-storey beamless hall in the centre of the second court. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 111: The plan of the rear terrace with the five pagodas and the bronze pavilion in the centre. (© Boerschmann, Pag. 1931: 356).



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Fig. 112: The side view of the rear part of the temple with the two-storey bronze pavilion in the centre and three of the five metal pagodas on the terrace. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 73).

Fig. 113: The three central pagodas on the terrace. Today the pagoda with the cubist composition to the right has been lost and was replaced by a new pagoda with a different form. (Unknown photographer, Pag. 1931: 356).

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would continue his work and eradicate the mistakes. His lifetime involvement with the places he visited between 1906 and 1909 could not include later alterations due to war or revolution. His drawings and descriptions therefore represent an idealised picture based on observations made during the late Qing Dynasty. In the case of Mount Wutai, the Japanese Army occupied the area in 1937; later the Chinese Red Army used Mount Wutai region as a retreat. From 1949 the area was closed for foreigners until 1985.115 The region and the temples of Mount Wutai became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009.

From Shanxi to Shandong Province (September–December 1907) From the railway station in Baoding Boerschmann continued on 10 September by train to Kaifeng in Henan Province, where he stayed until 16 September. On the way he stopped at Anyang, one of the eight ancient capitals, and visited the Tianning Temple (EB: T’ien ning sze) with the 38-metrehigh octagonal Wenfeng Pagoda (he guessed the height at 29.5 metres). He found some hints about the history in inscriptions, and the monks told him that the assumed date of construction was early seventh century (late Sui Dynasty). However, he recorded that Emperor Qianlong renovated the monastery and the pagoda between 1772 and 1774. For him, the unusual form, with expanding tiers from bottom to top, a flat roof, crowned by a bottle-shaped stupa, suggested a ‟very early time”. He knew no other pagoda with this form and only two further pagodas with a similarly shaped top: the pagoda in the Xinglong Temple in Yanzhou and the Fan Pagoda in Kaifeng. The form and decoration of the pagoda in Anyang left him with many unresolved questions.116 (See fig. 570/571). In Kaifeng, the old capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127), he visited the remains of the imperial palace, the Iron Pagoda (EB: Tie ta) and the Fan Pagoda (EB: Pota). From Kaifeng he took a boat down the Yellow River (Huang He) to Jinan in Shandong Province, which he reached on 22 September. When he travelled on the Yellow River, the ‟dam had just been broken and the river was so broad that the further bank could not be seen.”117 During this part of the trip, the material he collected added up to eighty pages of notes and sketches and sixty photographs.118 Of the Song Dynasty Imperial Palace in Kaifeng Boerschmann published only two photos of an entrance door and a handrail and no further description.119 He published another photo – not taken by him – of the ‟Golden Dragon Hall” (most probably the Dragon Pavilion) on a platform.120 He showed greater interest in the brick buildings in the region and later published some sketches of them. To the southeast of Kaifeng, Boerschmann documented the Fan Pagoda (Fanta or Xingcita) with photographs and detailed measurements. He dated the building to 977 (Northern Song Dynasty) and published his accounts in the book Pagoden in 1931. He had earlier published only some images in 1925 in Chinesische Architektur and in Baukeramik in 1927.121 His first comprehensive description came in the Pagoden book, along with the drawings of the floor plan, section, elevation and details of the glazed cladding plates with Buddha reliefs on them.122 The temple (EB: Kuo siang sze) to which the pagoda belonged was in bad condition when Boerschmann visited the site in 1907. The strange form of the hexagonal brick pagoda appeared to him a leftover from the original structure. He thought that the pagoda had originally been at least nine full storeys in height, of which

115 Baumer, 2009: 149. 116 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: 211/212. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: P.144/145. 117 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 540. 118 PAAA: handwritten report, 6.12.1907 Qingdao, by EB (36 pages). 119 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.184/292. 120 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 86 and P.174. 121 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 98, P.146/147. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.310. 122 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 61–69.



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Fig. 114: The plan of the mosque in Kaifeng. (© Boerschmann, Genzmer 1921: Fig.60).

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Fig. 115: The Fan Pagoda in Kaifeng in a traditional Chinese depiction published by Boerschmann. (Pag. 1931: 63).

only three storeys with a ten-metre-high finial were left. On the basis of written documents he drew a reconstruction with nine storeys and a small finial, an overall height of about 66.5 metres.123 He also visited the so-called Iron Pagoda, built of glazed bricks, which give the impression of a tower made of metal. As the town’s landmark, the pagoda in the northeast corner of the walled city was offset by the small tower for Kui Xing, the God of Examinations, in the southeast corner on the city wall, which, in Boerschmann’s opinion, provided balance on an urban scale. The Youguo Temple (EB: You kuo sze), to which the pagoda originally belonged, had already disappeared.124 Boerschmann estimated the time of construction to be between 963 and 967. Today the dates for the construction of the first wooden pagoda are 965 to 995. This pagoda burned down after a lightning strike in 1044. The rebuilding, in solid brick, took place in 1049. The last restoration he recorded took place in 1831. The octagonal tower had a diameter of 9.75 metres and Boerschmann calculated the thirteen storeys to be approximately fifty metres high (the real height is almost 57 metres). The narrow stairway in the interior was almost dark and blocked by an iron Buddha on the twelfth storey. He praised the quality of the brickwork and the exterior covering. In his view, this was one of the most beautiful examples of Song Dynasty pagodas in China, even after many renovations.125 On the basis of the chronicles from Henan Province, Buddhist Monuments and a Chinese publication (EB: Hung Süe yin Yüen), he formed the description in Pagoden and the illustrations in the book are almost all from other photographers. At the edge of a lake in Kaifeng he also visited the memorial temple for the Zeng brothers (EB: Oerl Tseng tze). According to Boerschmann they had played a major role in the defence of the city

123 Ibid: 61. 124 The temple collapsed during flooding of the Yellow River in 1847. 125 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 231–237.



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Fig. 116: The Iron Pagoda near the northeast corner within the city wall of Kaifeng in a traditional Chinese depiction published by Boerschmann. (Pag. 1931: 237).

during the Taiping Revolt (1850–1864). Zeng Guofan (1811–1871) led the Qing military forces against the Taiping Rebels and his younger brother Zeng Guoquan (1824–1890) also fought against them.126 According to Boerschmann therefore they were honoured with a memorial temple in Kaifeng. The complex consisted of a memorial hall with some further halls for social activities, facilities for guests and official purposes. The central hall with a twin roof and to its side a twin pavilion in front of the lake symbolically reflected the memory of the brothers.127 This is just another example where Boerschmann was not concerned with the age of the buildings, but rather evaluated their meaning for the contemporary society and the continuation of the age-old tradition of honouring heroes with memorial buildings. Most probably the complex was converted soon after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. In the city he took a photo of the drum tower. On top of the central gate stood a composition of three miniature pavilions. The base of the tower consisted of bricks, with a timber construction above.128 (For the plans of the city see fig. 545/546). From Kaifeng he went to Jinan in Shandong Province; he later published three photos of the city wall and gates taken by other photographers.129 He further included two images bought from a Chinese photographer, a view across Daming Lake towards the Thousand Buddha Mountain and another looking across the lake showing some unidentified buildings on the shore.130 Boerschmann arrived on 22 September in Jinan and continued on 4 October to Mount Tai. What he did during these two weeks is unknown. On 8 October the Legation in Beijing sent him a letter to Jinan,

126 On their role see Dillon, 2010: 81f. 127 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 84/85. 128 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 87 and P.99. 129 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.6/13. 130 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 52/53.

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Fig. 117: The memorial temple for the late Qing Dynasty politician and diplomat Li Hongchang in Jinan. (© Boerschmann 1907, PAB).

in which his request for a specific permit to visit Chinese barracks was rejected. They instructed him to ask local German consuls to provide access to normal education facilities.131 With this letter they also informed him that his studies would end during the following year, as proposed by the Ministry of War in Berlin. North of Jinan, on Phoenix Mountain (Biaoshan; EB: Piao shan), he visited a temple for the Jade Emperor (EB: Yü Huang miao), built in solid brick. The tripartite temple stood on an irregular basement. The left two-storey hall was dedicated to the Jade Maiden, the Goddess of Mount Tai. The right two-storey hall was dedicated to Guandi, the God of Capability, in the West often referred to as the God of War. The central one-storey octagonal pavilion on a further platform contained the statue of the Jade Emperor. The sectional drawing shows a massive brick pavilion with a lancet arch dome and a traditional octagonal swinging roof.132 He published the drawing without further description. Boerschmann’s research into the area around the Mount Tai, sacred to Taoist, and Qufu, the homeland of Confucius (Kongzi, 551–479 BC), the most important thinker and philosopher in Chinese history, took six weeks. Maybe he was able to use information from Adolf Fischer and his wife, who had also been in the region in autumn 1906; they had visited Qufu and Confucius’ descendants at the Kong family home on their trip and had also been to Mount Tai.133 In 1906 Albert Tschepe (1844–1912), a Catholic priest, published two books from the Catholic Mission in Yanzhou: one on Mount Tai and the other on ‟sacred sites of Confucianism”.134 The book on Mount Tai is illustrated with thirty-five photographs, which were taken by fellow missionary Piet Noyen (1870–1921) in 1903. Tschepe had visited the area twice (in 1901 and 1903). He described

131 PAB: letter, 8.10.1907, Legation to EB: 132 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 32 image 8. 133 Fischer, 1942: 116. 134 Tschepe, Tai-schan und seine Kultstätten, 1906 and Tschepe, Heiligtümer des Konfuzianismus, 1906.



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Fig. 118: The massive temple for Jade Emperor Yu Huang with two pavilions for Guandi (left) and Bixia Yuanjun (right) at Mount Biao near Jinan at the Yellow River. The octagonal pavilion in the centre stood on the second terrace, whereas the other buildings were accessible from both the first and second terrace. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1926: 32).

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Fig. 119: A view from the mountaintop towards the Lingyan Temple with Pizhi Pagoda below. (© Melchers, 1921: 46).

the Dai Temple (Daimiao, EB: T’ai-miao) in Tai’an, the route from the city to the top of Mount Tai, and the temples and minor religious buildings along the way. Tschepe published the second book about the sacred buildings dedicated to Confucius in Qufu in the same year. It is illustrated with sixty-three photos and three maps. Piet Noyen took the photos in 1903. Some of the photos show the interior of the main hall in the Temple of Confucius with statues and the altars. The maps in the book are traditional woodblock prints of the Temple of Confucius, the Yan Temple (EB: Yen miao) and of the Mencius Temple (EB: Meng miao) twenty kilometres south of Qufu, in Zhoucheng. Tschepe included descriptions and photos of all three temples in the book. Both publications were useful as travel guides and Boerschmann named them later as references. From Jinan Boerschmann went across Mount Tai and stopped for a brief visit at the Temple of Spiritual Rocks (Lingyansi, EB: Ling yen sze), which had a history dating back to the fourth century. While in the temple, he did not recognise the value of the sculptures in the Thousand Buddha Hall. He took only a short look at the painted clay sculptures of forty Luohan created in the Song Dynasty, but did not pay extra attention to them, as he wrote in his review of a later book about these Luohan by Bernd Melchers.135 Whereas Melchers suggested dating the sculptures to the Song Dynasty, Boerschmann said he could prove that the sculptures had been made between 1506 and 1522 during the Ming Dynasty. In his review he gave no further details as to why he did not follow Melchers’ suggestion. Most probably he was so occupied during his brief visit investigating the Pizhi Pagoda (Pizhita, EB: Pi tschi ta), dedicated to Pratyeka Buddha,136 to be able to pay any attention to other things in the temple. In the book Picturesque China in 1923 he included two photos of

135 EB, review Melchers, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Nr. 10, 1922/23: 174. 136 Pratyeka Buddha (pratyeka comes from Sanskrit and translates as Pizhi in Chinese) was enlightened after the death of Shakyamuni or Gautama Buddha. There are very few pagodas dedicated to Pratyeka Buddha in China.



From Shanxi to Shandong Province (September–December 1907) 

Fig. 120: The life-size figures of the Luohan from Song Dynasty at Lingyan Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 50).

Fig. 121: The “pagoda forest” at the graveyard of Lingyan Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

 135

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the pagoda, which he had taken, and two photos from other sources.137 In Chinesische Architektur in 1925 he showed a photo of the pagoda and a drawing of the side elevation in detail, which he had prepared.138 The most comprehensive description of the temple and the pagoda came out in the book Pagoden in 1931. There he referred to other sources, like the book Buddhist Monuments by Sekino and Tokiwa.139 He also had a chronicle from the temple at hand for his descriptions. The pagoda was originally built between 742 and 756, and totally renovated in the Song Dynasty between 1056 and 1064. The octagonal core consists of bricks with some carved decorations and is crowned with an iron steeple. The nine-storey pagoda had a stairway to the fifth floor. The main attractions for Boerschmann were two ancient cypress trees in the court of the temple. The monks told him that they dated from the Han Dynasty. The legend narrated to Boerschmann included the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (EB: Hsüen Tsang), who lived in the monastery before he travelled to India in the seventh century. After his return, he built the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an.140 The temple with the Song Dynasty sculptures and the pagoda are still preserved today. On his way to Lingyan Temple, Boerschmann stopped at a small village – a distance of three hours on foot from the temple – where he left his main luggage.141 Further on he passed through the village Qingyangshu (EB: Tsingyangschu) with an amazing collection of religious buildings, such as three small temples dedicated to the worship of the Heavenly Jade Maiden (Bixia Yuanjun), the daughter of the Emperor Lord or Jade Emperor of Mount Tai.142 The village street stretched from north to south. To the west stood a mosque and a guesthouse, and to the east three so-called ‟travel-temples” for the Heavenly Jade Maiden. She was depicted as travelling in the region and staying at different places. All three temples faced different directions (east, south and north). Next to the southern temple, at the southeast corner of the village, stood the tower for the God of Literature, Wenchang Wang. The hexagonal tower had a pyramidal form and ended with a console cornice and a battlement motif. At its top stood the tri-axial chapel for the god. The locals said the tower dated back to 1800.143 Boerschmann’s fascination with two of the small temples for the Heavenly Jade Maiden came from the glazed terracotta plates depicting her and Taoist worship at Mount Tai; these covered the gables and created a relief with an almost comic-like effect. He included two photos of the gables in Picturesque China in 1923.144 In Chinesische Architektur in 1925 he published almost the same images.145 From the captions we only learn that he believed the temple dated from around 1600, and that the roof tiles and the terracotta on the gables were mainly black in colour. He included the most comprehensive description in the book Baukeramik in 1927. A sketch of the floor plan, a section and a side view of the building illustrate the two-page description.146 Six photos show further details of the story and history displayed on the terracotta on the gables. The colour of the terracotta – which had been heated until it sintered – is said to be of black-blue with yellow sections. The temple hall measured about ten metres in depth and seven in height. Boerschmann further gave an interpretation of the reliefs and their meaning in the context of the Heavenly Jade Maiden. He also saw some Buddhist elements in the relief connected to Lingyan Temple and the history of the Indian traveller monk Xuanzang from the Tang Dynasty. He found many fragments of such relief plates in the normal dwellings of the villagers and wondered whether the material came from the nearby terracotta production in Boshan. Since then the buildings have vanished without a trace.

137 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 1/49–51. 138 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, P.311/312. 139 Sekino/Tokiwa, Vol I, 1925 (engl. 1926: 63–73). 140 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 114–124. 141 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 114. 142 For the Jade Emperor see Chamberlain, 2009: 167f. Naquin described the development of the cult of Bixia Yuanjun in detail. See Naquin, 2000: 504–506. 143 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 516. 144 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 54/55. 145 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.205–207. 146 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 80–82 and P.68–71.



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At the foot of sacred Mount Tai, ‟one of the Five Great Mountains”, Boerschmann stayed in Tai’an.147 He remained in the city for eight days to document the Dai Temple, dedicated to the god of Mount Tai, the Jade Emperor, and which had a history of more than 2,000 years. He published a ground plan of the temple with its huge fortifying wall in 1912.148 In 1923 he included three photos in Picturesque China. One image shows the memorial gate in front of the main entrance to the temple. The second image shows the main hall of the temple and the third is an overview taken from the highest point across the temple towards the distant Mount Tai.149 The space inside the temple was divided into several sections, enclosed by walls. The main hall, the Palace of Heavenly Blessing, with its large terrace, dates back to 1008 (Northern Song Dynasty). Within the walled compound he found a school and some temple farmland. However, he never wrote about his findings in the temple in detail.150 In Tai’an Boerschmann also made a sketch of the thirteen-storey Iron Pagoda (EB: Tie Ta), which he estimated to be about ten metres high. The sketch published in 1924 in an article about iron and bronze pagodas shows few details. He failed to determine the date of construction, but

147 The Five Great Mountains – Mt. Tai, Mt. Hua, Southern Mt. Heng, Northern Mt. Heng and Mt. Song – are some­ times also called the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. 148 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: P. 3. 149 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 56–58. 150 A description of the temple is included in Tschepe, 1906: 17–22.

Fig. 122: The city plan of Tai’an with the important master temple for Mount Tai at the north towards the city wall. The temple for Confucius was located at the east gate. Nr. 18, at the southeast corner of the city wall, indicates the pavilion for Kui Xing, the god of examinations, who was usually placed in this position. The city wall, with four gates, was surrounded by a moat. (Moule, 1912, n.p.).

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Fig. 123: Boerschmann measured the floor plan of the Dai Temple in Tai’an. In this version he shortened the massive enclosing wall in the published plan. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 124: A view across the temple towards Mount Tai. The old trees dominate the huge ground of the temple and only the big roof ridges jut out. (Unknown photographer, BL, 1923: 58).

speculated that the pagoda must have originated during Tang Dynasty, around the year 900.151 Today only three storeys of the original thirteen storeys of the pagoda built in 1533 have survived.152 Boerschmann further measured the Temple of Confucius (EB: Wen miao). Because of the arrangement of the space, he suggested that this was one of the oldest temples of its kind, but failed to give a date. The court of honour at the entrance consisted of two spaces: first a forecourt with entrances from east and west, with an honorary gate integrated into the wall, and second the court of honour with a sacred pond, which was traversed by three bridges.153 Behind the main hall followed a school. From Tai’an Boerschmann climbed Mount Tai, but never published more than three photos in Picturesque China in 1923.154 He took only one of those photos; two are of other origin. ‟The bare, stony peak is 1,500 metres high, covered with temples, old inscriptions and religious curiosities,” was his comment in a lecture in 1910.155 On an unexpectedly cold night in October, he stayed in an unnamed temple with broken windows, on the summit of the mountain. Maybe due to the fact that Tschepe had already published on the temples and monuments on Mount Tai, he left out the buildings and religious places on the mountain in his later work. Boerschmann stayed for ten days in Qufu (EB: Kü fu hien). In addition to the information from the book of Tschepe, he could most probably also refer to information provided by Adolf Fischer

151 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: 225. 152 Forster, 2010: 372. Qiao Yun, 2001: 133. 153 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 234. 154 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 59–61. 155 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin (53 pages): 45.

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Fig. 125: The honour gate in front of the main entrance to Dai Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907, PAB).



From Shanxi to Shandong Province (September–December 1907) 

Fig. 126: A sketch of the circa ten metre high Iron Pagoda in Tai’an. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 345).

 141

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Fig. 127: The South Gate to Heaven on top of Mount Tai. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 60).

Fig. 128: A sketch of the location of the buildings on top of Mount Tai, to the left the South Gate to Heaven. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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and his wife from their visit in 1906.156 Whereas Fischer had the opportunity to visit the Kong Family Mansion and met the head of the clan, Boerschmann only stayed at the temple, which was his focus. The results of this investigation were published in the book Gedächtnistempel in 1914.157 In Picturesque China he included one image of the Hall of Great Accomplishment (Dachengdian, EB: Ta cheng tien), and another of the Everlasting Archway on the axis towards the sage’s grave, north of the town. In Chinesische Architektur he included two further photos of the front of the Hall of Great Accomplishment; some drawings of details as examples for balustrades are also included in the same book. He also took a photo of an archway in front of the bell tower between the Kong Family Mansion and the Temple of Confucius, which no longer exists.158 While in Qufu, he paid a visit to and documented the Tomb of Confucius in the family necropolis north of the city. Southeast of the North Gate of the city wall, he studied the Temple of Yan Hui (EB: Yen fu tsze, 521–490 BC), a famous disciple of Confucius. For reference he relied again on Tschepe’s book. The temple had been in ruins in 1903, but had been rebuilt when Boerschmann stayed in the city in 1907. The four central front pillars of the main hall were made of stone and decorated with a three-centimetre deep relief showing dragons and clouds. The further octagonal stone pillars of the gallery around the hall had a fine engraved relief with flowers, plants, peacocks and clouds. Boerschmann took (or bought) some rubbings of the engravings.159 To the southeast of the city proper of Qufu, a temple for Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature and Culture, stood in front of a pond. Not far away, at the southeast corner on the city wall, Boerschmann found a small pavilion to the God of Examinations, Kui Xing (EB: Kuei Sing), often referred to as the associate of the God of Literature, Wenchang Wang. In his writings Boerschmann

156 Fischer, 1942: 116–120. 157 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 199–229. See also Chapter three of this book. 158 EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.100/101/178/288. 159 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 119–232 and P.20. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.98.

Fig. 129: A wood block print of the Temple of Confucius in Qufu. This kind of diagram of space arrangement was the usual depiction of temples found in early twentieth century China. (Tschepe, 1906: 93). See also plate 17.

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always named Kui Xing as another God of Literature. Those two temples were placed to the southeast of the Temple of Confucius. He found this arrangement in many other places too, and suggested Taoist influence as the basis for it.160 (See fig. 442). To the east of the city, he visited the stone-faced pyramidal tomb of the legendary Emperor Shaohao (2600 BC), with a memorial temple in front of it. The temple was embedded into a larger sacred grove with old trees and fallen gravestones in the fields. At the southern end a simple gate gave direction towards the overgrown ‟atmospheric” site.161 Near the city Boerschmann went to the memorial temple for the Duke of Zhou (EB: Chou Kung) from the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC). The temple hall stood in a rectangular walled space with three gates (from south, east and west). Two towers at the north end of the temple crowned the corners of the enclosing wall. The court was filled with ancient cypress, ash and acacia trees. He described the statue in the temple as ‟beautiful”, but never published a single photo.162 Boerschmann continued from Qufu to Yanzhou (EB: Yenchoufu), through which Adolf Fischer had also passed the previous year. His wife wrote in her diary that it was ‟a small city with poor houses, empty streets and some agriculture”. She identified a high octagonal brick

160 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 205. 161 Ibid: 3. 162 Ibid: 16.

Fig. 131: The front terrace of the main hall of the Temple of Confucius with the carved stone columns. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: 100).

Fig. 130: The memorial gate at the east side of the Temple of Confucius in front of the clock tower. The gate vanished in the course of the twentieth century. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 132: The ground plan of the Temple for Yan Hui next to the north gate of the city wall, prepared by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914).



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Fig. 133: Like the main hall in the temple of Confucius, the main temple hall in the Temple for Yan Hui has stone columns in the front and side rows. (Unknown photographer, PAB).

Fig. 134: The rubbing of the octagonal columns from the Temple of Yan Hui show plants, animals and landscapes carved into the stone. (GT, 1914: T.20).

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Fig. 135: Boerschmann’s elevation drawing of the Xinglong Temple Pagoda in Yanzhou. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 74).

Fig. 136: Three floor plans of the pagoda. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 75).



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pagoda at Xing­long Temple with seven full storeys and six minor added storeys as the landmark. ‟The basement is used today as a barn for hay and fuel.”163 Boerschmann documented the pagoda and published a photo and a drawing of the side view in 1924.164 He included a much better drawing of the same side view in Chinesische Architektur.165 A more detailed description on the basis of his own observations, local chronicles and information from Buddhist Monuments, accompanied by a photo and several drawings, such as side view, section, floor plans and details, followed in the book Pagoden.166 In a small sketch of the square urban plan of the city he indicated the pagoda as well as the ‟corresponding tower for the God of Literature” on the corner of the city wall.167 The tower for ‟the God of Literature” in this case held Kui Xing, the God of Examinations.168 The tower was built on the wall at an angle. It was constructed of bricks and had a square layout. The diagonal placement at the corner oriented the view of Kui Xing towards the northwest, a situation he often found in Shandong Province.169 Whereas Fischer only saw ‟empty streets”, the richly decorated memorial gates in the city impressed Boerschmann.170 The local Fan family had built the memorial archways at the east and west end of main street in Yangzhou. They dated back to Emperor Chongzhen’s reign between 1611 and 1644 (late Ming Dynasty).171 He also published a photo of a huge arched bridge in the city.172 The German Catholic Mission’s headquarters were in Yanzhou and – among others – Father Albert Tschepe, the author of the books on Mount Tai and Qufu mentioned above, and Father Anton Volpert (1863–1949) were active there. Volpert was very interested in archaeology and history, and later published regularly on religion and the built environment in China.173 However, Boerschmann never revealed whether he met them. (For maps of small towns in Shandong see fig. 547/548). In Jining (EB: Tsiningchou), at the Grand Canal (Da Yunhe), Boerschmann met Pater Heinrich Erlemann, an architect from the Steyler Mission, who just had uncovered an old ceramic pot while digging a well. After returning to Berlin, Boerschmann presented the pot during a public debate at the Society of Ethnology.174 He also mentioned a small temple on top of the southeast corner of the city wall dedicated to the poet Su Dongpo (1036–1101), which he saw as deliberately rivalling the tower for Kui Xing in the same location.175 Pavilions and towers occupied all four corners of the city wall in Jining. Besides the towers for Kui Xing and Su Dongpo, the philosopher Zengzi (EB: Tseng Tze, 505–436 BC), a famous pupil of Confucius, had his own pavilion (EB: Tzeng tzo lou) on the southwest corner of the city wall. Between the tower for Zengzi and the tower for Kui Xing, east of the centre, stood a pavilion (EB: T’ai po lou) for the poet Li Bai (EB: Li T’aipo, 701–762). Two ‟towers for Kueising [Kui Xing]” (EB: Kuei küeh lou) occupied the northwest and northeast corner of the city wall.176 A further octagonal tower for Kui Xing stood to the northwest of the city, next to the Temple of Confucius and the Temple for Wenchang Wang (EB: Wen chang miao), the God of Literature. In the Confucius Temple he found many trees and stone reliefs, partly dating to the Han Dynasty – among

163 Fischer, 1942: 107. 164 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: P.21; fig.11. 165 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.311. 166 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 72–77. 167 Ibid: 72. 168 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 516. 169 Ibid: 517. 170 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 64/65 and EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.280/283/284. 171 Peking University Library, 2010: 117. 172 EB, Baukunst and Landschaft, 1923: 66. 173 Volpert, Gräber und Steinskulpturen, in Anthropos, 1908: 14–18. Volpert, Ehrenpforte, in Orientalisches Archiv, 1911 and Volpert, Schutzgott der Städte, in Anthropos, 1910: 991–1026. 174 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 153–160. 175 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 79. For the urban plan see EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 516. 176 Ibid: 517.

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Fig. 137: The iron pagoda in Jining with a huge basement for protection. (© Boerschmann 1907, Pag, 1931: 344).

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Fig. 138: The vaulted Buddhist temple hall grew out of the rocks at Mount Qingyang, south of Jining. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 31).

them ‟the famous relief of the meeting between Laozi and Confucius”.177 In a detailed measured site plan of the temple he included further information about the spatial arrangement.178 Boerschmann documented the Iron Pagoda (Tieta) at Chongjue Temple with a photo and detailed description in 1924. The chronicles of Jining (chapter 14) and the chronicles of Yanzhou (chapter 20), as well as the Guju Tushu Jicheng (Complete Collections of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times, chapter 22, §3) served as the basis for his literature research.179 According to the chronicles of Jining, the nine-storey, 22-metre-high pagoda dated from 1105; two storeys were added in 1582–83. Boerschmann included a German translation of the chronicle in the book Pagoden.180 The Iron Pagoda had at its basis a massive nine-metre-high basement, made of brick, to ensure the stability of the structure. Boerschmann’s sketch of the urban plan shows the location of the pagoda and a second, ten-metre-high stone pagoda nearby.181

177 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 233. 178 Ibid: P.36. 179 EB, in Jahrbuch der Asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 226. 180 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 342f. 181 Ibid: 287f. For the map of Jining see fig. 547.

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Fig. 139: Ernst Boerschmann documented the ruin with pencil drawings and measurements in the same year. The two rectangular halls stood ten metres apart and had two different vaults, but in both cases the roof was already lost. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 31).

Fig. 140: The ruin of a stone temple for Bixia Yuanjun outside of Feicheng near Mount Tai. The photograph belongs to the material of the French researcher Edouard Chavannes, who visited the ruin in 1907. (© bpk – Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte / © Paris, Musée Guimet / © Pierre Hamouda, Michel Urtado).



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Fig. 141: The image shows the statue of Bixia Yuanjun with two attendants on an altar in the temple ruins. A member of Edouard Chavannes’ French team took the photo in 1907. (© bpk – Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte / © Paris, Musée Guimet / © Pierre Hamouda, Michel Urtado).

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Adolf Fischer had visited the Wu Family Shrine from the Eastern Han Dynasty (200 BC) in Wuzhaishan Village near Jiaxiang, west of Jining in September 1906.182 He studied the reliefs and bought rubbings of all the stone carvings for German museums. In Jiaxiang the Fischers stayed at a small outpost of the Catholic mission and met Father Volpert. He had bought two Han Dynasty stones and a column with stone carvings that were found nearby and kept them in the mission. He eventually agreed to sell them to Fischer, who sent the stones to Germany after the formalities had been dealt with in Beijing.183 These artefacts arrived in Beijing just before Boerschmann reached the city in December 1906. He was aware of Han Dynasty stone carving and also of the importance of the Wu Family Shrine when arrived in Jiaxiang on his trip in 1907. However, he published only one photo and some drawings, and compared them to a part of a Han Dynasty tomb which he visited later near Ya’an (EB: Yachoufu) in Sichuan Province. All illustrations of these tombs are included without further description in the ‟tombs” section of Chinesische Architektur.184 It seems that Boerschmann left Jining via Wenshang, Dongping and Feicheng to return to Jinan. From there he most probably took the train to Qingdao. South of Wenshang (EB: Wenshanhien), Boerschmann documented a Buddhist temple which was built into a massive rock and which had a wooden front at the entrance. He used a ground plan and sectional drawing, without further description, as an illustration for the ‟massive buildings” section in Chinesische Architektur.185 In Wenshang he made a sketch of the square layout of the city with a pavilion for Kui Xing at the southeast corner on the city wall. In Dongping (EB: Tungp’ingchou) the city wall had an irregular shape, with the tower for Kui Xing on one of the southeast corners. (See fig. 236 and 547). The floor plan of the tower was octagonal and several circular openings were irregularly set into the massive walls. A simple tent roof crowned the top.186 At the foot of Mount Tai near Feicheng (EB: Feich’enghien), Boerschmann measured a massive ruined stone temple dedicated to the Heavenly Jade Maiden (Bixia Yuanjun, EB: Pi hia yüan kün). Besides his sketch plans, he gave no further description or photos in Chinesische Architektur.187 The temple ruin consisted of two almost square halls made of stone and covered by stone barrel vaults. The Fischers had also visited the ruined temple in 1906 and wondered about its origin. They gave the construction date as 1635, according to an inscription found on a stone. The Fischers thought about Greek architectural history and wondered where this building had come from. The altar and the niches were empty.188 However, the French archaeologist Edouard Chavannes (1865– 1918) visited the ruins in 1907 and gave a basic description of the temple in his book on Mount Tai in 1910. He included a photo of the altar showing the Heavenly Jade Maiden accompanied by two servants.189 The material collected by Boerschmann on this trip added up to 250 pages of sketches and notes, 220 photos and 100 rubbings.190 In mid-November 1907 the Legation in Beijing prepared a report about the operations of their two scientific experts, Boerschmann and Adolf Fischer. The latter served in China from 1904 until 1907. His duties as cultural attaché for China, Japan and Korea included buying art pieces for the collections in Berlin and Cologne. The report states that Boerschmann had so far only collected

182 For a detailed description of the shrine see Wu Hung, 1989. 183 Fischer, 1942: 112. 184 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.231–234. 185 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 31. 186 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 517. 187 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 31. 188 Fischer, 1942: 127, image 96. 189 Chavannes, 1910: 30f. 190 PAAA: handwritten report by EB, 6.12.1907 Qingdao (36 pages).



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material and postponed further analysis. The budget for both experts consisted of 32,000 Marks per year – 16,000 Marks each, including expenses for living costs and materials.191 On 6 December 1907 Boerschmann reported from Qingdao about his activities from July to November. A day later he wrote an additional paper for the Legation in Beijing. Boerschmann was responding to a letter from the Chancellor of the German Empire, Bernhard von Bülow, from 9 July 1907, demanding an end to Boerschmann’s research trip, most probably due to financial concerns.192 But Boerschmann answered that he could not finish the studies before the given date of 31 July 1908. He mentioned his 1,200 pages of notes and sketches in his diaries, 1,500-plus photographs and his large collection of drawings and stone rubbings. Detailed elaboration, he argued, could only be done in Berlin, because both specific literature and the help of Sinologists were needed. After returning to Berlin, he would require at least several months to write about the buildings that he had visited. Additionally Boerschmann asked for a draftsperson to work on the ‟sixty drawings” that he planned as illustrations. The Ministry of War should prepare for a continuation of his leave of absence after July 1908, otherwise he would not be able to begin the evaluation of the material collected. This, he wrote, would be essential for the understanding of his research. His self-imposed duty as a researcher could not end in August 1908 – his work would continue for some time. In a second point, ‟deepening the studies”, Boerschmann argued that breaking off his work now would run counter to the interests of science. He explained his earlier focus on the northern provinces, but had now learned about the need to widen his studies in order to understand the architecture and sculpture of Chinese history. Visits to the royal tombs around Beijing had given him the idea of continuing with older tombs in Shenyang and Nanjing. The visit in Chengde pointed to Mount Wutai and further to the west, and even the buildings in Shandong, where he had visited only a few places, showed elements of a ‟long line of development.” As he said, ‟The impact of the old Chinese type, the temple of Confucius and the natural gods came only into my mind here in Shandong.” Understanding the ‟un-Chinese” characteristics of many Buddhist temples and of all Lamaist temples, he continued, would require researching the west of China and the influence from India and Tibet. ‟I am sure to find buildings there which present very important elements for the connection between Western and Chinese art, and for the development of the separate Chinese art forms.” On the one hand, he wrote that his material would be enough for a publication by the end of August the following year. However, on the other, he added, he had only reached an early stage in his work. Boerschmann feared it would be left fragmentary and full of mistakes. A further section in the letter was titled ‟interrelation with culture”. In this he stressed the real issue behind his work: ‟And then the task was given to me, to uncover the general connection of architecture with the Chinese culture.” He further argued that architecture would reveal Chinese culture much better than for instance small sculptures, bronzes or porcelain. ‟I have succeeded in finding a lot of ideas, especially social and religious, laid down in the buildings.” Again he stressed the need to study a living culture – in opposition to the situation in Greece, Egypt and Assyria, where the German government had spent significant sums on archaeological research. Boerschmann closed that section of the letter with the announcement that he needed some more years for his work. Another section in the letter proposed a ‟plan for the further work”. So as not to terrify his sponsors, he limited the approach to the area north of the Yangtze River. ‟The bigger South would have brought so many new motifs that a completion would have moved to a remote future. […] [T] he field for research is so immense that a real end of the studies and a completion of the material is not to be thought of,” he stated.

191 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 15.11.1907, Legation to AA. 192 The letter in which an end to the research trip is demanded is not in the archive. Boerschmann refers to the content of the letter in his answer. PAAA: R 138420, letter, 7.12.1907, EB to Legation. Asset to the report from 29.12.1907 to the AA.

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For the following year Boerschmann proposed the following itinerary: December 1907 to January 1908: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and the island of Mount Putuo; February 1908: Seoul (Korea) for comparison, Mukden [Shenyang] and surroundings; March 1908: Beijing and surroundings; April to December 1908: a long journey through Shanxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan Provinces, generally following the Imperial Road to Tibet and India, arriving at the Yangtze at 106 degrees eastern longitude [Luzhou], and then along the river to Shanghai; January 1909: preliminary treatment of the material collected in Shanghai; February–March 1909: a second trip to Shandong; April: Beijing and surroundings; May, June and July: journey back home via Java and India, to get an insight into the interrelation of East Asian built forms. ‟I hope that through such a extension of my plan, I will be able to give a complete image of Chinese architecture and make it also to some degree correct in the context of East Asian culture and hence to meet the requirements in a scientific manner.” For the work on his material in Berlin he asked for a further year of support. Boerschmann appealed to the Ministry of War to extend his leave, at least until August 1910. To emphasis his plans further, he argued that East Asian culture would play an important role in the future. In this framework, research in architecture would become significant – ‟because, more than in Europe, the whole cultural life [in China] is closely connected with architecture, the mother of [the] arts.” He then offered his services to this field ‟for a number of years or permanently”. The last point in the letter appealed to the ‟national point of view”. If the Chancellor would not agree to extend his stay in China, all material collected by him would naturally be without value for the science, which would be unfortunate since other nations were very eager to research Chinese culture. He mentioned the well-known French Sinologist Edouard Chavannes, who – according to Boerschmann – had travelled the country with his former student, a young Russian (Vasili Alekseev, 1881–1951), to purchase old books.193 He had also heard about two Japanese (no names are given) who had started to document Chinese architecture. But Boerschmann believed that the Japanese would be unable to reveal the connection with the Western hemisphere. He also called for an assistant to help him with the documentation.194 On 9 December 1907 another 700 Marks were paid to Boerschmann from the travel budget.195 On 29 December 1907 the Legation in Beijing prepared a report about his work in China. The officer complained that so far Boerschmann had only collected material and postponed the evaluation repeatedly. Boerschmann was quoted as saying that he wanted to collect material for at least another two years before starting on the organisation and preparation of the collection. With some amazement the officer wrote that Boerschmann not only wants to write a ‟history in epochs, but also researches the inner connection of architecture with the culture”. The ambassador, Count Rex, questioned whether an architect who was not also a Sinologist could succeed in this. But Count Rex did not feel competent enough to give a final opinion on the work of Boerschmann, who, he said, had always shown full interest in the subject so far.196

193 Alekseev, 1989. 194 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 7.12.1907, EB to Legation. Asset to the report from 29.12.1907 to the AA. 195 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 9.12.1907, Legation to AA. 196 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 29.12.1907, Legation to AA.



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Trip to Zhejiang (December 1907–Spring 1908) The background struggle about time and money did not prevent Boerschmann from continuing with his plans. In January 1908 the Legation in Beijing sent his letters to Shanghai. However, he stopped reporting directly to the Legation about his activities. In his opinion, the reports had cost him too much time, and did not help in the scientific exploration of the material. For him, the time seemed better spent on further travel and documentation.197 Most probably Boerschmann went by boat from Qingdao directly to Shanghai. His stay there was never reflected in any later publication, but he took some photos of the Pagoda of the Beauty of the Dragon (Longhuata). The pagoda is part of a Buddhist temple dedicated to Bodhisattva Maitreya, which dates back to the year 242, but which was rebuilt several times.198 The present architectural style of the pagoda follows Song Dynasty characteristics. The photos taken by Boerschmann show a slight difference to the pagoda’s current appearance. His 1907 image shows a perfect tower, whereas the photos taken ten years later by Bernd Melchers indicate that piers and balustrades had been removed.199 After the foundation of the Republic in 1912 soldiers looted the temple and used it as barracks. Both the temple and the pagoda were repaired and used again by monks in 1922.200 The image taken by Melchers in 1917

197 Aside from the reports to the Legation, his route and the time he stayed in different places is only found occasionally in his later writings. 198 Boerschmann mentioned the date 242 AD, which is given by many other publications too. Recent research, however, questions the age of the temple and pagoda. Danielson suggests that the temple was Northern Song Dynasty (960–1126). The temple was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion in 1860, but the pagoda survived. See Danielson, 2003: 15–28. 199 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 211. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 253. EB, Chinesische Architektur, 1925: P.314. Fuhrmann, 1921: 49. 200 Danielson, 2003: 19.

Fig. 142: The Longhua Pagoda in Shanghai as published by Boerschmann. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.314).

Fig. 143: The Longhua Pagoda with broken balustrades photographed by Bernd Melchers in 1913. (© Melchers, Pag, 1931: 211).

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shows the condition during the occupation by the army. In 1937 the Japanese Army again badly damaged the temple. In the following years the buildings were restored and rebuilt. In 1954 the government turned part of the temple grounds into Longhua Park201 and in 1966 the Red Guards destroyed the interior of the temple halls and unsuccessfully tried to pull down the pagoda. The reconstruction of the temple compound started in 1981 and in 1984 the pagoda underwent a total renovation.202 Boerschmann stayed twice in Hangzhou (EB: Hangchoufu), first on his trip to Zhejiang at the end of 1907 and again on his return trip from Guangzhou to Beijing, in the spring of 1909. He never wrote in detail about the visits, but published on many individual aspects of the buildings in the city. It is therefore impossible to say which parts of the memorial landscape around West Lake (EB: Sihu) he visited on the first stay and which on the second. As a guide he used Frederick D. Cloud’s book, published in 1906.203 However, during one of the visits in Hangzhou Boerschmann stayed at West Lake in the memorial temple for the Qing Dynasty politician Zhang Yao (EB: Chang Yao tze tang, 1832–1891), who

201 Today there is Longhua Martyrs Cemetery to commemorate the victims of the purge by the Guomindang of suspected Communists in 1927. 202 Danielson, 2003: 21. 203 Cloud, Hangchow, 1906.

Fig. 144: The Longhua Pagoda in a reconstruction drawing by Tong Jun (1933). The drawing was most probably given to Boerschmann during his stay in China between 1933 and 1935. (© Tong Jun, courtesy of Tong Ming).

Fig. 145: The Longhua Pagoda in 2010. Today’s balustrades and the upturned eaves look different to those in the photos by Melchers or Boerschmann, or the drawing by Tong Jun from 1933. (© EK).



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Fig. 146: The city of Hangzhou with the location of the famous pagodas and temples around West Lake and at Qiangtang River. 1. Temple for Yue Fei, 2. Buddhist Lingyin Temple, 3. Liuhe Pagoda, 4. White Pagoda, 5. Leifeng Pagoda, 6. Baochu Pagoda. (© EK). See also plate 10.

had served as governor of Shandong Province between 1886 and 1891. The temple consisted of two parts, one, with the memorial hall, more formal, the other with a garden and pavilion, including guestrooms and meeting facilities.204 A further memorial temple at the lake (possibly the Temple of Great Men) was dedicated to the ‟famous sons of the province”. The two-storey entrance gate contained the statue of Kui Xing, the God of Examinations. In the following three halls, honorary panels made of hard wood (nanmu), carried the names and titles of the ‟famous sons”. The temple was in poor condition.205 Next door the Memorial Temple of the Triple Loyalty (EB: San I Miao), also known as the Palace of the Spirit of Efficiency (EB: Wu Shen kung) – which refers to Guan Yu (162–220),206 known as the ‟Emperor Guan”, the Taoist God of War and Capability, or simply Guandi, and therefore was also known as the Temple for Guandi – which showed statues of the three heroes Liu Bei (161–223),207 Zhang Fei (†221)208 and Guan Yu, as well as chancellor Zhuge Liang

204 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 91. 205 Ibid: 89. 206 Guan Yu served Liu Bei as military general. 207 Liu Bei was a military leader and emperor during the period of the Three Kingdoms. 208 Zhang Fei was a military general in the same period.

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Fig. 147: Boerschmann’s sketch of the layout of the “Temple for the Famous Sons of the Province” near West Lake. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 92).

Fig. 148: Boerschmann’s sketch of the layout of the Temple for Guandi at West Lake. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 55).



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(181–234)209 from the early period of the Three Kingdoms (220–280) in the first hall. The main hall was dedicated to Guan Yu, and at the back of the front hall a circular iron mirror (EB: Chao tan t’ai) reflected its spiritual power.210 Further visits took him to several other temples and memorials around the lake, such as the temples for the nineteenth-century statesmen Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) and Zuo Zhongtang (1812–1885), both of whom had their own memorial temples at West Lake.211 A memorial temple for the legendary Cangjie (EB: Tsang Hie, c. 2650 BC), said to be the first historian of the Yellow Emperor and the inventor of Chinese characters, also stood on the banks of West Lake. According to Boerschmann, his sculpture had a double mouth and two pairs of eyes, one above the other.212 After the destruction of the city during the Taiping Rebellion in the 1850s, a new public library opened at the Emperor’s Lodge at West Lake.213 Boerschmann visited the library and took a photo of the interior, which shows clean, straight lines in the cupboard design.214 In 2010 the shell of the library building still existed, but was in poor condition, with the interior lost and basic changes made to the arrangement of space. Yue Fei (EB: Yo Fei, 1103–1142), a military general during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127– 1279), known for leading the defence against forces from the Northern Chinese Jin Dynasty (1115– 1235), was betrayed and killed, becoming posthumously a hero. Only in 1163 were his grave and memorial temple built at the West Lake in Lin’an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, today Hangzhou. Song Chancellor Qin Hui (1090–1155) and his wife, Lady Wang, were made responsible for the death of Yue Fei. For their part in the plot, iron statues of them (together with Zhang Jun and Mo Qixie, who were charged with the murder of Yue Fei) were placed in front of the tomb. Even in the early twentieth century, when Boerschmann visited the temple, male visitors spat and emptied their bowels on the statues. ‟The condition of the place, one might easily imagine”, he wrote.215 Besides the temple, the tomb consisted of two graves in a garden, one for Yue Fei and the other for his son Yue Yun (1119–1142). The base consisted of a circular ring wall of ashlar stone and a semi-circular cover made of thin bricks.216 (Later images from the 1910s show the semi-circular cover plastered.) Red Guards destroyed the tomb and temple during the Cultural Revolution and the rebuilding took place in 1979 with a different layout – a decorated ring wall formed the basis and a semi-circular dome, planted with grass, topped the structure. According to an article published in 1980, the new layout ‟restored its original form as first built in 1163, that is with bricks placed directly on the ground and covered with a mound of clay, and weeds growing on top as was the custom then.”217 Boerschmann visited the memorial temple for poet Su Dongpo (1037–1101) and the nearby tomb of the female poet Su Xiaoxiao (†501) on the shore of West Lake. Like the tomb for Yue Fei, the tomb for the poet consisted of a circular ashlar stone base and a semi-spherical (possibly plastered) top, covered by an open pavilion with an expressive roof.218 Red Guards destroyed the tomb during the Cultural Revolution; it was rebuilt in 2004 with a circular ring of ashlar stone topped with a plaster-covered dome, under a new pavilion next to the lake. The Buddhist Temple of the Soul’s Retreat (Lingyinsi, EB: Ling yin sze), founded in 328, but with halls from the late Qing Dynasty, was also visited by Boerschmann.219 A few years later, in 1917, the

209 Zhuge Liang was chancellor under Liu Bei. 210 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 54. 211 Ibid: 89. 212 Ibid: 3. 213 Cloud, 1906: 21. 214 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 262. 215 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 38. 216 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 259. 217 Chang Shaowen, 1980: 56. 218 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 80. 219 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 258/260. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 296–303.

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Fig. 149: The tomb of Yue Fei and his son at their memorial temple near West Lake. Boerschmann’s photograph, taken between 1907 and 1909, shows the semi-circular cover made of small bricks. Only the tomb of Yue Fei has a stelae in front. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, BL, 1923: 259).

Fig. 150: Shortly after Boerschmann’s photograph, the semi-circular cover of the tombs were plastered, as seen on the postcard from a Chinese photographer. In front of both tombs was a stela. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).



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Fig. 151: After the destruction in the Cultural Revolution, the tomb was reconstructed in the late 1970s. In 2010 the cupolas consisted of small grass caps. (© EK).

Fig. 152: The iron sculptures of Song Chancellor Qin Hui (1090–1155) and his wife at the tomb of Yue Fei. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

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Fig. 153: The sculpture of Yue Fei with two assistants in the temple. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, glass-slide, PAB).

Fig. 154: The sculpture of Yue Fei in 2010. (© EK).



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German art historian Bernd Melchers took some measurements and photos at the temple. When Boerschmann visited the place, the Grand Hall of the Great Sage had been reduced to rubble, but in 1917 Melchers reported on the reconstruction. According to him, the craftsmen used concrete instead of timber for the 33.6-metre-high hall.220 In front of the main hall, on the Moon Terrace, were two stone pagodas, which Boerschmann could not date exactly, and which were later included in his book Pagoden. He suggested – correctly – that they dated from the tenth century.221 Nearby he paid a visit to the Ligong Pagoda (EB: Li kung) from 1590, built to house the ashes of the temple’s founding monk, Hui Li, who lived in the fourth century.222 A fire destroyed the Hall of the 500 Luohan in 1935.223 Most of the buildings today have been renovated or rebuilt after 1980, including a new hall made of concrete for the new sculptures of the 500 Luohan. At the north bank of the West Lake Boerschmann took a photo of the famous engravings of sixteen Luohan at the marble display in Shengyin Monastery (EB: Sheng yin sze). He interpreted this stone drum as an Ashoka-stupa (EB: Asoka) on a sixteen-sided base.224 He estimated the date

220 Melchers, 1921: 27 and P.31–40. 221 See also Fu Xinian, 1984: 26. 222 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 296–303. 223 Verschiedenes, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 6/1936: 267. 224 Ashoka the Great was an Indian Emperor in the fourth century BC. Ashoka turned to Buddhism and built the Sanchi Stupa near Bhopal in India. According to the legend, he built 84,000 stupas, each with a relic of Buddha and sent them to other Asian countries. Also in China the Buddhists told Boerschmann that they had 84,000 – or 84 (!) – original small stupas from that period. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 416.

Fig. 155: The Ligong Pagoda for monk Hui Li at the Temple of the Soul’s Retreat near West Lake in Hangzhou. (© Rüdenberg, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

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Fig. 156: A part of the sculptures in the Hall of the 500 Luohan in Lingyin Temple on a postcard from 1920s. The hall was destroyed by fire in 1935. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Fig. 157: The newly built Hall of the 500 Luohan at Lingyin Temple in 2010. (© EK).



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Fig. 158: A part of the sculptures in the Hall of the 500 Luohan in Lingyin Temple on a postcard from 1920s. The hall was destroyed by fire in 1935. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

of construction to be 1780, the height five metres and the diameter three. Boerschmann suspected that it held a relic inside. The main feature, however, was the sixteen reliefs of Luohan on the stone drum, each 56 by 120 centimetres and carved in the style of the Song Dynasty.225 Since the Tang Dynasty many Muslims have lived in Hangzhou. The Phoenix Mosque (Fenghuangsi, EB: Li pai sze), the third oldest mosque in China, dates back to this time, but was often rebuilt and renovated, according to Shatzmann Steinhardt, most recently in 1670.226 Boerschmann took some photos, prepared a floor plan and a sectional drawing of the main building, but said nothing about the history.227 According to his drawings, the main prayer hall consisted of a wooden construction and the prayer niche was in a brick building with three cupolas. The photos he published show the entrance gate, decorated with terracotta, stucco with flower ornaments, and fine calligraphy above. In front of the gate a curving wall enclosed the compound towards the street.228 In 1929 road works changed the entrance fundamentally. Today it has been renovated, but the curved wall has been removed and the decoration on the front gate differs in many details from Boerschmann’s photograph. The wooden construction of the prayer hall, with its typical pitched roof, has changed completely and is today an ordinary concrete frame building with a flat roof. In Boerschmann’s time, a covered walkway connected the prayer hall with the entrance tower. It seems certain that the changes in recent decades have been fundamental, and that the date of the last renovation, given as 1670 by Shatzmann Steinhardt, is based on a misunderstanding.

225 Ibid: 428 and P.10. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P. 293. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 261. 226 Shatzmann Steinhardt, 9/2008: 342. 227 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 38/39. 228 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 69 and P.35. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 38/39.

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Fig. 159: The famous engravings of Song-style Luohans on the sixteen sided pagoda-like drum in Shengyin ­Monastery at West Lake in Hangzhou. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, BL, 1923: 261).

Hangzhou had three large pagodas at strategic positions and Boerschmann believed they were perfectly placed to give the city a good Feng Shui. One was Leifeng Pagoda (EB: Lei feng ta), the other Baochu Pagoda (EB: Pao Schu ta) and the third Liuhe Pagoda (EB: Liu ho ta), all built during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) in the tenth century. The Liuhe Pagoda was built in 976 on the bank of the Qiangtang River one and a half hours’ walk from the city, to calm the annual flood wave (EB: Tsientang), which could be up to three metres in height. The Taiping Rebels destroyed the pagoda in 1862 and rebuilding took place in 1894. The pagoda had been recently renovated before Boerschmann came to Hangzhou.229 In his opinion, the Zhenhai Pagoda in Haining, several kilometres closer to the sea and built for the same purpose, could be called a sister pagoda. According to the knowledge he had then, the pagoda originated from 1732.230 However, today the year of construction is given as 1612. The seven-storey hexagonal brick-timber construction reached a height of fifty metres.231 The Leifeng Pagoda and the Baochu Pagoda both stood on the shore of West Lake – the first on the south side, the latter on the north – and both were in ruins at the time of Boerschmann’s visit. The Leifeng Pagoda collapsed totally in 1924. His images, taken in spring 1909, show the dilapidated condition and the attempt to reinforce the base. The rebuilding of the pagoda took place between 1999 and 2002. According to Boerschmann, the octagonal pagoda dated to between

229 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 224/225. 230 Ibid: 227. 231 Peking University Library, 2010: 80.



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Fig. 160: Each of the three cupolas was crowned with a circular swinging “Chinese” roof. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 38).

Fig. 161: The floor plan of the mosque in Hangzhou. The Great Prayer Hall was a wooden construction then, whereas the mirabh was in a niche in the final brick building topped by three cupolas. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 39).

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Fig. 162: The floor plan of the Liuhe Pagoda at the Qiantang River, as recorded by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 225).

Fig. 163: The Liuhe Pagoda from the river. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, PAB).

960 and 976 (Northern Song Dynasty). The ruined brick tower was about fifty metres high. The seven-storey massive ruined core of Baochu Pagoda on Precious Stone Hill had – according to Boerschmann – last been renovated in 1544 and originally dated from tenth century.232 Like the other two pagodas, it originated from the Northern Song Dynasty and was given a construction date between 986 and 975. The present tower was last reconstructed in 1933. Many scenes and places at the West Lake changed after the revolution in 1911. Temples were renamed, meanings transformed and buildings were rearranged in accordance with new political and social developments. Eugene Wang has described this process and given some examples.233 Further changes took place in the course of the twentieth century, especially during the Cultural Revolution and as a result of the rapid urbanisation of recent years. In 2011 West Lake and the cultural treasures around it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. Boerschmann travelled from Hangzhou to Ningbo and passed through Shaoxing (EB: Shaohingfu), but without recording his activities there.234 (For a map of Shaoxing see plate 20). In Ningbo it is also unclear how long Boerschmann stayed and what he did in the city. We know from his photos and other documents that he visited some temples in the vicinity, such as the Monastery of the Celestial Boy, also called the Temple of the Heavenly Child (Tiantongsi, EB: Tien tung sze), 25 kilometres east of Ningbo. It was an important place in Chan-Buddhism and belonged to the five

232 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 158. 233 Eugene Wang, in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, 2000: 73–122. 234 He never published anything about the city, but referred to Walshe, 1900: 26–48.



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Fig. 164: The Zhenhai Pagoda stood in Haining next to the Qiangtang River. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

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Fig. 165: The ruin of the Leifeng Pagoda collapsed in 1924 and was rebuilt in 2002. The image here is from a postcard in Boerschmann’s collection. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Chinese Chan-Buddhist School Mountains.235 The active exchange with Japan and the history of the temple, which dated back to the fourth century, made it interesting. The buildings, however, are from the Ming Dynasty. Boerschmann only published some images of the temple and made no further reference to it.236 Although the temple survived the turbulent times, the interior has vanished. In the city of Ningbo he visited the Guildhall for the Fujian People (EB: Fukien hui kuan) with a theatre stage and an altar for the Celestial Queen or Mazu, one of the most popular folk deities.237 He documented the octagonal bracket cupola – a distinctive feature of the theatre stage – as an element of the ‟central buildings” style in his book Chinesische Architektur.238 The guildhall dated back to 1191 and was destroyed in 1949.239 It is argued that the Guildhall for Fujian People in Ningbo served as a model for later merchant guildhalls.240 Boerschmann never wrote about the place and most probably did not know anything about its history. He stayed during Christmas 1907 in Ningbo and from there took the boat to visit the sacred Buddhist island of Mount Putuo.

235 Chan originated in the sixth century as one school of Mahayana Buddhism and is better known in the West under its Japanese name, Zen. 236 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 264–269. 237 Mazu is traditionally the goddess of the sea, protecting fishermen and sailors, and has been worshipped since the Ming Dynasty. 238 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 91 and P.80. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 272/273/276. 239 Peking University Library, 2010: 128. 240 Belsky, 2005: 22.

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Fig. 166: A pavilion at the shore of West Lake. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, courtesy of Ang Ye).

Fig. 167: The drawing of one of the three small lantern pagodas (Santan Yinyue) in the water of West Lake. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 168: The Temple of Heavenly Child near Ningbo. A front view across the pond towards the entrance hall with the four heavenly kings. (© Boerschmann 1907, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Fig. 169: The altar in the main hall of the Temple of Heavenly Child. (© Boerschmann 1907, BL, 1923: 267).

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Fig. 170: Some of the sculptures of the 18 Luohan with an umbrella in the Temple of Heavenly Child. (© Boerschmann 1907, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Mount Putuo (January 1908) Boerschmann arrived from Ningbo at the sacred Buddhist island of Mount Putuo, dedicated to Bodhisattva Guanyin,241 on the last day of 1907. He stayed on the island for almost three weeks, documenting several buildings and the religious practice in Buddhist temples. This was his third sacred mountain after visiting Mount Wutai, sacred to Buddhists, and Mount Tai, sacred to Taoists. It seemed a good opportunity to study the buildings and religious practice of a closed Buddhist unit on an island. At ten o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, 31 December 1907, he arrived at the pier in a sailing boat. A Buddhist monk from Ningbo, a boy from Shanghai, and an interpreter accompanied him. Boerschmann planned to stay in the biggest temple on the island, the Chan Temple of Universal Salvation (Pujisi, EB: P’u’tzi sze), first built in 916. But due to some unexplained difficulties he moved to the Stone Temple or Fayu Temple (EB: Fa yü sze) at the north end of Thousand Step Beach. On their way across the island Boerschmann’s group met a few monks begging, but most of them were busy with their daily activities. A stone-slab path in good condition, two to three metres wide, ran across the island. He reported that the landscape varied with beautiful groves, with trees along the way, temples on the rocky hills and a shore with cliffs and sandy beaches. However, if we look at his photos today, the landscape seems rather empty of trees, with a few groves around the temples and shrubs in other places. At the Stone Temple he was given a room in the newly built guesthouse, with ‟European” glazed windows, wash facilities in the room and ‟comfortable beds”. The friendly monks offered him tea, nuts, cake and lunch. In the afternoon he visited the temple halls with the treasurer, who

241 In Chinese Buddhism Guanyin is synonymous with bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit), in English referred to as the Goddess of Mercy. But Taoists also worship goddess Guanyin as an immortal.



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Fig. 171: Boerschmann prepared a sketch map with the three main monasteries he visited during his stay on the island indicated. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: T.3).

explained many aspects of the buildings. The extent of the works of art – carvings, statues, fabrics and embroideries – in the temple surprised Boerschmann. The New Year’s Day rains were followed by even colder days with a strong wind. He started to investigate the southern part of the temple, with the treasurer as guide. His many detailed questions bored the interpreter and Boerschmann became very angry about his attitude, and with his own language limitations. On 4 January the weather turned sunny and he photographed and sketched in the temple. The rich religious life impressed him and he felt he was observing a living culture. Some sailors from Xiamen (EB: Amoy) ordered a private service for sixty dollars. The priests prayed all day, and the range of their different ceremonies was unknown to Boerschmann at that point. ‟The skipper watched closely [to see] whether they prayed enough for their good money and were pleased with the mercy of the sweet Kuan yin [Guanyin].” He still considered the interpreter a bit difficult because he failed to translate the questions properly. ‟Unfortunately, the Chinese lack the sense of causality,” he noted in the diary. On the following day he watched the older monks in the daily business of meditation and religious practice. The librarian gave him some images of Buddha. On 6 January the weather again turned cold. His boy felt sick and went to the doctor in the temple. Boerschmann was sure that the boy had never taken the medicine he had given him, because he did not trust the foreign cure. He watched the service of about 160 monks in the Great Grand Hall (EB: Fa t’ang) built in 1699 and noted their activities. On the left and the right part of the hall he counted eight rows with ten monks. However, he felt excluded from the religious meaning. ‟The overall impression: it was severe discipline, and it was no fun.” On 7 January he discussed railway politics in China and the Chinese books in the state library in Berlin with some monks. Such worldly interests and knowledge impressed him again. The following day he was able to finish the measurements of the layout of the temple complex and was surprised by its size. In summer 700 to 800 guests often stayed there at the same time. Boersch-

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Fig. 172: “Guanyin with gods and saints”. Boerschmann got this depiction of the sacred pantheon on Mount Putuo from the monks. (Putuo, 1911: T.15).

Fig. 173: The guest room at Fayu Temple. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 174: The layout of the 240 metre long Fayu Temple. The way to the entrance at the southeast crossed a pond. The secondary buildings for the monks, guests and pilgrims were towards the west side. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

178 

Fig. 175: The drawings of the front views highlight the different size of the halls at Fayu Temple from the south to the north. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 20).

Fig. 176: The plan of the arrangement for the evening service for the boat people in front of Bodhisattva Dizhang Wang (Ksitigrabha). (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 156).

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Mount Putuo (January 1908) 

 179

Fig. 177: The shrine for the pearl goddess in the rear hall of Fayu Temple. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 178: The plan of the arrangement for the consecration of food and rice in the morning for the boat people in front of the altar in the main hall. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 153).

180 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

mann worked the whole day measuring the halls. A monk, who also photographed, talked with him for two hours in the afternoon. In the evening he walked up the mountain to enjoy the view over the temple and the landscape. In the cove he counted about one hundred junks at anchor. Early in the morning on 9 January, Boerschmann climbed a paved stairway up to Mount Foding (EB: Fo ting shan) with his helpers. On the way they passed inscriptions in the rocks, an old lady living in a small cave, and below the peak of Mount Foding some ‟graves in a happy position”, meaning that they were placed according to Feng Shui. The interpreter had already proceeded with a letter of introduction from the abbot of the Temple of the Heavenly Child east of Ningbo to Huiji Temple (1793), the third largest on the island, on top of the mountain. The priest welcomed him with a hearty lunch. Boerschmann was able to take some basic measurements and in the evening they returned to Fayu Temple. On 10 January he visited the Duobao Pagoda (EB: T’ai tsze t’a) next to Puji Temple, constructed between 1333 and 1335 during the Yuan Dynasty, the earliest building still extant on the island. The small pagoda was in a dilapidated condition, but was soon afterwards repaired. On the way they passed a procession of monks with the abbot in the sedan chair on their way to bless a boat on the beach. At the pagoda, the local monk could not answer Boerschmann’s questions. The main hall (EB: Ta tien) of the nearby Puji Temple impressed him. On the way back he passed a new temple donated by a rich pharmacist from Shanghai. The buildings already showed some Western detailing in the window glazing, which lacked the traditional paper coverings. For him it was a sign that the old craft of Chinese architecture was slowly disappearing under the influence of Western technology. On 11 January he saw the bakery at Fayu Temple in operation; this was preparing goods for the coming Chinese New Year Festival on 2 February. Because the temple only allowed vegetarian food, he sent his cook to buy some chicken in the village. The abbot tolerated it because Boerschmann promised to keep it secret. On Sunday, 12 January, his interpreter copied all inscriptions in the temple and translated them on the spot. For quite a few of them he ‟failed, and the priests could not give an explanation either”. Boerschmann worried about the monks’ knowledge of their own religion and tradition. On 13 January he noted the wet weather and the diseases of the local people, who came to him for a cure. But he could not help. In the main hall the instruments from the temple were being cleaned with water and plant material. In the evening he met some monks and they asked him about Germany, the military, education and administration. ‟They were very inquisitive,” he wrote. The boy again cooked chicken with rice, the sixth time in three days. His supplies of coffee and bread were finished. ‟It’s time to go,” he noted. The following day, Boerschmann took further measurements and made descriptions in the temple. In his view, only slowly, piece-by-piece, after measurement and description, did the ‟tender inner ideas” come to light. Again a group of 27 sailors came to worship in the temple. Many other pilgrims visited the temple too and all looked at him and his activities with astonishment. On 15 January Boerschmann continued with his work, but the number of pilgrims increased. The priests were busy with recitation, firecrackers and other religious activities. In the evening – as always – the monks celebrated the big sacrifice for Dizang (EB: Ti tsang wang), the Bodhisattva of the Underworld and Death (Ksitigarbha in Sanskrit). On 16 January Boerschmann walked in the nearby hills and looked past the Fayu Temple to the sea. He visited two graves of former abbots. The smaller buildings of the Fayu Temple gleamed white in the green of the grove, whereas the main hall flashed bright yellow.242 On 17 January he left Mount Putuo and noted his feelings in the diary about ‟the deep connection between religion and nature” there. With a local junk Boerschmann continued for Shenjiamen (EB: Cheng kia men) on Zhoushan Island. There he changed to the ferry for Ningbo. Boerschmann noted – in a sentimental tone – in his journal about the rapid changes in Chinese culture and

242 EB, Putuo, 1911: 161–168.



Mount Putuo (January 1908) 

Fig. 179: The main altar at Foding Temple on top of Mount Foding. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

 181

182 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

Fig. 180: The sketch layout of the Chan Temple of Universal Salvation with a bridge across a pond at the entrance. To the southeast stands the Duobao Pagoda. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 20).



Mount Putuo (January 1908) 

Fig. 181: The main altar in the main prayer hall in the Chan Temple of Universal Salvation. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

 183

184 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

Fig. 182: The Duobao Pagoda southeast of the entrance to the Chan Temple of Universal Salvation. The condition of the pagoda was rather bad. Soon after Boerschmann’s visit it was renovated. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).



Mount Putuo (January 1908) 

 185

Fig. 183: A grave of an abbot in the hills of Mount Putuo. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

society, mainly the result of ‟European progress”, which had brought about a fragmentation of cultural values. He hoped the Chinese would be able to save some of the old values to build a ‟new building”. As he said, ‟If we remain aware, we living of today, that we have the possibility to study how a real culture is, today we can; tomorrow we cannot, because then we have destroyed her.” On Sunday 18 January the boat left at seven o’clock for Ningbo. In the afternoon they reached Yong River and arrived in the city at two o’clock. On the way, the boat passed many conic icehouses on the riverbanks, where the ice was stored during the hot season.243 Like many other places in China, the island suffered during Cultural Revolution, when temples, interiors, sculptures and libraries vanished. Nuns and monks had to leave the island and could only return after 1979. Since then, the three largest temples have been restored; by 1987 the island had more than one million visitors annually.244 Today (2012) several million visitors come each year and a new gigantic twenty-metre-high statue of Guanyin is a new highlight for the pilgrims. (See also fig. 398–415 for further images from Mount Putuo).

243 Ibid: 199–203. 244 Tythacott, 2011: 37.

186 

Fig. 184: Boerschmann’s sketch of monks. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: T.23).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)



Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) 

 187

Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) From Hangzhou or Shanghai Boerschmann went to Suzhou (EB: Sutschou) in Jiangsu Province. There he saw the memorial temple for nineteenth-century statesmen Li Hongzhang245 and mentioned the public use of Lingering Garden (Liuyuan).246 The Surging Waves Pavilion (Changlangting, EB: Tsang lang ting), first built in 1044, is described as a combination of pleasure garden and memorial. The Taiping Rebels destroyed the garden and restoration took place in 1873. The magnificent garden stretched out behind a wall and was reached via a zigzag bridge from the street. Inserted into the massive walls of the Memorial Hall for the Five Hundred Renowned Sages, he found stone tablets with images of 500 famous scholars and statesmen. Boerschmann described the hall as a ‟literary pantheon”, with large portraits in combination with a short poem for each person on display. Five portraits were always combined on one plate. The larger plates showed the sages amid beautiful landscapes. Because Boerschmann thought that this gallery was so valuable, he planned to publish a separate volume just with the photos of the plates, but this never happened.247 Boerschmann mentioned the Temple for Confucius in Suzhou as special, because Fan Zhongyan (EB: Fan Wencheng, 989–1052), a well-known politician during the Song Dynasty, donated the land to build one of the largest Confucian temples in the country. The people honoured Fan in a separate hall in the complex for this gift.248 With surprise Boerschmann registered a further special feature of the architecture of the main hall, which had no gallery around it: the front facade was

245 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 85. 246 Ibid: 272. 247 Ibid, 1914: 93/94. It is unclear where the images are today. 248 Ibid: 92.

Fig. 185: A water gate in a unidentified city wall in the Jiangnan region. (Unknown photographer 1930s, archive EK).

188 

Fig. 186: A historic Chinese map of the city of Suzhou printed on thin cloth and consisting of two parts, as collected by Boerschmann. (PAB).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)



Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) 

 189

Fig. 187: The main hall in the Taoist Mysterious Essence Temple in Suzhou. (Unknown photo­ grapher, CA, 1925: T.24).

massive and appeared closed.249 The temple Boerschmann saw had been rebuilt in late 1860s after the destruction during the Taiping Rebellion.250 Suzhou, the ‟Venice of the East”, fascinated Boerschmann as it did the Chinese, who considered the city a mirror to heaven on earth. Besides the gardens already mentioned, the seven pagodas – four in the city and three on the hills west of the city – caught his attention.251 In the book Pagoden he described all of them, but made little reference to his visits. He considered the North Pagoda (EB: Pei Ta), near the North Gate in the city wall, the most important. The North Pagoda belonged to the ruined Bao’en Monastery. The pagoda – the tower dated from Ming Dynasty, but it had a 1700-year history – was in very good condition after a very recent reconstruction (1903). Boerschmann took some basic measures on the spot, which he used for sketches and floor plans.252 The Pagoda of Auspicious Light (Ruiguangta) belonged to a temple (EB: Jui kuang sze) at the southwest corner of the city, close to Pan Gate. Boerschmann had an old chronicle to hand which documented the history of the pagoda. According to it, the pagoda was first built in 241 and, after it was destroyed, was rebuilt between 1119 and 1126 to the height of seven storeys. At the end of nineteenth century (1879) a typhoon had destroyed parts of the exterior. The local governor collected money and started reconstruction, but failed to finish it. When Boerschmann visited the pagoda, only the core tower was there – the exterior eaves and the balconies were still missing.253 The Beamless Hall of Kaiyuan Temple (EB: Kai yüen sze) lies today in a closed residential compound. The construction of the monastery – north of the Pagoda of Auspicious Light – took place between 502 and 550, but it lay in rubble in 1908. Only the two-storey massive beamless hall sur-

249 Ibid: 246, two images on 247. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.24. 250 Carroll describes the Confucius Temple and its role in the modernisation process at the turn of the century in his book in detail. See Carroll, 2006: 99–131. 251 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 261. 252 Ibid: 218. 253 Ibid: 170f.

190 

Fig. 188: The North Pagoda in Suzhou. (Unknown photo­ grapher, Pag, 1931: 217). Fig. 189: The floor plan of the North Pagoda prepared by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 219).

Fig. 190: The Beamless Hall of Kaiyuan Temple in Suzhou was the last surviving part of the temple and served as a library for Buddhist scripts. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 35).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)



Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) 

 191

vived and served as a library for Buddhist works.254 According to Boerschmann the hall dated from around 1600.255 In the West Garden Temple (Xiyuansi, EB: Kieh tung sze) he took an interior photo of the statue of a thousand-armed Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy, made up of four parts and facing the four cardinal directions.256 The rhythm in the infinity of the world of phenomena is illustrated by the Buddha in the temple of the 500 Lohan [Luohan] in Suchou [Suzhou]. He is here represented with four bodies growing out of the middle and having his thousand arms stretched out diagonally. These are the basic numbers four and eight of the rhythmic world. They correspond to the four sacred Buddhist mountains, the four great Bodhisattvas and the swarm of gods throughout the world.257

Boerschmann found the Twin Pagodas (EB: Schuang ta) at Luohanyuan Temple amid ruins and undergrowth. The temple had totally disappeared, but the two towers showed little damage. They had been renovated in 1822 for the last time. According to Boerschmann, the pagodas dated from 985 and were ‟seemingly” rebuilt between 1068 and 1078.258 Today the year of construction for the

254 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 35. The plans and the section are published without further notes. 255 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 171. 256 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 255. 257 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 555. 258 He referred to Buddhist Monasteries and missionary Alvin P. Parker, but gives no reference about the publication of Parker. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 174.

Fig. 191: The thousand-armed Guanyin from West Garden Temple. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, BL, 1923: 255).

192 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

Fig. 192: The square, dark tower for Wenchang Wang, the god of literature, stood east of the Twin Pagodas next to the examination halls. It also served as a clock tower. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, Asia Major, 1925: T.VI).

Fig. 193: Boerschmann found the Twin Pagodas in Suzhou amidst ruins. (Unknown photographer, Pag, 1931: 173).

Fig. 194: A sketch of the Lengqie Pagoda on top of Mount Shangfang southwest of the city. (© Dubowik, PAB).



Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) 

 193

two brick pagodas is given as 928 (Song Dynasty).259 The examination halls of the province stood near the Twin Pagodas. According to Boerschmann, a tower for Wenchang Wang (EB: Wentschang ko), the God of Literature, first built in 1589 and renovated in 1704, stood near the city wall in the east, opposite the Twin Pagodas. He named Feng Shui as a reason for construction, but functionally the tower also served as a bell tower for the city. Boerschmann speculated that the tower had to oppose Buddhist influence on the examination halls from the nearby temple of the Twin Pagodas. According to an intellectual joke he recorded, the Twin Pagodas represented brushes, but without an ink stone. The people interpreted the square black Wenchang Tower as such an ink stone and called it the ‟Ink Pagoda”.260 The massive brick tower with a few small openings had a tented roof. The placement of the tower next to the Twin Pagodas, which were interpreted as brushes, and a nearby pond associated with a water cup, showed for Boerschmann the deep meaning of placement and the relationship to specific immaterial values such as literature and learning.261 He further visited three pagodas outside the city: the Tiger Hill Pagoda (EB: Huikiuschan), which dates back to the Song Dynasty, the pagoda at Lingyan Temple (EB: Ling yen sze), fifteen kilometres west of Suzhou, and the Lengqie Pagoda at Mount Shangfang (EB: Schangfangschan) to the southwest of the city. The Tiger Hill Pagoda northwest of the city proper promised in his view ‟a happy Feng Shui”. The large pagoda on top of the hill dated first from between 601 to 605. Boerschmann recorded many stories and oral histories about the pagoda. According to his information, the tower was destroyed and rebuilt between 1077 and 1136. (Today the date is given as 907 to 960.) The Taiping Rebels destroyed the temple in 1860 and only the core tower survived, though in poor condition. A small Sutra stela from 958 still stood close to the pagoda. A few halls had been rebuilt when he visited the temple.262 The Lingyan Pagoda near the village of Mudu (EB: Mu-tu) consisted of brick, and was first built in 503 on top of Lingyan Hill. Boerschmann refers to an unnamed Chinese text in which the date of construction was given as 978. In 1600 the wooden parts of the pagoda were lost to lightning. The inner structure and the staircases were victims of the fire and only a hollow cylinder remained.263 The rebuilding of the temple took place between 1919 and 1932. The ruin of the pagoda from Lengqie Temple stood alone on the barren hill of Mount Shangfang. The temple had vanished, but from the spot one could look across the extensive plains to the city of Suzhou and the many waterways in the region. He did not find out much about the history, but gave an initial date of construction as 608. However, he believed that the remaining ruin of the pagoda dated from the Song Dynasty, with later alterations.264 Today the accepted history is of a first temple built in the early seventh century. The pagoda was rebuilt in the late tenth century and renovated in the 1630s.265 In March 1908 the Royal Museums in Berlin and the Ministry of Education supported the new extension to Boerschmann’s leave of absence. He had sent his earlier reports to F. W. K. Müller, director of the Museum for Ethnology, and to Peter Jessen (1858–1926), director of the Museum for Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbe-Museum), in Berlin. On the basis of the reports and attached photos, both expected that Boerschmann would be able to discover ‟new things”.266 In March 1908 the Museum of Decorative Arts decided to allot 500 Marks for the purchase of goods.267

259 For a brief description see Liang Sicheng, 1984: 144. 260 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 174. McCormick also refers to the story about the ink pagoda in 1912: 174. Geil described the story too. See Geil, 1911: 176. 261 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 528. 262 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 161–168. 263 Ibid: 168–169. 264 Ibid: 170. 265 Glahn, 2004: 230. 266 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 11.3.1908, report to AA. 267 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 7.3.1908, Kunstgewerbe-Museum to AA.

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 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

Fig. 195: A stela in front of the pagoda at Tiger Hill. (© Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR)

In April Boerschmann announced his proposed trip to Sichuan to the Foreign Office in Berlin.268 In the same month the Foreign Office wrote a long letter to the Ministry of War, focusing on the scientific importance of Boerschmann’s work, and on his further exemption from service for the ministry.269 Obviously his earlier letters successfully convinced the German institutions about the value of his discoveries. Within a few days the Ministry of War had approved his further absence until the end of August 1909, and even mentioned an extension for another year, as he had wished.270 This letter was sent to Chengdu, to where Boerschmann journeyed. In the accompanying letter, the Legation in Beijing made it clear again that he should not only collect the material, but also think about the final presentation and how this could be done within the given timeframe and with the given financial resources.271 In a second letter from the Foreign Office to the Legation in Beijing, a

268 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 10.4.1908, EB to AA. 269 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 14.4.1908, AA to Ministry of War. 270 PAAA: R 138420, letter, 18.4.1908, Ministry of War to AA. 271 PAB: letter, 22.6.1908, Legation to EB (Chengdu).



Jiangsu Province (Spring 1908) 

 195

Fig. 196: The regional map of Suzhou and environs with the location of the most important pagodas. 1. Tiger Hill Pagoda, 2. North Temple Pagoda, 3. Twin Pagoda: Clarity-Dispensing Pagoda and Beneficence Pagoda, 4. Tower for Wenchang Wang and Clock Tower, 5. Pagoda of Auspicious Light, 6. Lengqie Pagoda at Mount Shangfang, 7. Pagoda at Lingyan Temple. (© EK). See also plate 11.

question came up regarding how Boerschmann as an architect could be useful for the daily problems of the Legation – but only if this did not interfere in the duties of his field research.272 In May 1908 in Berlin the Ministry for Education and Medicine supported a new budget of 16,000 Marks for Boerschmann’s further studies in 1909.273 At the end of May the Foreign Office claimed 600 Marks that had been spent on the preparation of his research by Boerschmann in Berlin. He was forced to mail the original bills from Taiyuan in Shanxi Province to Berlin.274 Such negotiations always accompanied his trips and absorbed not only time, but added bureaucratic stress to his daily routine.

272 PAB: letter, 4.4.1908, AA to Legation. 273 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 23.5.1908, Ministry of Education and Medicine to AA. 274 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 29.5.1908, EB to AA.

196 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) On 22 April Boerschmann received 2,000 Marks from his travel budget for a trip to Shaanxi Province.275 A month later a specific travel permit as a member of the German Legation was issued for the Provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hebei, Anhui and Jiangsu and was sent to him, together with another 3,000 Marks for his expenses.276 In Taiyuan (EB: Taiyüanfu), in Shanxi Province (EB: Schansi), the first large city on his trip to the west, Boerschmann visited several temples and other places of interest. He probably arrived by train on the newly opened line (1907) from Beijing to Taiyuan. About 90,000 inhabitants occupied the walled city, laid out within a rectangular plan with an area of between 3.5 and 4 square kilometres. The city could be entered by two gates on all four sides. He documented the unique bronze sculpture of a unicorn, ‟who controlled the Fen River valley”, obviously outside the walled city.277 Some temples had been built on a hill, approximately in the centre of the city. He inspected the City God Temple (Chenghuanmiao, EB: Tscheng huang miao) and took several photos of the ceramic wall coverings there. The spirit wall, as well as some side walls, had ornamental plants such as the lotus, or animals such as dragons, in yellow and green ceramic on red painted and plastered

275 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 22.4.1908, Legation to AA. 276 PAB: letter, 20.5.1908, Legation to EB (in Xi’an). 277 Only a photo of this sculpture is shown without description. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 80.

Fig. 197: The almost rectangular layout of Taiyuan with the city wall and eight city gates. To the west runs Fen River. 1. Twin Pagoda Temple, 2. Chongshan Temple, 3. Temple of Confucius. (© EK).



The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) 

Fig. 198: The sculpture of a water-quelling beast made of metal at the edge of Fen River. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 80).

 197

Fig. 199: The eight metre high gilded clay sculpture of the Thousand-hand and Thousand-eye Guanyin in the Chongshan Temple in Taiyuan. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 254).

walls.278 He used the central crowning element of the roof decoration, also made of ceramic, for illustration in the book Baukeramik.279 The Royal Honorary Temple (EB: Wan Shou Kung) in Taiyuan also had some glazed decorations on the spirit wall at the entrance. A circular ceramic panel showed a dragon with five claws.280 Boerschmann measured and documented the Temple of Confucius in Taiyuan with a site plan.281 According to oral history he recorded on-site, the governor of Shanxi Province had only dedicated the temple to Confucius between 1881 and 1886. Before, he heard, the complex belonged to a Buddhist temple. This was Chongshan Monastery, which is not mentioned by Boerschmann. According to the oral history he recorded, during the Ming Dynasty the temple was the palace of a royal prince.282 He heard that it was converted to a Buddhist temple in the early Qing Dynasty. In the courtyard Boerschmann found eight huge cypress trees, which were around 500 years old.283 As he recorded, the roots of the Buddhist Chongshan Monastery dated back to the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Rebels had badly damaged it in 1864 (this was left out in the oral history). Boerschmann took photos in the Hall of Great Compassion (Dabeidian, EB: Ta pei sze), the only surviving part of the monastery, showing the eight-metre-high gilded clay sculpture of the Thousand-hand and Thousand-eye Guanyin.284 Two cast bronze lions in front of the Chongshan Monastery look the same today as they did in Boerschmann’s time. He never provided any detailed description of his

278 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 73–74 and P.48–54. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.200–202. 279 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 91 and P.110. 280 Ibid: 75 and P. 55. 281 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: P. 36. 282 For the history of the temple and its development in Ming Dynasty see Weidner, 2001: 117–144. 283 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 233 and four small images on 236/237. 284 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 81/254.

198 

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

visit, but after the destruction of 1864 only the Hall of Great Compassion survived.285 The governor decided to rebuild a temple to Confucius in 1882 on part of the grounds of the ruined temple.286 The Twin Pagoda Temple (EB: Schuang ta sze), with the alternative name Yongzuo Temple (EB: Yung tso sze), stood south of the walled city. The halls of the temple were made of brick. Boerschmann dated the buildings to the time of Emperor Wanli (1573–1620) during the late Ming Dynasty.287 The main hall had two storeys and the side halls one. The round arches at the front openings cut the barrel vault of the main hall. In the loess region of Shanxi Province Boerschmann found many examples of this construction type and connected them to the earth dwelling (yaodong or ‟house cave”), which was carved out from a hillside or excavated from a sunken courtyard, and was common in the region.288 The pagodas dated from the time of the temple halls. One of the pagodas leaned to the side, a fact he found already mentioned – though without further comment – in an old chronicle. Boerschmann guessed both pagodas had a height of 48 metres (today the height is given as 53) and described them in the context of his study of the use of ceramics in the building industries in China.289 According to his diary, he arrived there on a balmy spring day with the first green buds on the branches of the trees. He found two temples combined into one. Boerschmann reached the south–north oriented Monastery of Eternal Joy (EB: Yung lo sze) first. The entrance hall, made of brick, had seven vaulted naves. The three further halls around the almost square court consisted of bricks in a vaulted construction. The two-storey main hall and the one-storey side halls held statues of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. In the court stood a separate pavilion for the Buddhist patron Weito, the protector of the Buddhist faith. Decline and decay had affected the appearance of the temple. Only some poor guardians and one monk were still living there. The axis of the adjoining Twin Pagoda Temple (EB: Shuang ta si) pointed to the southwest, in the direction of the city. Despite the fact that it was a Buddhist temple, Boerschmann interpreted the pagodas in the sense of a good Feng Shui for the city in the distance. The chronicle reported the power of the pagodas for the imperial examination candidates. The guardians told Boerschmann that the towers dated from the Tang Dynasty. According to his references, both thirteen-storey octagonal pagodas were built only during the Ming Dynasty in 1611. (The correct date is 1608.) The entire temple axis measured 125 metres. The two pagodas stood in line with three brick halls, one at the entrance, one between the two towers and one at the end of the complex. The entrance and the end hall consisted of a one-storey, vaulted brick construction, with an additional timber construction on top, whereas the central hall, made only of brick, had one storey with three arched openings at the front and one arched opening at the back. In the last hall – the Hall of Triple Teaching (EB: San kiao tien) – stood three sculptures of Buddha. The two pagodas appeared almost identical, with some small differences. The largest difference was the inclination of the southeast pagoda. Boerschmann speculated that the second pagoda was built after the first – soon after completion – began to lean to one side, which he interpreted as a bad sign in the sense of Feng Shui. He believed that immediate action would have been called for and that a second pagoda would have been constructed in front of the first to block the view of it from the city and shield the inhabitants from evil influence.290 On the north side of the city stood another pagoda (EB: Pei shi fang yüen) with nine storeys, balancing the Twin Pagoda Temple. Boerschmann recorded that the well-known monastery, inhabited by a very young abbot, was in bad condition, with the exception of the brick buildings.291 On 7 May 1908 Boerschmann stopped for a day and a night at Jin Ancestral Temple or Jinci Temple (Jincisi, EB: Kin tz’e), 25 kilometres southwest of Taiyuan and fifteen kilometres from the Buddhist grottoes at Mount Tianlong. Although he knew about the fame of Jinci Temple, which had

285 Weidner, 2001: 117–144. 286 Ibid: 143 footnote 61. 287 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 85 and P.86–89. 288 Ibid: 85 and P.86–89. 289 Ibid: 98/99 and P. 148/149. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 82. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 45. 290 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 126–131. 291 Ibid: 124.



The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) 

 199

Fig. 200: The massive brick temple halls at the Temple of Eternal Joy in front of the Twin Pagodas. However, in reality the north is in the opposite direction as indicated in the plan. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 34).

200 

Fig. 201: The two-storey main hall at the Temple of Eternal Joy. The ground floor has five naves, the second floor three. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 202: Boerschmann’s documentation of the layout of the Temple of Eternal Joy and the adjacent Twin Pagodas. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 129).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)



The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) 

 201

Fig. 203: The Twin Pagodas from a nearby ravine on a photo from 1929. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri). Fig. 204: The Twin Pagodas with a brick temple hall between them. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

Fig. 205: The octagonal floor plan of one of the identical pagodas. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 129).

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Fig. 206: This two-storey brick hall stood in the temple complex at Jinci Temple, 25 kilometres southeast of Taiyuan. For unknown reasons Boerschmann never published any photos of the more important main sanctuary, the Saint Mother Hall. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

a building history of almost a thousand years, he only planned to stay overnight.292 Boerschmann took some photos, including the richly decorated three-storey incense pagoda, made of terracotta, on top of the wall in the temple complex of Jinci.293 On his way he passed the brick Sarira Shengshen Pagoda (EB: Feng sheng sze), directly south of Jinci Temple.294 The original pagoda dated back to the Tang Dynasty, but had been rebuilt several times, most recently in 1748, during the Qing Dynasty. The temple around the pagoda had vanished. The decoration of the octagonal seven-storied pagoda consisted of yellowish bricks, combined with blue and green glazed terracotta at the eaves. The pagoda is 38 metres high, but Boerschmann guessed it was about 50.295 Although Boerschmann planned to continue his trip south, he followed the advice of the abbot at Jinci Temple, who urged him to visit the Buddhist grottoes at Mount Tianlong (EB: Tien lung shan). For the journey to the grottoes he stayed an additional day.296 When Boerschmann wrote in 1924 about his experience there in 1908, he already referred to many publications by other foreign researchers, such as the Japanese Tadashi Sekino and Takana,297 or the Frenchmen Jean Lartigue (1886–1940),298 and, as most impressive, the material included in Osvald Sirén’s book on Chinese sculpture.299 Foreign researchers had already recognised the value of the sculptures for Buddhist and Chinese art history in the twenty-one caves, dating from the Eastern Wei Dynasty (534–

292 For a detailed study of the complex history at Jinci Temple see Miller, 2007. 293 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 70. 294 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 83, small sketch. 295 Ibid. 296 EB, in Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 263. 297 I could not identify the publications by the Japanese researchers mentioned, because Boerschmann gave no details. 298 Lartigue, 1924: 3–9. 299 Sirén, 1925. Sirén’s book was only published in 1925, but Boerschmann was in contact with him and most probably had the material earlier.



The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) 

Fig. 207: In the background of this photo from around 1930 is the brick Sarira Shengshen Pagoda, south of Jinci Temple. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

 203

Fig. 208: Boerschmann’s topographic sketch of the area around the grottoes of Mount Tianlong. (© Boerschmann, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 267).

550) to the Tang Dynasty. In 1908 Boerschmann knew little about the place, but felt challenged to document it as much as he could. Due to the fact that by the time of his writing in 1924 the papers and books mentioned above had been published, he focused on some ‟details” which, he hoped, would be ‟new and relevant”. His general point that in China such religious places were mostly related to nature and the surrounding landscape became the focus for the article. Boerschmann argued that the sacred spring worshipped in the Jinci Temple represented just another spring on Mount Tianlong, and that the whole complex dated further back than the Buddhist cult suggested. He believed that some sculptures and the selection of the place came from what he called the ‟old Chinese culture”, meaning from a culture before Buddhism arrived in China. On the way from Jinci Temple to the grottoes, Boerschmann passed a pagoda before reaching the Imperial Longevity Temple (Shengshousi, EB: Sheng shou sze), originally dating from the sixth century. In 1947 the temple burned down and rebuilding began in 1980. Boerschmann described the temple and the interior he saw in 1908. In his view, the core area consisted of three halls and one clock tower in the southeast corner. Next to the main complex stood a smaller temple with a sculpture of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, in the main hall, and some side buildings, where a few priests and guests stayed. At the entrance hall of the main temple two guardian-figures stood at the front, followed by a sculpture of the Laughing Buddha (EB: Milo), flanked by two heavenly guardians.300 In the first main hall – called the ‟tower hall” – Boerschmann identified further sculptures as follows: in the centre Amitabha Buddha (EB: Amitofo); one small, thousand-armed Buddha; and two ‟very beautiful companions, here called Ananda and Kashyapa [Kassapa]”. In front of Amitabha Buddha stood a gilded iron model of a pagoda. The Three Great Buddhist Teachers (EB: San da

300 Milofo is a folk deity usually identified with Maitreya Buddha.

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Fig. 209: A sketch map of the Imperial Longevity Temple on the way to Mount Tianlong. The numbers in the plan refer to the following sculptures: 1. the celestial Buddha Amitabha, 2. a small thousand armed Buddha, 3/4. two “beautiful” attendants, 5. gilded iron pagoda, 6/7/8. Guanyin, Wenshu, Puxian – the three great teachers, 9/10. four Dragon Kings sitting on chairs, with black or white beards and green or black robes, 11/12. the Twelve Heavenly Generals. (© Boerschmann, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 270).

Fig. 210: Arrangement of the altar in the central hall of the Imperial Longevity Temple. (© Boerschmann 1908, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 271).

shi) – Guanyin, Wenshu, Puxian – and the four Dragon Kings were placed in the back row.301 At the east and west side stood the Twelve Heavenly Generals, or Yakshas, who usually accompanied the Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru. In the second main hall he found three sculptures: Sikhi Buddha (EB: Shih kia fo), Shakyamuni Buddha (EB: Ju lai fo) and Maitreya Buddha (EB: Mi lo fo). In front of them stood a prayer tablet about the 10,000 years of the royal dynasties (EB: Wan shou p’ai), which – he wrote – was seldom found in a Buddhist temple. Here, displayed beside the Buddhist deities, he saw two figures in the old costume of scholar-officials. In Boerschmann’s interpretation, ‟old Chinese elements” were mixed with Buddhist representations. ‟The most distinguished works of art in the temple are the frescos on the three walls in the last main hall.”302 According to the text, he had never seen a better-conserved fresco nor one with such bright colours in a Chinese temple. Boerschmann dated the drawings to the sixteenth century and suggested that they belonged to the few monumental frescos from the Ming Dynasty that had been conserved. His ideas, he wrote, could only be proved by a detailed study. The temple was completely destroyed in 1947. The main aspect at Mount Tianlong, the Buddhist grottoes in the cliff above the temple, is only looked at briefly with a few examples in his text. Boerschmann used a sketch by Sirén to show the twenty-one caves. On the east side there are eight caves, on the west side thirteen. The most impressive cave was covered behind the three-storey Manshan Pavilion, a construction to protect the entrance of the ninth cave. Today this building looks very different than it does in Boerschmann’s photograph of 1908. He dated the construction of the pavilion to the time between 1436 and 1450, knowing that Sirén

301 The Dragon Kings are deities in Chinese mythology. They can manipulate the weather and bring rainfall, and are associated with aquatic life. The four Dragon Kings represent the four cardinal directions. 302 EB, in Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 271.



The great trip to the West: Taiyuan, Shanxi Province (April–May 1908) 

Fig. 211: The three-storey Manshan Pavilion protected the entrance of cave number nine, the most impressive Buddhist cave at Mount Tianlong. Today the reconstructed building looks very different than on Walter Frey’s photograph from 1930. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

Fig. 212: Boerschmann’s photo from May 1908 shows one of the grottoes in the western group and documents that the sculptures were intact. (© Boerschmann 1908, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 273).

 205

Fig. 213: On Walter Frey’s photo from 1930 it is clearly visible that the figures in front of the grottoes have lost their heads and arms. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

had given it a later date.303 Boerschmann saw a remarkable Ming Dynasty tower hall in the pavilion. However, Boerschmann’s photo reveals that the pavilion had sustained some damage. Boerschmann further wrote about the eighth grotto and published detailed drawings.304 He dated the grotto to 584 (Sui Dynasty) and mentioned imported architectural forms from India or beyond (Turkestan). The architraves were partly resolved in the frieze with the specific Chinese motif of the console, which, according to Boerschmann, could be studied here in its early stage. In the centre of the cella stood a square pillar with four sitting Buddhas, each accompanied by two standing sculptures. On three sides the concave ensemble was mirrored with the same composition and another fourteen sculptures stood on the three outer walls. He already recorded that some of the heads of the sculptures were missing. Further heads documented in 1908 by him and Sirén were removed by the early 1920s by looters and collectors. As he commented: This is the sinister and demonic effect of the work of European and Japanese researchers and collectors. Veneration of the art memorials in the country is the unshiftable basis for all earnest engagement with them and will be the measurement for real understanding. Hopefully the time during which such destruction has been possible under the flag of art research will be over in the New China.305

In the last part of the article, Boerschmann focused on the small Well House on the mountain saddle between the two rows of caves. There he found the sacred well of Mount Tianlong. The

303 Ibid: 273. I could not localise the reference to Sirén. 304 Ibid: 275. 305 Ibid: 276.

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Fig. 214: The layout of the cave and arrangement of the figures in the hall. 1. female Heaven Dragon, 2/3. attendants, 4–9. Dragon Kings, 10. chancellor, 11. headsman. (© Boerschmann, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 277).

entrance to the cave consisted of a stone hall integrated into the cliff. Four massive stone pillars supported the roof and façade, which incorporated three arched openings, two for the windows and a central opening for the entrance gate. The door led to the small hall with an altar bank, on which eleven sculptures stood in a row against the opposite cave wall. The female Heaven Dragon (EB: Tien lung hou) occupied the central position, accompanied by two female handmaids. Three male Dragon Kings flanked these three women on either side and the composition was completed with a heavenly chancellor and a headsman, each placed at the end of the row. Boerschmann interpreted the arrangement as the celestial law court in front of the well. The well, four metres deep, was placed in a side cave and, in his view, the arrangement in the Well House was intended to remind the people of their ethical and personal responsibilities. During droughts the pilgrims visited the site to search for signs of the gods. According to popular belief, the well had a direct connection with the sea. For Boerschmann this referred to the ‟Buddhist North Sea” and people came there in a ritual procession. They removed all water from the basin of the well and wiped it dry. The pilgrims suspended a string with an empty bottle tied to it over the centre of the well and then everybody had to leave the space. Some hours later someone checked whether water had condensed in the bottle. When moisture had condensed there, the people could hope for rain. Boerschmann interpreted this kind of experiment as an exact observation of natural phenomena, which in this case obviously was interpreted as a religious sign. The arrangement of the sculptures in the well is from an ‟old Chinese cult”, he wrote, continuing to posit that as the classical records did not mention such aspects, they could only be studied on the spot. According to Boerschmann, Buddhism took over the place and the older rituals, and therefore he did not wonder that another Buddhist chapel was placed above the small Well Temple with three statues of the Bodhisattvas Guanyin, Wenshu and Puxian. He concluded: ‟The great cult place at Mount Tianlong shows that the basis of the Buddhist conception, shown in the great rock chapels, is the old Chinese cult.”306

306 Ibid: 278.



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Fig. 215: The stony Well House with the female Heaven Dragon in the centre. (© Boerschmann 1908, Artibus Asiae, 1925/26: 277).

The search for the connection between natural landscapes, religious places and the relationship of the people to their environment guided his research more than the mere art history of objects. However, many of Boerschmann’s observations cannot be easily checked. The places, the buildings and their decoration have changed or have been destroyed by war. More importantly, however, many of the rituals of the people disappeared after the first revolution of 1911–12, and few records survive of these. In June 1908 Boerschmann received 3,000 Marks from his travel budget.307 In October the Foreign Office approved the budget for the following year. Instead of 16,000 Marks for the whole year, they budgeted 11,000, because the Foreign Office expected that he would leave China after four months to analyse his materials in Germany. They calculated his yearly salary in Germany at another 6,000 marks.308

From Pingyao to Mengcheng, Shanxi Province (May 1908) Boerschmann continued along the Fen River to visit a gate tower constructed for the Jade Emperor Yu Huang (EB: Yü Huang) in a village (EB: Tschanglautschen) near Pingyao (EB: Pingyaohien). It consisted of two storeys and a three-tiered roof with glazed tiles. The friezes were richly ornamented with dragons on the top of the gable. He guessed that the building dated from around 1600, but had no proof.309 On 11 May, about three days south of Taiyuan, Boerschmann stayed overnight in the city of Jiexiu (EB: Kiaihiuhien). There he measured the temple for the legendary hero Jie Zitui (EB: Kiai

307 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 23.6.1908, Legation to AA. 308 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 14.10.1908, AA to EB. 309 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 89 and P.105.

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Fig. 216: The pavilion in the first court of the temple for Jie Zitui around 1930. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri). For a skech map of the town see also fig. 533.

Fig. 217: Sketch map of the temple for legendary hero Jie Zitui. In front was a two-storey building with a theatre stage on the upper floor. The open hall stood in front of the main hall for the veneration of the hero. A baldachin for processions was stored at the east side and in the Family Hall his mother was placed in the centre, his wife to the west and Jie Zitui to the east. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 18).

Chihtúi, †636 BC). According to the legend, Jie Zitui had helped Duke Wen of Jin (697–628 BC) regain power after nineteen years of exile. When Duke Wen wanted to reward him, Jie Zitui hid in the woods. Duke Wen set fire to the woods to force him out but burned Jie Zitui to death instead. He is remembered at the Qingming Festival,310 when graves and burial grounds in remembrance of the ancestors are visited in the spring. In Jiexiu Boerschmann found ‟a great number of beautiful monuments, especially memorial gates”. The temple for Jie Zitui stood outside the West Gate of the city wall. Many parts of the complex had become dilapidated, but he also mentioned the beautiful decoration and the specific site plan. The first building consisted of three barrel vaults at ground floor level while the second floor contained a theatre stage in the centre. Shops, craftsmen and some altars for different deities occupied the side buildings of the central courtyard. In the middle of the court stood an open rectangular pavilion. The statue of Jie Zitui stood together with four further sculptures in the main hall. On the side of the hall stood a canopy, so that the sculpture could be taken on special days in solemn processions through the city. Behind the main hall followed the

310 Its origin is credited to Tang Emperor Xuangzhong in 732.



From Pingyao to Mengcheng, Shanxi Province (May 1908) 

Fig. 218: The Temple of the Cloud Summit under an overhang in the Mian Mountains. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

 209

Fig. 219: The photos of Walter Frey from 1930 document that nothing had changed since Boerschmann visited the site in 1908. (© Walter Frey, with courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

210 

Fig. 220: The drawing is underlined with “village pagoda” in Hongtong County near Linfen. In another manuscript Boerschmann described this “Sutra Pillar” as made from chalkstone, dating from 1403 to 1425. The pillar was 9.4 metres high and stood alone beside the country road. For Boerschmann the size and the position gave the pillar the appearance of a pagoda. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)



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 211

memorial hall for his family, where his mother was centrally placed with Jie Zitui and his wife to the east and west. According to the legend, the mother died with the son in the fire.311 The following day Boerschmann continued south through the loess mountains of Shanxi Province, from where he saw the limestone Mian Mountains to the east. Thousands of people made the pilgrimage to the Temple of the Cloud Summit or Yunfeng Monastery (EB: Yün feng sze) located in one of the caves in these limestone mountains.312 According to Boerschmann’s observations, Buddhist and Taoist elements had been mixed in this complex, and Jie Zitui was honoured in a special building. In one of the caves he found a pilgrim temple with more than thirty buildings under the overhang. ‟The pilgrims come to this place only a few times a year, but then in big numbers. The priests and the few monks mostly live afar from the world. So they train themselves as hermits.”313 Boerschmann did not know anything about the history of the temple, which dates back to the period of the Three Kingdoms in the third century. In 1615 a major rebuilding took place. In 1940 the Japanese Army destroyed the complex and in 1992 the reconstruction of the monastery began again.314 However, the main temple for Jie Zitui stood at the place where he had died in the Mian Mountains. When Boerschmann visited the sacred forest with cypress and white-bark pines, the temple was undergoing repair work. In the main hall the statue of Jie Zitui stood in front of two columns carrying carved dragons. Boerschmann interpreted the dragon motif in the dry region as a symbol of the blessing of rain.315 In Hongtong County (EB: Hungtunghien), a small town north of Linfen (EB: Pingyangfu), Boerschmann visited the temple for the healing god (EB: Yao wang miao). The entrance gate consisted of a brick basement with a tripartite two-storey timber pavilion on top. The wooden construction had a massive roof, but otherwise looked lofty and transparent.316 In a village nearby he documented a slender pagoda, which he dated to the early fifteenth century. In southern Shanxi Province Boerschmann next visited the city of Linfen on the bank of Fen River. The city was known as a legendary capital of Emperor Yao (c. 2356–2255 BC), and had a history dating back about 4,000 years. The inventor of calligraphy, Cangjie (EB: Tsang Hie), had a memorial temple there.317 When Boerschmann visited, the city appeared in a poor state and its city walls were dilapidated. A pavilion for Kui Xing, the God of Examinations, crowned the southeast corner of the city wall. As a sign of an important history, the ‟Great Pagoda” in a Buddhist temple overlooked the city.318 On the domed first floor Boerschmann found a 6.3-metre-high Buddha head, buried in the ground. He could not determine whether the core of the head consisted of iron or bronze. In 1931 he suspected the body of the sculpture could be found in Shanxian (EB: Schan­ tschou) in Henan.319 A chronicle he found said that the local people called the temple the Monastery of the Iron Buddha (EB: Tie fo sze). The metal head was covered with two centimetres of gilded plaster, the lips were painted red, the eyes white, the pupils black, while the eyebrows and hair were painted blue. According to the priests, the head belonged to a huge sculpture made during the time of the founding of the monastery in the seventh century. Because of the size of the head, the pagoda could only have been built after the sculpture was in place. However, Boerschmann suspected – a suspicion confirmed by the priests – that the exterior construction and decoration

311 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 16–20. 312 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 88. 313 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin (53 pages): 40. 314 Peking University Library, 2010: 201. For contemporary condition see also Nan Shunxun and Foit-Albert, 2007: 146f. 315 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 16–20. 316 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 89 and P.106. 317 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 3. 318 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 55. Boerschmann gives no name for the temple. Berthold Laufer visited the temple in 1909 and gives it as Ta-yün sze (‟Temple of the Big Cloud”). Laufer, 1910: 187. 319 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 56.

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Fig. 221: The square pagoda at the Monastery of the Iron Buddha in Linfen. The iron head of Buddha stood in the centre of the pagoda on the ground floor. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 55).

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Fig. 222: The huge coloured iron head of Buddha in the basement of the pagoda. (© Boerschmann 1908, Pag, 1931: 55).

dated from the Qing Dynasty. In the chronicles of the history of Shanxi Province he found some hints about the foundation date of the temple pointing to between 627 and 650. He speculated that the pagoda in its first form also dated from that early time. The existing pagoda had five storeys on a square plan, topped by an octagonal chapel. The base of the tower measured 14.3 metres on each side and he guessed that the height was about 46 metres. From the second to the top floor the plan was set back step-by-step. The decoration on the exterior consisted of fine green and yellow glazed terracotta, in contrast to the main construction material in greyish yellow burned brick.320 Boerschmann knew about the tomb of legendary Emperor Yao south of Linfen, but found no time to go there.321 From local oral history he knew that the memorial temple was small and two guardians conducted sacrifices twice a year. Seven cypresses in the court represented the seven stars in the bear constellation, and twenty-eight cypresses outside the wall ‟represented the twenty-eight constellations [Twenty-eight Mansions]”.322 Emperor Yao, Shun and Yu were part of the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Rulers during the period 2500 to 2100 BC. Boerschmann visited the huge memorial temple complex for the three semi-mythological rulers five kilometres south of Linfen. The north–south-oriented walled area measured 310 to 360 metres, and covered about 111,000 square metres. Boerschmann guessed that three units represented the original part, whereas the western unit was added later (he gave no suggestion as to a date of construction). Emperor Yao’s memorial temple covered the biggest part in the central position. A huge forecourt was followed by the main space with the memorial hall. A paved axis with very old cypress trees on each side led straight to the entrance. In the forecourt he found two stelae on stone turtles, an honorary gate made of wood and two simple buildings where the officials could prepare the sacrifice. Two lions on pedestals flanked the gate to the main space. The first two-storey building (EB: Kuang tien ko), with a solid core and barrel brick vault,

320 Ibid: 53–57. 321 For the legend see Dragan, 1991: 140. 322 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 7. The Twenty-eight Mansions are part of the Chinese constellation system and reflect the movement of the moon during a lunar month.

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Fig. 223: The entrance building for the Temple of Emperor Yao in Linfen consisted of a massive brick base with three vaulted passages. The gallery around the core building and the second floor are of timber construction. In the image by Jean Lartigue from 1923 it seems that the upper floor is open to at least three sides. In the central court followed a small hexagonal pavilion for the sacred well, visible through the central passageway. A collection of honorary plates in the front gallery stood beside the three open vaults. They were placed there between Boerschmann’s visit in 1908 and Lartigue’s in 1923. (© bpk – Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte / © Paris, Musée Guimet / © Pierre Hamouda).

surrounded by a one-storey wooden gallery, represented the gate tower. Boerschmann found no stair to the second floor, but it seemed similar to the ground floor. The gate hall had a three-tiered roof. The combination of solid core and wooden construction around it led to some speculation about the age of the building. According to Boerschmann, the barrel vault only came to China in the seventh century323 and, according to local lore, the complex dated from the Tang Dynasty. He speculated that at least the solid part of the gate tower remained from then. Past the gate tower on the left and right two long, narrow, empty side halls without a clear function demarcated the space. In the middle, between the gate tower and main hall, a small hexagonal pavilion (EB: Tsing t’ing) on a platform covered a well, which had dried up. The interior of the pavilion showed decorations with a motif of dragons and clouds. Extending the side halls, two small open pavilions held some strange objects. In the east pavilion he saw a 1.3-metre-high archaic sheep made of stone, which people told him dated from the Sui Dynasty (581–618). Boerschmann also heard from a Japanese scholar he met that someone had already done research on the object. In the pavilion on the other side he found an empty table. The main memorial hall bearing the name Guangyun Hall stood on a terrace with three levels, measuring 48 × 30 metres. The core space of the temple was surrounded by a wooden gallery, on which a clock and a drum were placed. In the main hall a sitting figure representing Emperor Yao was accompanied by six other figures, three on each side. Wooden coffers, decorated with the

323 According to Needham, the Chinese had used the barrel vault for bridges since at least the Han Dynasty. Needham, Vol. 4, 1971: 139.



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Fig. 224: The main hall for Emperor Yao showed very unusual features like the integrated honorary gate in the open gallery of the main hall. The frieze, made of perforated terracotta, was integrated after the reconstruction in late nineteenth century. Obviously, the builders were searching for new expressions in sacred architecture. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek). For the plan prepared by Boerschmann see plate 14.

sign for Yin and Yang, covered the ceiling. A wooden cupola on the porch emphasised the axis. The outer form appeared strange to Boerschmann. The Taiping Rebels had destroyed the whole complex between 1850 and 1864. When missionary Alexander Williamson (1829–1890) passed by in the late 1860s, he found only ruins.324 According to Boerschmann, the local people obtained support from the imperial government in Beijing for the reconstruction in the 1870s. The new building, with a two-tiered roof, included several strange features. The upper, unusually steep part of the roof was installed on the solid brick walls of the core space of the temple and had no roof overhang. The framing roof of the gallery had an independent character. Between the upper and lower roofs an unusually wide frieze, almost like a mezzanine, showed decorative patterns. Because the upper roof had no overhang, the figurative and ornamental decoration made of painted stucco and glazed terracotta emerged strongly in the sunlight. The ridges of the roof had been decorated in the same rich way with glazed figures made of terracotta. A further very distinctive element was the gate-like entrance, which grew out of the three central bays of the timber construction of the gallery. Behind, in the three open fields of the solid wall to the central space of the hall, only a hole was left, because – as Boerschmann speculated – the craftsmen did not know how to handle the challenge of bridging the gap at the frieze. On the upper floor they simply used planks to close the opening and covered it from the front with the integrated gate. With some embarrassment, he noted: ‟This solution is inconceivable.” The gate-like front element had a rectangular structure,

324 Williamson, 1870: 341–343. Boerschmann refers to this publication.

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Fig. 225: The wooden honorary gate is integrated into the gallery of the main hall and decorated with dragons. (© Boerschmann 1908, CB, 1927: T.115).

closed with planks and decorated with two wooden dragons. At the end of the complex followed a small hall with figures of Emperor Yao and his wife sitting in the centre.325 The two other temples, to the left for Emperor Shun and to the right for Emperor Yu, only had much smaller memorial halls followed by pavilions to honour each Emperor and his wife. According to Boerschmann’s local source of information, Qing Emperor Kangxi stayed there several times in the eighteenth century. He had ordered the renovation of the three memorial temples during his reign.326 When Boerschmann visited the place in 1908, the official state sacrifices were held on the second and the eight month of each year.327 Of the buildings Boerschmann refers to from the 1870s, nothing is left. During the war in 1930s or 1940s the main hall, which he described and documented, vanished; it was rebuilt after 1949. The sketch shown in a ‟brief survey of the evolution of the Temple of Yao in Linfen” gives an idea of how this reconstruction looked. It was in all aspects different from Boerschmann’s documentation and probably refers to an earlier layout of the complex. According to the paper mentioned, the temple dated from the end of the fifth century and was later destroyed and rebuilt several times.328 The Taiping Rebels had burned the temple to the ground, and most probably only a few buildings had been rebuilt in the reconstruction documented by Boerschmann. In 1998 a fire destroyed the last reconstruction. The site is now being restored according to the ‟old” rules. From Linfen Boerschmann travelled via Wenxi (EB: Wenhihien) to Yuncheng. Nearby, in Anyi (EB: Anyihien), he found a huge thirteen-storey brick pagoda next to the city wall. Because of its dilapidated condition, he expected an imminent collapse (the pagoda, however, is still there).

325 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 87. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 29. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 114/115/130. 326 Some aspects of the ritual and symbolic meaning and its changes are explored by Liu Yonghua, 2010: 188–220. 327 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 7–16. 328 Zhang Oulian, 1997: 31–32.



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Fig. 226: The statue of Emperor Yao with two servants from the interior of the main hall. Jean Lartigue took the photo in 1923. (© bpk – Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte / © Paris, Musée Guimet / © Richard Lambert).

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Fig. 227: The statue of Guandi as god of war in his native town of Yuncheng. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 92).

The pagoda, which is located at Taiping Xingguo Temple, measured about 46 metres in height and Boerschmann dated it to 1063. He took the information from an unnamed chronicle, which described the top of the pagoda as a yellow-white, bottle-shaped urn made by Lu Ban (EB: Lu Pan, 507–440 BC), the legendary carpenter. However, the earthquake in 1556 destroyed the top and left a crack in the body of the tower, which Boerschmann again recorded in 1908. The very bad condition of the structure left him concerned about the financial burden of renovation.329 On 24 May 1908 Boerschmann reached Yuncheng (EB: Kiaichou), the birthplace of Guan Yu (EB: Kuan Ti), later deified as Guandi.330 Unexpectedly, he wrote, a huge but dilapidated Guandi Temple stood some kilometres out of town at Zhenxi Pass in Xiezhou Town. The temple dated back to 589, but it had been rebuilt several times, most recently after a fire in 1702. When he visited the temple, a huge market was taking place, which lasted for over a month. Thousands of straw huts

329 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 124. 330 For more about the process of deification see Diesinger, 1984.



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Fig. 228: The statue of Guandi from the interior “of a small temple near Taiyuan”, taken by Walter Frey in 1929. (© Walter Frey, with courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

stood around the temple for temporary use. The merchants sold Western canned food and ‟other rare and beautiful” things. In Boerschmann’s opinion the market was outstanding, compared with any market in Beijing, Suzhou or Jinan he had visited before. Only the markets in the rich regions of Sichuan had a similar size and diversity. The Guandi Temple with its noble buildings, a drum and a clock tower and several honorary gates arranged along a north–south axis, were all very grey – due to the accumulation of loess – and neglected. In January 1908 a fire had destroyed two entrance halls. The two surviving figures of the gatekeepers were now exposed to the weather. Two iron lions and two iron warriors with strange hats stood in front of the temple.331 Such iron sculptures, he mentioned, were found in many places in Shanxi Province, and he classified them as dating from the Ming Dynasty. In the courtyard Boerschmann also found two iron horses with their servants on high pedestals. In front of the main hall were two pavilions with tables inside, the western pavilion with a buckler and the eastern with a sword, the attributes of the hero. The Chongning Hall, the

331 For images see EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 50.

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Fig. 229: The square Yingying Pagoda at a hill in Puzhou. (© Boerschmann, Pag. 1931: 57).

main hall for Guang Yu, was fronted by a gallery with twenty-six columns made of stone, and decorated with dragons and clouds. The hall dated from 1718. On the ground floor he found the conventional statue of Guandi on the altar. On the first day of the fourth Chinese lunar month an ox, a pig and a sheep were sacrificed. The royal family prepared the sacrifices themselves on their way into exile in Xi’an during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and the following year on their return to Beijing. The two-storey Spring and Autumn Hall (EB: Hall of the Unicorn-Book), built in the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in 1807, was only open to the public during the sacrifices. Even for the temple officials, the second floor was only accessible on very special occasions, because the famous, sacred statue of Guan Yu, also called Guan Laoye, stood there. Lao-ye is known as the God of War by the Europeans, as he was a renowned general. But for the Chinese he is the god of excellent life conduct, of tried faith, and an ideal of these virtues. The two dragons are depicted as playing around this image of perfection, on the back wall of the altar in the home city of Lao-ye at Kai-chou [Yuncheng] in Shansi [Shanxi]. It is a repetition of the expression of the struggle for the highest perfection. This life-like statue of the hero from the golden period of China’s knights, that of the Three Kingdoms, is specially honoured.332

After long negotiations Boerschmann managed to see the statue and take a photo. He wrote that on many other occasions officials would only open the door after he paid money, but in this case, because of the sacredness of the statue, the money did not matter. The statue was dressed in colourful clothes and his stylised moustache was made of two long strings. Guan Yu was depicted as reading in the Spring and Autumn Annals – the official chronicle of the state of Lu (722–481 BC) – which, in Boerschmann’s opinion, brought him close to Confucius and Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature. To take the photo, Boerschmann had to negotiate with the main priest, who was opposed to the idea. Finally he was allowed to take the photo, but was advised not to tell anyone. However, the people from the market and the city who were standing in the court observed what had happened in the hall. Boerschmann also noted down some of the inscriptions in the hall and

332 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 554.



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Fig. 230: The main hall of the memorial temple for the Yellow Emperor with a terrace in front. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 5).

Fig. 231: Boerschmann’s sketch of the floor plan of the memorial temple for the Yellow Emperor in Mengcheng. In the centre of the court stood a pavillion with stone tablets. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 4).

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translated them into German.333 The temple complex still exists today, but many of the details have been lost or changed in the twentieth century. The city of Puzhou (EB: Putschoufu) is located near the ‘knee’ of the Yellow River in Shanxi Province. By the early twentieth century this formerly significant town had shrunk essentially, with those living in the city occupying only a twentieth of the walled area.334 North of the city, in Yongji, on a loess hill, Boerschmann visited the Yingying Pagoda of Puzhou in the Pijiu Temple. The square pagoda with octagonal top dated from the Tang Dynasty, but the earthquake in 1556 had left it in ruins. The reconstruction took place in the 1560s. Boerschmann found no reliable source for the history of the pagoda, referring to a somewhat unclear source, according to which the first pagoda was built there in the fourth century.335 The pagoda is still there today. (See also fig. 554). On 19 May 1908 Boerschmann hiked through the walled city of Mengcheng (EB: Meng Ch’eng), where he photographed the temple for the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, EB: Huang Ti, 2696–2598 BC) and made a sketch of the site plan. The Yellow Emperor belongs to the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. According to folklore, the tomb of the legendary Emperor had once been outside Mengcheng, but when Boerschmann visited the place, only a small temple remained. The main hall was the best preserved, but all the secondary buildings lay in ruins. ‟Sic transit gloria mundi [Thus passes the glory of the world]” as he noted in his diary. It was in Mengcheng that he found the temple for the Yellow Emperor. It consisted of a theatre stage in front, two side buildings and a central pavilion with stelae from the Ming Dynasty. On the platform in front of the main hall stood two archaic lions and an iron incense pan. The deserted temple, however, had been repaired relatively recently. In the main hall, the statue of the Yellow Emperor, depicted seated and wearing a hat, was decorated with nine strings of pearls, obscuring the face. Frescos on the wall and some further sculptures completed the scene.336 During his trip along Fen River, in the loess region of Shanxi, the many brick buildings attracted Boerschmann’s attention. However, he only occasionally mentioned this phenomenon, illustrating the ‟Massive Buildings” chapter in his book Chinesische Architektur with brick-built temples, but no reference to the vernacular brick architecture in the province.337 Two years later, the German-American anthropologist Berthold Laufer suspected that in Shanxi Province a specific culture with its own architectural heritage had developed. This was indicated by the semi-circular arch used in many gates and even in simple country houses. Laufer speculated that the form came from India with the Buddhist temple architecture and developed in an individual way in Shanxi Province.338 As a further peculiarity Laufer named the chimneys in the ordinary houses in Shanxi Province, which he had never seen in Shandong, Hebei or Shaanxi. The chimneys always had a square footprint and indicated the form of the heating system in use. The chimneys were used for the oven in the kitchen. The sleep-bench, the K’ang, was fired directly in the room at the corner of the wall and sometimes also had a chimney integrated into the wall.339 Boerschmann never mentioned the K’ang or heating systems in Chinese architecture.

333 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 46–54, with several photos from outside and the statue of Guan Di, P.14. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 92. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.99. 334 Berthold Laufer passed through the city in 1909 and called it a ‟ruin and necropolis”. See Laufer, 1910: 202. 335 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 58. 336 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 4–6. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 86. 337 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 29–42. 338 Laufer, 1910: 186. 339 Ibid: 194.



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Feng Shui pillars and towers for Kui Xing in Shanxi Province On his trip between Taiyuan and Puzhou, Boerschmann was amazed to recognise many curious Feng Shui pillars. He called them ‟strange, singular points” in the landscape, and discovered that they were placed mostly to the southeast of villages, hamlets or graves. But their location did not follow a simple rule. He saw them in the fields, on bridges, and along the borders of the districts, and suspected that they played an important role in the ‟healing of the ground”. Due to their tower-like structure, Boerschmann classified them as religious buildings in the same sense as pagodas or the towers for Kui Xing, the God of Examinations. The forms of the Feng Shui pillars were varied, but they mostly had a pointed shape. Their layouts had square, octagonal or circular footprints and the pointed shape did not relate to Buddhist or Taoist forms. Most of them were only a few metres high, but some reached twenty metres or more. Boerschmann was sure that the form derived from Persian and Islamic monuments, but wondered how this form had come to the inland province. He recognised the need for further research on the topic and added that the form could have had two channels to Shanxi: first overland with Buddhism via Xinjiang, or second across the sea route from the coast with Arab traders.340 He opposed a connection to the ‟phallus cult”, suggesting phrase he used to suggest Indian lingam references without naming them. Boerschmann suggested that the Feng Shui pillars showed relationships to other vertical elements, like pylons made of wood, iron or stone, which he found in front of temples, tombs and palaces. For him, these pillars ‟corresponded to the inner thought of Buddhist pagodas, which accordingly collected the religious power of a district and […] channelled it into the ether.”341 Other European travellers also noticed these strange symbols in this region. For instance as early as 1870 the British missionary Williamson wrote about these symbols of ‟superstition”: ‟Nearly all have glazed black porcelain tops, which glitter in the bright sunlight. Very curious is that candlestick with its apparently burning candle – but as to its use? It is a symbol of ‘fung–shui’, which is the great bugbear of a Chinaman, and stands terribly in the way of progress.”342 In Shanxi Province Boerschmann also looked for towers for Kui Xing. He often found the massive brick towers at the southeast of the villages, placed at an important point in the landscape. Sometimes several of these buildings were located in the same place, which made a strange

340 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 530. 341 Ibid: 527. 342 Williamson, 1870: 323.

Fig. 232: A collection of different Feng Shui pillars as found by Boerschmann in Shanxi Province between Taiyuan and Puzhou at the border to Shaanxi Province. (© Boerschmann, Asia Major, 1925: 525).

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Fig. 233: A rocket like Feng Shui pillar behind a tower for Kui Xing in the south of Shanxi Province as published by Osvald Siren. (© Sirén, 1930).

Fig. 234: The missionary Alexander Williamson recorded different shapes of Feng Shui pillars during his travels in Shanxi Province. He underlined the image: “Chen-wu, or monuments for averting evil influences”. He found these monuments often at the north and south of the villages. (Williamson, 1870: 355).

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Fig. 235: Different shapes of towers for Kui Xing around Fenyang, southwest of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province. (© Boerschmann, Asia Major, 1925: 520). Fig. 236: The tower for Kui Xing on the city wall of Dongping, southwest of Tai’an in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann, Asia Major, 1925: 517). See also fig. 547.

impression in combination with the Feng Shui pillars. For Boerschmann, a common feature of all the towers for Kui Xing was their square basement, which ended with a cornice or a balustrade. On top he often found a one- or two-storey chapel for the placement of the god. Boerschmann also came across hexagonal and octagonal pillars on top of specific brick terraces, covered by tented roofs with small openings for the regional god.343 In 1925 he published his specific report on those two building types and illustrated them with some drawings of their shapes. However, none of the examples was researched in depth and his assumptions are based on interpretation. In 1947 Willem A. Grootaers (1911–1999) undertook a survey of village temples in a southeastern district of today’s Inner Mongolia bordering Shanxi.344 Applying a systematic approach, he visited ninety-three localities with 565 temples in an area of about 1,000 square kilometres. This was the first territorial survey to systematically cover an area and the cults that played a role in the inhabitant’s lives. In this context Grootaers also criticised Boerschmann’s depiction of the Kui Xing towers. In a footnote he wrote that Boerschmann’s text ‟is a good example of how one may be led astray by material gathered occasionally in widely distant parts of China: he never recognized the

343 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 522. 344 Grootaers, 1948: 209–316.

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Fig. 237: The tower for Kui Xing on the city wall in Baochengzhen near Hanzhong in Shaanxi Province. The silhouette is based on a photograph of Boerschmann. (© EK, based on Asia Major, 1925, T.2).

Chen-wu [Zhenwu] temple of North China, but confounded them all with the K’ui-hsing [Kui Xing] temples.”345 According to Grootaers, the Taoist deity Zhenwu, the Perfected Warrior, sometimes also had a representative tower devoted to him.346 In the territory of his survey the towers for Wenchang Wang were mostly combined with those for Kui Xing. They were built on top of the southern gate of the village and Wenchang Wang faced south, whereas Kui Xing faced north. Grootaers also opposed Boerschmann’s opinion that the tower for Kui Xing always stood on the southeast corner of the city wall.347 He further described the images of the two deities:

345 Ibid: 218, footnote 7. 346 Ibid: 249. 347 Ibid: 267, footnote 18.

Fig. 238: Rubbing of Kui Xing from a stelae in Xi’an. The name Kui Xing refers to the Great Dipper. He is worshipped as god of examination, and/or as an associate or servant to the god of literature, Wenchang Wang. (Schinz, 386). Fig. 239: The sculpture of Kui Xing. (Schinz, 386).



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Fig. 240: The tower for Kui Xing at the southeast corner of the city wall in Tai’an in Shandong Province. The silhouette is based on one of Boerschmann’s photographs. (© EK, based on Asia Major, 1925, T.2). Wen-ch’ang [Wenchang] is represented as an official of the civil class, white-faced and with a small beard; on both sides stand two youths, mostly carrying a book, a writing brush or some other emblem of the literary life. K’ui-hsing [Kui Xing] is an ugly apparition: a half-naked devil, with a fierce green or blue face; brandishing an arrow, he stands tiptoe on a ball of fire; no attendants stand near him.348

Whereas Grootaers worked systematically to cover a whole territory, Boerschmann simply travelled along the major road through Shanxi and documented the temples and religious buildings that he came across with the trained eye of an architect. However, in quite a few cases he missed important temples or was unable to identify their genuine meaning.

348 Ibid: 268.

Fig. 241: A Feng Shui pillar near Dingxian (Gamble: Ting Hsien) taken by American researcher Sydney Gamble in 1931/32. (Ding Xian (?) Pagoda with Point, item ID 642-3752, Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University).

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From sacred Mount Hua to Xi’an, Shaanxi Province (June 1908)

Fig. 242: The middle and the western peak of the five peaks at sacred Mount Hua in Shaanxi Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Shortly after Boerschmann entered Shaanxi Province (EB: Shensi) in May 1908, near the city Huayin, about 120 kilometres east of Xi’an, he passed Mount Hua (EB: Hwa Shan), one of the five mountains sacred to Taoists.349 Thirty years later he published a report of his visit and his hike to the peak in a German Guomindang magazine.350 When he wrote the report in 1939, he had visited all five sacred Taoist mountains and all four sacred Buddhist mountains in China and studied the relevant literature as well as the symbolism dedicated to each of them.351 The sacred Mount Hua represents metal and the colour white. On the plains, about fifteen kilometres from the mountaintop, Boerschmann visited the main temple (EB: Hwa Yin Miao), which was developed along a 600-metre-long axis pointing to the main peak in the south.352 In the first court, six stone stelae inscribed with texts from the Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties – for example from Emperor Hongwu (1328–1398) – stood in pavilions. The ‟Gate of the Golden City” connected to the main Hall of Deep Holy Power (EB: Hao ling chen tien). Through a back gate he reached the final court with a Royal Book Tower, a Hall for Lü Dongbin (EB: Lü Tsu), the Chapel for Silkworms and the tripartite Tower of Eternity (EB: Wan

349 For a detailed study of the mountain see Vervoorn, 1990/91: 1–30. 350 EB, in Das Neue China, 1939: 170–174. 351 For the symbolism see Geil, 1926. 352 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 94.



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shou ko). From there he continued to the Jade Spring Temple (Yuquan Yuan), dedicated to the Taoist master Chen Tuan (920–989), at the entrance to the central gorge.353 The first part of his climb followed the streambeds, where there was no real pathway. After some time he reached a platform with several temples and buildings, including an academy for young Taoist students. Here began the difficult part of the climb. Steep rock walls, with stairs and iron chains to hold on to, had to be ascended. ‟The ascent is really dangerous; nevertheless thousands of pilgrims annually ascend it. Iron chains are fastened to it, to safeguard them from falling from the precipice. I measured this precipice, which is 560 metres high in vertical line.”354 Boerschmann used a sedan chair and wondered how the carriers brought him up the mountain. While enjoying the excellent view from the top he remembered with astonishment the many hermitages built in seemingly impossible places on the walls of the steep mountains. He visited a place for the worship of Xi Wangmu (EB: Si Wang Mu), the Queen Mother of the West. He also came across places to worship the Three Pure Ones, the Taoist trinity, the gods and goddesses of the earth and rocks, as well as many mummies of Taoist monks, displayed on altars in temples. In the Hall of the Three Religions, the statues of Confucius, Laozi and Buddha stood next to each other. While the bizarre rocks on the last 500 metres to the summit evoked fantastic ideas in Boerschmann’s imagination, the difficulties involved in the ascent increased.

353 For a description of the temples see also Vervoorn, 1990/91: 20. 354 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 557.

Fig. 243: The Great Temple at the foot of sacred Mount Hua. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 94).

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Fig. 244: Line drawing of the Great Temple based on Boerschmann’s measurements. In front of the entrance gate stood two flagpoles, a spirit wall and to the left and right honorary gates. After the first gate followed the drum (east) and clock tower (west). The massive entrance tower was integrated in the enclosing wall. A further small court and gate led to the next court with six pavilions, where stelae from Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties were assembled. An open gallery enclosed the following court with two octagonal and two square pavilions lined up in front of the main “Hall of Deep Sacred Power”. In the next compartment followed the Imperial Book Tower with the Tower of Eternity behind it. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 245: A statue of Guanyin in the Hall of the Three Religions on Mount Hua. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

At a height of 1,700 metres Boerschmann stayed overnight in a temple, where the monks served him vegetables, fruit, roots and mushrooms from the mountain region. On the second day he visited the four other peaks. The worship of the Jade Maiden took place on the central peak. The paths on the top between the peaks were only secured with simple iron chains. In religious ecstasy many people committed suicide from the west peak. On the south peak he visited the Palace of the Golden Heaven, where the most important abbot lived. ‟No other Sacred Mountain in China has the same immediate impact as our Hwa Shan [Hua Shan] with its harmony of big mountains and extensive plains […] of historical development and spiritual inspiration of nature and people.”355 In 1935 the German photographer Hedda Hammer, later known as Hedda Morrison (1908–1991), came to Hua Shan and took brilliant images of the religious life and the natural landscape.356

355 EB, in Das Neue China, 1939: 174. 356 Morrison, Eberhard, Hua Shan, 1974.

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Fig. 246: The stone basin in the royal bathhouse in Lintong near Xi’an. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 37).

Fig. 247: On top of the massive royal bathhouse stood a Buddhist chapel. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 37).

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Fig. 248: The royal thermal bath at Lintong in a plan measured by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, Genzmer, 1921: Fig. 71).

On the way to Xi’an Boerschmann passed through Lintong (EB: Lintung) at the northern foot of Li Mountain and visited Huaqing Palace, which dates back to the Tang Dynasty.357 The Emperor had built a bathhouse over a hot sulphur spring, which Boerschmann measured – he later prepared some line drawings of it.358 Part of the brick and stone building was dug into the hill and the basin, which was enclosed by an equilateral arched vault, could be accessed from an open front. A wooden two-part pavilion stood atop the massive basement and held some religious statues. From there he continued to Xi’an (EB: Sianfu). The rectangular layout of the city measured almost three by five kilometres, but it housed only 150,000 inhabitants. The many trees and gardens inside the wall gave the impression of a garden city, but in reality not enough residents lived in the historic metropolis of Tang Dynasty – then named Chang’an – to earn it that status.359 Nevertheless, the twelve-metre-high and fourteen-kilometre-long city wall punctuated by four gates was very impressive. The architecture of the gates and towers of such large cities as that at Hsianganfu [Xi’an], the ancient capital of the Empire, is naturally developed in accordance with their need – with three towers in a flight, then the two locked chambers between, and the bastions of the city wall. But the idea is a practical expression of the accord with religion. These structures have such distinct forms of stability and architectural rhythmic tone as the Buddha’s sacred castle.360

At the North Gate (Anyuan Gate) Boerschmann took impressive photos and prepared a plan of the structure.361 Two small temples stood between the middle and inner gate. The temple to the west was dedicated to Guandi, the God of War, the temple to the east to the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy,

357 For archaeological research on the topic of bathing in the Tang Dynasty and the side of Huaqing Palace see Ge Chengyong, in China Archaeology and Art Digest, 1997: 23–25. 358 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 60. He left only the drawings and no further description. 359 EB, in Deutsche Bauhütte, 1929: 128. 360 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 556. 361 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 56. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 98/99. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 10 and P.5–15.

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Fig. 249: The North Gate at the city wall in Xi’an from the outside. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 250: A traditional depiction of Xi’an as collected by Ernst Boerschmann without clear dating. (PAB).

Fig. 251: Boerschmann prepared a line drawing of the North Gate in the city wall in Xi’an with a temple for Guandi and another temple for Guanyin in the court. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 10).

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Guanyin. The wall survives today, but the North Gate Tower on the city wall was destroyed during the revolution of 1911–12.362 In Xi’an Boerschmann documented the orphanage as an example to show that alongside the huge memorial temples for heroes and legendary rulers, ordinary children were also cared for. The orphanage, founded by a former official in 1847, could accommodate more than forty girls who had been abandoned by their parents or were orphans. At the end of the long and narrow court, the final hall was dedicated to the three sacred mothers of Taoism.363 On the floor of the Confucius

362 Peking University Library, 2010: 17. 363 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 85–87.

Fig. 252: A line drawing of an orphanage in Xi’an. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 253: The front elevation with 43 metres height and the ground plan of the Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 96). Fig. 254: The front elevation of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda with a height of 64 metres. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Temple, built by Emperor Kangxi in the early eighteen century, Boerschmann found a porcelain dragonhead. It was there due to the repairs being done to the roof in 1908. The figure measured about 2.3 metres in height and 1.4 metres in width.364 Two years earlier, when the Fischers had visited the temple on the same route, the head had been in the same place.365 The Buddhist monk and traveller Xuanzang (EB: Hüen Tschuang or Yüen Tschang, 602–664) built the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (EB: Ta yen ta) in 652 after his pilgrimage to India. The pagoda underwent several changes during its history. In 1931 Boerschmann gave a description based on Chinese sources, but did not write about his own experience on-site in 1908.366 Southwest of the South Gate he also visited the Small Wild Goose Pagoda (EB: Siao yen ta). The small sister of the

364 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 94 and P.129. 365 Fischer, 1942: 71. 366 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 39–49. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 102. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.308.



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Fig. 255: Boerschmann recorded plates for honoured men in the fields while walking in Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces. Fig. 1/3, Xianyang, fig. 2, Xi’an, fig. 4/5/6, Wenxi, fig. 7, Fengxiang, fig. 9/10/11/12, Hanzhong. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.256).

Giant Wild Goose Pagoda dated back to the eighth century. The monastery was famous for the stelae with inscriptions in the main court.367 In 1931 Boerschmann described further pagodas in the area of Xi’an, but as he refers to other sources in his text, there is no proof that he visited them in 1908. He named the Hua Pagoda (EB: Hua ta), first built in the Tang Dynasty and later renewed in the Qing Dynasty,368 as well as the square, five-storey (21-metre) Xuanzang Tomb Pagoda (EB: Hüen Tsang) from 669, built twenty-five

367 Ibid: 96–98. 368 Ibid: 82.

238 

Fig. 256: A small pavilion in front of the main prayer hall in the Great Mosque in Xi’an. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 101).

Fig. 257: Isometric view of the Great Mosque in Xi’an. (Schinz, 307).

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kilometres outside of town and dedicated to the monk Xuanzang.369 The pagoda was rebuilt in 828 and the roof was renovated in the twentieth century.370 In Xi’an Boerschmann also visited the Huajuexiang Mosque (EB: Lipai sze), where he documented two brick stelae-pavilions with inscriptions.371 The partition wall with diagonal ceramic plates and the frame of the gate displayed richly decorated carved clay elements.372 He also took a photograph of the octagonal Examining the Heart Tower (Shengxinlou) in the third court, but gave no description of the mosque.373

369 Ibid: 52. 370 Luo Zhewen, 1994: 137. 371 For a detailed description of the mosque see Shatzman-Steinhardt, 9/2008: 330–361. 372 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 62/63 and P.9/11. 373 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 100/101. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 104.



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Fig. 258: The drum tower in Xi’an. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.65).

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Fig. 259: The way of Ernst Boerschmann in Shaanxi Province in July 1908. He stayed three days in Fengxiang and walked via Fengxian to the Zhang Liang Temple in the Qingling Mountains in six days, where he stayed for five days. Boerschmann continued to Hanzhong, where he stayed for four days, and then went southwest to continue via Mianxian to Chengdu in Sichuan Province. He travelled roughly about 20 kilometres a day and took his time to document buildings on the way. (© EK, based on GT, 1914: 97).



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From Fengxian to Mianxian, Shaanxi Province (July 1908) Boerschmann left Xi’an via Beiduzhen (EB: Peitutsun), continued to Fengxiang (EB: Fengsiangfu) and then proceeded to Fengxian (EB: Fenghien) near the border of Gansu Province. On 30 June 1908 he arrived in Fengxiang, which he called the hometown of the poet Su Dongpo (Su Shi, 1037–1101). The East Lake (EB: Tunghu) in Fengxiang, with its many pavilions, bridges and gardens, made a big impression on him. However, he worried that not enough money would be available to maintain these public goods. At the East Lake he also found a memorial temple to Su Dongpo.374 On 2 July he left the city and continued via Baoji (EB: Pau ki) to Fengxian, which he reached on 5 July. On his way across the Qingling Mountains Boerschmann used the Phoenix Pass at 1,800 metres above sea level. At the Guandi Temple at the top of the pass he commented that ‟the path through the barren mountains seems endless,” but he admired the incredible view across the valley.375 Arriving from Fengxian, Boerschmann reached the area of the Temple of the Marquise of Liu (EB: Miao tai tze),376 which honoured Zhang Liang (EB: Chang Liang, 262–189 BC), one of the three heroes of the early Han Dynasty. Boerschmann stayed in the guest-house, which had a beautiful front garden. The German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen had made the same journey in the

374 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 89. 375 Ibid: 26/27. 376 Also known as the Zhang Liang Temple today.

Fig. 260: The 72 caves in the Purple Cypress Mountains at the southern foot of Qingling Mountain around Zhang Liang Temple in a traditional depiction of the area. Boerschmann translated the descriptions of all 72 caves from an account published in 1872. (GT, 1914: 115).

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1860s and Boerschmann quoted his description of the area in the book Gedächtnistempel. On 6 July he made notes in his own diary about the difficult descent from the pass, and the varied landscape with its rice fields at more than 1,200 metres above sea level. He stayed with his staff overnight in a small village. On 7 July they continued through a narrow valley with steep, wooded mountains to the Temple of the Marquise of Liu. ‟The location of the temple challenged the Chinese mind for quite poetic and religious legends, to worship a hero,” he wrote in his diary. To get a better understanding of the location, he later published a translation from the ‟description of Tzeposhan” (Zibaishan or Purple Cypress Mountain) about the seventy-two caves in the mountains, which was originally published in 1872.377 Boerschmann used the five days in the temple to carry out a complete survey of the complex. The detailed description of the history and the buildings became one of the major elements in his publications on memorial temples in 1914.378 From the street a first gate led across a bridge to a second gate. Right after the entrance pavilion, to the left, stood the drum tower. To the right was the clock tower, and in front was the Hall of the Efficacious Official (EB: Ling Kuan). In a detailed description he surveys all the buildings in the main court. The three halls of the Taoist trinity opposite the entrance were documented with descriptions of sculptures and their placement. The Hall of the Three Legislations stood to the left, the Hall of the Three Pure Ones in the centre and the Hall of the Three Officials to the right. The arrangement of figures of gods in the gate to the second courtyard was also documented in a site plan. The second court was turned ninety degrees from

377 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 112–120. 378 Ibid: 93–153.

Fig. 261: View to the northeast from the pavilion on top of the hill within Zhang Liang Temple. The spirit wall opposite the entrance is seen on the left side. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: T.9).



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the entrance axis and, after the gate building, a further open pavilion, the Hall of Reverence, stood between this court and the last court in front of the Hall for Zhang Liang.379

379 Ibid, 1914: 93–153. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 104–108. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.18/57/125/126. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: P.16/32/33/107/108/112/113.

Fig. 262: The entrance gate made of bricks and richly decorated with ceramics, led to a bridge that crossed a stream in front of the main entrance. Old stones with inscriptions stood left and right of the blind windows. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 126).

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Fig. 263: The sketch shows the layout of Zhang Liang Temple. The orientation of the complex does not follow the North-South orientation, but is adapted to the topographic situation. The position of the main entrance is at the north and leads into the first court. The main axis followed the direction from southeast to northwest and focused on the hill, which was crowned by a tower for the book. The guesthouse with a garden court is directly oriented towards East-West and follows the stream and topography in an organic way. (© Boerschmann, PAB). See also plate 15 and fig. 421–427.

The place is surrounded by mountains that tower above the valley, covered with forests, enclosing a grove of bamboo, cypress and pine where one feels most impressively the charm of solitude. The poems inscribed in this temple should be read on the spot: The moon lightens the pure pines, Where the precious dragon floats and plays. The wind carries incense up the mountain, Where holy spirits joyfully return.

And further: Here vulgar noises are not heard. Here dwell a few days, and the place Becomes your sacred home.380

According to oral history recorded by Sang Ke and Geremie R. Barmé, Red Guards destroyed the temple during the Cultural Revolution. They believed that an image of Generalissimo Chiang

380 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 561.



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Fig. 264: The guest house and pavilion in the garden court of Zhang Liang Temple. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: T.1).

Fig. 265: Inscription on a stela in the Zhang Liang Temple. An official from Guiyang, the capital from Guizhou Province, originally wrote the text in 1812. His grandson renewed the inscription on the stone in 1872 when he visited the temple and discovered that the original inscription had vanished. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: T.8).

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Fig. 266: Coloured ceramic roof decoration on a temple near Mianxian. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.133/134).

Kaishek (Jiang Jieshi, 1887–1975) lay buried there in order to give him power for his return to the mainland from Taiwan. The present buildings date from the 1980s.381 From the Temple of the Marquise of Liu, Boerschmann went to Hanzhong (EB: Hanchongfu), where he arrived on 14 July. Four days later he left the city, went west and passed through Mianxian (EB: Mienhien) on 19 July 1908. Shortly before arriving in the city, he visited a temple to the military

381 For further information about the destruction see Sang Ye with Geremie R. Barmé: The Temple of Marquise Liu, Shaanxi, in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 24, 2010.

Fig. 267: The Ming Dynasty statue of Ma Chao, a general from Han Dynasty, as photographed by Boerschmann in his temple in Mianxian. At the back of the statue was a fresco showing a battle scene from the fight between Cao Cao and Liu Bei. In front of the altar stood several statues of armed warriors. All the statues and the fresco have been lost. The local villagers recently replaced the lost statue of Ma Chao with a copy of a statue of the Republican-era warlord Zhang Zuolin, a supporter of the restoration of the Qing Dynasty. (For details see Sang Ye/Barmé: The Statue of Ma Chao). (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 29).



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general Ma Chao (176–222). Ma Chao was a comrade-in-arms of Guan Yu, deified as Guandi. Behind his statue in the temple, a fresco showed some scenes of the life of this commander from the end of the Han Dynasty and the early Three Kingdoms era.382 Mianxian was a small walled city in 1908, but had an important strategic location at the main road across the mountains from Shaanxi to Sichuan Provinces. In front of the East Gate of the city wall stood a temple for Zhuge Liang (EB: Chuko Liang, 181–234), who served as chancellor in the period of the Three Kingdoms. He was named as the man who repaired and built the path across the mountain range. The temple had a theatre stage, a drum and clock tower, several courts, a guesthouse, and a grand main hall. The complex stood next to the river and in the last hall a strangely formed stone, called the ‟heaven stone”, protected with its spiritual power against flooding. The exterior part of the city wall looked solid, but the interior consisted only of mud and was showing some signs of dilapidation. There were two gates without towers, to the east and the west. At the southeast corner of the city wall stood a tower for the God of Examinations (EB: Kuei Sing Lou). Several other deities accompanied him. The few inhabitants grew vegetables on a part of the area within the city walls while other parts were simply neglected. Boerschmann found a temple to the city god, another temple to Confucius, and one to Guandi. The business and official life of the city took place in the eastern suburb, near the temple of Zhuge Liang. At the east end of the suburb stood a twenty-metre pagoda, but he gave no further details.383

From Guangyuan to Chengdu, Sichuan Province (July–August 1908) On 21 July, Boerschmann left Mianxian in Shaanxi Province via Ningqiang. The following day he crossed the border to Sichuan Province (EB: Szechuan), where he passed through Chaotian (EB: Tschao tien). ‟This province has an area and population somewhat larger than Germany. As a whole it is a poem, and its perfect beauty has been accomplished by gods and men.”384 In Guangyuan (EB: Kuangyüanhien) he documented the entrance gate of the temple of the legendary Emperor Yu the Great (EB: Yü, 2200–2100 BC), which was made of ashlar stone, bricks and terracotta.385 Near Guangyuan, also at the Jialing River (EB: Kialingkiang), Boerschmann visited the temple for Tang Empress Wu Zetian (EB: Wu Hou, 624–705), who was known as a supporter of Buddhism. Opposite the town, across the river on a steep cliff, sculptures were carved into the rock and dated from the Northern Wei to the Tang Dynasty. In front of the gallery, the straight axis of the temple for the empress, then called the Temple of Imperial Favour (Huangzesi, EB: Huang tse sze), pointed towards the city in the east. The central hall appeared to be in good order, but only a few priests lived there and part of the buildings had been reduced to rubble. In the main hall, Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, stood together with other Buddhist saints. Boerschmann interpreted the statues as a part of the rock-sculpted figures in the open-air gallery in the cliff behind the temple. The statue of Empress Wu, portrayed dressed in a yellow cape and black vest, stood in the front hall, facing the city in the east. Behind the temple lay a small pond at the foot of the rock, named Xiao Nanhai, the Small Southern Sea. Among the many grottoes he found one with an image of Lü Dongbin (EB: Lü Tsu), one of the Eight Taoist Immortals. Gamblers and opium smokers occupied this cave and Boerschmann commented: ‟horribile dictu”.386 This is even more applicable today, since almost everything has changed in the last hundred years. According to research by Sang Ye and Geremie Barmé, ‟all of the structures visible in Boerschmann’s photograph were destroyed during the construction of the Baoji–Chengdu railroad in 1953. In the year 2000, the railroad was

382 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 29/30. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 93. 383 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 28/29. 384 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 541. 385 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 67 and P.25. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P. 307. 386 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 68–70. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 110/111.

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Fig. 268: In Guangyuan Boerschmann photographed the entrance gate of the temple of legendary Emperor Yu the Great, made of ashlar stone, bricks and terracotta. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

rerouted and the local government decided to develop the Temple of Imperial Favour as the largest tourist zone in northern Sichuan Province.”387 From Guangyuan Boerschmann travelled further down the Jialing River by boat to Zhaohua (EB: Chaohua).388 (See fig. 550.) The location of the city of Zhaohua appeared to be very special and he made a sketch of the situation, including the topography and all the relevant buildings in the surrounding landscape. On three sides rivers encircled the city and to the north on a small hill, outside the wall, stood a temple for Confucius and next to it a temple for Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature, both in a dilapidated condition. On the other side of the river, to the southeast, a white Feng Shui pagoda rose up on a hill. On another hill further south three smaller pagodas stood directly opposite the city. The relationship between topography, the layout of the city and the further placement of individual religious buildings strongly impressed him and sharpened his eye for this aspect of religious geography. However, his sketch of the situation is based on observations made without measurements and was drawn to illustrate the relationship between the topography and city. The reality of the urban layout of Zhaohua, which remains well preserved today, differs in detail from Boerschmann’s sketch. Nevertheless, it is a good example for the attention he paid to religious geography and the placement of buildings in the context of landscape. In Zhaohua he documented a five-metre-high incense pagoda on a square basement, which was surmounted by two octagonal storeys with free-standing square pillars at the corners. The combination of squares

387 See Sang Ye with Geremie Barmé: Temple of Imperial Favour, Sichuan, in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 24, 2010. 388 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 30.



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and octagons with four pillars at the corners seemed very delicate to him.389 He further documented a set of five square pagodas in the field.390 In Chienchou (EB: Kienchou), between Jiange and Zitong (see fig. 549), he sketched the urban layout though gave no additional details. He also sketched a seven-metre-high incense pagoda, but wrote nothing about it.391 The tripartite entrance gate to a memorial temple in Chienchou (EB: Kientschou), which was made of brick, terracotta and stucco, and was dedicated to the emperors and lords (EB: Ti kün miao), caught his attention. The unusual front had a ‟baroque” appearance with a curved end to the wall of the gate under the extruding roof of the temple. The decoration reminded him of clouds and bats, the lobed end of the lambent tops of lightning.392 On 30 July 1908, two days before he reached Mianyang, Boerschmann visited the Temple for the God of Literature, (Wenchanggong, EB: Wen Chang Kung) on Mount Qiqu near Zitong (EB: Tzetunghien), the headquarters of the Wenchang Wang cult.393 Next to it he found a large temple for Guandi. Guandi and Wenchang were connected because both were associated with literature and the first also with capability, which is needed for good results in science and arts. On the second month of the Chinese lunar calendar a major pilgrimage took place to honour the two. In his diary Boerschmann noted the visit. On each side of the entrance to the temple area was a gate of honour, with inscriptions about the beauty of the landscape. Around the place grew a cypress forest, which included some very old trees. It rained during his visit and his companions pushed him to reach their accommodation for the night. Despite the time pressure, Boerschmann visited both temples and briefly described what he saw. He estimated that the statue of Guandi was about six times life size (which would mean that it was at least ten metres in height); it was also gilded. There were

389 Ibid: 404/405. 390 Ibid: 404. 391 Ibid: 405. 392 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 66 and P.22. 393 For the development of the Wenchang cult in Zitong see Kleeman, 1994.

Fig. 269: Boerschmann’s sketch of a five-metre high incense pagoda near Zhaohua in Sichuan Province. The basement is a square, the topping an octagon with square pillars at the corners. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 404).

Fig. 270: Borschmann’s sketch of a seven-metre high, three-storey incense pagoda in the area of Pu’anzhen (EB. Kien­ tschou). (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 405).

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Fig. 271: The plan of three villages near Mianyang as recorded by Ernst Boerschmann. His main interest focused on the location of temples and pagodas in the topography in relation to the layout of the settlement. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

several sculptures dedicated to Wenchang. He also saw some sculptures of Buddhist deities in the temple, but time did not permit him to make any detailed studies, which he regretted.394 In Zitong Boerschmann again analysed the placement of temples and the layout of the city in the context of topography. (See fig. 546). In the town he found a large temple to Confucius with a temple to Wenchang Wang alongside. Confucius and Wenchang Wang were connected because both were associated with literature and learning. A tower for Kui Xing, the God of Examinations, stood southeast of the two named temples. Further southeast, outside the walled city, a combined gate tower for Wenchang Wang and Kui Xing stood on the path to the river. Boerschmann found another temple to Wenchang Wang, a white thirteen-storey Feng Shui pagoda; there were other temples on hills in the same area. He noted in his diary: ‟According to the rules, on a hill in the southeast rose the Fengshui-pagoda with thirteen storeys, slender and white, aloft.”395 For Boerschmann this arrangement exemplified the relationship between city form and landscape, and was based on the Feng Shui practice of placing a religious tower to the southeast of the city. In the region of Zitong he noted several temples to Guandi.396 West of Zitong, in small towns (EB: Weich’en and Chengsiangpu), he again analysed the placement of temples in the context of geography.397

394 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 73–75. 395 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 510. 396 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 32. 397 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 511.



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Fig. 272: The sketch of a bridge across a stream at the entrance of a village near Mianyang. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Early in August Boerschmann reached Mianyang (EB: Mienchou). In the Club of the People from Shanxi (EB: Shan-si-hui-guan) he sketched a lion on a pedestal.398 According to Boerschmann, during the Tang Dynasty the three poets Li Po, (699–762), Du Fu (EB: Tu Fu, 712–770) and Han Yu (EB: Han Yü, 768–824) became the literary heroes of the time. Li Po and Du Fu were known as the poet couple. In addition, Li Po was remembered as a heavy drinker and Du Fu as a famous angler. Catching a fish also had the symbolic meaning of achieving success. Li Po came from Mianyang and Du Fu spent much there. Outside the city, at the ferry on the river, a sculpture of a stone ox resting on the ground gave symbolic protection against flooding. On the left shore of the Fu River stood a memorial temple for the two poets. A wall enclosing the compound was filled with bamboo, so that only the roofs of the buildings were visible. Boerschmann recorded several inscriptions and published the German translations.399 Between Mianyang and Luojiang (EB: Lo-kiang-hien), on top of a hill, he found a temple made of ashlar stone (EB: Shih-miao). The temple had two small courtyards: the first housed the priests and the second was used for religious purposes. The gods in the main hall represented all major religious directions, with Laozi, Buddha and Confucius in the centre. In a small tower above the entrance stood Kui Xing (EB: K’uei-sing), the God of Examinations, ‟who is living in the great Seven Stars, the Great Bear. He is a real Taoist god.” But as the God of Examinations he was also associated with Confucius. At his back stood the protector of Buddhism, Weito (EB: Wei-t’o), over-

398 EB, in Sinica, 1938: 291. 399 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 71/72.

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Fig. 273: A temple made of ashlar stones near Luojiang, between Mianyang and Deyang. The Taoist deity Kui Xing stood in the entrance tower with the god of examination and Weito, the protector of Buddhism, behind him. In the second gate building stood the statue of Li Bing, the administrator and engineer from the Warring States period, who is associated with the Dujiangyan irrigation system from the third century BCE, and behind him the Buddhist Guanyin, the goddess of compassion. The Buddha statute stood in the main hall in the centre, accompanied on one side by Laozi and on the other side by Confucius. Boerschmann took this arrangement of statues as an example of the pervasion of the three religions, namely Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

looking the interior of the temple. Weito looked at the Lord of Sichuan Province (EB: Ch’uan-chu), represented by Li Bing (EB: Li-ping, third century BC), the legendary engineer of the Dujiangyan waterworks. At his back stood the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin (EB: Kuan-yin). She looked across the second court to the final row of statues at the back of the hall. In the centre he found Buddha, with Confucius to the left and Laozi to the right. To the side of Confucius were two altars, each with two statues, representing military and civilian aspects of public life. On the other side were two altars, each with three statues representing private aspirations. The God of Fire stood in the centre, flanked by two Gods of Richness, who were thought to please the dangerous God of Fire and Drought. Three female statues represented aspects of family life, and provided balance to the public aspects on the other side.400 In the court he documented a stone lion on a pedestal, looking to heaven with a pearl in his mouth.401 On 5 August Boerschmann left the walled city of Luojiang through its West Gate for Deyang (EB: Teyanghien). In Luojiang he visited the Shaanxi Club (EB: Schensi), where he found a temple to Guandi, and documented the entrance gate, which was made of ashlar stone, brick and terracotta.402 Out of town, in the fields, Boerschmann recorded four altars with a five-storey pagoda in the centre. The niches were used for incense burning or for holding sculptures of deities.403 South of Luojiang, at the White Horse Pass (EB: Pamakuan), stood the Memorial Temple for Pang Tong (EB: Pang Tung, 179–214), an adviser to Emperor Liu Bai (161–223) in the late Han Dynasty. According to folklore, the temple stood on the spot where he was killed. The legend says that Pang Tong used the horse of the Emperor Liu Bai to deceive the enemy, and this action cost him his life. Travellers to Chengdu passed the temple in a dense cypress grove on the Imperial Road on the last pass before the great plain. The whole temple, which also included his tomb,

400 EB, in Zeitschrift der Ethnologie, 1911: 430. 401 EB, in Sinica, 1938: 222. 402 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 67 and P.21. 403 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 403.



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consisted of cut sandstone. Even the square stone pillars were made from sandstone and only the roof had a timber construction. Colourful animal and plant motifs decorated the ridge of the roofs. The half-circular frontcourt with theatre stage had entrances from left and right. On each side of the court stood incense pagodas. In front of the open entrance hall, two stone lions were placed on pedestals. Around the first inner court lived the priests. In the first main hall, sculptures of Pang Tong and chancellor Zhuge Liang stood together. Both were depicted dressed in clothes of green silk decorated with a phoenix design. In the second court to the right side stood a white horse,

Fig. 274: The layout of the tomb temple of Pang Tong, an adviser of Liu Bei in late Eastern Han Dynasty, as recorded by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 34).

Fig. 275: South of Deyang Boerschmann passed a memorial temple of Tang Dynasty Emperor Gaozong. His statue was placed to the left of a Buddha statue, to the right stood a statue of Wenchang Wang, the god of literature. Guandi, the god of efficiency and bravery, guarded the entrance to the temple. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 67).

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commemorating the fact that using his lord’s horse killed Pang Tong. The last main hall fully honoured the military hero. Behind, in an oval walled space, the circular mound of the sandstone tomb occupied the centre. To the left and right stood a horse with three servants in open pavilions. The left horse was brown, the right also white. The cylindrical cone of the tomb and its cone-shaped roof consisted of cut stone. Ancient cypress trees grew in the court. The special form of the oval and the circular entrance of the temple, Boerschmann noted, was maybe a reference to a horseshoe and Pang Tong’s heroism. However, he also found the form in other temples, such as the Memorial Temple for Zhao Yun (†229), a hero from the same period, in Dayi. The temple he saw at the White Horse Pass dated from 1782, but Boerschmann said nothing about the date of construction.404 In Deyang, Boerschmann found a combined tower for Wenchang Wang (EB: Wench’ang kung) and Kui Xing (EB: K’ueising lou) in the southeast corner of the city, which was placed in interaction with the white Feng Shui pagoda a few kilometres away.405 About two hours south of Deyang, he saw in a field a temple for Tang Dynasty Emperor Gaozong (EB: Kao tsung sze, 623–683), which was embedded in a sacred walled grove. Buddhists used the ordinary building. Combined with other Buddhist deities he found the God of Literature, Wenchang Wang, the God of Competence and War, Guandi, and Emperor Gaozong, a strong supporter of Buddhism.406 In early August Boerschmann arrived in Chengdu (EB: Chengtufu), staying there almost three weeks at the German Consulate with consul Fritz Max Weiss (1877–1955). One day he met Zhao Erxun (EB: Dschao Örl Hsün, 1844–1927), vice-king and governor of Sichuan, in the official Yamen to

404 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 32–38. 405 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 513. 406 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 67/68.

Fig. 276: A statue in the hall of the 500 Luohan from Qing Dynasty at the Baoguang Temple in Xindu just 18 kilometres north of Chengdu. To the back is Bodhisattva Puxian (Samantabhadra) riding on an elephant. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Fig. 277: A further Buddhist statue on a bird in the hall of the 500 Luohan at Baoguang Temple. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, with courtesy of Empore Kahl).



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discuss the problems of waterworks and river regulations. Boerschmann used the time in Chengdu to repair his equipment and make it ready for his further travels.407 Years later he studied the irregular layout of the walled city, which had a size of about 3.5 to 4 kilometres and four gates. In the centre lay the walled royal quarters and to the west the walled Manchu city, built in 1718. Boerschmann analysed all religious and public buildings in and around the city wall. According to his calculations, the city had around 400,000 inhabitants.408 Boerschmann provided no information about the origin of the plan, on which he inscribed all the different functions. He prepared this information on the basis of unknown resources.409 (See plate 6). As an example of how to commemorate ordinary people killed in an accident, he gave the memorial arrangement for humble workers of the Federal Coin Manufactory in Chengdu. Five panels in niches with a censer in front served the same purpose as they did in the great memorial temples for the heroes.410 The extensive area of the Temple of Laozi lay just outside the west corner of the city wall. Two kilometres further to the west, at the bend of the Qingshui River, three temples were grouped

407 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟ auf dem oberen Yangtse. Eine Erinnerung aus dem alten China der Vorkriegszeit. No date, no pagination. 408 EB, in Deutsche Bauhütte, 1929: 129. The official survey in 1906 gave a figure of nearly 300,000 residents for the city. See Schön, 2005: 144. A further detailed description of the changes in urban policy is provided in Stableton. She included a redrawn plan from a Japanese plan from 1917, which could also have served Boerschmann as a basis for his work. See Stableton, 2000: 14. 409 When he was in Chengdu, his time was limited and it is almost impossible that he found time to survey the city. In 1909–10 a kind of guidebook, the Chengdu tonglan, was published in several volumes. In this book the religious buildings are not described, but they are listed. Schön, 2005: 196. 410 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 86/87.

Fig. 278: The statue of Qing Emperor Kangxi among the 500 Luohan at Baoguang Temple. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Fig. 279: The statue of Qing Emperor Qianlong among the 500 Luohan at Baoguang Temple. Perhaps Boerschmann never visited the temple, as there are no records about it in the archives. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

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Fig. 280: The entrance gate in front of the old palace in the centre of Chengdu, which was used by the imperial administration. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

together. The Temple of the Grashall (EB: Tsao tang sze), the largest Buddhist complex, had about one hundred priests. Next to it stood the Memorial Temple of the Bathing Flowers (EB: Huan hua sze). Both names were associated with the house where Du Fu (712–770) lived and which he called the Hall of Grasses and Bathing Flowers (EB: Huan hua tsao tang). The Thatched Hut or Cottage for poet Du Fu in Chengdu had a great fascination for Boerschmann. In his temple (Dugongci, EB: Tu kung tze) the statue of Du Fu stood together with two poets from the Song Dynasty – Huang Tinjian (EB: Huang Tienkien, 1045–1105)411 and Lu You (EB: Lu Yu, 1125–1209). For Boerschmann it remained unclear why they were honoured as a group. However, he suggested that simple economic reasons could have played a role and suggested further investigation. He recorded that the temple dated back to the Tang Dynasty. The canal in the garden, however, was not yet a hundred years old. In the ponds and streams visitors fed black carp and turtles. The fish were a reference to the angler Du Fu and Boerschmann enjoyed some wine in the restaurant in memory of the great poet.412 In Chengdu stood the Memorial Temple for Zhuge Liang (EB: Chuko Liang), the famous chancellor in the time of the Three Kingdoms. According to Boerschmann, this was the main sanctuary of Sichuan Province. Zhuge Liang bore the title Minister of War, or Marquise Wu, which refers to the name of the Wuhou Temple (EB: Wu hou tze). Besides Zhuge Liang, the blood brothers Emperor Liu Bei, General Zhang Fei and General Guan Yu (deified as Guandi) were displayed in the temple. The tomb of Liu Bei stood in the same compound and provided a reason for the temple’s construction. However, the name of the Wuhou Temple derived from his famous chancellor. From the south gate of the city, it took about fifteen minutes to walk to the temple. A rectangular whitewashed wall enclosed the three parts of the compound with a densely packed grove. Within the temple all the walls were white, and showed the dark truss construction. In the first court more than fifty more than life size statues of friends of the heroes stood in the side galleries. The end hall of the court honoured Liu Bei. He stood in the centre with his son to the left. Further left, in a separate chapel, stood the statue of Guan Yu, and to the right the statue of Zhang Fei. The final compartment on each side housed the drum and the clock. Behind followed the closed court with the final hall for

411 Huang Tinjian was one of the Four Masters of the Song Dynasty. Boerschmann wrote he lived from 1050 to 1110. 412 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 75–79.



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Zhuge Liang. When Boerschmann visited the temple, three graduates of the imperial exams just conducted a celebration of thanksgiving. The priests sung, recited, played instruments, burned incense, offered wine and made other oblations. The three graduates made kowtow. To the west from the last court followed a lotus pond and a garden. A straw-clad octagonal open pavilion with a chessboard on a stone table stood next to the pond. The locals celebrated the birthday of Zhuge Liang on the day of his visit. Many people came for picnic in the garden and the head of the priests clarified many details about the temple to Boerschmann. A string puppet theatre performed in a temporary tent. A circular wall enclosed the tomb of Liu Bei at the western side. Bamboo and huge cypress trees covered the whole area.413

413 Ibid: 39–43.

Fig. 281: The Memorial Temple of the Marquise of Wu (Wuhou), Zhuge Liang, a supporter of Emperor Liu Bei in Chengdu. Emperor Liu Bei’s circular tomb adjoined the Wuhou Temple. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 40).

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Fig. 282: The central hall for Emperor Liu Bei in the Wuhou Temple. The emperor was placed in the centre, to the right his son. In a separate compartment further to the right stood Guandi, and in another compartment to the left Zhang Fei. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 41).

Fig. 283: Boerschmann’s sketch of a lion in the Taoist temple Azure Ram Palace (Qingyang Gong) in Chengdu. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 284: Sectional drawing of the Hall for Ling Guan, a protective deity in Taoist temples, in the Azure Ram Palace in Chengdu. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 62)

Fig. 285: The octagonal Pavilion of the Eigth Trigrams (Bagua Ting) in the Azure Ram Palace in Chengdu. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Boerschmann took a photo of the octagonal Baogua Pavilion for Laozi in the Taoist Azure Ram Palace or Black Sheep Temple (Qingyanggong, EB: Tsing yang kung). The Azure Ram Palace is the oldest Taoist temple in Chengdu. The pavilion, however, dated from late nineteenth century (Qing Dynasty) and was dedicated to the Book of Change. The square base of the pavilion was surmounted by a circular pavilion, symbolising the square earth and the round heaven. The stone

Fig. 286: Bodhisattva Wenshu (Manjusri) is honoured in the main hall in the Buddhist Wenshu Monastry in Chengdu. (© Boerschmann 1908, glass-slide, PAB).

Fig. 287: Entrance court to the Wenshu Monastry in Chengdu. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).



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pillars of the pavilion were entwined with dragon motifs.414 In the court he documented a stone lion on a pedestal, with strange ears projecting from its head, which, in his interpretation, were both an image of horror for the visitor and an expression of fear for the animal.415 The temple faced the Wouhou Temple in the south, Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage in the west, and was an adjunct to the famous Temple of the Two Immortals (Shifangcongling). The two immortals worshipped were Lü Dongbin and Han Xiang. The temple has since disappeared and the site is today used as a cultural park. Boerschmann also visited the Buddhist Wenshu Temple dedicated to Bodhisattva Manjusri (in Chinese Wenshu), located in the north part of the city. It is one of the four largest Chan (Zen) temples in China. The image shows the Sutra Library, seven bays wide, built in 1697 and rebuilt in 1824.416

From Dujiangyan to sacred Mount Emei and Leshan, Sichuan Province (August–September 1908) On 29 August 1908 Boerschmann left Chengdu for Guanxian (EB: Kuanhien), today Dujiangyan. He travelled in a sedan chair and described in the diary the landscape, where the rice harvest had just begun. The unpaved small roads and paths followed canals and streams. On the way he saw many altars and shrines for the God of Place (Tudigong, EB: Tu Ti). Many family temples and graves were set back from the path, walled and behind dense vegetation. Boerschmann went to Dujiangyan to investigate the famous ancient waterworks and irrigation system. The hydraulic engineering of the

414 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 117. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 62 and P.96. Peking University Library, 2010: 222. 415 EB, in Sinica, 1938: 222. 416 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 116. EB, in Lexikon der Baukunst, 1930: 45.

Fig. 288: The layout of the irrigation system in the city of Dujiangyan, which was formerly known by the name Guanxian. 1. Two Kings Temple (Erwang Miao), 2. Dragon Taming Temple (Fulongguan), 3. Confucius Temple. (© EK). See also plate 12.

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Fig. 289: The view across the irrigation system. To the right the Two Kings Temple on the slope of the hill and in the centre the suspended bridge across the river. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: T.12).

Min River began in the third century BC and regulated the water flow into the Chengdu basin. The irrigation is still in use today and is responsible for the fertile farmland in the region. In the city he stayed at the Dragon Taming Temple (Fulongguan, EB: Fu lung kuan), where the legendary engineer Li Bing (EB: Li Ping, third century BC) was honoured. The city appeared very quiet and had little commercial activity. In winter, he heard, the people from the mountain regions came down to trade medicine, furs, silver and tea. His boy, the cook and the interpreter, all from north China, felt uncomfortable in this town with many teahouses. Two local suicides during their stay reinforced the unhappy impression. On 3 September the head of the local administration came for a visit, but could not explain the irrigation system of the huge ancient waterworks417 – he had only lived in the town for six months. The beauty of the combination of nature and technology overwhelmed Boerschmann. In his diary he wrote: What a contrast to those of us [in the West] who disfigure the good points of nature with pubs, clubs and similar buildings, which are dedicated only to external distraction, physical recreation and bodily pleasure. How sympathetic is this […] culture of the Chinese people, acting from the beauty of the internal force in the area and the special place, to get their deities, which are hidden there, personalise them, and assign again these places as their home, as places of worship, for prayers, grace and good intentions.418

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, 10 September, the Moon Festival was celebrated and the local mandarin came to perform a sacrifice in the Dragon Taming Temple in front of the statues of Li Bing and the legendary ruler Yu the Great (EB: Yü Wang, 2200–2100 BC).419 The Dragon Taming Temple stood next to the river and honoured Li Bing, the engineer, who,

417 For an old Chinese plan see EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1912: 350. 418 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 196. 419 Ibid: 194–198.



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according to the legend, planned and organised the irrigation works. He was shown sitting in the main hall on the terrace, while towards the river in a second courtyard stood a separate hall for Yu the Great, who was famed for flood control. The entrances to the forecourt opened to the left and right. The entrance gate tower between first and second court had two storeys and the statue of the ‟god of holy power” (EB: Ling Kuan) stood above the entrance. Behind the gate on the second floor was a theatre stage. People used the main court to grow vegetables. A stairway led to the terrace in front of the two-storey main hall for Li Bing. A 1.3-metre-long bronze ox stood on a pedestal on the terrace. On the balustrade were further figures of animals, such as an elephant and a lion, placed on pillars. In the last court the guests stayed on the left side. Yu the Great, the ‟vanquisher” of the water, had his place in the final hall. According to Boerschmann’s interpretation, Li Bing was shown in the temple as an emanation of Yu, with whom he was associated in the legends. On the northwest side of the temple, on a cliff, stood a small hexagonal pavilion, which gave a perfect view of the irrigation works.420 Boerschmann documented the Temple for Confucius in Dujiangyan with a sketch of the spatial arrangement. The spirit wall in front of the temple had an inscription that referred to the grandeur

420 Ibid: 166–170. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 123/130.

Fig. 290: The main hall in the Dragon Taming Temple, where the court is used to grow vegetables. The flight of stairs is accompanied on each side with four retaining walls. Sidney D. Gamble took the image between 1917 and 1919. (Fu Lung Kivan Main Building, item ID 39A-212, Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University).

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Fig. 291: The statue of Li Bing in the main hall of the Dragon Taming Temple. Sidney D. Gamble took the image between 1917 and 1919. (Li Piu, item ID 38A-202, Sidney D. Gamble Photographs, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University).



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Fig. 292: The main hall of the Temple for Confucius in Du­­jiangyan. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 293: The model shows the topographic situation of Erwang Temple according to Boerschmann’s information. (© EK). See also plate 16.

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Fig. 294: An unidentified temple at nearby Mount Qingcheng, one of the most important centres of Taoism. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

of the sage’s teaching.421 In the frontcourt grew impressive old cypress trees.422 Today the temple is used for Dujiangyan Middle School.423 However, the Boerschmann’s main work during his stay at Dujiangyan took place in the Two Kings Temple, also named Erwang Temple (EB: Oerl Lang Miao). The legend considers Er Wang to be the son of Li Bing, who continued the hydraulic work after his father died. The documentation of the temple occupied Boerschmann for several days and he had the opportunity to observe the religious life. Every day many people came to worship and set bread, fruit, meat and other dishes on the long table in front of the statue of Er Wang in the main hall. The priest rang the bell and consecrated the food. The pilgrims then took the food away again. The documentation and his report will be discussed from page 390 onwards.424 Boerschmann travelled from Dujiangyan to the nearby region of Mount Qingcheng (EB: Tsing cheng shan), the main centre of Taoism, known as the fifth of The Ten Great Grotto Heavens.425 On 11 September he arrived in a sedan chair at the rock temple Ling’aisi (EB: Ling ai sze) at the foot of the mountain.426 On the way to Shangqing Temple he passed small shrines, honorary gates and ascended a stone stairway. On the way he passed the Cave of the Morning Sun (Chaoyangdong, EB: Chao Yang Tung), dedicated to the Taoist immortal Ningfeng Zhenjun, and the Grotto for Guanyin at Lingyansi (EB: Ling yen sze), which he photographed, but provided no further informa-

421 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 61 and P.7. 422 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 238, 240–242. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 122. 423 Peking University Library, 2010: 227. 424 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 154–198. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 119/124/129. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.57/163/168. 425 For the religious practice at Qingsheng Mountain up to 1990s see Zhufeng Luo , 1991: 192ff. 426 For a study in the Taoist history of the wider region see Olles, 2005.



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Fig. 295: A cave occupied by monks at Mount Qing­ cheng. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

tion about.427 According to the records at Lingyan, a Buddhist monk from India furnished the grotto in 716.428 Boerschmann took further photographs at the Supreme Purity Palace (Shangqinggong, EB: San Tsing Kung), and a hall of the Celestial Queen in an unknown temple (maybe also at the Supreme Purity Palace), without providing a detailed record of his journey and visits.429 Maybe his disappointment prevented further research, because when he reached the Supreme Purity Temple, located in dense forest, the place seemed poorly maintained and in bad shape. The temple dated from the fourth century, but the buildings had last been renovated in the 1860s. The only remarkable thing, he noted, was the well and several ‟very beautifully carved stone buildings”, which stood at the entrance to a cave. In the summer, British and American missionaries stayed nearby in ‟primitive summerhouses”.430 Since 2000 the whole region of Qingcheng Mountain, the waterworks in Dujiangyan and the Erwang Temple have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.431 From Dujiangyan Boerschmann went south to his next destination, Mount Emei, sacred to Buddhists. On the way, near Dayi County (EB: Tayihien), he stopped at the Ancestral Temple of Tung Family. The front was decorated with lions and elephants. The gate made a strong impression with its intense blue contrasting with the bright green leaves of the bananas.432 Nearby he took photos of the City God Temple (EB: Tscheng huang miao). The entrance gate and the walls in the front court were decorated with unglazed burned clay bricks. The right and left piers of the entrance gate were embellished with a relief of a gatekeeper composed of plates. Six further historic figures were displayed using the same technique in the temple forecourt. Boerschmann did not understand their

427 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 132/133/134/154. 428 Peking University Library, 2010: 228/229. 429 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 135/136. For the region see also Nan Shunxun, Foit-Albert, 2007: 160–163. 430 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 198. 431 Li Qianguang, 2008: 246–255. 432 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 67 and P.23.

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Fig. 296: Zhao Yun’s tomb in Dayi in Sichuan Province. He was a hero from the period of the Three Kingdoms. The tomb was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in the late 1990s. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 45).

meaning. The inscription on the front gate made some reference to Muslim riots. He suggested that the reliefs dated from the Ming Dynasty, but found no proof in the material accessible to him.433 East of Dayi, at the foot of Mount Yinping, he came across the Memorial Temple of Zhao Yun (EB: Chao Tzelung, †229), a brave general from the Three Kingdoms period. The complex consisted of two parallel axes: one with the temple and grave, and the other with some buildings in a garden. The main part with the grave had a circular end court and a circular wall that also enclosed the entrance court. A theatre stage in the forecourt stood opposite the entrance hall. In a niche in the first court stood the God of Place (Tudiguan, EB: Tu Ti). On each side of the transit hall to the second yard stood a group of sculptures consisting of a horse with two servants. In the main hall sat the

433 Ibid: 82/83 and P.72–75.



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statue of Zhao Yun, in colourful dress. On both side galleries fifty further sculptures of companions were displayed. The last hall housed the honorary inscriptions. The tumulus occupied the final circular space. Outside the walled part, a guest hall with a lotus pond and an octagonal two-storey pavilion strengthened the folk character of the compound.434 The temple still exists today, but has most probably been altered since Boerschmann’s visit. Near Qionglai (EB: Kiungtschou) Boerschmann passed through a village with two impressive memorial gates made of brick and richly decorated with terracotta, plaster and stucco. He suggested that they dated from the seventeenth century. Set on four brick pillars at the entrance to the village, the first was dedicated to a widow. The second, in the open landscape, honoured a local official. He ascribed a baroque effect to both gates, ‟characteristic of the western Sichuan region”.435 In Ya’an (EB: Yachoufu) Boerschmann went to the Golden Summit Monastery (Jinfengsi, EB: Kin feng sze), and documented a pagoda and some further gravestones in the temple.436 Jinfeng Temple

434 EB, Gedächtnistemple, 1914: 43–46. 435 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 65 and P.18/19. 436 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 137/138.

Fig. 297: A incense pagoda growing out of a rock in the garden court at the Golden Summit Monastery in Ya’an, previously known as Yazhou. (© Boerschmann 1908, Pag, 1931: 401). Fig. 298: The floor plan and sectional drawing of the incense pagoda in Ya’an. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 401).

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Fig. 299: A vaulted arch bridge in Ya’an. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

is the most important extant Buddhist temple in Ya’an and has a long historical association with the Gelukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Located just outside of the city in the direction of Chengdu, it had a strategic location on the old route to Kangding. In the temple he documented a combined relic and incense pagoda.437 Boerschmann took further photos at Ya River showing a simple bridge and a family tomb.438 However, near Ya’an he came across the tomb of Gao Yi from the late Han Dynasty (209). He later published a detailed drawing – comparing it to the Han Dynasty tomb near Jiaxiang in Shandong Province, which he had earlier visited – and a photo of the tomb, but wrote little about it.439 According to his manuscript for a lecture in 1910, he discovered the tomb more or less by accident: In this vicinity I discovered the remains of a tomb that was built in the period of the Han Dynasty. Tombs of the Han Dynasty were described by Chavannes and hitherto were not known outside of Shantung [Shandong]. The pillars of the tombs are similar, but the difference in art between Szech’uan [Sichuan] and Shantung 2,000 years ago was considerable.440

Ya’an was the most westerly destination on Boerschmann’s trip, at the edge of Tibetan influence in Sichuan Province. There he met the viceroy of Tibet, Zhao Erfeng (EB: Chao Erhfeng, 1845–1911),

437 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 401. 438 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 139/142. 439 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: 231–234. 440 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 562.



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Fig. 300: A memorial gate in a village near Ya’an. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

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Fig. 301: A temple on sacred Buddhist Mount Emei made with raw planks and very unconventional roof coverings. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

who had just set out with a military entourage to Lhasa, ‟but unfortunately my plans did not permit an acceptance of his cordial invitation to accompany him”.441 From there he turned southeast to the sacred Buddhist Mount Emei (EB: O mi shan). Boerschmann stayed at the mountain for three weeks.442 Almost all the Buddhist temples he visited there showed references to natural deities, Taoism and other popular beliefs. In Boerschmann’s opinion Mount Emei had been a religious centre long before Buddhism had occupied the mountain.443 The patron Bodhisattva of Mount Emei is Samantabhadra or in Chinese Puxian (EB: P’u-hien). In every temple he found a statue of Bodhisattva Puxian, naturally the main statue for worship.444 In the Myriad Years Monastery (Wanniansi, EB: Wan nien sze), on the northern slope of the mountain (at an altitude of 1020 metres), Boerschmann photographed a relic pagoda in one of the halls.445 The temple is the oldest Buddhist monastery on Mount Emei, and was founded in ninth century. He saw twenty-four sacred statues (EB: Tsu-t’ien) of Taoist origin in the temple.446 The large white elephant with the bronze statue of Bodhisattva Puxian, cast in 980, made the monastery famous. Boerschmann documented the extraordinary massive beamless brick hall with detailed drawings. In the publication Chinesische Architektur he called the drawing a ‟reconstruction” and indicated that the roof was a ‟normal Chinese roof”.447 He neither mentioned any date for the construction of the hall nor said clearly whether he had seen the roof as shown in his drawings or not.448 In 1946 the temple burnt down and in the 1960s the Red Guards tried to destroy the place during the Cultural Revolution. But the hall (or at least part of it) with the elephant and the statue

441 Ibid: 541. 442 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 5. 443 He knew Archibald John Little’s book about Mount Emei. See Little, 1901. 444 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 433. 445 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 145. 446 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 434. 447 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.47/49/50/51/70. 448 The hall was built between 1601 and 1602. See Hargett, 2006: 108.



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Fig. 302: A temple on Mount Emei under construction. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

of Puxian survived. However, the roof and the façade today look totally different from Boerschmann’s drawings. But since he never supported his ‟reconstructions” with a photo and never wrote in detail about the roof, the original form remains unclear and needs further investigation. Contemporary Chinese scholars have provided only some rather vague information on the rearrangement: ‟On the top of the roof and at the four corners stand five small stupas, together with two pair of auspicious animals. […] It is said that the Brick Hall formerly had a wooden structure and tilted roofing, but was destroyed by fire.”449 The arrangement with the five bottle-shaped stupas on the roof could derive from the twentieth century. At the Golden Summit Temple (Jindingsi, EB: Kin ting sze), on the Golden Summit (at an altitude of 3077 metres), he took some photos of the exterior of the buildings. These look somewhat improvised, with roofs made of wooden boards and simple boarded walls. ‟These temples are arranged to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims. […] The highest peak is crowned with a little house from which it is but a step to the sky.”450 Inside he documented the mummified body of an abbot and the statue of Bodhisattva Puxian (EB: Puhien pu sa), the tutelary deity of the sacred mountain, on his elephant.451 The buildings were intentionally destroyed by fire in 1967 during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in 2000.452 In front of a hall for Buddha’s Aureole (EB: Fo kuang) he documented a group of three bronze pagodas. One was ruined and the neighbouring pagoda was used for burning incense.453 The incense pagoda had a height of 3.7 metres, was covered with inscriptions and was decorated with animals, such as lions, elephants and tigers. The inscription said the pagoda and its ruined neighbour had been cast in 1592. The third pagoda on a hexagonal plan was 3.4 metres high. A man from Zhejiang donated the pagoda because his mother had recovered from

449 Wei Ran, 2000: 59. See also Luo Zhewen, 1994: 276. (Luo mentions nothing about the former form of the roof.) 450 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 558. 451 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 146–149. 452 Sang Ye and Geremie R. Barmé: The Golden Peak of Mount Emei, in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 24, 2010. 453 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 348–351.

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Fig. 303: A relict pagoda in the hall of Wannian Temple on Mount Emei. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 145).

Fig. 304: Three sculptures from the Taoist pantheon in the Buddhist Wannian Temple on Mount Emei. (© Boerschmann 1908, EB, 1911).

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Fig. 305: Floor plan, side and front view of the massive brick hall for the bronze sculpture of Puxian riding on his elephant at Wannian Temple. Boerschmann’s caption says “reconstruction of the building”. However, the roof shown in his drawings is very different from the roof today. Since Boerschmann never published a photo of the roof, it is not clear whether it is a “reconstruction” by him or a documentation of what he found on site. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.47/48).

Fig. 306: Sectional drawings of the brick hall with the sculpture in the centre. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.49/50).

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Fig. 307: The unusual form of the roof with five stupas and two deer today. The blind windows beside the entrance and further details of the façade are different on Boerschmann’s drawings. The temple was devastated during the Cultural Revolution and later reconstructed. However, it is unclear on which base the reconstruction was executed. (© Luo, 1994).

an illness. According to Boerschmann, the pagoda had been cast in the same period.454 From the top of the mountain he saw the snow-capped ranges of Tibet.455 On the way he passed the ‟sacred ponds”, Xixiang Pool (at an altitude of 2070 metres), which he interpreted as bathing pools for the elephants of Buddha.456 However, according to the legend, it was Puxian who brought his elephant to this spot for bathing. On the way down the mountain he visited the Pure Sound Pavilion or the Clear Tones Gallery (710 m, Qingyinge, EB: Tsing yin Ko).457 Like so many other religious places in China, the temples on Mount Emei suffered during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Bronze, iron and tin objects ended up in the ‟backyard furnaces” during the first frenzy of the Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1960. With the mission to wipe out the ‟Four Olds”, specifically everything related to tradition, culture, custom and habits, 1,300 Red Guards came to the mountain in 1966 and destroyed many cultural and religious relics. At the end of the 1970s the mountain area was again opened to visitors and the administration worked on its reconstruction to make it a tourist centre. Eventually some monks returned, and today both tourism and the practice of religious coexist on the mountain.458 Since 1996 the mountain region has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List.459 In Sichuan, Boerschmann saw the ‟most beautiful cities”, of which Leshan (EB: Kiatingfu) was the most beautiful place of all.460 At the confluence of the Min River and the Datu River the walled

454 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 229. 455 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 47. 456 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1913: 535. 457 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 144. 458 For the destruction in twentieth century see Hargett, 2006: 185–192. 459 Li Qianguang, 2008: 153–159. 460 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 32. EB, BL, 1923: 150.



From Dujiangyan to sacred Mount Emei and Leshan, Sichuan Province (August–September 1908) 

Fig. 308: The Bodhisattva Puxian (Samantabhadra), the tutelary deity of Mount Emei in the temple on the Golden Summit, shown riding on a elephant. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 149).

 277

Fig. 309: Three bronze pagodas in front of the main temple hall at the Golden Summit on Mount Emei. (© Boerschmann 1908, Pag, 1931: 349).

city of Kiating, today part of Leshan, was the first stop after the trip to Mount Emei. The temples stood to the northwest of the city on a hill. ‟From there comes the city, comes her power and her soul. So above is a temple built for the tutelary deities of the city.”461 And on another occasion he wrote: The river flows along the south and east sides, and the city spreads out from the corner northwest-wards, where there is a mountain that is conceived to have been the progenitor of it, and from which it derives its forces and soul. With this conception the temple was built on its summit for the protecting god of the city. This temple has a pantheon arranged with a central compartment for the main god, Yü-huang, the Jewel Emperor, who is preferably conceived as the embodiment of the spirit of the mountain. He appears in three images, three manifestations, which are arranged one behind the other, so that the foremost image appears to have a more human resemblance than the others, which are more in the dim shadow of the altar in the rear. This is the most impressive representation of the triad. The great pantheon of the gods fills the other space within the temple. These gods are the embodiment of virtues and religious ideals that are especially revered in physical forms. The altars are placed in the axial lines. The two pillars on the sides of the axis have lively modelled carved dragons coiled around them, which reach out toward the main axis with the sanctuary in the centre. […] It is a rule in China to have a tower to the southeast of the city, either on the city wall or in its outskirts, for Kweihsing [Kui Xing], the God of Literature [and Examinations], who dwells in the constellation of the Great Bear.462

In the southeast, across the Min River, religious buildings and rock sculptures on the steep bank of the river represented Buddha in many variations. Among them he saw the 71-metre-tall Giant Buddha from the Tang Dynasty, many caves for Goddess Guanyin and ‟mysterious, age-old secrets”, as he noted. Boerschmann never wrote about the rock sculptures and the caves. In a pagoda nearby

461 Ibid: 32. 462 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 564.

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Fig. 310: Drawings of two bronze pagodas in front of the temple hall at the Golden Summit. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 348).

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From Dujiangyan to sacred Mount Emei and Leshan, Sichuan Province (August–September 1908) 

 279

Fig. 311: The layout of the Memorial Temple for Su Dongpo, the poet who lived in the eleventh century. The temple stood at the edge of a cliff on the Min River, opposite the city of Leshan and next to the sculpture of the Giant Buddha. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 82).

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he saw a gilded mummified priest in a shrine. A Feng Shui pagoda stood on a hill, corresponding with the pagoda in the city proper. The sculptures and the pagodas were only mentioned, but he documented a temple for the poet Su Dongpo (Su Shi, 1037–1101) on the bluff. According to legend the poet had received divine inspiration at this spot. The temple was in poor condition. The two-storey main hall had three sculptures on the second floor: figures of Su Dongpo, his brother Su Che and between them Kui Xing, the God of Examinations.463 Today the place is called the Three Su Memorial Temple, a reference to the two Su brothers and their father. The original temple dated from the Ming Dynasty.464

463 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 79–83. 464 Its condition today is documented in Nan Shunxun, Foit-Albert, 2007: 222–227.

Fig. 312: The layout of the city of Leshan (formerly Jiading), known for the Giant Buddha sculpted in the cliff at the river during the Tang Dynasty. Boerschmann was rather interested in the relationship between topography, urban form and the location of important temples and pagodas. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 81).



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 281

From Yibin to Fengjie, Sichuan Province (September–November 1908) Boerschmann took the boat from Leshan down the Min River to the city of Yibin (EB: Suifu), where the Min River joins the Yangtze. He made a sketch of the urban layout of the city to explain the general idea of the arrangement of Chinese settlements in the context of the environment.465 In the south a river flows from west to east and in the east a river flows from north to south; both meet at the southeast corner on a slightly rising slope, on which the city is placed in the area between the two rivers. To the north-northeast a bigger mountain rises on which the city to some extent depends, and which is seen as her forbear, her spirit. Temples for Taoist gods crown the mountain, under which Chenwu [Zhenwu or the Perfected Warrior] as the direct protector of the city takes a leading role.466 The circulating crenellated city wall opens with impressive gates to the river and is emphasised at the southeast corner with a gracious structure mostly for K’ueising [Kui Xing], the God of Literature.467

In the case of Yibin, the temple for Zhenwu, a Taoist deity, stood on the mountain to the north of the city. To the southeast across the river, a Feng Shui pagoda counterbalanced the forces of

465 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1912: 355. 466 For Zhenwu see Zhenwu, The Perfected Warrior, in Little, 2000: 291–311. 467 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1912: 334.

Fig. 313: A path between rice paddies in the south of Sichuan Province. (Unknown photographer 1930s, archive EK).

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the surrounding landscape. Further Taoist and Buddhist temples, memorial temples for historic heroes, stone reliefs, inscriptions and altars in rock caves were located around the two main spiritual anchors and enhanced their power. This general type of placement had many variations in other cities. Nearby, at the Yangtze River, Boerschmann visited the Buddhist Half-side Temple (Banbiansi, EB: Pan pien sze) with its statue of Guanyin, eighteen Luohans and numerous frescos on the walls. According to Sang Ye, the temple was demolished in 1953 on the advice of Soviet engineers

Fig. 314: The layout of the city of Yibin at the confluence of the Min and Yangtze Rivers. Boerschmann’s interests were the natural forms and the location of temples and pagodas in the surroundings. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 315: The Half-side Temple near Yibin was demolished in 1953. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

during the construction of a road bridge.468 When Boerschmann was in Yibin, he also made a sketch plan of the Temple of Confucius, though without giving detailed descriptions.469 From Yibin Boerschmann went overland to Zigong (EB: Tzeliutsing), the centre of the salt trade, where 4,000 wells,470 each one about a thousand metres deep, with digging towers between 20 and 30 metres high, produced salt brine, which was cooked and evaporated with gas. The ‟industrial district without smoke” provided about 700,000 people with work. Merchants distributed the salt to other regions in China, transporting it with boats on the rivers.471 Here Boerschmann found more proof for his belief about the connection of religion and everyday life: ‟In China one observes everywhere that industry and trade serve to strengthen and deepen the religious sentiment, because everything is brought into relation with the forces of nature, which are then personified as gods.”472 Near Zigong, in the village of Yuntan (EB: Yüehtan), Boerschmann documented the fantastically decorated entrance gate to the Memorial Temple for the Jade Emperor (Yu Huang, EB: Yü wang kung).473 During the Qing Dynasty many merchants came to Zigong and invested in the salt business. He documented the Guild Hall for the People from Shanxi Province (EB: Shansi hui kuan), with its theatre stage above the entrance, in several photographs. Today the complex is used as the Salt

468 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 143. See also Sang Ye with Barmé: Half-side Temple, Sichuan, in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 24, Dec. 2010. 469 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 238. 470 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 158/159. 471 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 37. 472 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 541. 473 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 68 and P.28. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 165.

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Fig. 316: The interior court with flagstaff in the Shanxi Club in Zigong. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

Fig. 317: The court in the Shanxi Club in Zigong. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).



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 285

Fig. 318: In a village (EB. Shap’in) on the way between Zigong and Fushun Boerschmann photographed the entrance to a temple commemorating Yu the Great, the legendary ruler of ancient China, who was honoured for introducing flood control. The tripartite entrance gate was richly decorated with coloured ceramics. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.304).

Industry History Museum. The guildhall was first built in 1736 and renovated in 1872.474 In Zigong Boerschmann visited the ancestral temple Citang (EB: Tze Tang), where the richly decorated ridge, made of broken pieces of glazed porcelain, impressed him.475 Between Zigong and Luzhou (EB: Luchou) he documented a Guild Hall for the People from Guangdong with ceramic figurines on the roof. On the way he photographed a stone bridge in the landscape, a roadside altar and a memorial.476 In Luzhou Boerschmann measured the Temple for Confucius on its steep site, though without giving further details.477 At the end of October he took a boat in Luzhou and went on the Yangtze to Chongqing (EB: Tschunking) to meet the captain of the German gunboat Vaterland.478 They had already met in Chengdu, where the captain had offered Boerschmann a ride downriver. Before leaving Chongqing, he stayed for a week in the German Consulate with Consul Wilde and visited several places in and around the city. The German doctor Hans Assmy had just opened a hospital for the Chinese, which ‟was the centre of German cultural work”.479 In the alleys of Chongqing he took photos of the richly decorated entrance gates of private

474 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 160/161/190/263. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.139/222. 475 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 260. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: P.121. 476 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 155–157, 179. 477 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 238. 478 The Vaterland was a German river gunboat on the Yangtze. It was confiscated by the Chinese authorities and renamed in 1914. 479 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟, no date, no pagination.

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Fig. 319: The entrance to the Temple of Confucius with a tower for Wenchang Wang in Chongqing. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 320: Entrance gate to the City God Temple in Chong­ qing. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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From Yibin to Fengjie, Sichuan Province (September–November 1908) 

 287

houses and temples, among them a hell temple of the primal spirit (EB: Lao kün tung).480 At the entrance gate to the City God Temple he found a sign saying: ‟Here the underworld is managed.”481 Aboard the Vaterland he sailed down river to Fengdu (EB: Fengtuhien) in seven hours. Boerschmann stayed in the city for two days, visiting the ‟famous” Temple of the Underworld, which had a history stretching across 1,800 years, on Ming Hill. He inspected a small cave in a temple, where the monks showed him the ‟door of hell”.482 And on another occasion he wrote: The mountain with its mysterious unfathomable opening on the top is covered with temples for different gods, which are connected to the next world. One of these temples enthrones the serpent king. Eight serpents coil around the columns before him, and one hangs down from the middle. This is in contrast to the eight blessed dragons with the suspended pearl.483

In the Temple of the Underworld Boerschmann sketched a five-storey wooden tower for the God of Literature, Wenchang Wang (EB: Wench’ang). From his point of view, the tower showed some elements of a Buddhist pagoda, but also had its own characteristics.484 However, many other temples were placed around this Taoist hell. Boerschmann took a photo of the entrance to the Temple of the Maternal Goddess (Wangmudian, EB: Wang mu tien).485 According to newer Chinese research, ‟the Chinese characters shown in this photograph, namely Cui Sheng (literally inducing birth), Song Zi (literally delivering a baby), Dou Mu Dian (literally deity of smallpox temple), subtly described the religious services offered in this temple.”486 He also saw a temple for the military hero Zhang Fei (EB: Chang Fei) in Fengdu.487 However, the temple was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and then rebuilt. Due to the Three Gorges Dam, the old city of Fengdu and the temple for Zhang Fei was

480 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 162/163/167/169. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.131/133/134/137/138. EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: P.27. 481 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 67 and P.26. 482 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟, no date, no pagination. 483 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 38. 484 EB, in Asia Major, 1924: 524. 485 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 164. 486 Peking University Library, 2010: 253 487 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 61.

Fig. 321: Drawing of the tower for Wenchang Wang, the god of literature, in Fengdu. (© Boerschmann, Asia Mayor. 1925: 524).

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relocated to higher ground and the Ming Hill with its Temple of the Underworld became an island in the river after the rise in the water level.488 The Vaterland stopped for two hours at a ‟village with a sacred rock” so that Boerschmann could visit the temple on it.489 Most probably this was Shibaozai, the Precious Stone Fortress. Legend

488 Le Mentec, 2006: 2–12. 489 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟, no date, no pagination.

Fig. 322: Richly decorated entrance gate to the Temple of the Underworld in Fengdu. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.309).



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says that Goddess Nüwa, who created mankind and repaired heaven, left the rock in the river.490 The leaning pagoda-like structure on the rock represented the nine layers of heaven and dated from 1819. A two-storey pavilion crowned the top until at least the 1930s.491 Since 1956 a three-storey pavilion has stood on top of the rock. Boerschmann did not write anything about the building. Due

490 Nan Shunxun, Foit-Albert, 2007: 100–103. This book documents the condition of the area before the Three Gorges Dam was finished. 491 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 171.

Fig. 323: The leaning pagoda-like stairway at the Precious Stone Fortress, Shibaozhai, on the bank of the Yangtze River, led to the Buddhist temple on the top. (Unknown photo­grapher 1930s, archive EK).

290 

Fig. 324: The former village around the foot of the rock was flooded with the rising water level after the Three Gorges Dam was inaugurated. A concrete dam around the rock now protects the access to the nineteenth century stairway. (Unknown photo­ grapher 1930s, archive EK).

 Field trips in China (1906–1909)

to the Three Gorges Dam, the rock became an island, protected by a massive concrete wall, saving the entrance at the foot of the rock. In 1908 the original temple on top held statues of Guandi, the Jade Emperor and the Goddess of Painless Birth. The Vaterland stopped again in Wanxian (EB: Wanhien), where Boerschmann conducted research for one week. There he heard about the death of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) on 15 November 1908 and of Emperor Guangxu (1871–1908) the day earlier.492 In Wanxian he found time to visit a nearby village with strong city walls.493 Boerschmann records visiting the Cave Temple of Lord Chen (EB: Chen kung tung) though gave no further details.494 He documented the Temple of Confucius with many photos and a floor plan. Some photos show the fine lattice work and rich façade decorations in detail.495 The fantastic decoration of the entrance for the memorial temple of Jade Emperor (EB: Yü) in Wanxian consisted of porcelain, stucco, cast stone and fine line decorations.496 The triangular ridge finial of the theatre stage was made of broken porcelain pieces and displayed two dragons depicted in a fantastic manner.497 The Temple of the ‟Torrent Regulator” (EB: Chen kiang ko) was combined with a Buddhist temple and placed on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Wanxian. The God of War, Guandi, represented a Taoist god and acted as a tamer of the dangerous Yangtze River within a Buddhist environment. In the Buddhist part of the temple a god called the ‟Ruler of the River”, a figure Boerschmann had never heard of, stood in the central position. Unfortunately, he could not find any further information about it. In the last hall Guandi stood between the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin, and the ‟God of the North Pole”. Between them stood the ‟Red Rabbit-Horse”. Red represented the fiery power, and the rabbit in the name pointed to the speed of the horse.498 A memorial temple for Zhang Fei (EB: Tschang Fei) called Huanhougong (EB: Huan Hou Kung) stood next to the first. The

492 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟, no date, no pagination. 493 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 166. 494 Ibid: 168. 495 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 232–255 and P.22–24. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 131/174/175. 496 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 68 and P.29/122. 497 Ibid: 92. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.138. 498 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 59/60.



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Fig. 325: An unidentified village with a temple on the shore of the Yangtze River near Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 326: The Mountain of the Sedan-Chair Knob with graves on its slope near Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

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Fig. 327: Line drawing of the Temple of Confucius in Wanxian. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 328: The bridge across the halfmoon pond in the first court of the Temple of Confucius in Wanxian. A terrace blocked the way after the bridge, and the visitors had to take the stairs left or right of the terrace to reach the interior of the temple. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 329: The small terrace in front of the main hall and the clock tower to the right in the Temple of Confucius in Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 330: The bell in the Temple of Confucius in Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).



From Yibin to Fengjie, Sichuan Province (September–November 1908) 

Fig. 331: A sketch of a temple for Guandi, in this case the regulator of the Yangtze River, on the north shore near Wanxian. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 58).

 295

Fig. 332: A sketch map of the Memorial Temple for Zhang Fei on the shore of Yangtze River at Wanxian. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 61).

buildings were richly decorated. A flight of steps on each side led to the terrace. In the court was a theatre stage above the entrance. Besides the Buddhist Guanyin, Er Wang, the legendary son of the water engineer Li Bing from Dujiangyan, was celebrated.499 The ridge decoration of the main hall consisted of porcelain pieces. In the centre stood a stylised vase, supported by a visually balanced interlaced asymmetric ornament, reflecting the dragon.500 Whereas the outer walls had been whitewashed and had decorative patterns on the corners, dark timber stood out visually in the court.501 In Wanxian Boerschmann left the Vaterland and rented a local junk for his further trip downriver through the Three Gorges to Yichang.502 The following part of his travels up to Guangzhou is very badly documented and only the images and some basic descriptions give an idea about his route. Across from the city of Yunyang (EB: Yünyanghien), on the south shore of the Yangtze River, Boerschmann visited the Zhang Fei Temple (EB: Chang Huan Hou Miao). The temple for the military leader from the Three Kingdoms period dated back 1,700 years, but was destroyed by flooding and reconstructed in 1870. At this point the Yangtze entered some dangerous rapids, and besides Zhang Fei some other Taoist deities were associated with the temple. On the second floor of a pavilion he

499 Ibid: 61/62. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 176–178. 500 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 92 and P.120. 501 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.138. 502 PAB: Manuscript, EB: Mit dem Kanonenboot „Vaterland‟, no date, no pagination.

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Fig. 333: External view of the Memorial Temple for Zhang Fei in Wanxian with simple straw huts in front. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 176).

Fig. 334: The arrangement of statues around Taoist immortal Lü Dongbin on the top storey of a tower in the Memorial Temple for Zhang Fei in Yunyang near Wanxian. The history of the temple goes back 1,700 years, but the temple Boerschmann visited was reconstructed in 1870 after destruction caused by flooding. Due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the temple was moved to another site nearby. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 63).



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Fig. 335: Theatre stage inside the Memorial Temple for Zhang Fei in Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.138).

Fig. 336: Taoist immortal Lü Dongbin in the Temple for Zhang Fei, riding on a white stork, which, according to legend, appeared at his birth. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 64).

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found the statue of Lü Dongbin (EB: Lü Tsu), one of the Eight Taoist Immortals.503 He was pictured as sleeping in a bed with a sleeping stork behind him. In the same building an installation showed the deity riding on a stork above the clouds. Several further deities, such as the God of Thunder (Lei Gong, EB: Lei Tsu), and the chancellor Zhuge Liang (EB: Chuko Liang), shown as a young man, were displayed.504 Due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the city of Yunyang disappeared in the flood and the temple for Zhang Fei was dismantled and reconstructed in a place nearby in 2003.505 Boerschmann also visited the Memorial Temple for Emperor Liu Bei (EB: Pai Ti sze) in the city of Baidi or Baidicheng at the entrance to Windbox Gorge or Outang Gorge (Outangxia), the most spectacular of the Three Gorges.506 Locals and the boat people from the river regularly visited the temple.507 Literally the name means City of the White Emperor, a commemoration of Emperor Gong Sunshu from the Han Dynasty, who had his headquarters here during his twelve-year reign in the first century. In the Ming Dynasty the statue of the White Emperor was replaced with images of Liu Bei and other heroes from the period of the Three Kingdoms. The buildings dated from the Qing Dynasty.508 Due to the rising water level of the Yangtze River after the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the place has become an island, and is connected to the mainland with a bridge. Many of the old structures have been rebuilt on higher ground. Today, cruise ships stop at the island, which has become listed as a national heritage site in 2006. A few kilometres downriver, Boerschmann passed the city of Fengjie (EB: Kuizhou), an important historical military fort. Fig. 337: The entrance to the Windbox Gorge on the Yangtze River. Half way up the left ridge stood the ancient temple complex Badicheng. (Unknown photo­ grapher 1930s, archive EK).

503 For the Eight Taoist Immortals see Yetts, 1916: 773–806. 504 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 62–64. 505 For a detailed study of the relocation from an anthropological point of view see Le Mentec, 2006. 506 The two others are Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge. The Three Gorges Dam has had a massive impact on the ecological and the cultural heritage along the Yangtze River. 507 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 64–66. 508 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 180–183.



From Yichang to sacred Mount Heng, Hunan Province (November 1908–January 1909) 

 299

From Yichang to sacred Mount Heng, Hunan Province (November 1908–January 1909) After Fengjie Boerschmann stopped at Badong (EB: Patunghien) in Hubei Province (EB: Hupei) to look at the Temple of Confucius with its tripartite entrance gate. He continued to Yichang (EB: Ichangfu), where he again visited the Temple of Confucius, which had an entrance gate made up of five parts.509 He also, naturally enough, spent some days in the city visiting the seven-storey, stepped, 41-metre-high Tianranta Pagoda. It consists of brick and ashlar stones, with fine white cornices as closures for each storey supported by stone brackets. The interior was lit by openings on every other floor.510 Boerschmann published a photograph of the entrance of Taoist Lingguan Temple (EB: Lingkuan tien) on Tianzhu Mountain, which was destroyed in the 1950s.511 During the Qing Dynasty five temples stood in the Shimen Cave on Tianzhu Mountain.512 Next to the Lingguan Temple was the Longwangdong Temple (EB: Lung wang tung), the Cave Temple of the Dragon King.513 The entrance gate to the temple for one of the ‟eight geniuses”, Lü Dongbin (EB: Lü Tsu), consisted of ashlar pillars and panels with masonry, decorated with stucco in the form of tiles.514 Boerschmann missed the Funerary Temple of Guandi in Dangyang (EB: Tangyanghien) northeast of Yichang, but bought some photos from a local shop.515 Most probably he acquired a photo of the Iron Pagoda from Yuquan Temple, dating from the Song Dynasty (1061), in Dangyang County in the same way.516 The Iron Pagoda still exists today. In Shashi (EB: Shashih)

509 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 244 and P.21. 510 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 79. 511 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 187. 512 Peking University Library, 2010: 215. 513 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 184–186. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.89. 514 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 67 and P.24. 515 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 47, images 49. 516 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 228, P.126. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.318.

Fig. 338: In a deep valley on Yangtze River. (Unknown photographer 1930s, archive EK).

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Fig. 339: A sketch of the main hall in the temple of Badicheng, with the Emperor Liu Bei from the kingdom of Su in the period of the Three Kingdoms in the centre. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 65).

Fig. 340: The cave temple of the Dragon King opposite the Brush Holder Mountain near Yichang. (© Limperich, PAB).



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Fig. 341: The roof scape of Yichang at Yangtze River in Hubei Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.118).

Fig. 342: Temple entrance for the immortal Lü Dongbin in Yichang. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Boerschmann visited only the octagonal Wanshou or Longevity Pagoda.517 The pagoda could be seen from the river and was built originally of bricks and stone between 1548 and 1552. Usually the number of storeys for pagodas is uneven, but this exceptional case consisted of six storeys and reached a height of forty metres.518 From Shashi Boerschmann went overland south via Dongting Lake (EB: Tungting Lake) to Changsha (EB: Changshafu), the capital of Hunan Province (EB: Honan). In Changsha he went to the memorial temple for Qing Dynasty statesmen Zuo Zhongtang (EB: Tso Tsungtang, 1812–1885), who was honoured for fighting against the Taiping Rebels (1850–1864) as well as against the Muslims in the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) in northwest China. He had also served as the Viceroy of Fujian Province (EB: Fukien). Boerschmann photographed the memorial tablet, which acted as a spirit wall.519 The temple stood in the north, near the city wall. He sketched the central part. It consisted of two courts, an entrance gate, a gate hall and a main hall. The gables of the three buildings reflected drama and rhythm. The theatre stage dominated the eastern part of the temple; the western part consisted of a large garden with strange rock compositions.520 Boerschmann also went to the Ancestral Temple of Chen Family in Changsha (Chenjia Citang, EB: Chen Kia Tze Tang).521 With the help of some missionaries from Yale, he got into contact with a young member of the clan. The Chen family had built the temple just a few years earlier for their

517 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 78–79. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P. 309. 518 Luo Zhewen, 1994: 122. 519 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 191. 520 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 261–268. 521 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 193/194.

Fig. 343: The octagonal Wanshou Pagoda in Shashi beside the Yangtze River in Hubei Province. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.309).



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Fig. 344: The memorial tablet in the main court of the temple for nineteenth century statesman Zuo Zongtang. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 345: A sketch map of the memorial temple of Zuo Zongtang in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 262).

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Fig. 346: The two-storey main hall in the Temple for Confucius in Changsha. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.25).

Fig. 347: The main altar in the Temple for Confucius in Changsha. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek)

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Fig. 348: The temple hall for the god of literature, Wenchang Wang, next to the Temple for Confucius in Changsha. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

grandfather. The whole complex was tripartite, consisting of a section for the family, the garden and the ancestral halls. The halls of the Chen family stood next to the garden, which was decorated with strange stones, old trees, grottoes, ponds and flowers. Open and closed pavilions, covered walkways, inscriptions on the walls and paintings of the forefathers, which were framed according to the European model, created a contemplative atmosphere, conducive to enjoyment of the link between culture and nature. The pavilions’ extremely slender pillars and columns were made of limestone. However, Boerschmann found the result a bit ‟stiff”, noting that the strict straight lines in the architecture opposed the natural elements in the garden.522 A young member of the Chen family also showed him the Ancestral Temple of Hi Family (EB: Hi Kia Tze Tang), which followed the same layout pattern with an adjacent garden. The Hi family opened the garden on certain days to the public, allowing them to take their tea there. But the family temple remained private and was used only by members of the clan.523 Boerschmann saw the Temple of Confucius in Changsha, with its upturned roof hips and a lantern storey for lighting the interior, as a model. At first floor level a porch covered the gallery around the hall.524 The main hall for the God of Literature, Wenchang Wang (EB: Wen Ch‘ang Kung), had slender pillars in the façade and four small lions on pedestals in front. It stood directly next to the Temple of Confucius.525 The main road between Changsha and Guangzhou passed through Liling (EB: Lilinghien), crossing an ancient bridge, which dated from the Song Dynasty, over the Lu River. During warfare in

522 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 268–271. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.95/186. 523 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 272/274. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.57/91. 524 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 248–250. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 201. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.25/92/113/261. 525 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 252. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 192.

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Fig. 349: The bridge across Lu River in Liling in Hunan Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, BL, 1923: 198).

1918 the bridge was destroyed.526 Boerschmann photographed a memorial gate.527 At the Confucius Temple he took some photos of the two-storey main hall and the expressive upturned rooflines on the hipped roofs. The hall had no second floor inside: the upper part was used as a lantern for lighting the interior.528 On the podium of the central part of the stairway to the entrance, a carved, nine-part angled stone panel in the centre of the stairway to the platform of the temple hall showed a dragon. Two lions on pedestals guarded the panel on top of the podium.529 In Liling Boerschmann also took photos of two pagodas: the first was a white, seven-storey tower in the fields, made of ashlar stone; the second was the Pagoda of the Emerging Origin (EB: Ki yüen ta), which had eleven storeys and was about 20.6 metres high. He described the upturned corners of the octagonal tower made of ashlar stones as very characteristic.530 In Liling Boerschmann photographed an unnamed ancestral temple with a pond in front and the tower to the God of Literature (EB: Wenchang lou) behind.531 From Liling Boerschmann continued to Pingxiang in Jiangxi Province, where he stayed for Christmas 1908 with German engineers at a coalmine.532 From there he travelled to the city of Guilin and stopped on the way, in January 1909, at the Southern Mount Heng, sacred to Taoists.533 There he observed that Buddhism had tried to move into the original Taoist site and take over the mountain. In 1909 Buddhist monks managed the almost 100,000-square-metre Grand Temple of Mount Heng

526 McCord mentions that there was a bridge, later destroyed, dating back to the Song Dynasty. Most probably this was the bridge documented by Boerschmann. See McCord, 2001: 21f. 527 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 198/200. 528 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 246. 529 Ibid: 253. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.25/175. 530 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 291. 531 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 204/205. 532 PAB: EB Vortragsmanuskript, 10.4.1910: 6. 533 PAB: EB Vortragsmanuskript, 10.4.1910: 6.



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Fig. 350: The two-storey main hall in the Temple for Confucius in Liling. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.25).

Fig. 351: A more than 20-metre high ashlar stone pagoda in Liling. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 290).

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(Nanyue Damiao) at the foot of the mountain. The Taoist priests stayed in a small side temple, and in all further temples on the way to the mountaintop he found Buddhist influence. Only the smaller chapels on the way had pure Taoist content. In the larger temples, Buddhist sculptures dominated, and the Taoist gods were shown in side halls, if at all. ‟Buddhist monks have usurped the cult,” he wrote. Half way to the top, at the Temple of the Iron Buddha (EB: T’ie-fo-sze) a statue of Amitabha

Fig. 352: A memorial gate in Liling. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).



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Buddha and further Buddhist deities were on the main altar. But in front of them stood a figure of the Taoist Jade Emperor (EB: Yü-huang), to the east a figure of the Spirit of the Southern Mountain (EB: Nan yüo shen kung) and to the right a figure of his wife (EB: Nan yüe shen mu). On each side of the main altar stood a two-storey altar-shrine with different sculptures. On the lower part he found on both sides nine disciples of Buddha, the eighteen Luohans, and twenty-four Taoist deities (EB:

Fig. 353: Boerschmann’s line drawing of the Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao) near Hengyang. The peak belongs to the Five Great Mountains. The main temple of the complex occupies the centre. Four Taoist temples stood in the east court, and eight Buddhist temples stood in the west court. The “Royal Book Tower” and the “Great Hall” were in the central court. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 354: The main hall in the Grand Temple of Mount Heng. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Tsu-t’ien or Chu-t’ien), but failed to identify them.534 The situation for Taoist influence dramatically changed soon after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. No state organisation took responsibility for the rituals or paid for the sacrifices after the Emperor lost power. The American traveller William Edgar Geil wrote in 1926 that there were four Taoist and eight Buddhist temples on the mountain, and ‟since the rise of the Republic no great sacrifice has been offered, and the stream of pilgrims is diminishing.”535 In 1909, Boerschmann found the same Taoist deities (EB: Tsu-t’ien) immediately below the summit of the main peak, in the Shangfeng Temple (EB: Shang feng tze). This was the second largest temple on the mountain and had been completely taken over by Buddhism. Nine Luohan and the twelve Taoist deities (EB: Tsu-t’ien) stood on each side wall of the main hall. The three Buddhist deities Amitabha, Shakyamuni and Bhaishajyaguru (EB: O-mi-to-fo, Shih-kia-fo, and Yo-shih-fo) occupied the position in the centre. The main god of Mount Heng (EB: Nan-yüo-shen-ti) was only granted a place in a back hall, directly along the axis of the main hall.536 He documented the main temple at the foot of the sacred mountain, Nanyue Damiao (EB: Nan yüo miao), rebuilt after being struck by lightning in 1882, with several photos and a plan, but gave no description. It was the largest temple in the area. The seventy-two stone pillars of the central Shengdi Hall symbolised the seventy-two peaks of the mountain area and caught his attention.537 During the Cultural Revolution the buildings were damaged and interior objects such as scripts, statues and stelae vanished. Today Buddhism, Taoism and the worship of Confucius coexist on the mountain.

534 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 433. 535 Geil, 1926: 128. 536 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 435. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.88. 537 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 196/197. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.94/96/97/106/148/153/175/ 183/187/220/221/300.



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Fig. 355: The first hall called “Royal Book Tower” with decorative panels between the roof overhangs. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 356: The altar for the spirit of the mountain and his wife at the Temple for the Iron Buddha at Mount Heng. (© Boerschmann 1909, EB, 1911).

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Fig. 357: Three sketches of temple halls on the way to the top of Mount Heng. First, the Temple of the Iron Buddha, in the middle, the main temple below the peak with a combination of Buddhist and Taoist deities, and on the bottom a way chapel for the five spirits of the sacred mountain. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

On the way further down Xiang River (EB: Siang kiang) he passed through Hengyang (EB: Hengchoufu).538 Xiang River and a tributary enclosed the walled city on two sides. Further north, outside the city and left and right of the river, an old and a new Wild Goose Pagoda – the second with eleven storeys – stood in the fields. To the south the three peaks of the Wild Goose Mountains protected the city and, aligned with the pagodas, provided a good Feng Shui. On each of the three hills stood a temple: in the centre the Monastery of Wild Goose Hill (EB: Yen feng sze), to the east the Temple of the Dragon King (EB: Lung wang miao), and on the west side a further temple.539 On the way to

538 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 199/202/203. 539 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 288.



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Fig. 358: The layout of the city of Hengyang at Xiang River in relation to topography and the location of temples. (© Boerschmann, Pag. 1931: 289).

Guilin Boerschmann found a small pyramidal pagoda in almost every village; these were often used as incense burners. The towers had a height of four to six metres and three to six storeys. Mostly they had no connection to a temple, and therefore Boerschmann classified them as Feng Shui pagodas.540

540 Ibid: 291.

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From Guilin in Guangxi Province to Wuzhou in Guangdong Province (February 1909) The picturesque karst cone mountains in the landscape around Guilin (EB: Kueilinfu) in Guangxi Province (EB: Kuangsi) made a strong impression on Boerschmann: ‟scenically one of the strangest cities in the world is Guilin”. He documented the layout of the city in a plan with the surrounding topography and suspected that the many cone mountains, partly within the irregular walled city, partly directly surrounding it, had a religious meaning.541 In his understanding, the caves, temples, altars and pagodas were used to build a sacred network between the urban structure and the natural environment.542 As in other cases he documented wayside altars, a country road and a memorial gate.543 East of the city he photographed the Flower Bridge, which led to the small mountain range with the Cave of the Seven Stars.544 Boerschmann also took a photo of the Sheli Sarira Stupa (EB: Ku ta) in Wanshou Temple in Guilin, calling this simply an ‟ancient pagoda”.545 The Lamaist pagoda was built in the Tang Dynasty and rebuilt in 1385 on a square plan, measuring six by six metres. The twelve-metre-high pagoda is admired today as a masterpiece of the Ming Dynasty.546

541 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 211/212. 542 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 356. 543 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 206–210. 544 Ibid: 213. 545 Ibid: 215. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.215. 546 Peking University Library, 2010: 85.

Fig. 359: A stone memorial gate in the north part of Guangxi Province. (© Boerschmann 1909, CA, 1925: T.194).



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Fig. 360: A bridge across the river in Guilin. (© Boerschmann 1909, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 361: A richly decorated wayside altar in Guangxi. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 362: The view across Guilin and the river with the karst mountains in the background. (© Boerschmann 1909, PAB).

The pagoda was renovated in recent years, but many details have changed and the Buddha statues in the niches have been removed.547 A relief, measuring three by three metres and made of carved brick, hung on the inner side of the south gate of the city wall. The markedly weathered image showed waves, rocks, flowers and further Taoist symbols. Boerschmann could not work out the clear meaning.548 Furthermore, he photographed the Guildhall of the People from Fuzhou (EB: Fuchou) and the city in the context of the landscape.549 In Pingle (EB: Pinglofu), south of Guilin, where the Li River merges with two other streams and continues as the Gui River (EB: Kuei River), he photographed the Guild Hall of the People from Guangzhou. The complex shows some similarities in its front façade to the Ancestral Temple of Chen Family in Guangzhou, which he documented later in detail. However, Boerschmann never wrote anything about the guildhall, and the only source is an image, which he took of the entrance.550 From Guilin it took ten days to reach Guangzhou.551 Boerschmann passed through Wuzhou (EB: Wuchou) at the West River (Xi Jiang), where he photographed an extravagantly decorated memorial gate as part of Tianhou Temple (EB: Tienhou kong) at the edge of the river.552 From Wuzhou he continued by boat down the West River and back through the Pearl River Delta to Guangzhou.

547 Luo Zhewen, 1994: 281–289. 548 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 80 and P.66. 549 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 214/216/217. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P. 59. 550 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 218. 551 PAB: EB Vortragsmanuskript, 10.4.1910: 7. 552 Tianhou is the protectress of seafarers and better known as Mazu. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 219.



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Fig. 363: The entrance to the Fujian Club with a tower for the god of literature to the right. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 364: A richly decorated memorial gate at West River in Wuzhou in Guangxi Province, near the border to Guangdong Province. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 365: The Sheli Sarira Pagoda in Guilin. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer ­Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).



From Guilin in Guangxi Province to Wuzhou in Guangdong Province (February 1909)  

Fig. 366: The line drawings of the Sheli Pagoda by Ernst Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 319

320 

Fig. 367: The city map of Guangzhou, the former Canton, from 1910.

Fig. 368: In front the “Kiu Kiu Bridge” in Guangzhou. On the rooftops at the back wind catchers as used by the Arabs in the Middle East and found along the Arab coast are visible. These constructions channelled the wind into the house. It was regulated with simple means. (Unknown photographer, courtesy of Michael Kämpfe).

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Fig. 369: The five storey pagoda tower was integrated into the city wall at the most northern point. (© Boerschmann 1909, BL, 1923:231).

Fig. 370: Wenchang Wang and Guandi were placed side by side on the altar. In front of them stood two officials to the right and two further statues to the left. (© Boerschmann 1909, GT, 1914: 57).

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In Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (February–March 1909) After arriving in Guangzhou (EB: Kuangchou), also called ‟Canton” by foreigners, he took some time to visit several places of interest and studied the urban layout in terms of religion and geography in detail. ‟Also here the city hangs on a hill, her venerable forefather, and in the southeast a pagoda protects the spiritual city. On top of the hill projects a five-storey temple, in the upper storey of which two gods are placed.”553 Here he refers to the five-storey Sea Tamer Tower (Wucenglou, EB: Wu Tseng Lu) from the Ming Dynasty at North Hill on the city wall – which was still fully intact.554 On the fifth floor the statues of Guandi (EB: Kuan Ti) and Wenchang Wang (EB: Wen Chang) stood on one altar, and two further minor deities accompanied each statue. The two main statues had coloured gowns in red, white, yellow, gold and blue.555 In the uppermost hall of a five-storied temple on the summit sit two gods, who constantly oversee and promote the daily life of the Chinese. These gods were Wen’chang [Wenchang], the god of knowledge and learning, and Lao-ye [Guandi], the god of efficiency and bravery. The Chinese designate this duality as Wen Wu, which Europeans have correctly translated as civil and military, but the Chinese give that a more profound signification. They guard the city and all prosperity depends upon their aid.556

In front of the tower he documented one of the two sculptures of sitting lion-like animals on pedestals. In his interpretation, it was rather a chimera, with a reference to a lion and a fantastic fish-like animal, which served as a protector.557 The combination of religion and monument for the north entrance of the city impressed Boerschmann most, and confirmed his assumption about the connection between the religious and the profane. ‟It is this dualism, which is created from nature,

553 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages) 33. 554 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 231–233. 555 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 57. 556 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 566. EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 57. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.83. 557 EB, in Sinica, 1938: 224.

Fig. 371: Boerschmann’s drawing of the fifth floor of the pagoda with an altar for Wenchang Wang, the god of literature and Guandi, the god of war. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 57).



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in the daily life of the people newly seen and expressed in art, which became the law of Chinese architecture and to which we owe the best creation.”558 Boerschmann visited the almost 55-metre-high Red Mound Pagoda (Chigangta, EB: Tschi kang ta), southeast of the city on the river. The Feng Shui pagoda, made of the local red sandstone, was intended to promote the good luck of the city dwellers. With nine storeys and a clear structure, but without any further buildings around it, the pagoda stood free in the field close to the river and dated, according to his references, from between 1621 to 1628.559 Today the date of construction is given as 1619. According to Boerschmann, the Red Mound Pagoda acted as a complement to the inner city Flower Pagoda (EB: Hua ta), which dated back to the founding of the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees (Liurensi) in the year 526. The pagoda had been rebuilt on an octagonal plan by

558 EB, in Deutsche Bauhütte, 1924: 83. 559 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 188–191.

Fig. 372: The newly renovated Flower Pagoda in the centre of Guangzhou. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/ picture perfect GbR). See also plate 18.

324 

Fig. 373: The mosque with Arabic calligraphy in a Chinese hall. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 374: Arabic calligraphic reliefs on the prayer niche in the mosque. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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 325

Fig. 375: The prayer tower in the mosque in Guangzhou. (© Luo, 1994).

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the end of eleventh century. Two hundred years later a fire destroyed the tower and by the end of nineteenth century, only ruins of the pagoda survived. A rebuilding took place in 1900 and when Boerschmann visited the temple, the pagoda was brand new.560 During renovation in 1980 inscriptions were found from the eleventh century.561 He also visited Huaisheng Mosque (EB: Huai sheng sze) with the ‟naked pagoda” – the minaret – just a few metres from the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. The minaret was a ‟picturesque ruin” in 1909 and Boerschmann called it the ‟Luminous Pagoda” (Guangta, EB: Kuang ta). He wrote that the first tower dated from 650 or 900, and that it was reconstructed in 1468.562 As a reference for his thesis mentioned earlier that the Feng Shui pillars in Shanxi Province showed Islamic influence, he named the minaret from Huaisheng Mosque. He heard that the minaret was a grave monument for ‟Sadi Wakas” (Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas), but alternatively he had also heard that Waqqas was buried in a separate monument outside the town. For him, both the Feng Shui pillars in Shanxi and the minaret referred to ‟West-Asian” models, which had arrived with Arabic traders via the sea route to

560 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.313. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 199–201. 561 Luo Zhewen, 1994: 122. 562 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 201.

Fig. 376: The square hall in the Hualin Temple with an indoor pagoda modelled after the pagoda in Haitong Temple. Today an almost identical pagoda stands in the court of the temple. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 421). Fig. 377: An elevation drawing of the pagoda. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 421).



In Guangzhou, Guangdong Province (February–March 1909) 

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Guangzhou. In the case of Shanxi, however, he expressed his belief that the form arrived overland via the Silk Road. In both cases he saw a close relationship between the form and structure. If the minaret really was built in the seventh century by Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, it would date from the same time as the Buddhist Great Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. For the minaret he also suggested thinking about its use as a lighthouse for the early Arabic traders in Canton. Other than the formal similarities, he could not give any further references to prove his belief about the connection between west Asian architectural features and the Shanxi Feng Shui pillars. In his view, the buildings in the mosque dated from the Qing Dynasty. However, the main buildings dated from 1350 and it is said that the mosque was founded in 627 as the earliest mosque in China.563 Boerschmann’s images show the interior of the main hall with the mihrab, the prayer niche, beyond an arched opening in the gable wall. On the side was the minbar, a raised platform from which the imam addressed the faithful. Above the arched opening to the mihrab, there was religious writing in expressive but clean Arabic calligraphy. The sacred niche, made up of wooden panels, was decorated with carved flower ornaments and further calligraphy.564

563 Shatzmann Steinhardt, 2008: 335. 564 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 228/229.

Fig. 378: The pagoda in the centre of the hall. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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According to Boerschmann, the local geomancers said: ‟Canton is like a junk: the two big pagodas inside the west gate represent the masts; the five storey high tower on the north wall, on the northern mountain, in front of which the city stretches out, is the high stern.”565 The Monastery of the Sea Banner (Haitongsi, EB: Hai tung sze or Hai Tschuang sze), on the island Honam opposite the walled city of Guangzhou, was one of the most important Buddhist spots. Inside the square main hall stood a marble relic pagoda dating from 1780.566 In Hualin Temple (EB: Hua lin sze), in the centre of the Hall of the 500 Luohan, he found a bronze Ashoka-form stupa, created in 1849, which was essentially a copy of the marble pagoda in Haitong Temple.567 All four sides of the pagoda displayed different Bodhisattvas ‟of the four cardinal directions, riding on a lion, on an elephant or other ritual animals.”568 Haitong Temple with the famous Hall of the 500 Luohan stood north of Shamian Island and west of the walled city. Next door was the Temple for the God of Medicine (Yaowangmiao), which Boerschmann also photographed.569 At the Mountain of the White Clouds (Baiyunshan, EB: Pai yün shan), north of the walled city, he documented numerous graves. ‟The soul of the deceased is thought of as white clouds. And when the top of the mountain is covered by white fog, then the Chinese connect this with the idea that the souls of all deceased are united there at the top of the mountain, from which on the other side the life comes, thus the imagination [is] of the circuit of existence.” The size of the necropolis on the Mountain of the White Clouds was, according to Boerschmann, immense: twelve kilometres

565 EB, in Asia Major, 1925: 530. 566 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 230. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 420. 567 Ibid: 421. 568 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 41. EB, Pagoden, 1931: 422/423. 569 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 223–225. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: P.99/129.

Fig. 379: The temple for the god of medicine, west of the city wall. (© Boerschmann 1909, CA, 1925: T.99).



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Fig. 380: Inside the temple for the god of medicine. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 381: Rich ceramic wall decoration in the temple for the god of medicine. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 382: Boerschmann’s line drawing of the Memorial Temple of Chen Family. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 383: The rear hall in the Chen Memorial Temple. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 384: The middle hall in the Chen Memorial Temple. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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long and seven kilometres wide, grave after grave – ‟there are millions.”570 In the necropolis he took a photo of the inner court of Nengren Monastery (EB: Neng jen sze), which was built in 1824 and destroyed after the first revolution in 1911.571 The Ancestral Temple of Chen Family (EB: Chen Kia Tze Tang) or Chen Clan Academy dated from 1890. Boerschmann saw in it a last example of the living culture of ancestral halls, although he noted that some degeneration in detailing and decoration could be seen.572 On one hand he saw the somewhat ‟baroque forms” as ‟decadent offshoots” of Chinese architecture; on the other hand, he named the more fanciful and fantastic forms of southeast Asia as an influence. Two lions and two flagpoles in front of a pond flanked the entrance. The halls had a simple saddle roof, but excessive ridge decoration. In strong contrast to the rich decoration, the floor plan was straight, symmetrical and linearly organised around six courts. The halls in three rows contained the following spaces from front to back: entrance halls, assembly halls and finally the ancestral halls. The material used was brick for the solid walls and thin granite pillars. The interior construction used wooden pillars. In each of the five bays of the ancestral halls, five blue glazed ritual vase-like containers were placed on tables. The final wall contained the wooden tablets of the deceased. The space could store about 4,000 tablets, of which about 2,000 had been used.573 Today the Chen Clan Academy houses the Guangdong Folk Art Museum and is praised for its plaster and brick carvings. Boerschmann never mentioned any of the western settlements or missions in the cities he passed through. Also in Guangzhou nothing is said about the changes that took place in the urban layout and in the architecture under the influence of merchants and traders. The concessions on Shamian Island, for instance, were totally ignored.

570 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 34. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 234–237. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.241. 571 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 238/239. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.300. 572 A son of the Chen family studied in Berlin around 1910. PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 52. 573 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 275–286. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 222/226/227. EB, Chinesische Architektur I+II, 1925: P.91/106/188/189/191/293.



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In Fuzhou, Fujian Province and the return to Beijing (March to May 1909) In the spring of 1909 Boerschmann travelled by boat from Guangzhou via Hong Kong to Fuzhou (EB: Fuchoufu), where he stayed for several days. The old harbour city of Fuzhou in Fujian Province (EB: Fukien) was located at a distance from the sea on the bank of the Min River. The layout of the city had developed on a north–south axis. The river flowed about three kilometres south from east to west and two arms enclosed the ‟South Island”. North of the city proper was the North Mountain and to the east was the Drum Mountain (EB: Ku shan). A stone bridge, almost 500 metres long, connected the suburbs on the ‟South Island” with the main city. The city wall enclosed several hills. The Dingguang Pagoda, also called the White Pagoda, stood on the hill in the southeast corner within the wall, placed there – according to Boerschmann – for Feng Shui reasons. A further Feng Shui pagoda stood on an island further down the Min River. The Drum Mountain corresponded with a mountain on the island (EB: Ki feng) and both created a natural gate upstream of the city. The mountains again had religious references with temples and memorial notes inscribed on stone tablets. For Boerschmann this again showed perfect placement, but he interpreted it also as the result of with a deliberate religious intention to harmonise the city with the natural environment.

Fig. 385: A sketch map of Fuzhou by Ernst Boerschmann. He focused on the course of the rivers, the topography and the location of pagodas in the region. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 305).

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Fig. 386: The reality of the environment was not too different to Boerschmann’s sketch. 1. Mount Gu, 2. White Pagoda, 3. Black Pagoda. (© EK, based on a map from 1930s).

He commented: ‟And really, nobody can escape the strange magic that carries the rhythm of water, mountains and buildings at this location.”574 On the Drum Mountain Boerschmann visited the Buddhist Gushing Spring Temple (Yong­ quansi, EB: Yung tsüan sze). The temple originated from the time of the Five Dynasties. However, the buildings had been renewed several times and dated from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In Boerschmann’s photos the interior and the exterior of the prayer hall, an imperial double altar and the statue of a reclining Buddha in the library are documented. The interior photos show a rich, clean decoration, with very well arranged furnishings. In a small hall, called Sarira Grotto (EB: She li ku), which was connected to the main hall, he documented a relic pagoda, about four metres in height. With drawings and descriptions he recorded the ‟tabernacle” with a sacred tooth – ‟in reality the old bronzed check tooth of an elephant” – which referred, according to him, to an earlier incarnation of Buddha.575 In Fuzhou Boerschmann documented a tomb of a nobleman (EB: Ch’en Wangp’o) from 1831 with a horseshoe-shaped layout. The entrance was on the side, lined with some stone animals and two

574 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 361. 575 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 425/426. EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 244–249.



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Fig. 387: The Yongquan Temple on Mount Gu, about 16 kilometres to the southeast of the city proper. (© Boerschmann 1909, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Fig. 388: A lying Buddha behind glass in Yongquan Temple at Mount Gu. (© Boerschmann 1909, BL, 1923: 247).

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Fig. 389: An altar in the Yongquan Temple. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek). Fig. 390: A “relic shrine-pagoda” behind bars in the Yongquan Temple. (© Boerschmann 1909, Pag, 1931: 425).

Fig. 391: A drawing of the arrangement in the circa one-metre high wooden relic box. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 426). Fig. 392: The three grave pagodas for a famous monk (EB. Wu I) enclosed with a horseshoe-shaped wall on the way up Mount Gu. The left and right pagodas are said, held relicts of the monk. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 385).

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guardians. A wall enclosed a polygonal, almost rectangular space. On one end stood an honour gate and two flagpoles in the shape of a brush. A sacred grove covered the tumulus on the other end. Boerschmann published the drawings without description in the book Chinesische Architektur in 1925.576 Besides the tomb, he also documented smaller graves at the same spot. Boerschmann continued from Fuzhou to Hangzhou, where he stayed during Easter 1909 (around 11 April) at West Lake, before returning to Beijing on 1 May.577 In April 1909 the Ministry of War approved his further leave of absence until the end of August 1910.578 In June 1909 the Foreign Office in Berlin warned Boerschmann that under no circumstances could he extend his agreed stay. He planned to leave Beijing by train in mid-July, crossing Siberia to Berlin, where he hoped to arrive in early August.579 On 5 June 1909 he received 1,300 Marks to cover the costs of his trip back home.580 On 19 July 1909, after 31 months in the country, Boerschmann left Beijing, travelling by train via Moscow to Berlin. In the letter from the Legation to the Foreign Office, the officer in charge lamented that Boerschmann had taken all the equipment that he had bought with the money from his budget.581 On 3 August 1909 Boerschmann announced to the Foreign Office that he planned to arrive in Berlin in early October.582

576 Ibid: 240–243. EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.246–249. 577 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin (53 pages): 7. 578 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 28.4.1909, Ministry of War to AA. 579 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 4.6.1909, AA to EB: 580 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 5.7.1909, Legation to AA. 581 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 19.7.1909, Legation to AA. 582 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 3.8.1909, EB to AA.

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Fig. 393: The honour gate and two flagpoles at the south end of the enclosed grave for a mandarin (EB. Chen Wang-po) from 1831. (© Boerschmann 1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 394: The grave mount planted with trees. Two lions on pedestals guard the ensemble in front of the horseshoe-shaped wall. In the foreground is a half-moon water basin, which dried up. (© Boerschmann 1909, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

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Fig. 395: Boerschmann’s drawing of the floor plan, sections and elevations of the ensemble. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.247/248).

Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931) Back in Berlin: Working through the collected material (1909–1911) In March 1910 Ernst Boerschmann asked the Foreign Office for 1,000 Marks to continue with the analysis of the collected material.1 In April the Ministry of War announced its plans to employ Boerschmann as a technical assistant from August 1910.2 And in June the Foreign Office presented the final balance of Boerschmann’s expenditure: his three-year journey had exceeded the budget by 6,500 Marks.3 On 10 April 1910 Boerschmann gave a public lecture at the Anthropological Society in Berlin. Aided by slides, he explained his first conceptual studies on the basis of the material collected from China. He explained that initially he had thought that studying the buildings in and around Beijing would give him a perfect overview and reveal the basic types of Chinese architecture, but he soon discovered the different regional aspects and therefore found it necessary to travel through the whole country. Usually he had travelled with up to thirty Chinese helpers in order to transport the material, as well as a translator and a cook.4 Boerschmann explained that so as understand the country and the people, he had focused on the contemporary culture and not on ancient historic problems. In this first lecture he already came to the following conclusion: ‟It is an architecture of the floor plan and the landscape, which is unknown here [in the West].”5 He called the Great Wall the most awesome construction, one both monumental and pictorial in its integration into the landscape. The unity of architecture, culture and religion seemed to him as strong as it had been in ancient Greece, and possibly nowhere else.6 In June 1910 Boerschmann presented a memorandum related to the further elaboration of the material to the Foreign Office.7 In it he explained his self-imposed duties during the years from 1906 to 1909 as attaché at the Royal Legation in Beijing and his vision for the further processing of the raw data. Since returning in October 1909, he had organised his large amount of material, which included detailed lists of 2,500 pages of sketches and notes in scrapbooks, large and small, 1,000 pages of small articles and notes in diaries, 8,000 photographs, including about 1,000 photographic glass plates. He added: ‟This is probably the biggest collection about Chinese monuments.” He further listed 2,000 rubbings from stelae, mostly figurative and ornamental representations, and several hundred original Chinese drawings, plans, maps and books. But Boerschmann also wrote: ‟It is impossible for me to hand the material over to you. The amount does not allow me to do so.” He did not even want to give a small part away, arguing he would need everything that he had collected for further elaboration and obviously fearing someone else would continue the work that he had begun. While in China, Boerschmann reported his activities twice to the Legation – on 16 July and on 6 December 1907. Back in Germany he stated that these reports did not equate to proper scientific work. In his view, in the larger context, the reports were only individual, unconnected works and therefore had no sustained value. Boerschmann felt that producing detailed technical drawings was most important, because without them no final conclusion would be possible. After the first two reports he had refrained from compiling further accounts of the years 1908 and 1909 to save time for the collection of more material. After his return to Europe he had started to organise

1 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 29.3.1910, EB to AA. 2 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 13.4.1910, Ministry of War to AA. 3 PAAA: R 138421, letter, 19.6.1910, AA to EB: The value of money would be equivalent to more than €28,000 in 2012. 4 PAB: unpublished manuscript by EB of a lecture given on 10.4.1910 in Berlin, (53 pages): 4. 5 Ibid: 10. 6 Ibid: 8. 7 PAAA: R 138422, memorandum (17 pages), 19.6.1910, EB to AA (addressed to the Legation in Beijing). Published by Walravens, 2002: 120–129. The quotations relating to the episode are from the same memorandum.



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the findings and work on the details, in the main producing drawings on the basis of his records. He reported that he had been working alone at first, but soon found a young draftsman, Karl M. Kraatz, to prepare drawings according to his specifications. Boerschmann had already finished 81 drawings in 1910, twenty of which were 73 by 102 centimetres in size or larger. Some of them accompanied an article published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, in which Boerschmann gave the first account of his trip, ‟however more from the general, philosophical side”.8 He added to the memorandum two folders with a total of forty-four drawings.9 As a first substantial scholarly result, he prepared material on Pu to shan, die heilige Insel der Kuan yin (Mount Putuo, the sacred island of the Guanyin) – 22 drawings, 151 photographs and about 270 pages of text. Additionally he included fifteen large-scale drawings. Already in the essay published in the Kölnische Volkszeitung on 12 May 1905, Über das Studium der chinesischen Baukunst (Concerning the study of Chinese architecture), he had argued that, ‟the drawings are the best materials. These documents will last, and, in contrast to the buildings, they will provide a secure base, even after changes have been made.” Now he was even more convinced about the ‟geometric documents”. As he said: ‟Only by comparing the plans could I get to the essence of Chinese thinking. Not from photographs, they are mostly the basis for the art historians and archaeologists, but they only illustrate.” He stated that only drawings could give a secure impression, because ‟the drawings of buildings of a living folk like the Chinese communicates their culture better than for instance buildings from Greece, India or Assyria, and will give us an impression of the spirit of the people.” Boerschmann thus expressed his opinion that with the planned publication he would contribute to the knowledge of modern China in a much better way than the work prepared by the

8 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1910: 390–426. 9 Today they are not in the PAAA.

Fig. 396: The locations of all the temples Ernst Boerschmann wrote about after his trip between 1906 and 1909. Almost all the buildings are located along his route around the country. (© EK).

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Fig. 397: Boerschmann’s sketch on the basis of a Chinese original shows the complex of the Temple of Agriculture in Beijing. 1. Hall for the Soul Plates (Shenku), 2. Altar of the Planet Jupiter (Taisuitan), 3. Hall for Musical Instruments, 4. Palace of Celebrating Completion (Qingchenggong), 5. Altar of Agriculture (Xiannongtan), 6. Terrace for Observation of Ploughing (Guangengtai), 7. Altar of the Earth (Dishentan), 8. Altar of the God of Heaven (Tianshentan). (© Boerschmann, PAB).

British and French experts on historic architecture in India, Java or Kampuchea. The French had meanwhile begun their Mission archéologique dans la Chine (Archaeological mission to China) in 1907 by sending Edouard Chavannes to the country. The mission continued until 1923 with Victor Segalen/A.G. de Voisins (1909), Henri Maspero (1914), Victor Segalen/A.G. de Voisins/Jean Lartigue (1914), Victor Segalen (1917) and Jean Lartigue (1923).10 For China Boerschmann predicted a modern development ‟at least half” based in history, which he believed would be founded on historic models and develop in an evolutionary manner. To prepare the German government and public for this new movement based on old principles, Boerschmann argued that his work would help to clarify not only the architectural expression, but, far beyond this, the cultural self-conception of Chinese society. In the report from 7 December 1907 he had promised his supervisor in the Legation in Beijing that the studies would be finished within a year of his return to Germany. But now he admitted he had not foreseen the scale of the work ahead and that he had greatly underestimated the whole area. Only the smallest part of the work was complete. He demanded at least one more year of

10 Baptiste, 2005.



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financial support, which would give him time to finish the most important drawings, though not to complete the required descriptions. In too many cases, he argued in his defence, there was only Chinese literature available, which was often unreliable. But as mentioned before, preparing proper drawings as a reliable resource became his strongest argument. The bigger aspect, under which I started my work, will be without doubt justified by the success. […] In fact I did recognise all I recorded in China, but only on paper does the whole essence of forms and […] only on the basis of drawings was it possible for me to lay down the first guiding ideas in the lecture I gave on 16 April 1910, illustrated with 30 drawings and 90 photographs.

Because drawings based on measurements had never been available to this extent, Boerschmann argued that he had really created a new basis for the understanding of the interconnections in Chinese culture. His completed manuscript for the book on the sacred Buddhist Mount Putuo should serve as a model for further analysis of ‟the artistic and religious culture of the Chinese”. For his next monograph he planned to write about the Buddhist Temple of Azure Clouds near Beijing. Furthermore, he announced a list of topics for future work: Mount Wutai and Mount Emei, both sacred mountains in Buddhism (he had not yet visited the fourth sacred Buddhist mountain, Mount Jiuhua); the five sacred mountains of Taoism (though he only had visited three of them: Mount Tai, Mount Hua and Southern Mount Heng); the temples to Confucius; the Temple of Heaven in Beijing; Taoist temples; stone and vault bridges; pagodas; memorial archways (pailous); tombs; wayside and house altars; grottoes and rock temples; sculptures in wood, stone and iron; modern schools; and hydraulic engineering works and guest houses. His list did not include ordinary housing or the royal buildings. Boerschmann mentioned some places, such as the sacred mountains that he had not yet visited, which would necessitate a return to China for further research. He excluded a general description of Chinese art and architecture from his self-imposed duties, since he felt he had not yet acquired enough knowledge in these fields. He argued that after analysing the collected material, it would be easier to make a clearer overview and emphasised his intention to focus on the contemporary aspects of architecture in China. Boerschmann believed that only if one understood contemporary conditions could one go further into the historic development; he expressed doubts about many aspects of Western knowledge on Chinese art and architecture. In order to reach a level that would make judgement possible he therefore required deeper research of basic aspects of the field through the recording of architecture on-site by measuring, sketching and photographing. Nine months after returning to Germany, Boerschmann viewed his own evaluation as a mere beginning: My desire and my ideals are to create an extensive basis. First, as a basis for the floor plans and the built forms themselves, for the art of the interior of temples and buildings, for ornaments and secondary things, then also as a basis for the leading artistic, aesthetic and philosophical thoughts, which will surely be legible in the documented forms, and this will be a basis for the correct description of the formal expressions and for the judgement of the whole culture of contemporary China.

He proposed that documenting Chinese art and architecture would animate contemporary Western art too, adding that the Jugendstil and Art Nouveau artists had recently developed a new interest in the Far East.

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Continuation of the studies To achieve his aims his work needed to be fundamental, and so – he argued – further holistic research was necessary. Boerschmann demanded an enduring scientific and geometric documentation of Chinese buildings in connection with general cultural studies as well as proper publications of the results in drawings, texts and images. He rejected predicting how and when this aim could be achieved, but suggested a continuation of the way he had already begun: research and documentation in China, analyses and publication in Berlin, where a growing library could assist the scientific work. A scientific and archaeological institute in Beijing would best serve the achievement of all his goals. Only two Germans, an educated architect and a Sinologist, would be necessary in China, he argued. Additionally two Chinese would be enough as assistants. He also suggested the creation of a periodical magazine dedicated to research in Chinese architecture. With those two things – a scientific institute in Beijing and a magazine – the Germans could establish close contact with intellectuals in China and discuss aspects of contemporary art and architecture. This would be essential to gain and exert influence in architectural development. Boerschmann argued also from a national point of view: Germany would not only be taking a lead in scientific development but also a lead in international studies in the field. His own approach to documenting architecture – not only through photography but also systematically through measured drawings – was so far unique. He believed that with the measures that he recommended the Germans would stay ahead of all other nations. As an example, he wrote, only the Japanese had so far prepared measured drawings of the Forbidden City in Beijing. They had published a work on it in three volumes, the first and second with excellent photographs, the third with drawings.11 Boerschmann praised the photos, but expressed his dissatisfaction with the drawings. From his point of view the third volume was poor quality in terms of the drawing and the printing of colours, and there was also a general absence of a leading aesthetic or constructive point of view, which would enable an understanding of the culture. Additionally, he argued, in times of revolution in the Chinese empire, many things could be damaged and destroyed in a very short period of time. (The revolution came in 1911–12.) Following his suggestions would put all the museums in Germany in a good position and greatly improve relationship with Chinese intellectuals. Boerschmann expressed his confidence that the Chinese elite would like to have a deeper understanding of their own architecture, but did not yet have a structure for their own research. As an example he cited the meeting with the Chinese governor from the Tibetan capital Lhasa, Zhao Erfeng (EB: Chao örl feng),12 who showed an interest in translating his writings into Chinese (which never happened), but noted that this would be possible only in Beijing. In short, Boerschmann demanded the founding of ‟scientific institute in Peking for the study of Chinese art and culture with a special focus on architecture”. In the final chapter of the memorandum, he discussed his own role in the proposed institute. Having studied Chinese architecture – and also the language – for four years, he offered to act as the director of the institute from 1 April 1912, after his current assignment had expired. As an assistant Boerschmann recommended his draftsman Karl Kraatz. For scientific monitoring during the foundation of the institute he recommended the following experts: from the Royal Prussian Museums the general-director Wilhelm von Bode (1845–1929), the director F.W.K. Müller, the art historian and assistant Otto Kümmel (1874–1952), the director of the Museum of Decorative Arts, Peter Jessen, from the Royal Academy of Architecture, Dr. Karl Hinckeldeyn (1847–1927), and from the Royal Technical University professor Richard Borrmann (1852–1931) and professor Friedrich Laske (1854–1924).

11 Ogawa Kazumasa, 1906. 12 Chao Erfeng was a bannerman from Beijing. The Qing government sent him to Tibet in 1905 (EB met him on the way to Lhasa in 1908). He was beheaded after the rebellion in Sichuan in 1911.



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Laske, Kümmel and Jessen had inspected Boerschmann’s collections. He further proposed showing the results of his analysis to a commission. Boerschmann admitted that the detailed documentation was taking much longer than originally estimated, but only due to the fact that he had been working on his own and without help. For further studies, he hoped for assistance so that his programme (see above) could be finished by April 1912.13 Unfortunately, no official reaction to this memorandum remains in the archive. However, we can imagine the stress involved in getting the extensions from year to year. With the foundation of an institute Boerschmann hoped to resolve the situation and establish a basis for further studies. In June 1910 the Ministry of War extended Boerschmann’s leave of absence to 31 March 1912.14 However, the Foreign Office approved only three months on 31 July, an extension until the end of October. At the end of June 1910 Boerschmann submitted the prepared materials for his first publication, on sacred Buddhist Mount Putuo, to the Foreign Office with a request for a grant towards the printing costs. The material included the description of the landscape and temples, 149 photos, a large folder with eight drawings and a small folder with fourteen additional drawings.15 On 22 July 1910 the Ministry of Education and Medical Affairs approved Boerschmann’s proposal. The approval was based on the expertise of art historian Otto Kümmel and F.W.K. Müller from the Royal Museums. But the Ministry of Education and Medical Affairs did not want to spend money on the ongoing work. They also asked railway engineer Franz Baltzer to give his opinion as an architect, because he had experience with similar work in Japan.16 The Royal Treasury did not approve the statements provided by the experts, but wanted to wait for the Baltzer’s expertise to clarify whether the complex analysis proposed by Boerschmann was necessary.17 In August 1910 the Ministry of War shortened Boerschmann’s leave of absence to October of the same year, as earlier approved by the Foreign Office.18 The Ministry of Education and Medical Affairs again asked for Baltzer’s opinion at the end of September and additionally called the professor for architectural history at Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg (after the First World War, this became the Polytechnic University in Berlin), Richard Borrmann, for a comment.19 By the end of August Baltzer had delivered a report to the Foreign Office. He doubted the value of Boerschmann’s area of study for a general audience, but expressed his confidence that it would be of great benefit for science. Baltzer suggested a change from Boerschmann’s very broad approach to one that involved focused research on architecture.20 In early October the report from professor Borrmann reached the Foreign Office. In opposition to Baltzer he defended Boerschmann’s broad approach: The programme is based on the notion of looking at the monuments not only from a technical or artistic point of view, but with regard to the tight connection between art, cult and nature in China, to portray the valuable content in the framework of the general culture of the country. […] Measurements of this kind have never been made of Chinese monuments as far as I know. Their absence is the main reason for the total ignorance of Chinese architecture.21

One week after receiving the report by Borrmann, the Royal Treasury extended Boerschmann’s research until the end of 1911, but without the possibility of prolongation. He received 6,100 Marks as personal income and 4,000 Marks for material expenses.22 The Ministry of War also agreed to

13 PAAA: R 138422, memorandum (17 pages), 19.6.1910, EB to AA (addressed to the Legation in Beijing). Published by Walravens, 2002: 120–129. 14 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 27.6.1910, Ministry of War to AA. 15 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 30.6.1910, EB to AA (the materials mentioned are not in the archive today). 16 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 22.7.1910, Ministry of Education and Medical Affairs to AA. 17 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 29.7.1910, Reich Office of Treasury to AA. 18 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 3.8.1910, Ministry of War to AA. 19 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 30.9.1910, Ministry of Education and Medical Affairs to AA. 20 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 30.8.1910, Baltzer to AA. 21 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 3.10.1910, Borrmann to AA. 22 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 10.10.1910, Office of Treasury to AA.

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extend his leave of absence until end of March 1912.23 In October of 1910 Friedrich Laske, who was known for his book, published the previous year,24 about the influence of East Asian architecture in the West in the eighteenth century, wrote an additional report on Boerschmann’s approach. Laske mentioned visiting Boerschmann’s study after he published his own book and affirmed that all details given in his memorandum were correct. He was absolutely convinced by the sketchbooks and the drawings he had seen. Laske highlighted the fact that Boerschmann had travelled in difficult conditions with donkeys and bearers, sometimes by boat and sometimes on foot. He therefore evaluated the sketches, drawings and photographs as an excellent result, and argued that they alone were reason enough to grant Boerschmann additional money for further work. Laske wrote: ‟We architects are standing in front of this art as a kind of terra incognita.”25 In his view, only a patchwork of research had so far been conducted in Asia. He continued his argument on a political level: Boerschmann could be the first in the international race for scientific results in a specific field, bringing prestige to the royal German government. He argued that Baltzer’s books (1903 and 1905) on Japanese architecture were the starting point for the documenting by the Japanese government of their own architectural culture and noted Marquis Ito [Ito Chuta] as the figure who had started this work in Japan.26 Laske expressed his conviction that the Chinese government did not value their monuments fully and insisted that Boerschmann write his books in German. Laske agreed with the timeframe of Boerschmann’s work plan. In addition to the proposed nineteen volumes of documentation mentioned by Boerschmann in his memorandum, Laske proposed adding books of a more general nature afterwards – possibly on the construction of Chinese buildings in stone and timber or on the aesthetics and the history of Chinese architecture. In a vivid final chapter he argued for the establishment of the proposed institute in Beijing as a good way of continuing the excellent work started by Boerschmann.27 In January 1911 Boerschmann gave a small glazed pot, two historic coins and a protocol of an excavation by Father Heinrich Erlemann in Jining (EB: Tsiningchow), in Shandong Province, as a present to the East Asian Department of the Museum for Ethnology in Berlin. The drawing shows a stelae of a grave from the Han Dynasty, a section of the excavated pot and a map showing the location of the excavation.28 In February Boerschmann gave a book on the language of the Hua-Miao tribe, prepared by Father Samuel Pollard (1864–1915) of the China Inland Mission, to the library of the ethnological department of the Berlin Museums.29 In March 1911 he wrote to the Foreign Office about the forthcoming International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden. The event was planned to open to the public on 1 May. The ethnological department of the museum had asked him to contribute plans, drawings and photos of Chinese buildings constructed for hygienic purposes, such as public baths. They planned to build some models based on his drawings and donate them to the newly founded Hygiene Museum. The institution in Dresden would cover all expenses. Boerschmann submitted twenty drawings and plans, including of a children’s asylum, baths, graves, houseboats, teahouses and guesthouses, as well as of cave and temple dwellings. The Hygiene Museum planned to archive the material as photomechanical reproductions.30 As part of the exhibition, the Chinese government constructed some original buildings in Dresden, planned by German architect Curt Rothkegel in Beijing.31 Boerschmann assisted the leader of the Chinese

23 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 25.10.1910, Ministry of War to AA. 24 Laske, 1909. 25 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 24.10.1910, Laske to AA (7 pages). 26 In reality it was the other way around. Ito Chuta was first, and Baltzer used his material, at least the important parts. 27 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 24.10.1910, Laske to AA (7 pages). 28 SMB–PK, EM, E121/11, letter, 18.1.1911, EB to the Museum of Ethnology. This was also published as a report EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 153–160. 29 SMB-PK, EM, E327/11, letter, 14.2.1911, Museum to EB. 30 I could not find any traces of plans or models. 31 Warner, 1994: 32. The pavilion still exists and is protected as a monument.



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delegation – the chief of the police department from the Chinese capital. Boerschmann’s contribution to the exhibition inspired his elder brother, the district doctor Friedrich Boerschmann from Bartenstein (East Prussia), to think about hygiene in China. Boerschmann sent a small brochure written by his brother on the topic to the Foreign Office, adding ‟where I also participated with a small contribution”.32 Entitled ‟A directive on the Chinese medical service in Beijing”, Friedrich Boerschmann wrote about general habits in matters of hygiene.33 The introduction, which is based on his brother’s notes, is followed by a translation of an article by the president of the police, published in the most popular newspaper, Shibao (EB: Shih Pao), in Beijing. The general characteristics of habits in matters of hygiene were listed in twenty points. Among pieces of basic advice such as ‟water has to be boiled before drinking; every family has to clean the house once or twice a year; every family needs a toilet; rats must be killed,” other aspects, for instance about the handling of sick family members, were addressed. On 8 April 1911 Boerschmann gave a lecture at the Society for Geography in Berlin.34 Two weeks later the Foreign Office finally agreed on the budget for studies in that year. They granted him 10,100 Marks in total, 6,100 as his own salary and 4,000 for material expenses, including the costs of additional draftspersons.35 In April 1911 the first book on Buddhist sacred Mount Putuo was ready for publication. Boerschmann was now planning to publish his works in six volumes. The publishing house Reimers (de Gruyter)36 asked for 3,000 Marks as a non-repayable grant towards the printing costs of each book. The Imperial Office of the Interior considered the case, but the Foreign Office was asked to assist. So far Boerschmann had prepared 170 drawings, 24 of them for the first book. He again pointed to British and French Sinology studies, highlighting French advances in the field, but argued that in architecture he would be a pioneer. Boerschmann also mentioned the nineteenth-century traveller Ferdinand von Richthofen and his opinion of the need for research in Chinese geography and science in Germany. He planned to publish the proposed six volumes within the next three years. Boerschmann added to the letter a draft contract with the publishing house Reimers, which was based on a cost calculation of a retail price of thirty Marks per book.37 The publishing house of Julius Hoffmann in Stuttgart asked Boerschmann to publish a book about Chinese architecture and sculpture. It would include 450 images and only short descriptions. They planned to publish 3,000 copies in three languages – 1,000 in German, 1,000 in French and 1,000 in English – with a Chinese version perhaps to follow at a later date. Hoffmann planned to publish the book around New Year’s Eve in 1912 without any additional funding.38 However, the book was never published. On 27 June 1911 Boerschmann applied for 18,000 Marks as a grant for the printing the proposed six volumes at the Imperial Office of the Interior.39 The approval of Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg (1856–1921), the Imperial Office of the Interior and the Imperial Office of Treasury was required before such a sum could be granted.40 On 30 June 1911 Boerschmann sent a new memorandum concerning the further elaboration of the material to the Foreign Office. In the accompanying letter he emphasised his arguments in two ways. First, the new memorandum provided an idea about the further elaboration of the material collected. Secondly, he provided accompanying folders to show his newly finished drawings. One

32 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 11.3.1911, EB to AA. 33 PAAA: R 138422, Special print: Boerschmann, in Gesundheit. Zeitschrift für Städtehygiene und Gesundheitstechnik. No. 2, 1911. 34 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 3.4.1911, invitation to AA. 35 PAB: letter, 19.4.1911, AA to EB. 36 Walter de Gruyter bought the publishing house Reimers in 1897. 37 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 24.4.1911, EB to AA. 38 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 10.6.1911, EB to AA. 39 The value would be about €80,000 in 2012. 40 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 27.6.1911, EB to AA.

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small folder contained thirty drawings, one medium-size folder twenty-seven drawings and one large folder seventeen drawings, making a total of seventy-four drawings.41 The letter also reveals that the Foreign Office could find no way to support his work after the end of March 1912. Clearly his application to be the head of his proposed institute in Beijing from 19 June 1910 had been declined. In the new memorandum Boerschmann gave reasons for the failure of his own plan to finish the research in the timeframe given in the 1910 memorandum. He was now looking for a way to establish a lasting position for research in Chinese architecture, perhaps as a scientific attaché at the Legation, and had given up on the idea of establishing a German scientific institute in Beijing. For his own continued research needs, he asked for an extension of another year, until end of March 1913, and calculated his own salary at 6,100 Marks, plus 2,000 Marks for material expenses.42 The ‟Memorandum about scientific research in China, 30 June 1911” documents his ideas about his future work in detail.43 First, Boerschmann listed all his activities in the previous year. In the winter 1910–11 he had given six public lectures. Four of them were for the general public: at the girls’ school for higher learning in Bremen-Vegesack, the private girls’ school Wellmann and von Elpons in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the Polytechnic University in Berlin and the Free Photographic Association in Berlin. The other two lectures were more specialist and academic: the first was given in February 1911 at the Architekten-Verein zu Berlin and the second in April at the Society for Geography. In the first scientific lecture he focused on aspect of aesthetics, in the second on the connection between architecture and landscape. He explained that together with the lecture given at the Anthropological Society in April 1910, with a focus on the philosophy of architectural thinking in China, these explored different fundamental aspects of architecture. He noted that the daily newspapers and the architectural and Sinology magazines had reacted very positively to his explanations. Secondly, he discusses the printing of his works: he argued the translation of his article from the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie into English by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington proved the international importance of his work.44 He had already given a short paper about a prehistoric discovery in Shandong Province to the Foreign Office. Another, on the ‟three religions in China”, was being printed,45 the Society for Geography was planning the publication of his new lecture soon, and a paper about Chinese public baths was announced for publication in the autumn in an omnibus volume Handbuch der Architektur, with a focus on spas and swimming baths.46 In connection with this topic he named the seventeen drawings shown at the Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden, of which at least ten were to be published in the book. He also mentioned other completed papers, though without providing information about their subjects. According to the memorandum, these publications were only a side product of the grand idea for his work, but he hoped they would help to form a new, fundamentally positive perception of China. He wrote that the main work would be to finish the six volumes (see above). The first volume, on Mount Putuo, had been ready for printing since June 1910 and the second, on ancestors and memorial temples (Ahnen- und Gedächtnistempel), which he mentioned here for the first time, was also almost finished. The first chapters of the third volume on the Temple of Azure Clouds were also complete. At the same time he was continuing to work on the sixth volume as a book addressing aesthetic and cultural aspects of Chinese architecture under the title ‟The basics of Chinese

41 These drawings are not in the PAAA today. 42 PAAA: R 138422, letter with attached memorandum, 30.6.1911, EB to AA (30 pages). Published by Walravens, 2002: 129–143. 43 The following depiction is based on the memorandum in the archive. PAAA: R 138422, memorandum, 30.6.1911, EB to AA (26 pages). 44 EB, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1910: 390–426. 45 Ibid: 429–435. 46 Genzmer used Boerschmann’s images and text to substitute his own writings. Boerschmann’s drawings show the mosque with bathing facilities in Kaifeng, a spa near the Eastern Qing Tombs and the imperial spa in Lintong near Xi’an. Genzmer, 1921: 67–78.



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architecture” (Die Grundlagen der chinesischen Baukunst). The final book would include the fundamental ideas of the first five volumes, but would be illustrated with different photos, sketches and drawings. Again he stressed the drawings, prepared from the sketches and measurements made on-site, as the most important part of his work. He argued that the material from the sketchbooks had generated more work than expected the previous year. Although he had employed some additional draftsmen, he had not been able to finish all the required drawings. The completed drawings were now perfect and had also been checked by a Sinologist. Boerschmann expressed his pride in this result, one that ‟could not be matched by any other nation”. So far he had finished 200 drawings. Publications On 20 April 1911 he had sent the concept for six volumes to the Imperial Office of the Interior. Meanwhile, the administration informally approved a grant of 18,000 Marks for printing costs, and the publishing house Georg Reimer in Berlin agreed to release all six volumes. In the second chapter of the memorandum Boerschmann again focused on the continuation of his work. Amount and thoroughness Boerschmann wrote that the time up to April 1912 would be required to finish the last drawings. In the same period he would also work on the available literature. The director of the East Asian Department of the Museum of Ethnology, F.W.K. Müller, supported Boerschmann in his quest to reach a deeper understanding through the incorporation of connected fields. However, it was obvious that he would need more time. Support for the publication of the work Since he was counting on the 18,000 Marks for the publication of the six volumes, he felt obliged to ensure the quality of the publications. Avoiding mistakes and enhancing the reputation of the institutions involved in the project would require an additional amount of time. Timeframe for finishing Boerschmann now forecast the final date for publishing the six volumes as winter 1913. He stated that the drawings would be complete by the end of March 1912. With the drawing finished, he would then focus on the text and gave April 1914 as latest completion date. He also compared his own solitary situation to other expeditions with many members, reasoning that seven and a half years was not excessive for such an extensive documentation. The need for rapid publication Boerschmann argued that it was innovative to display the culture of a country on the basis of geometrical architecture drawings. He feared that other nations, especially the Americans and the Japanese, would copy his practice after the first volume was published in autumn 1911. It would thus be necessary to bring out the other five volumes as soon as possible to avoid any misunderstanding. Only in this way could Germany be recognised as founding a new scientific sector. Time and funds required For the year from April 1912 to April 1913 he asked for 6,100 Marks for his own salary and 2,000 Marks for other expenses. Compared to the total money spent on the project, Boerschmann argued, this was only a small sum, bearing in mind that it would be almost the last extension required to finish the project. In the third chapter he addressed the general question of the support of Chinese studies by the state. The Foreign Office had already tried to pass its responsibility for Boerschmann to the Ministry of Culture.

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Deduction of science from experience To show how a new aspect of science could be developed from practical, on-site studies, he wrote, the history of his own research would be the best example. Boerschmann explained that the idea of studying Chinese architecture was not the result of extending the method of research in the history of architecture from the West to the East. His concept also differed from Sinology studies, which was mainly based on literature. In fact, Boerschmann wrote, the size of the country – and the historic development that he had experienced during his time in China as a soldier – had left a deep impression on him. In this context he had developed the idea of studying the culture of the Chinese on the basis of their historic monuments. The Allied Forces in Northern China in 1900, which forced the Middle Kingdom to open to the West, set the political background for this research. For Boerschmann it was a logical development to enhance scientific exchange with China following the war, because the ensuing economic interest required cultural understanding. Reaction of academia to the work Boerschmann argued that his interest was born out of a concern with the interests of the German Reich. He believed that his research would also have positive effects for the Reich. As an example he again named the work of the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen: at the time of his studies no one could have guessed that the results of his work would become so important several decades later. Again he stressed that he was researching a living culture – in contrast to the artefacts of Assyria, Egypt or Greece. He argued that he could initiate a positive evaluation of the Chinese people by researching their architectural forms and thoughts. Absence of interest He observed that the Germans had fallen back in efforts to promote their language in China and that economic competition needed a basis and therefore more cultural and scientific understanding. Meaning of pure scientific ambitions Boerschmann had observed that other nations, for instance the United States, sent their scientists to China. However, their results were only superficial, he argued arrogantly: ‟They miss the ideal and real support from their home country.” He wrote that the research needed continuity and that things had to be studied on location. Boerschmann spoke out for the support of science beyond exploitation and pragmatism. Instead, he argued, the discovery would later automatically add to German fame and lead to economic advantages. Discovering new ideas and general aspects for the future required ‟free research”. He added: ‟The rewards for the discipline will later be even more sustaining.”47 China’s unique position The different cultures of the West had been in constant exchange for a long time, but China was far away from Europe and could not be compared to any other nation. In his opinion the language in particular hindered cultural exchange. Studies in China The most important aid for the researcher would be the possibility of working freely in China, in close contact with the Legation and the Consulates. He backed this demand by his experience during his travels in the country. In Boerschmann’s view, this was the only way to find new content. And again he named Richthofen as an example to follow.

47 PAAA: R 138422, memorandum, 30.6.1911, EB to AA (26 pages): 19.



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Position of a scientific attaché He recalled the memorandum of 19 June 1910 about the foundation of a scientific institute in Beijing. ‟It still seems the ideal aim for me,” he wrote, although he had meanwhile become doubtful about whether the foundation of an institute in Beijing would be justifiable. While Boerschmann feared the financial investment would be very large, he also mentioned a more central problem: he had heard rumours that the government was planning to eliminate the position of scientific attaché in Beijing, then held by the ethnologist Ernst Grosse (1862–1927). Importance of the position for science Boerschmann recalled that so far two persons (Adolf Fischer and Ernst Grosse) had occupied the position of scientific attaché, which was used to buy artefacts for Prussian art collections. He expressed his wish that scientists such as him could be eligible for the position. The scientific attaché should stay in Beijing for some time to conduct research and then prepare the final results in Germany. He openly added that this would fit very well with his interests for the future. Chinese studies and the interests of the Reich Under this point Boerschmann again tried to convince the Foreign Office that it was necessary to find a basis for research into Chinese cultural development. He argued that Germany would have many benefits. In his view, in other nations such as the United States, France, Great Britain and Japan, great advantages were achieved by focused and supported studies. After success, private sponsors would automatically follow, although in Germany he had not yet witnessed anything along these lines. Petitions To achieve a better position for both himself and Germany, Boerschmann listed some requirements for sustaining future efforts in the field of scientific studies in China: first, exhaustive processing of his own studies; second, the later continuation of his own studies; and third, the continuing activities of a scientific attaché in the Legation in Beijing. These requirements were very closely connected to his own needs. To achieve the aims in a scientific, political and national manner, he presented the following additional requirements: first, the continuation of his work for another year until the end of March 1913 under the same financial conditions as before; second, the acceptance of the idea for a later continuation of his studies in China; and third, the preservation of the position of scientific attaché in Beijing. He also named a flexible option for the approval of the three positions. If it was impossible to meet all three points, the Foreign Office should combine the second and third point to allow his further studies.48 One day later, on 1 July 1911, Boerschmann sent a further letter to the Foreign Office, in which he reported on his involvement in the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden. On the basis of an edict from 30 March he had sent seventeen photomechanical reproductions of drawings to Dresden, where they were on display in the department of ethnology. He suggested donating all the material as a gift to the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin and further proposed that all his materials could be collected there, because he considered it the best place for these studies in Germany.49 In December the Royal Museums reported to the Foreign Office that they had received seventeen drawings by Boerschmann from the exhibition in Dresden.50 Nothing was said about models or publications, which were mentioned in an earlier letter. Most probably no other material was produced for the show – no further references about Boerschmann’s exhibits are found in the exhibition guides.51 The Chinese empire presented their exhibits in a pavilion built on-site. It focused

48 PAAA: R 138422, memorandum, 30.6.1911, EB to AA (26 pages). 49 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 1.7.1911, EB to AA (2 pages). They are not in the archive today. 50 SMB-PK, EM, E1976/11, letter, 4.12.1911, Museum to AA. 51 Offizieller Führer durch die Internationale Hygiene Ausstellung in Dresden 1911. Berlin, 1911.

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very generally on the problem of hygiene, showing different aspects of this, such as housing and cities, food, clothes, medicine, children and schools, public transport and military issues.52 On 19 July 1911 the State Secretary of the Interior recommended Boerschmann’s continued release from the Ministry of War until April 1914, to ensure the final elaboration of the material collected.53 Two days later the same ministry finally approved the grant of 18,000 Marks for the publication of the six volumes proposed earlier.54 On 6 September it was officially announced that the edict of 3 July secured the grant for the publication. Boerschmann requested that the Imperial Chancellor accept the following dedication for his books: ‟With the highest approval of his Majesty the German Emperor, King of Prussia Wilhelm II, the grand patron of arts and science, in deepest reverence dedicated by the author.” Two weeks later the ministry allowed the dedication.55 As always in such cases, not everybody was pleased by the extension to Boerschmann’s leave. On 17 September 1911 Wilhelm von Bode wrote a letter to Otto Kümmel, after a meeting with Arthur Graf von Rex, the former legate in Beijing and now ambassador in Japan: Today I met in the waiting room (Botschafter-Zimmer) of the Imperial Chancellor by accident Count Rex and could among other things inquire about Börschmann [sic]. He was really disgusted that he was again in the budget and wanted to take measures that this will be cancelled and Grosse inserted instead. Hopefully he will have success.56

The general-director of Berlin museums, Wilhelm von Bode, and art historian in the East Asian department of the Ethnological Museum, Otto Kümmel, had their own interest in securing funds for Ernst Grosse, who bought art in Japan and China for the museums in Berlin. At end of November 1911 Boerschmann delivered the ten volumes of the first book about Mount Putuo to the Imperial Office of the Interior. He included a list of recipients: His Majesty the German Emperor, His Majesty the Chinese Emperor, the Foreign Office, the Legation in Beijing, the Imperial Office of the Interior (three copies), the Imperial Office of Treasury, the Royal Prussian Cultural Ministry, and the Reichstag.57 On 1 December, Boerschmann visited the Foreign Office to thank the responsible State Secretary and hand over a copy of the new book.58 The ministry approved the proposed allocation of the free copies as requested by Boerschmann, except for the copy for the Reichstag.59 The State Secretary of the Interior approved this copy only in mid-June 1912.60 The office of the Emperor formally thanked Boerschmann for the copy at the end of February.61

The first book – Mount Putuo (1911) The first published book focused entirely on the island of Mount Putuo, sacred to Buddhists, and its temples. It was the first part of the planned six-volume series and had the overall title Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. Einzeldarstellungen auf Grund eigener Aufnahmen während dreijähriger Reisen in China (The architecture and religious culture of the Chinese: individual depictions on the basis of materials collected during a three-year journey in China). The publishing house Georg Reimer published it under the title P’u T’o Shan, die heilige Insel der Kuan Yin, der

52 Offizieller Katalog der Internationalen Hygieneausstellung. Dresden May–Oct. 1911. Berlin, 1911: 408–411. 53 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 19.7.1911, Imperial Office of the Interior to AA. 54 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 21.7.1911, Imperial Office of the Interior to AA. 55 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 6. and 18.9.1911, EB to AA. 56 See Klose, 2009: 93 (Letter, 17.9.1911, Bode to Kümmel). 57 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 29.11.1911, EB to AA. 58 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 1.12.1911, EB to AA. 59 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 1.2.1912, AA to EB. 60 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 18.6.1912, AA to EB. 61 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 28.2.1912, Office of the Emperor to AA.



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Göttin der Barmherzigkeit (Putuoshan, the sacred island of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy),62 with 208 images and thirty-three plates as illustration. Boerschmann had bought about twenty-eight of the photos from a professional Chinese photographer in Ningbo and used some illustrations from the temples on the island. A coloured woodcut of the goddess Guanyin, printed after an original from Mount Putuo, opens the book. Boerschmann used the introduction to recount the story of how he came to China. In a sub-chapter he described the study of architecture during the trip. Another sub-chapter focused on his time spent in the country. The last part of the introduction explained the structure and aims of his work. All drawings for the book were prepared by Karl Kraatz according to Boerschmann’s sketches and measurements. Wang Yintai (EB: Wang Yin-t’ai, 1888–1961)63 checked the Chinese characters used in the work. Boerschmann also included a reference list of literature used to prepare the text: Annales du Musée Guimet XI, p. 178–200, where he found detailed descriptions about the goddess Guanyin;64 an article published in the Chinese Recorder in 1879;65 an article by British missionary Joseph Edkins (1823–1905) on ‟Chinese Buddhism”, without further reference to year or other information;66 an article by German Sinologist Otto Franke from 1893;67 extracts from a book by French M. Huc (Évariste Régis Huc, 1813–1860) on China;68 an article by the German author Krieger in a colonial newspaper from 1909;69 the diary of German geographer von Richthofen;70 and the Great Royal Encyclopaedia of China from the Royal Museums of Ethnology in Berlin, especially the section on rivers and mountains.71 The list shows that he based the book largely on his own experience and records. Boerschmann structured the material around seven chapters: general information about the island; the Puji Temple (EB: Pu tsi sze), the Chan Temple of Universal Salvation; the Fayu Temple (EB: Fa yü sze), also called the Stone Temple (this is the main part of the book and the chapter is divided into eleven sub-chapters: he describes the temple in detail, including its history, its different parts – such as individual halls and their interiors – as well as the location of sculptures and functional aspects); the religious life in the temples and on the island; the Huiji Temple (EB: Fo ting sze), with about five pages of description; almost twenty pages focusing on tombs and inscriptions (here he discusses some aspects of Feng Shui in connection to tombs); and, in the last part, extracts from his diary. The book concludes with some oversized drawings of Fayu Temple: first, there are some minor buildings for guest monks at a scale of 1:300, probably including the place he stayed during his time in the temple; second, there are three sectional drawings of the Great Grand Hall (EB: Ta tien) at a scale of 1:150, though without showing the timber construction of the roof. In the floor plan he indicated the locations of all the different sculptures of Buddha and his disciples. This arrangement of deities was described in the text and illustrated with further drawings, such as floor plans, between pages 67 and 91. Another two sectional drawings of the Hall of Law (EB: Fa tang) also show the arrangement of statues in space, with text on pages 111 to 132. The third plan shows an overall floor plan at a scale of 1:600 as a coloured print. The temple complex, which measured 240 by 147

62 EB, Putuo, 1911. 63 See Boorman, 1970: 399–400. Wang Yintai studied in Germany. He belonged between 1940 and 1945 to the socalled ‟puppet government” of Wang Jingwei under Japanese rule in Nanjing. Wang was imprisoned in 1947, where he died in 1961. 64 The development of the cult of Guanyin on Putuo is discussed by Yü, 1992. 65 Butler, 1879: 108–124. 66 More accurately, this was Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, 1880. 67 Franke, in Globus Nr. 8, 1893. 68 Huc, 1856: 210–218. 69 Krieger, 1909: 762–770. 70 Richthofen, 1907: 46–49. 71 Qingding Gujin Tushu Jicheng (EB: T’u shu ki ch’eng) compiled between 1700 and 1726 in 5,200 volumes.

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metres, was built in a rectangular modular system with a strong central axis, on which five halls of different sizes were placed on terraces, as shown in the added sectional drawing (scale 1:700). After the description of the island Boerschmann gave a short introduction to the square, stepped Multi Treasure Pagoda (Duobaota, EB: T’ai tsze t’a) near Puji Temple. Although he dated the pagoda correctly (1334 in the Yuan Dynasty), he estimated the height wrongly – in reality the pagoda is only 18 metres high, not 31 as suggested by Boerschmann. The photos show that the pagoda was in bad shape, but, despite the decay, he stated that the pagoda continued to have a large impact on the spiritual life of the island. Soon after the publication of the book, the pagoda was restored. For Boerschmann the pagoda was also relevant in terms of Feng Shui, because it stood to the southeast of the Puji Temple, the main temple on the island.72

72 EB, Putuo, 1911: 25–27.

Fig. 398: Boerschmann published a depiction of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, in the book on Mount Putuo. (Putuo, 1911: T.1).



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The book clearly focuses on Fayu Temple, were Boerschmann stayed during his three weeks on the island. The discussions with the monks and abbot, as well as the recording of the daily religious services and the measurement of the buildings, became the basis for his analysis of the temple. The arrangement of the halls, and the concept of space with an integration of the modular system into the given topographic situation, referred to a clear structure of religious rituals. The additional side buildings used the same modular system, but had been constructed without the same clear spatial order. They had simply the ordinary role of serving the functional requirements of the large monastery, whereas the main halls along the central axis served a religious purpose. The terraces and the stairways used by the pilgrims were arranged symmetrically. Although this spatial arrangement for the religious functions seems simple and clear, the given topography and the surrounding landscape, together with the secondary buildings, shape a complex interacting space system that is not visible on the two-dimensional floor plan. According to Boerschmann’s plan, the site along the central, 240-metre axis showed a height difference of 25 metres. The general description of the complex was followed by a detailed study of each building. In front of the temple lay an irregularly shaped pond that was crossed by a newly built bridge. The entrance gate to the temple was located at the southeast corner of the complex, but the axis was

Fig. 399: A sketch plan of Fayu Temple. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 400: A line drawing of the Heavenly Kings Hall at the entrance of Fayu Temple, based on Boerschmann’s measurements. In the centre stood Milofo, at his back Weito, the protector of Buddhism. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 49).

turned ninety degrees in front of a Dragon Wall. As the first element of the temple, this spirit wall is described over several pages. During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards destroyed the original Three-Dragon Wall, which consisted of carved reliefs on bricks, and in 1987 a new Nine-Dragon Wall, made of pale stone, was built as a replacement. Inside the complex an honour gate made of stone, richly decorated with reliefs of animals and plants, followed the Dragon Wall. In the first court stood two wooden flagpoles on a square stone base. The honour gate and the flagpoles have not survived. On the first terrace in the first court two sculptures of lions stood on stone pedestals. The Hall of the Four Heavenly Kings (EB: Sze ta t’ien wang tien) stood on the next platform almost



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Fig. 401: The side view of the Jade Buddha Hall on the first platform after the Heavenly Kings Hall. The photo was taken from the clock tower. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

two and a half metres higher than the court and was reached across a stairway. A two-tier gable roof covered the massive gate building. Inside stood a sculpture of Milofo or the Laughing Buddha, the Chinese version of Maitreya, at the centre with the protector of Buddhism, Weito, on his back. To the east stood the Heavenly King for the East with his sword in the right hand and next to him the Heavenly King for the South with a guitar. To the west sat the Heavenly King of the North, with his long ears to hear every sound, and the Heavenly King of the West, who sees everything and rewards or curses the believer, stood at his side. Boerschmann further described the small objects on the altars and published the inscriptions in German and Chinese. The hall with two small side buildings blocked access to the next court. In the following courtyard on a higher platform stood the clock and drum tower to the left and right. On the ground floor of the clock tower on an altar he found a sculpture of the ‟god of the underworld” (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, EB: Ti tsang wang p’u sa) in a glazed shrine. In the centre of the next court, again on a higher platform, followed the Hall of the Jewel Buddha (EB: Yü fo tien). The access to this platform was left and right of the hall. A two-tier, half-hipped and half-gabled roof with yellow glazed tiles covered the hall. In great detail Boerschmann described the colouration and carving of the timber construction in the interior and exterior. The altar in the centre of the hall held the marble sculpture of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. In front of the altar hung red drapery with green edging. Although the marble sculpture thrilled Boerschmann and he described it in detail, he was unable to find any information about its origin, and suggested it derived from the ‟Indian-Burmese” cultural hemisphere. On Guanyin’s back stood again Weito, the protector of Buddhism, who faced north.73 The Great Prayer Hall (EB: Ta tien) had a two-tier, half-hipped and half-gabled roof with yellow glazed tiles, an honour given to the monastery by Qing Emperor Kangxi during the great extension of the complex in early eighteenth century. However, the tiles had been heavily weathered and the yellow glaze had almost vanished. The five by three bay hall had fifteen ceiling cassettes. The central rectangular field held a wooden cupola, decorated with nine dragons and a pearl in

73 Ibid: 57–66.

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Fig. 402: The marble sculpture of Guanyin inside the Jade Buddha Hall. Boerschmann was fascinated by the beauty of the statue and speculated whether she came directly from Burma. The statue was covered with a crimson robe and decorated with small golden plates, pads and gems. (© Boerschmann 1908, Putuo, 1911: T.12).

the centre. From the central dragon hung a pearl and the eight further dragons hung suspended around it, as if trying to catch the pearl. The priests told him that the cupola had come to the monastery from the former Ming Dynasty palace in Nanjing, and had been donated by Emperor Kangxi. Boerschmann doubted whether this story was really true, but had no way of disproving it. He knew such cupolas from other temples in Ningbo, Suzhou and Shanghai. In the book he published translated inscriptions from the front of the hall in German and Chinese. The display of twenty-three deities was examined in detail and covered with a detailed description and line drawing of the arrangement in the hall. A sculpture ‟dressed in white, the sublime teacher” (EB: Pai I ta shih), made the biggest impression. He described in detail again all the instruments and facilities as well as the textile drapery used to frame certain sculptures in the hall. Boerschmann even included the patched dress of the monks. He also described the twenty-four depictions of filial love displayed on the stone balustrade on the front terrace of the hall.74 Two platforms further up the hill followed the Hall of the Imperial Inscriptions (EB: Yü pei t’ing). Three stone stelae with inscriptions by Emperor Kangxi, the great patron of the monastery, were kept in the hall. Boerschmann published parts of the inscriptions as German translations.75 The final Hall of the Law (EB: Fa t’ang) had a two-tier, half-hipped and half-gabled roof. The tiles were grey and weathered. The rectangular, five by five bay hall served for teaching the novices and for worship. Boerschmann published many inscriptions in Chinese and German translations. The thirteen most important deities in the temple were described in detail. On the main altar stood three gilded wooden sculptures of Buddha in a row (EB: Shih kia fo, Yo shih fo, O mi t’o fo). In front of the central figure followed a depiction of Guanyin (EB: Kuan yin p’u sa) and of the ‟white dressed Guanyin” (EB: Pai I kuan yin). On the gable walls hung roll pictures of sixteen Luohan. The altar tables – furnishings such as lamps, altar hangings and honorary umbrellas, as well as their colouration – are also described with many detailed observations. The two side buildings,

74 Ibid: 67–104. 75 Ibid: 105–110.



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Fig. 403: The Great Prayer Hall behind the Jade Buddha Hall (top). Below, the main entrance to the Great Prayer Hall. Boerschmann made some notes on the contact print. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

to the east the Hall for the Mother of Buddha (EB: Chun ti tien) and to the west the Hall for Guandi (EB: Kuan ti tien), concluded the series of buildings in the main axis of the Fayu Temple. However, Boerschmann’s research continued into the minor buildings, where the monks lived and the guests stayed, to the northwest of the main complex, and his work is richly illustrated with his photos and

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Fig. 404: A drawing of the front view of the Great Prayer Hall and the ground floor plan with the terrace in front. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 67/68).

floor plans, sectional drawings and illustrations.76 Several descriptions of the religious life and the everyday activities of the monks give the reader a vivid picture of a living culture. Boerschmann came to the island after Christmas in 1907 and stayed there until 18 January 1908. He took all the measurements himself without assistance. In his diary he noted that the deep connection of nature, culture and religion was endangered by ‟dark clouds of progress that will

76 Ibid: 111–150



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Fig. 405: The plan of the ceiling in the Great Prayer Hall. In the centre is the wooden cupola, decorated with eight dragons and a pearl in the centre. All sculptures are drawn and named in the floor plan. Boerschmann described all the figures and included translations of the inscriptions in the book. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 72/85).

bring the people new and large goods, but will take their soul”.77 Five hundred copies of the book were printed and the total production cost amounted to 7,330 Marks. The German Reich had supported the production with a grant of 3,000 Marks.78 This first monograph on a specific aspect of Chinese Buddhist architecture provoked responses from many critics. Leading Sinologists, art historians and architects published almost twenty

77 Ibid: 202. 78 Archiv Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Depositum 42 de Gruyter, Ernst Boerschmann; letter, 26.4.1921, de Gruyter to EB.

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Fig. 406: The white dressed statue of Guanyin in the Great Prayer Hall. She was the first sculpture in the hall, placed opposite its entrance. (© Boerschmann 1908, Putuo, 1911: T.14). Fig. 407: A rubbing from a stela in the Hall of the Royal Inscriptions, written by Emperor Kangxi. (Putuo, 1911: T.16).

Fig. 408: A sectional drawing of the Great Prayer Hall with the cupola in the centre. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: T.31).

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Fig. 409: A sectional drawing of the Great Prayer Hall and the floor plan with the names of all deities. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: T.31).

reviews in national and international magazines. The mostly detailed criticisms reflect the very high public interest – and expectations. Most of the reviewers came from the field of Sinology, some from ethnography and a few from the field of architecture. Each of them judged Boerschmann’s work from their own professional point of view with expectations that could never be fulfilled by an architect without specific training in art history or architectural history, not to mention Sinology and ethnology. Some even used their review to express political opinions or to highlight national interests. This probably helped to convince those who would be responsible for financing Boerschmann’s further studies. The reviews of the first book therefore had some importance for his further work – Boerschmann used them as references to prove to the Foreign Office the need to continue the work. The first review appeared in the magazine Orientalisches Archiv in December 1911. The review does not go very deep, but the work is praised as a first step on a long path to understanding the development of Chinese architecture. The writer regretted very much that the German government did not send scientists with the army at the turn of the century to evaluate Chinese culture as the British and the French did.79

79 –t–, in Orientalisches Archiv, 1911/12: 97.

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French Sinologist and art historian Edouard Chavannes, an expert in Chinese archaeology and history, published a review in T’oung Pao in 1911. Like some other Sinologists after him, he was not satisfied with the translations of the inscriptions in the temples, but other aspects of the ‟remarkable” book received wholehearted praise.80 Another admirer was Father Joseph Dahlmann, Boerschmann’s early mentor who stimulated his research in the field of architecture and its connection to religion. On 28 February 1912 he presented a paper in Tokyo using the title of Boerschmann’s research, ‟The architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese”.81 He used Boerschmann’s research to express his own point of view, by comparing Chinese architectural development with Indian architectural history and its implications for national and political development. This was therefore not a mere review of the book, but rather a reason to express his own ideas about architectural expressions of religious thought in the Asian context. Dahlmann opened the speech by saying he would look at the topic in terms of ‟comparative cultural studies in India”. Like Boerschmann, he feared that reform and economic development would soon endanger traditional architecture in China, and therefore demanded instant documentation. Dahlmann sketched the demand and the scale of the operation, depicting it as a huge challenge for research, but in consideration of the political turmoil in China believed that the results would have a ‟scientific” meaning as soon as ‟the old government and many monuments lie buried in ruins”. In the lecture he focused on ‟cult and art in its connection to culture” in comparative studies between India and China. While Dahlmann saw in India a monumental religious architectural heritage, in China such monumental compositions did not exist, bringing him to the conclusion that Indian architecture was superior to Chinese. Dahlmann’s perception is most probably based on the fact that Chinese architecture is made of timber, whereas Indian monuments consist of stone or brick. However, he wrote, only the layman perceived the ‟eternal monotony” in Chinese architecture and did not reflect on the abundance of aesthetic details. In India he saw a ‟conflict” between Hinduism and Islam expressed in the religious monuments. These massive monuments proclaimed religious ideas never seen in China. To understand the difference, he explained, one had to study the religious culture in both nations. In the case of Hinduism in India, the central idea of the Brahmins was a religious structure that formed the society with its castes and its monuments, which expressed those ideas across time. In contrast, in China, Confucianism was based on an ‟ethical-social ideal” that marked the development of cultural life. In Confucian ideals the state represented the divine beings:

80 Chavannes, 1911: 755–757. A further French review was published by Mauss, 1913: 243–247. 81 Dahlmann, 1912: 117–156.

Fig. 410: A drawing of the front of the Hall of the Law at the north end of the complex. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: 111).



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[T]he head of the empire is the epitome of state and society. State and society are nothing else than the appearance of the harmony and order that forms the world. Hence the obligation follows, to make a guideline for action from the earliest times on, to hand down traditional laws of the state and customs of the family and society. These represent the epitome of all norms of ethical behaviour.82

Dahlmann saw in the Confucian ideals in China a kind of ‟authoritative religious character” based on laws and traditions comparable to the Brahmanism in the cultural life of India. But whereas in India a strong religious culture had developed, the Chinese left this out ‟because of the lack of what constitutes a religion, the ordination to God and a commitment to God”. Hindu India was set up in a religious tradition, whereas the Confucian scholars rooted their tradition in ethical and social development. In Dahlmann’s opinion, art and architecture were based in religious development, and since such development was not found in China, it could not produce a significant monumental architecture. Confucianism ‟lacks the power of the bulging creative driving force of the religious life”, he stated. But from India came a strong influence forming Chinese cultural development. He identified Buddhism as the connecting link between the two cultures. Hinduism and Buddhism, however, were different religions, but rooted in the same cultural background. In contrast, Confucianism and Buddhism were also different, but joined in China, creating what Dahlmann called ‟the religious culture of the Chinese”. In India, Hinduism had ousted Buddhism: ‟Quite the opposite in China!” In his opinion, Buddhism was the only real religion in China and was found everywhere in the cities, villages and in the landscape as pilgrimage sites. For India he described the rivalry between Hinduism and Islam as a great source for monumental architectural development, with each of the two trying to dominate the other. On the contrary, Buddhism adapted itself to Confucianism in China and developed as if it had always been at home there. He explained in detail the stages of integration and rejection of the foreign idea in the course of Chinese history. Up to the eighth century ‟China pilgrimaged to India” and brought back an ‟art which was far ahead of all that was produced in China by the time”. But he made a clear distinction between works of art such as sculptures and architecture. The first came directly, but the second had to adapt to the local customs in China. At length he explained how Indian influence conquered Kampuchea, Java and the Malayan Peninsula and left the Indian concept of monumental architecture. Even in the Chinese borderland of Turkestan, Buddhism established a monumental architecture. In China, however, Buddhism had to comply with Confucianism in order to evolve as an indigenous culture. The Buddhist temple in China therefore developed as a Chinese sanctuary and not as an Indian. This, in his interpretation, followed the logical integration and explained why there

82 Ibid: 124. Fig. 411: Sectional drawings of the Hall of the Law. (© Boerschmann, Putuo, 1911: T.33).

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Fig. 412: A front view of the main altar in the Hall of the Law. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

was no difference in architectural composition between Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.83 In his opinion, development in architectonic style was impossible in such an environment: ‟It lacks any development […]”. As a man of his time, Dahlmann’s opinion was in line with the Western perception that development in Chinese timber architecture had never happened. This was fostered

83 For the similarity and difference see Shatzmann Steinhardt, 2000.



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Fig. 413: A side view of the main altar inside the Hall of the Law. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

by the scarcity of knowledge about the development of traditional timber construction in general and reflected exactly the attitude of the cultural elite in the West. Dahlmann continued with the development of Christian monumental architecture and its meaning. In conclusion he remarked: Art as a creator of the Buddhist place of worship in China is a waiver of any advanced individual training, a cessation of all individual power, an art-historical nirvana. Art as the creator of the Christian place of worship in the Roman Empire celebrates the transfiguration of the ancient treasures as an art-historical resurrection.84

This point of view – that only in the West had art historical development taken place, and there under the guidance of the Christian church – corresponded to his missionary beliefs. However, others too, including to some extent Boerschmann, thought Chinese architecture had no art historical development, but showed instead a continuation of age-old principles and the same traditional craftsmanship. This was of course not totally wrong, but reflected the limited knowledge of technical aspects of architectural history in the early part of the twentieth century. The German Sinologist and anthropologist Berthold Laufer (1874–1934), curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, published a focused and extended review in the Current Anthropological Review in 1912. In the spring of 1909 Laufer had travelled from Taiyuan to Xi’an and noticed in Shanxi Province the importance of architecture for the description of the local and regional culture.85 With this experience he commented very sensitively about the first study of religious buildings in China. Laufer greatly praised the book and couched his review in such wonderful language that it was a compliment in itself. Laufer began with:

84 Dahlmann, 1912: 155. 85 Laufer, 1910: 181–203.

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Fig. 414: A sculpture of Guandi in the southwest corner of the Hall of the Law. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

Our knowledge of Chinese architecture has heretofore been exceedingly scanty. […] [W]e find in Mr Boerschmann an architect and scholar who wins our confidence by the solidity of his studies and at once becomes a sympathetic and eloquent interpreter of the ideas underlying the architecture of the Chinese, […] the author making it a point to explain the plan and forms of building from religious sentiments and philosophical ideas; in a word, he is intent on fathoming the psychological foundation of architecture.

Laufer very much admired the approach of using ‟geometrical surveys” in a uniform scale as a basis for interpretation. He had been on the island of Mount Putuo in 1901 for a week and knew the context first hand: The island has been described by many travellers, but Mr Boerschmann is the first to render a thorough and accurate account of all its sanctuaries and curiosities by an admirable utilisation of pen, crayon and camera. […] He is enthusiastic over the depth of Chinese culture, in full sympathy with the Chinese people, and thereby wins our sympathy. He sees with the vision of a poet and writes with the warm impulse and direct intuition of an artist. The production of such a worker naturally cannot be measured by the ordinary cold standards of the scientist; […] and if his idealistic standpoint sometimes carries him away into lofty heights by a certain overdoing of philosophical interpretation, the plea may well be entered on his behalf that he is the first to unravel the mystery of Chinese architectural ideas, and that he was forced to break the path through this virgin forest by his own unaided efforts.



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Laufer was clearly impressed by Boerschmann’s method of combining sketches, measurements and photos, even when the usual scientific standards were lacking. He continued: There are many dry-as-dust books on the religion of the Chinese leading a meditative existence on the shelves of our libraries. They are very learned, with their splendid array of quotations from Chinese books and bulky footnotes stiffing the text, but unfortunately they remain specimens of sterile scholasticism, rather than of productive science, because no gleam of understanding illuminates them. […] To one seeking the spirit of China, this remarkable book will prove more useful than many others, and in its exposition of architecture it will serve as a sourcebook of fundamental importance. True it is, that the young and energetic author is still in his period of Sturm und Drang,86 but this lends his work the charm of youthfulness and fresh vigour, and surely to entertain a decided and sympathetic attitude toward China is preferable to having no opinion at all, or to being unjust and hostile, which is the fashion even in so-called scientific circles.

The review goes on in this tone, sometimes focusing on details, sometimes on general questions. At the end he again praised the careful editing, the quality of printing and bookmaking.87 Such a review in an American magazine surely helped in Boerschmann’s constant battle for further money to continue his work. The importance lay not only in the positive tone, but also in the general support of the chosen combination of drawing, text and image. Boerschmann thanked him in a heartfelt letter for such a positive evaluation.88 The art historian William Cohn (1880–1961), one of the founders of the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, wrote about the book: ‟One has to be aware in the face of Boerschmann’s work that less art historic or artistic, but much more contemporary relevance determined the focus.” He criticised Boerschmann for not comparing the buildings on Mount Putuo with other Buddhist temples in China or Japan, and for not investigating their relationship to the historic development of architecture in China. He expressed ‟severe doubts about the artistic value” of the monuments on the island. The oldest buildings were only from the sixteenth to seventeenth century, he added, noting that the technical approach, chosen by Baltzer for the description of Japanese architecture in 1903 and 1906, was lacking. He further argued that the development of Chinese and Japanese architecture should be compared in order to determine the historic development. Cohn was even more critical about the general approach and expressed the hope that Boerschmann would deepen his studies with more detail in the future.89 The Sinologist Alfred Forke (1867–1944), professor at the Seminar for Oriental Languages (Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen) with a focus on Chinese philosophy, published a very positive review. He highlighted the point that, in addition to the architecture, Boerschmann gave vivid descriptions about the placing of deities and inscriptions, namely the religious culture. But he criticised the lack of information on the historic development of the buildings, the constructive aspects, and that Boerschmann never tried to deduce any theoretical considerations about their development. Like Laufer, he also sounded slightly amused about the enthusiastic tone of the book: It is possible that the author in his poetic-religious enthusiasm has gone too far and overestimates the Chinese culture. As a Catholic [Boerschmann was, in fact, a Protestant], he is anyway more susceptible to religious art than followers of other confessions, whose ideology give more space to critique and doubt. But even if one does not want to follow all his accomplishments, one is touched by his high idealism and warmth with which he defends his point of view, and is very sympathetic.

86 Sturm und Drang (literally, ‟urge and stress”) was a movement in German literature between 1760 and 1780 in which subjectivity and emotions were given free expression (for example in the work of Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller); it was a form of opposition to the rationalism of the Enlightenment. 87 Laufer, 1912: 201–205. 88 Walravens, 1982: 205, (letter, 14.3.1913, EB to Laufer). 89 Cohn, 1912: 104–105.

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In general Forke was satisfied with the translations, but in some cases found mistakes, which he cleared up in the review.90 The architect and critic Friedrich Paulsen (1872–1947) published in the Neudeutsche Bauzeitung, a publication of the Bund Deutscher Architekten, the first review in an architectural magazine. He reminded the reader that the ‟architecture of the Chinese belongs to one of the most unknown areas in architectural history.” In a very extensive article he referred to different aspects of religious architecture and culture in China. The timber buildings, however, made a poor impression to him. ‟The uniqueness of classical Chinese architecture is based on the fact that we are dealing with an almost purely preserved wooden style in detail but one that is still very primitive […].” This assumption was based on the fact that he could not find any diagonal bracing, but only ‟decoration with the highest refinement”. Paulsen saw many details in Chinese architecture that could refine the German development and therefore he commended the book to architects for study. But in the light of the ‟mindless destruction” and the ‟collection” of Chinese cultural heritage by Western collectors, he wished that the Chinese would also learn about the book, to see that the West is not ‟only interested in Chinese culture from the viewpoint of curio-collectors”.91 The Sinologist Otto Franke (1863–1946), a professor in Hamburg, praised the general approach in his review in the Literarisches Zentralblatt, with the exception of the quality of the translations. He criticised especially the names of deities and the Buddhist pantheon without reference to the original Sanskrit names.92 Otto Messing, who had just brought out a book about state religion and cult in China,93 published his review in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in the first issue of 1913, having read the articles by Chavannes, Forke and Franke, and joined in their approval. He went a step further in his judgement and compared the book to the publications on China by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. The approach by Boerschmann showed, according to Messing, the same ‟genial systematic analyses” about architecture and religious culture as Richthofen’s work on geography. To place the young architect on the same level as the renowned scholar was a great honour and fulfilled a secret dream of Boerschmann. For Messing the problems mentioned by Forke and Franke about the translations were secondary. In contrast, he demanded a continuation of the research, and work into the historic development and theory of architecture in the future.94 The circles of missionaries also acknowledged the new book and commented on it. Jesuit and art historian Stephan Beissel S.J. (1841–1915) wrote a two-page review in the publication Stimmen aus Maria Laach. In a collage of citations he gave an overview of the content and praised its objective approach. But he also saw it from a strategic point of view for the Christian mission: with such books the understanding of religious thinking of the Chinese people became clearer and the missionaries would better understand how to communicate their Christian message.95 In the circle of architects, Albrecht Haupt (1852–1932), professor at Technische Hochschule Hannover, wrote a review in the Architektonische Rundschau in 1913. He highlighted that Boerschmann’s work was of great value to architects, because it did not focus on architecture alone. The deep connection of architectonic culture and the lifestyle of the people produced such an amalgamated whole that it seemed to him impossible to look only at one side. ‟It has to be said, Boerschmann’s work in his way is new. […] [B]ut the author is a highly skilled writer and a delicate person. […] [H]is diary proves that he studied Goethe’s Italian travels,” which in Haupt’s opinion guided Boerschmann on his trip through China.96

90 Forke, 1912: 206–209. 91 Paulsen, 1912: 307–309. 92 Franke, 1912: 938–940. 93 Messing, 1911. 94 Messing, 1913: 188–189. 95 Beissel, 1913. 96 Haupt, 1913: IX–X.



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Fig. 415: The thousand armed Guanyin in the east corner of the Hall of the Law. (© Boerschmann 1908, Putuo, 1911: T.20).

Boerschmann’s early political mentor Karl Bachem published a review in the Kölnische Volkszeitung in April 1913. His text reflects the Chinese revolution of 1911–12, the subsequent turmoil and the still unclear political structure: ‟A empire of about 400 million inhabitants cannot be governed according to republican ideas, especially not when its traditions have followed monarchic and dynastic rules for thousands of years. […] If China remains a republic, it will be impossible to keep it together.” Bachem argued as a loyal German royalist who looked with some horror at the new political reality in Far East. Beyond this pessimistic tone he came to the great ancient, but still unexplored, architectural culture. Bachem praised Boerschmann’s approach as a first step on a long path that would need further support by public institutions. He pointed to the great political and cultural importance of the work, since in the future the relationship of Western powers with China would become even more central. He foresaw a battle over the influence of the Western powers in China and argued that those with the best knowledge about culture and people would have a clear advantage. Therefore the work of Boerschmann ‟has, besides its scientific attraction, a very important political weight”. Finally he also gave a positive review to the content of the book. One idea especially impressed Bachem, the idea of integrating architecture with nature, which he believed that the West could learn from.97 The Dutch explorer, ethnographer and geographer Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis (1864–1953), editor of the Internationales Archiv für Ethnograhie, published a short and positive review in his

97 Bachem, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, 7 April 1913.

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magazine in 1913. Nieuwenhuis hoped that further volumes of the work would soon be published so that it would be possible to better judge the author’s efforts and so that a series of different aspects for the understanding of architecture in China would be developed. With admiration he wrote about the illustrations and the descriptions based on oral history recorded in the temples.98 The ethnographer and scientist for comparative religious studies, Ferdinand Hestermann (1878–1959), published an article almost twenty pages long on art history in East Asia in 1913 in the magazine Anthropos, which he had co-founded in Vienna. The article was based on Boerschmann’s book on Mount Putuo and Oskar Münsterberg’s (1865–1920) work on Chinese art history.99 For a scientific history of architecture in China, he argued, it would be necessary to work on the documentation of line drawings rather than with photographic reproductions alone. He criticised the canon of Asian art history in the West as too journalistic, which led in his view to the impression that the architectural culture of China was a uniform mass. He praised the art historical work of Berhold Laufer and the work of Anton Volpert on Chinese Ehrenpforten (honour gates) as a study of singular importance to a specific aspect of architecture.100 He also mentioned Tschepe’s book about sacred Mount Tai and its temples as well as a book by Edouard Chavannes on the same subject. Nevertheless, Hestermann expressed his anger with their results and found only Heinrich Hildebrand’s book Dajue Temple, published in 1897, to be useful. He found the books by Fergusson and Münsterberg to be cursory and complained that still almost nothing was known about Chinese architecture.101 Hestermann strongly supported the approach by Boerschmann of combining religion and architecture. He argued that there was a need for comparative studies to understand the hidden principles of form. As an example he gave his own geometric surveys of a gothic column compared to the layout of a tomb for a priest on Mount Putuo, documented in Boerschmann’s book. With his daring analytical drawings, Hestermann wanted to show, by way of rather curious examples, the relationship of forms between East and West. But he did not follow all of Boerschmann’s interpretations and argued that singular elements in architecture should be studied in the light of historic development. In a detailed page-by-page criticism, Hestermann found evidence of some inconsistency in Boerschmann’s demand to work on the basis of collected materials and measurements. He also opposed the publication of digests from his diaries and ‟personal atmospheric outpourings, which take up whole passages of the book”. He pedantically examined every page, plan and photo, sometimes with praise and sometimes with criticism. He opposed, for example, the use of Chinese characters in the plans, because they only confused the already-complicated interrelations. Hestermann also criticised the quality of the photography and gave the author some advice for the improvement of his technique. In somewhat petty-minded passages he argued for research on a smaller scale and with much more care for details in architecture. Hestermann’s was a very critical view with some elements of truth, though due to the rather arrogant tone, his review sounded somewhat over-zealous.102 The architect Franz Seek published a review in the magazine Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst that opened with his doubts about the future of China since it had begun to follow Western economic and technical ideas with the revolution in 1911–12. Seek feared that the old culture would soon be lost, and the new achievements would never reach the same level as those of the tradition. ‟China still has a homogenous culture, in which all powers are effective in the same way and all life values are accepted,” in opposition to the industrialised nations, where fragmentation and rationalisation dictated the structure of society. As a bad example of how to document Chinese architecture, he named the book with photographs of the Imperial Forbidden City authored by Japanese photo­ grapher Ogawa in 1906, which led him to believe that in China many things about architecture had

98 Nieuwenhuis, 1913. 99 Münsterberg, 1910/1912. 100 Volpert, 1910: 140–148 and 190–195. 101 Fergusson, 1876. 102 Hestermann, 1913: 836–853.



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still not been discovered.103 He was very happy that an architect had finally taken on the responsibility of starting a systematic approach to the documentation of Chinese architecture. The book by Boerschmann seemed to him exemplary for further studies: ‟Compared to dilettantish publications, which are very common, but give the wrong impression about Chinese art, the worth of this publication must be particularly highlighted, because it is based on personal experience.”104 The most critical review appeared in The Burlington Magazine by a reviewer only known by the initials E.D.: However, as he [Boerschmann] follows the detailed and, it must be confessed, rather wearisome description of every single building, great and small, to be found on this little island, the reader gradually becomes aware that he is concerned, without exception, with the work of the last two centuries, in fact, in great part, with the work of the last two decades, and this applies not only to the furniture of the temple, which is for the most part of the trumpery description but to the buildings themselves. […] Perhaps in a subsequent volume Herr Boerschmann will be able to throw some light upon this most interesting question concerning which we are up to the present so much in the dark – are there still existing in China any remains of early Buddhist art comparable to the wonderful group of temples dating (with great part of the content) from eight century onwards that are still standing in Japan within and around the old cities of Kioto and Nara?105

The sometimes long and extensive critiques document the great interest of many different professions in Boerschmann’s work. On the one hand, receiving so much attention seemed to be an advantage, but on the other it also became a burden. The reviewers eagerly reviewed the final product from the perspective of their own academic areas. Sinologists did not accept Boerschmann as one of their own, whereas ethnographers, anthropologists and missionaries tried to interpret the book in the light of their own fields of interest. In Boerschmann’s published material architects and architectural historians discovered some exotic examples for visual study, which were welcome in the era of Jugendstil (based on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain) and Expressionism, which was becoming influential around the time. Nevertheless, the huge variety of different aspects pointed to the need for further refinement. At least the officers in the ministries, concerned with the distribution of public money for research in China, were calmed by the amount of attention given to Boerschmann’s subject by the international scientific community. Despite all the criticism expressed by Boerschmann’s contemporaries it must be said that until now no other Western author has published such a detailed book about the architecture and religious culture on the island of Putuo.

Exhibition of Chinese architecture in Berlin (1912) On 2 June 1912 Boerschmann announced to the Foreign Office that about 400 drawings and photos would be shown in a special exhibition about Chinesische Architektur at the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin. No special event took place at the opening; instead Boerschmann offered a guided tour at noon on 4 June. The exhibition was open for six weeks.106 During this period, Boerschmann sold 152 photographs, mounted on stiff paper, to the Royal Museums.107 The exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts opened to the public on 4 June and closed on 20 July. On the same day a further exhibition with drawings by Joseph Olbrich (1867–1908) opened in the same museum. Before his early death, Olbrich was the leading Jugendstil and Secession architect in Darmstadt (Mathildenhöhe) and Vienna, and therefore still very popular. This coincidence

103 Ogawa, 1906. 104 Seek, 1911: 260. 105 E.D., in The Burlington Magazine, 22.1912: 171. 106 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 2.6.1912, EB to AA. 107 SMK–PK, EM, letter, 18.6.1912, protocol, EB and Royal Museum. The images are today at Sammlung Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

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meant that many architects also saw the exhibition on Chinese architecture. The announcement in the newspaper Vossische Zeitung called Boerschmann’s work a ‟monument of German research studiousness”.108 Some days later the paper published a joint review about the two events. The reviewer wrote that the museum with its two exhibitions would help the exchange of ideas between architecture and related fields. He described the layout of the exhibit as very well arranged, praising the general organisation and the detailed and straightforward structure. He believed that German architects could get inspiration for their own work by visiting the exhibition and that the Chinese architecture on show had reached the same artistic level as historic German art and architecture, even if it sometimes seemed strange in its form and structure: ‟A symbolism of natural powers, in which the male and female appears figuratively as dragon, lizard, phoenix, and diverse animal shapes, plays the main role besides the religious feelings.” With much praise the reviewer illustrated many different aspects of the show.109 A further review praised the ‟unusually rich collection of models, photographs and geometric surveys of Chinese buildings and memorials”, but he also warned against seeing the future of German architecture in the Far East.110 The exhibition Chinesische Architektur occupied four rooms at the Museum of Decorative Arts. In the first room maps of cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou, and images of landscapes in general, as well as individual elements such as roofs, sculptures, balustrades and other details, were shown. The second room continued with further depictions of buildings and objects such as altars, furniture, tombs, towers, pagodas and structural decorations. In the third room Boerschmann showed specific pagodas from Chengde and Beijing, the Temple of Azure Clouds near Beijing, temples from Sichuan and others from sacred Mount Wutai. In the fourth room the island of sacred

108 Newsflash, in Vossische Zeitung, 3.6.1912. 109 J.J., Zwei Ausstellungen im Kunstgewerbemuseum, in Vossische Zeitung, 9.6.1912 (Erste Beilage). 110 Chronik, in Berliner Architektenwelt, 15, 1913, H. 4: 170.

Fig. 416: The photo shows a roadside altar between Luzhou and Zigong in the Ziliujing District. The arrangement consisted of two altars, an Incense Pagoda, an octagonal stela and a stela-like sculpture with a human head next to the stairway. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).



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Mount Putuo was on display together with watercolours by Boerschmann and drawings of Chinese origin. Karl Kraatz prepared most of the plans in the show according to Boerschmann’s data. In addition he showed some sketchbooks and writings of Chinese origin in desks under glass. As already mentioned, some of the 204 photographs of the exhibition were sold to the museum.111 The catalogue, which acted as guidebook for the visitors, has twenty-five pages of explanations, nine photographs and no line drawings. It is unknown how many copies of the catalogue were printed. With reference to the different topics Boerschmann described specific aspects such as ‟the originality of the Chinese architecture, the floor plan, the metaphysical and religious mood” or

111 EB, Chinesische Architektur, 1912: 29–31.

Fig. 417: A stairway made of stone slabs at the Temple for Zhang Liang in the Qingling Mountains with two sculptures of lions on the handrail. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 418: The plan of the arrangement of the materials in the four rooms at the KunstgewerbeMuseum for Ernst Boerschmann’s exhibition about Chinese architecture in 1912. (© Boerschmann, Catalogue 1912).

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‟symbolism, dualism” and so on. The catalogue listed forty categories, explaining the ‟massive buildings”, the ‟monumentality of the floor plan” and the pagodas, but did not refer to timber construction. Boerschmann only casually mentioned the ‟dignified timber technique”, without saying anything further about the use of timber as a building material. Only one paragraph refers to the woodcarving for decoration. In the final section – entitled ‟Outlook” – he expressed his opinion that Chinese architecture had reached the end of its development path and ‟needs new means of expression for new ideals”.112 The exhibition inspired Franz Baltzer, an expert in Japanese architecture, to write about Boerschmann’s work in the magazine Die Kunstwelt. He first summarised the existing knowledge about East Asian architecture in the West and then praised Boerschmann’s work as ‟a complete and excellent overview of the religious buildings and the entire temple architecture in China”. Further he referred to all the aspects shown in the exhibition and gave examples, illustrated with Boerschmann’s images. Baltzer had obviously also attended some of Boerschmann’s lectures and focused on symbolic meaning in the composition and details of Chinese architecture. But he questioned whether Boerschmann sometimes read more into the symbols than the Chinese had intended. According to Boerschmann, following the duality of male and female principles, architectural symbolism was shaped by the trinity of nature (heaven, earth and water), a large number of mythological animals, such as the phoenix, unicorn, lion, elephant, turtle and snake, and also by the constellations of the zodiac, among other things. ‟Many large buildings are, according to Boerschmann, created entirely by these considerations.” Baltzer had some doubts and focused on the different building types in his report. Of all the types of construction, pagodas made the biggest impression on him, because they were made of stone, a durable material, and so comparable to

112 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 28.



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Fig. 419: The cover of the catalogue “Chinesische Architektur” published for the exhibition, shows a line drawing of a 2.8 metre high grave pagoda near Chaohua in Sichuan Province. (© Boerschmann, Catalogue 1912).

Western architecture. Baltzer saw the timber construction as problematic, because it was ‟shortlived”, as he had discovered in his studies on Japanese architecture ten years earlier.113 In 1912 other German architects with experience in China also published on aspects of Chinese architecture. The architect Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Mahlke (1871–1944) designed the town hall in the German colonial town of Qingdao between 1902 and 1906 in a heavy Wilhelminian style.114 In 1912, and already back in Germany, he published a detailed article on ‟Chinese roof forms” (Chinesische Dachformen).115 The design of roofs in Chinese architecture was the subject of discussions at the end of nineteenth century and also in the early twentieth century.116 Mahlke prepared the paper on the basis of a lecture given in January 1909 at the Architekten-Verein zu Berlin. Richly illustrated with photographs and sketches, the article aimed to oppose the ‟tent-theory”, in which some saw the tent as the initial form-giver for the roof in traditional Chinese architecture. Mahlke first analysed the published works on Asian architecture and examined how other authors described the development of the roof. He checked Hildebrand’s book from 1897, the books of Baltzer on Japanese architecture from 1903 and 1905, and Laske’s publication on the influence of Chinese architecture in the West from 1909. But he did not mention any of Boerschmann’s publications as relevant to the topic, which was true because Boerschmann had never written about the form of the roof. Mahlke also referred to French literature, where he found a discourse on the misleading statements by

113 Baltzer, 1913: 192–198. 114 Hennings, 2005: 29. 115 Mahlke, 1912: 399–422 and 545–570. 116 See for instance article by Ritter von Fries, 1889/1890; Fergusson discussed the issue in his The History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, 1876.

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Fig. 420: Drawings of Chinese roof constructions by Friedrich Mahlke. (© Mahlke, 1912).

William Chambers (1723–1796)117 in eighteenth-century Europe. ‟It is really an audaciously fantastic structure and probably to be blamed for all the horseplay” that developed around European courts in the name of Chinese or Japanese architecture.118 The case shows that by 1912 architects had started to develop an interest in specific aspects of architectural features from China, which were still considered strange in the West. With a public exhibition and the first book on the market, Boerschmann was in a good position to negotiate the further prolongation of his mission. After the exhibition closed in July, an application to extend his research for another year, until the end of March 1914, reached the Foreign Office. As justification he gave the approved grant for the printing cost for the six volumes. Though he referred to his memorandum of 30 June 1911, Boerschmann reported that 320 drawings had been finished by April 1912, and some additional drawings were now nearing completion. He wrote: With the exhibition, it is the opinion of the press and especially the professional world that for the first time a momentous and strong foundation has been created for the understanding of Chinese architecture and culture. […] The interest in the exhibition was so great that I personally guided several small groups from the anthropological society [Anthropologischen Gesellschaft], the architectural society [Architekten-Verein] and the students of architecture from the Technische Hochschule with five professors, altogether about 200 persons.

He listed his further achievements from the previous year: the first book had come out, the second was ready for publication and the third in preparation. In 1911 and 1912 he had given public lectures at the Zentralverein Geographie, Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft and Deutsch-Asiatische Gesellschaft.

117 William Chambers studied Chinese architecture in 1740s and later published on the subject. He was one of the main influences on the European chinoiserie style. See also Weiss, 1997. 118 Mahlke, 1912: 400.



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Meanwhile the Royal Museums had sent Herbert Müller (1885–1966) on a three-year trip to China to collect material for the Museum of Ethnology.119 Boerschmann saw this as an addition to his own research. In Berlin Boerschmann attended lectures given by the Dutch Sinologist J.J.M. de Groot (1854–1923).120 De Groot supported Boerschmann’s studies, as did F.W.K. Müller, the head of the East Asian department at the Museum of Ethnology. Boerschmann further reported that he had assisted with four larger scientific works about architecture in East Asia, without naming them exactly, and continued that ‟the students of architecture and the professional architects, even shyly, are already using Chinese motifs in their designs,” which he interpreted as a result of the influence of his publications and the exhibition.121 In July 1912 the Foreign Office asked Boerschmann for a detailed account of the 3,000 Marks in material expenses for the coming year. He listed 1,000 Marks for further drawings, the rent of the office, translations and new literature.122 The Foreign Office, as a result, recommended the extension of his project for another year with the requested 3,000 Marks for material costs.123 In August 1912 the Imperial Treasury Office protested. According to the report by Laske, Boerschmann was to finish his elaborations in April of the same year. He himself had declared that the relevant parts of his drawings were finished and that he was working on the text for the rest of 1912. The officer

119 On his activities in China see Steen, in Leutner/Mühlhahn, 2008: 129–152; and Walravens, 1992. 120 De Groot was Professor of Sinology in Berlin from 1912. He had already published his monumental work on the Chinese religious system in six volumes between 1892 and 1910. 121 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 12.7.1912, EB to AA. Also published by Walravens, 2002: 143–146. 122 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 18.7.1912, EB to AA. Also published by Walravens, 2002: 146–147. 123 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 1.8.1912, EB to AA.

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proposed granting another six months of funding at most. He asked for a detailed list for the 3,000 Marks of material expenses.124 On 29 August 1912 Boerschmann wrote an additional letter to his reports from 12 and 18 July. Perhaps this was also a response to the replies by the officials to his earlier writings. He lamented the delay of his plans and petitions by the institutions responsible, and again explained that the extensions had repeatedly become necessary after the first continuation of his stay in China from November 1907 until 1909, with an additional year to work on the materials in Berlin, thus to August 1910. Then an extension was approved until April 1912, later to April 1913 and finally to April 1914 – which had already been addressed in the application from 30 June 1911. ‟All these applications came with natural necessity from the development of the elaborations that one could not foresee. The work grew under my hands and developed in depth and width.” He mentioned that the scientific world was eagerly awaiting the results of the studies and argued that it took him extra time to write the texts not only in a descriptive way, but to shed some light onto the inner connections of Chinese culture. Boerschmann explained why he not only worked on the proposed books, but also on smaller articles. While the books took years to complete, articles such as ‟Baukunst und Landschaft”, published in 1912, received a lot of approval from the scientific community.125 The exhibition Chinesische Architekur in Berlin was important for the description of all the connecting issues. In the text for the catalogue, Boerschmann said, he found an overview for his own research that would influence the overall approach and the final result of his studies. Because of this extra work it would not be possible for him to finish within the given timeframe. In addition, he had attended the lectures of Professor de Groot to extend his own knowledge of the field. ‟For me it is the first imperative that my work can stand up to scientific criticism,” he continued, stating that in order to achieve this goal, he had missed the deadline. In any case, he announced, the work now had to be finished by March 1914. Otherwise he feared becoming isolated from reality without the direct contact with the academic or the practical world. However, Boerschmann still hoped to find another way to continue after the date named because he still had so much material in his archive. In a detailed list he explained why the material expenses of 3,000 Marks would be required before further printing was possible.126 In September the Ministry of War agreed on a further leave of absence until the end of March 1914.127 In the same month the Ministry for Education approved the given timeframe. Their decision was based on three reports from the general administration of the Royal Museums. Also, Wilhelm von Bode, general-director of Berlin museums, who opposed him earlier, now advocated Boerschmann’s work.128 In October the State Secretary of the Interior also supported the further work: ‟Boerschmann’s first book is not limited to only architectural questions, but touches in a vivid manner, with the helpful assistance of graphic and photographic illustrations, questions of religious and general culture of the Chinese that will activate and boost interest beyond the narrow circle of experts,” he reasoned. The ministry classified the material expenses of 3,000 Marks for the coming year as moderate.129 On 15 October 1912 the Imperial Treasury Office agreed to the budget of 9,250 Marks for the following year.130 Two days earlier the Imperial Treasury Office wrote separately to the Foreign Office, announcing that this latest extension granted to Boerschmann would definitely be the last one.131 In November 1912 Boerschmann fulfilled his six years of service for the Ministry of War and was therefore automatically appointed as a government building officer (Baurat). The Ministry of War

124 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 10.8.1912, Imperial Treasury Office to AA. 125 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 321–365. 126 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 29.8.1912, EB to AA (8 pages). Also published by Walravens, 2002: 147–150. 127 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 17.9.1912, Ministry of War to AA. 128 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 24.9.1912, Ministry of Education to AA (attached a letter from von Bode, 12.9.1912). 129 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 1.10.1912, Ministry of Interior to AA. 130 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 15.10.1912, Imperial Treasury Office to AA. 131 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 13.10.1912, Imperial Treasury Office to AA.



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agreed to the promotion.132 He received the title of ‟government building officer with the personal rank of the councillor of the fourth class” (Baurat mit dem persönlichen Range der Räte 4. Klasse).133 In 1912 the second volume of Oskar Münsterberg’s Chinesische Kunstgeschichte (Chinese art history) appeared. For the first time he included architecture as a part of art history.134 Münsterberg’s eighty pages (out of a total of 500) on architecture was richly illustrated and structured by sub-chapters on, for example, timber construction, roofs, floor plans and colour symbolism, but also building types such as gates of honour, palaces, temples, tombs and pagodas. Boerschmann lauded the attempt – for the first time someone had published a large number of images of pagodas. However he criticised the many minor mistakes, the general hypothesis and Münsterberg’s preconceived opinions, ‟which lack any inner foundation”.135 In March 1913 the English translation of Boerschmann’s article ‟Architektur- und Kulturstudien in China” under the title ‟Chinese Architecture and its relation to Chinese Culture” arrived at the Foreign Office from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.136 Berthold Laufer from Chicago had proofread the translation.137 In July 1913 Boerschmann handed in a further application for another year of study until the end of March 1915 at a cost calculated at 8,200 Marks. In an explanatory statement he gave some reasons. First, he listed his achievements: more than twenty lectures, not only in Berlin but also in Dresden, Königsberg and Danzig. In the winter of 1912–13 he had carried out a lecture-tour of East Prussia: Konitz (14.10); Naturforschende Gesellschaft zu Danzig (16.10.); Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft Marienburg (17.10.); Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kunst und Wissenschaft zu Bromberg (28.10.); Thorn (29.10.); Gewerbeverein Elbing (2.11.); Polytechnischer Verein Tilsit (7.11.); and the Verein für Erdkunde in Dresden (17.1.1913).138 Boerschmann had even declined a number of speaking invitations due to a lack of time. He argued that the public had an interest in his achievements and therefore the right to first-hand information. He noted that the lectures had been met with a broad and positive response in the daily newspapers, and went on to list all his publications. The last, on observations about water use in China, had just gone to press.139 Proof sheets were attached to the letter. Boerschmann mentioned another two unpublished papers: ‟Der chinesische Bauhandwerker” (The Chinese builder) and ‟Denkmalpflege in China” (The preservation of historical monuments in China).140 The first of his monumental six-volume work about the island of sacred Mount Putuo had come out in November 1911. The second volume on Gedächtnistempel (Memorial temples) was ready for printing and publication was planned for autumn 1913. There were now 320 sheets of drawings and further additions still had to be made. In the second chapter of the application he focused on the success of his work. There had already been many reviews of the first book on Mount Putuo published by important Sinologists and architects. He listed Edouard Chavannes from Paris, Alfred Forke from Berlin, Otto Franke from Hamburg, Berthold Laufer from Chicago and Friedrich Paulsen from Berlin as having made favourable reviews. He mentioned Joseph Dahlmann, who was inspired by the book to write an article about the connection between Indian architecture and the Far East.141 In an attachment to the letter Boerschmann included all the reviews and concluded, they ‟emphasise the desire that the studies continue”. In addition the exhibition in the Museum for Decorative Arts had been a great success

132 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 10.11.1912, Ministry of War to AA. 133 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 22.11.1912, Ministry of War to AA. 134 Münsterberg, 1910/1912, (Two Volumes). Münsterberg also used material of EB, see preface VII. 135 EB, in Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, 1913: 177–181. 136 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 5.3.1913, Smithsonian Institute to AA. 137 Walravens, 1982: 205. 138 The letters of all the institutions are in the PAB. 139 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1913: 516–537. 140 So far they have not been found and it is unclear whether they were ever published. 141 Dahlmann, 1912: 117–156.

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and the reviews from the daily papers were attached in a separate folder.142 For Boerschmann, the most significant fact was that Josef Strzygowski (1862–1942), professor for architectural history in Vienna, based his paper ‟Ostasien in vergleichender Kunstforschung” (East Asia in comparative art research) on the text of the catalogue from the exhibition.143 The Museum of Ethnology and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin as well as the Institute of Art History in Vienna had bought prints of Boerschmann’s photos. The Reiff Museum in Aix-la-Chapelle had invited him to curate an exhibition and the Society of Science from Göttingen had asked for his co-operation in other scientific fields. The fact that he had cultivated contacts with many scholars, and that they had used his results for their own research, proved to him that his documentations had become valuable sources within a very short period of time. In the third section of the application Boerschmann again explained his methods of working. The approach of combining the formal aspects of architecture with cultural and religious development needed an even more expanded point of view. He thought that the second volume on Gedächtnistempel would illustrate this aspect exactly. The delineation of different facets of culture, religion, philosophy, history and even the geographical history of the country should prove how closely all these were connected and how the intersections gave a complete image of architecture in China. He predicted that his universal approach would open up the most interesting aspects of the topic ‟and, until now, the success has proved that I am right.” He explained how useful his work could become for later researchers and therefore saw no other way than to continue what he had started with the first two books. He explained that since there were so many aspects to consider, the work required a lot of time. In the previous year, Boerschmann admitted, he had miscalculated the time needed to finish the second volume, but expressed confidence that the third volume would be completed by the end of March 1914. The fourth chapter focused on the printing subsidy from the state. Since the second volume had run to a length longer than expected, 12 to 13,000 Marks of the 18,000 Marks subsidy for the printing costs would be spent after the third volume. The rest of the subsidy would be reserved for a fourth volume. But to work on that Boerschmann needed inspiration and a further year of funding until March 1915. He had already announced plans about future topics and stated that he would need further money to realise the plan. In the fifth chapter Boerschmann addressed his own position as a civil servant. He hoped for a position that would enable him to study the architectural und cultural development of East Asia, but could not give a clear idea about how this would be financed. His career as a military inspector seemed ‟to a certain extent terminated”. His colleagues had been granted promotions and he felt estranged from the military service. In any case his final aim was to focus on an exclusive study of the Chinese developments. The sixth chapter of the application focused on German cultural work in China. Boerschmann believed that private funding could also be found for further studies, because his approaches were integrated into the scientific and political ambitions of the German Empire. He feared China could break apart after the revolution, meaning that being in China was necessary to gain a better understanding of the different forces at work there. If Germany sent many different experts, they could advise the government and influence the position of Germany in China. ‟We must seed today, what we want to harvest in the future,” he wrote. As positive examples he listed Albert von Le Coq (1860– 1930), working in Turkestan, Herbert Müller and Hermann Schoede, a German curio collector, in China, and also Karl Siegfried Döhring (1879–1941) in Siam (Thailand),144 most of whom had not

142 They are not in the PAAA today. 143 However, only a small part of the text refers to Boerschmann’s observations. See Strzygowski, 1913: 12f. 144 Karl Siegfried Döhring was a German architect who lived in Thailand between 1906 and 1917 and worked directly for the Royal Thai government. He published several books and articles on Buddhist architecture in Thailand. See Döhring, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1912: 693–806. Döhring, Der Bôt, 1914 (dissertation). Döhring, Buddhistische Tempelanlagen, 1920, (3 Volumes).



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held an official position. As further positive evidence supporting his own approach he mentioned the extension of the Oriental Seminar, the extension of the East Asian department at the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, the foundation of the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, the large exhibition on East Asian art and culture in the previous winter in Berlin,145 and the development of several museums for East Asian art and culture in Leipzig, Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Munich and other places. Furthermore he expressed the fear that the United States would open an archaeological institute in Beijing in exactly in the way he had proposed in his memorandum in 1910 for Germany. He argued that the Americans would also focus on economic aims with this undertaking: three months earlier he had written to Berthold Laufer in Chicago and asked him to establish the interest of the American institutions, in order to exchange results.146 And last but not least, in China a young generation was awakening and starting to conduct research using Western methods. Without naming names, he mentioned that he had heard that some Chinese scholars were already working in the field of architecture. This would provide an entry point for the German government to exert direct and practical influence, and establish economic and political networks in the Chinese construction industry. Boerschmann believed that if there were further investigations in the scientific field from the German side, the Chinese researchers would support them, stating that ‟without question my works are oriented along general lines and deserve further promotion”. Although the application letter was written simply with the intention of securing another yearlong extension to the timeframe for completing his research, it is worth noting that Boerschmann also mentioned the need for a further trip to China. In the seventh chapter Boerschmann focused on the final aims of his work and on the reasons for continuing his studies. He was aware that the new application conflicted with his earlier statements, especially his report of 19 August 1912, as well as the statement by the royal government that they would approve no further leaves of absence. He felt guilty about this matter and therefore asked for further support, repeatedly explaining that his work would soon become the basis for business, even if this aspect of it was not yet tangible: Boerschmann predicted that if he could finish his four volumes within the next few years, third parties would finance the next trip to China. So, he said, the coming year would definitely be the last to be supported by the Foreign Office. (At this point the officer responsible at the Foreign Office placed a question mark on the letter.) In chapter eight Boerschmann summarised his suggestions. He was applying for 8,200 Marks in total: 6,700 for his salary and 1,500 for other expenses.147 Six weeks later, on 11 August, the Ministry of Education wrote a letter supporting the new extension, but only after consultation with the general-director of the Royal Museums, Wilhelm von Bode. Although the Ministry of Education expressed doubts, they supported the further work too, because the case had already cost so much money.148 One week later the State Secretary of the Interior also recorded his support for the extension.149 These letters were sent to the Foreign Office. They demanded that Boerschmann attend a meeting on 30 August 1913 to discuss his latest letter and the answers given by the different ministries involved. Boerschmann had to sign the minutes of this meeting and declared that he understood everything and would act in accordance with the contents of the written document. The officer at the Foreign Office opened the meeting by stating the point of view of the authorities, which did not meet any aspect of the ideas expressed by Boerschmann in the letter from 20 July. The Foreign Office felt responsible only for the publication of the results from his trip between 1906 and 1909. They held Boerschmann responsible for having published only one volume in more than four years of work, and noted the inherent contradiction

145 The exhibition took place in the Royal Art Academy. Exhibition Catalogue: Ausstellung alter Ostasiatischer Kunst. China-Japan. Berlin, 1912. 146 Walravens, 1982: 206 (letter, 14.3.1913, EB to Laufer). 147 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 20.6.1913, EB to AA (18 pages). 148 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 11.8.1913, Ministry of the Education to AA. 149 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 18.8.1913, Ministry of the Interior to AA.

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in the fact that Boerschmann believed he could use the time for special publications and lectures. They ordered him to focus only on the finalising of the proposed four volumes within the given timeframe. No other activities would be allowed from now on. The person in charge again made it clear that Boerschmann’s commission for the Foreign Office was of a temporary character and the authorities attached importance to the point that his engagement would end as soon as possible. The authorities also expected him to return to his military department afterwards. If Boerschmann planned to quit the military service, the responsibility was his and no Foreign Office commission could be used as an excuse. The tone of the minutes was very strict and clear.150 In September 1913 the Imperial Treasury Office opposed the budget for 1914. The refusal gives the letter of 10 August 1912 as a reason, because in it the Imperial Treasury Office had stated that, in the view of Laske, the project should be completed in April 1912.151 In September Boerschmann sent the finished manuscript for the publication of Gedächtnistempel to the Foreign Office in support of his application.152 The State Secretary of the Imperial Treasury Office agreed to support Boerschmann’s continued work, with reference to the report by the general-director of the Royal Museums. However, in the letter to the Foreign Office, the State Secretary also mentioned Boerschmann’s statement that ‟in the near future a third party will support the continuation of the research in the area of Chinese culture, possibly also a new, bigger expedition”. This resulted in the Imperial Treasury Office proposing a cut in the financial support to only six months, until the end of September 1914.153 In September the Foreign Office again wrote to the Imperial Treasury Office and insisted that Boerschmann had to now concentrate on his work: no lectures, no separate publications, no exhibitions. They asked for a ‟final” extension until the end of March 1915. The Foreign Office reserved the right to dismiss him at any time, if the work did not develop as planned.154 After this last letter from the Foreign Office, the Imperial Treasury Office also agreed to the extension until 1915, but all parties demanded that this would be definitely the last extension. The letter said a further prolongation would be impossible, even if the work was not finished then.155 The final extension to the end of March 1915 was granted by the end of September 1913. The Foreign Office wrote to Boerschmann: ‟During the negotiations, the State Secretary denoted as indispensable that your work must be focused on the task and the publication of your material, constricted to drawings and photographs and it must not get lost in scientific and aesthetic statements.” The officer formally announced that his appointment would terminate on 15 April 1915.156 The Foreign Office received a budget of 8,200 Marks in November for the following year: 6,700 Marks were earmarked for his earnings, 1,500 for further material expenses.157 In December the Ministry of War asked the Foreign Office whether Boerschmann would be available in April 1914.158 They answered that he was entrusted with further scientific work until the end of March 1915. The letter also mentioned the impossibility of further prolongation from the side of the Foreign Office and that the Ministry of War should think about a possible future assignment for him.159 In January the Ministry of War agreed to the leave of absence until March 1915.160 In February 1914 Boerschmann reported to the Foreign Office that his second book, about Gedächtnistempel, was ready.161

150 PAAA: R 138423, minutes, 30.8.1913, AA. 151 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 6.9.1913, Imperial Treasury Office to AA. 152 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 10.9.1913, EB to AA. 153 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 12.9.1913, Imperial Treasury Office to AA. 154 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 19.9.1913, AA to Imperial Treasury Office. 155 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 24.9.1913, Imperial Treasury Office to AA. 156 PAAA: R 138423, letter, 30.9.1913, AA to EB. 157 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 3.11.1913, AA to EB. 158 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 6.12.1913, Ministry of War to AA. 159 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 19.12.1913, AA to Ministry of War. 160 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 5.1.1914, Ministry of War to AA. 161 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 16.2.1914, EB to AA.



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The Foreign Office requested ten copies.162 He had sent already them one copy and a second copy to the Imperial Office of the Interior.163 Some days later he gave another seven copies to the Foreign Office with the following list of recipients: His Majesty the German Emperor, the Imperial Office of the Interior (two copies), the Imperial Treasury Office, the Legation in Beijing, Royal Prussian Ministry of Culture, and the Reichstag.164

The book about memorial temples (1914) When Boerschmann published the second volume of his series Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. Einzeldarstellungen auf Grund eigener Aufnahmen während dreijähriger Reisen in China, the scientific community was eagerly awaiting it. The book was titled Gedächtnistempel, Tzé Táng, had 286 pages with 212 images in the text and thirty-six plates. For technical reason the images on the plates were of much better quality than those in the text. In addition, six large coloured and folded drawings were bound at the end of the book. The publishing house of Georg Reimer in Berlin printed an edition of 500 copies. Walter de Gruyter, head of Reimer Publishers, listed the total manufacturing cost as 10,215 Marks.165 Most of the images came from Boerschmann’s archive, four photos were given to him by the architects Amelung and Rothkegel in Beijing and a few (they are not marked) were purchased from Chinese photographers. The bibliography included more than thirty titles. The book opens with a map on which Boerschmann indicated all the places he visited. An index structured according to location and temple name followed with a list of the 157 buildings mentioned in the book. The book is structured into five chapters. The first hundred pages deal with memorial temples for important historical figures. This section is divided into three sub-chapters: the first concerns ‟Chinese antiquity, the second the Warring States Period (475–271 BC), and the third the Chinese Middle Ages and modern period”. The titles suggest that the structure follows historic development chronologically. However, the projects do not correspond to the time of construction of the buildings, but to the historical events or the lifetimes of the historical figures honoured. For example, in the case of the Yao Temple in Shanxi Province, the buildings had been destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion between 1850 and 1864. Boerschmann wrote that the original temple was founded in 294 and reconstructed during the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century. After the destruction by the Taiping rebels the local administration rebuilt the complex in the late nineteenth century. But Boerschmann placed the temple in his book in the sub-chapter on ‟early Chinese history”.166 This represents the general structure of his studies in this book. The different temples for Guan Yu (Guandi, EB: Kuan Ti), who was deified during the Sui Dynasty (581–618), were included in the chapter about the heroes of the Three Kingdoms (220–280).167 The temples included in places such as Guangzhou, Xi’an or Hangzhou dated from different eras. Boerschmann did not focus on the history of the individual buildings. This was partly because he had no reliable references, and partly because he was relying only on his own observations, the oral history recorded during the visits and the Chinese chronicles he had collected. He was aware that not everything he had heard could be trusted, and therefore always reminded the reader to look at his published work only as a basis for later research and verification. In about sixty pages, the second part of the book uses the temple for Zhang Liang (EB: Chang Liang, 262–189 BC), also called the Marquise of Liu, in South Shaanxi, as a case study. Zhang Liang

162 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 7.3.1914, AA to EB. 163 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 3.3.1914, EB to AA. 164 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 19.3.1914, EB to AA. 165 Archiv Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Depositum 42 de Gruyter, Ernst Boerschmann, letter, 26.4.1921, de Gruyter to EB. 166 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 6–16. 167 Ibid: 46–60.

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Fig. 421: The Temple of the Marquise of Liu or Zhang Liang in Qinling Mountains in the South of Shaanxi Province in a traditional depiction. (GT, 1914: T.10).

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belonged to the Three Heroes of the early Han Dynasty and contributed greatly to the founding of the dynasty. The temple commemorating him stood at the foot of Mount Zibai on the southern slope of the Qinling Mountains, close to the city of Hanzhong. Boerschmann visited the place on his tour of Sichuan Province from 7 to 12 July in 1908. According to the recorded information, Zhang Liang retired to the area in later life and was worshiped as a hero of the Western Han Dynasty. The original temple was ruined and rebuilt in 1683. Between 1846 and 1860 the temple was expanded and opened as a centre of Taoism in the region. Ferdinand von Richthofen had already explored the area in 1871 during his travels from Beijing to Chengdu. Boerschmann republished some extracts from Richthofen’s diary as well as his own.168 A detailed description of the area and seventy-two important caves were provided to show the deep connection of the people with the natural environment. Boerschmann’s knowledge of these caves and the history of the temple came from a Chinese text published in 1872, which he had obviously purchased in the area. A vivid description of the temple and all the different buildings provides a detailed overview, which is followed by descriptions of the placing of the gods and their meaning as well as translations of the inscriptions in the stone tablets. Photos and a huge plan drawn by his draftsman in Germany complete the story. The large line-drawn floor plan, which measures sixty by sixty centimetres, is printed in colour and folded at the end of the book. This monographic study is detailed and goes far beyond the purely architectural aspects. In addition to his own photographs, he used the original Chinese line drawings and the above plan based on his own measurements to illustrate his analysis. For the first time, this comprehensive study provided a complete impression of such a temple and its relation to the surrounding landscape. (See also plate 15 and fig. 259–265). The layout of the temple complex responded to the topography of the site. The spatial arrangement of the halls followed a rectangular system, but the axis was aligned to the north, towards the entrance. The first two gates were located on the street leading to the temple. They were made of bricks and rubble stone, and the second storey consisted of a simple timber construction. The direct entrance to the temple grounds was a massive gate with an arched opening and a richly decorated roof made of terracotta. Opposite the street a spirit wall bordered the space. Across a small stream, the main gate led into the first court. On the left and right of the entrance gate stood the hexagonal drum and clock tower, both of which had lost their instruments. In the centre of the court stood the pavilion for Wang Lingguan (EB: Ling Kuan) and Cai Shen (EB: Tsai Shen) with an octagonal floor plan and a square roof. According to Boerschmann, Wang Lingguan incarnated the holy power of the earth and influenced the regional surroundings in hilly regions. There were two different statues of Cai Shen, the God of Wealth, in the temple. The one in connection to Wang Lingguan was Wu Cai Shen, the God of Wealth and Martial Efficiency. The pavement of the first court consisted of smooth stones. To the east stood a hall with seventeen deities, but Boerschmann did not record their names or significances. Three halls for the main Taoist gods bordered the southern side of the court. The central hall contained the Three Pure Ones. Left of it stood the Hall of the Three Laws and to the right the Hall of the Three Officials. The architecture was rather simple – only the central hall had ceramic decorations on the roof ridge. The central position in the Hall of the Three Laws was given to Lei Shen (EB: Lei Sheng), also called Lei Gong, the God of Thunder, who was depicted riding on the mythical beast Qilin (EB: Kilin) covered by blue and golden scarves. On the west side of the main court, the three halls and two courts for Zhang Liang followed. The gate building had two chapels, placed on the left and right. The left one was dedicated to Buddhist bodhisattvas such as Guanyin, Puxian and Wenshu. The right compartment was dedicated to the Taoist Three Holy Mothers (EB: San niang niang pusa). Within the gateway the statue of Wen Cai Shen (EB: Wen Tsai Shen) – here the civilian version of the God of Wealth – stood opposite Yao Wang, the God of Medicine. After the first small court, the open Hall of Homage (EB: Pai tien) followed. At the end of the second court, the final Hall for Zhang Liang bordered the axis. The statue in the hall consisted of stucco with a richly coloured surface. Although Boerschmann recorded many things about the

168 Ibid: 111.

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Fig. 422: Two of the three pavilions in the entrance court. The drum-tower was on the right and the octagonal Hall of the Efficacious Official was in the centre. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 423: The plan of the arrangement of sculptures in the open hall between the first court and the following courts on the main axis. To the left was a Buddhist grotto with Bodhisattva Puxian, Guanyin and Wenshu, to the right a chapel for the “spender of life”. The statue of Wen Cai Shen, here the civilian version of the God of Wealth, stood in the central gateway opposite Yao Wang, the God of Medicine. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 136).



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Fig. 424: The sculpture of Lei Sheng, the god of thunder, in the left Hall of the Three Laws. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 133).

Fig. 425: The arrangement of sculptures in the three halls in the first court. To the left the Hall of the Three Laws, in the centre the Hall of the Three Pure Ones and to the right the Hall of the Three Officials. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 131).

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Fig. 426: The open Hall of Reference in front of the final main hall for Zhang Liang. (© Boerschmann 1908, with courtesy of Empore Kahl).

arrangement of the space, the meaning of the statues and the atmosphere during his visit, he mentioned almost nothing about the construction and technical aspects of the timber buildings.169 The fifty pages of the third part of the book are dedicated to the two temples honouring Li Bing (EB: Li Ping) and his son Erlang Shen (EB: Oerl Lang), the two legendary, third-century BC hydraulic engineers from Dujiangyan in Sichuan.170 Here too, Boerschmann described the regional aspects of the Min River control measures built by Li Bing and his son Erlang Shen in connection with the story of the two temples, the Dragon Taming Temple (Fulongguan, EB: Fu lung kuan) for Li Bing and the Two Kings Temple (Erwangmiao, EB: Oerl wang miao) for both. Boerschmann first introduced Li Bing and his work through legends and folk tales before focusing on the Dragon Taming Temple. The temple stood next to the Treasure Bottle Opening, where the Min River is separated into a canal, which was, according to lore, constructed by Li Bing. This temple was in a somewhat bad state when Boerschmann visited the city. He made some sketches of details and a brief sketch of the layout, illustrated the text with some photos, and included a portrait of the altar with a statue of Li Bing. The forecourt could be entered from the left or the right, and in the centre a spirit wall closed the space off to the south. The main court followed through to the gate tower. A flight of steps in the central axis led to a platform in front of the main hall. Two lions and two elephants crowned the four pillars of the terrace balustrade. The black front façade of the main hall was decorated with golden ornaments. Inside, the statue of Li Bing sat on an altar; he was depicted dressed in

169 Ibid: 126–153. 170 Ibid: 151–198.



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Fig. 427: The final hall honours Zhang Liang. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

a richly decorated robe and an old-fashioned hat with ropes of pearls in front of his face. Behind the main hall followed a simple courtyard, surrounded by two-storey buildings. Boerschmann, when staying there as a guest, lived in the east building. In the second main hall, at the edge of the cliff towards the water, Li Bing was shown as an emanation of Yu the Great, who introduced flood control in ancient China. On the water level at the weir a bronze ox, about 1.3 metres long, stood on a simple pedestal. Next to it protruded a 4.5-metre-high pillar with an unidentifiable animal, made of stone. From an open octagonal pavilion at the edge of the cliff the view opened across the whole weir system and the landscape. According to the sketch of the ground plan published by Boerschmann, a wall enclosed the compound and the temple developed along a straight axis on the cliff.171 (See also plates 12 and 16 and fig. 288–291). Today the spatial layout of the temple differs from Boerschmann’s sketch. The axis of the temple turns halfway and the halls seem bigger and closer to each other than when they were documented by him. In addition, architectural details, such as decorative roof elements, seem much more fantastic than in Boerschmann’s day. The sculptures and many other details have disappeared.172 The main portion of the chapter focuses on the Two Kings Temple. In a detailed description of the temple and its many buildings Boerschmann combined his own observations with translations of inscriptions, sketches of the placing of deities in the different locations within the complex,

171 Ibid: 166–170. 172 Nan Shunxun, Foit-Albert, 2007: 216–221. Fulong Temple was completely rebuild after the earthquake in 2008 on the basis of the turned axis. Boerschmann’s sketch (fig. 428) is most probably not reliable as a document.

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photographs and a coloured line drawing of the floor plan at the end of the book (scale 1:600), which, when unfolded, measured about 50 by 45 centimetres. The detailed floor plan is labelled with descriptions in German and Chinese, which allows all the different places to be located. The topography of the site was not straightforward and the axis of the complex turned three times. On each platform along the way, niches held statues of minor deities. From a first forecourt, a flight of steps led through a wooden gate to a platform, were the axis turned ninety degrees. A further flight of steps led to the gate pavilion for Wang Lingguan (EB: Ling kuan), the guardian god of Taoist temples, in front of the next forecourt. The axis turned back again and a flight of steps led into the entrance gate to the main court. On the terrace half way up, two lions were sitting on pedes-

Fig. 428: The sketch plan of the Dragon Taming Temple in Guanxian. The forecourt was entered from the left and right. The entrance gate building had a stage on the second floor towards the main court and a spirit wall on the opposite side. From the hexagonal pavilion at the top left near the river it was possible to view the irrigation system upstream. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 166).

Fig. 429: An indefinable stone animal stood on a 4.5-metre high pedestal in the river. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 167).



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tals. Within the gate building the sculptures of two horses were directed towards the stairs. Above the entrance in the gate, a theatre stage opened towards the court. On each side of this two-storey building a four-storey hexagonal drum and clock tower grew out of the secondary buildings. In the middle of the court stood two ‟accurately trimmed” trees. In front of the main hall two incense pagodas stood opposite the drum and clock tower. As the sectional and ground floor drawings show, the main hall, seven bays wide, was a composite building with two storeys. The entrance hall had two rows of square stone pillars to support the wooden barrel vault of the roof construction. At the side of the entrance hall stood an unidentifiable dog-like iron animal. The altar for Erlang Shen (EB: Oerl Lang) fully occupied the central bay of the main hall. A large gilded statue stood in the back, a

Fig. 430: The floor plan of the first pedestal following the first forecourt of the Two Kings Temple (Erwang Temple). The view back from the pedestal opened to the theatre stage above the entrance gate. A chapel for Wang Lingguan was integrated at the north side of the pedestal. Above him stood three deities for water, heaven and earth, placed in the Pavilion of the Flowing Water. After the next flight of steps followed an altar for the god of the ground and the city god. The entrance pavilion straight ahead – the Hall of Wang Lingguan – was dedicated to the spirit of the mountains. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 175).

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Fig. 431: The stairway to the Erwang Temple entrance and the passage at river level towards the left. To the direct left was a temple for a viceroy, to the right a small memorial hall for high officials. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).



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Fig. 432: In the following forecourt, with a further access gate from the opposite side, the final flight of steps began and continued through the following entrance pavilion into the main court. The height difference was terraced with stone walls. On the terrace outside the building stood two sculptures of lions, on the next terrace in the building were two sculptures of horses. The terraces no longer exist. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

Fig. 433: The view from the main court back to the entrance building. In the centre stood an open theatre stage framed by a drum tower to the right and a clock tower to the left. The towers are no longer standing. Pruned trees in octagonal planters were placed on each side of the court. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: 180).

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smaller version dressed in red silk stood in front. The smaller statue was used for processions. On his back stood a statue of Lü Dongbin (EB: Lü Tsu), one of the Eight Taoist Immortals. A tiny court separated the main hall from the Hall of the Old King (EB: Lao wang tien), which was dug into the hill. On the central axis stood the sculptures for Li Bing and his wife. To the left a nameplate for the spirit of the soil (EB: Tu Shen) and to the right a nameplate for Lu Ban, the legendary carpenter (EB: Lu pan, God of Architects), had been installed.173 Further chapels in the hall showed statues for Cai Shen (EB: Tsai shen), the God of Wealth, and Yao Wang, the God of Medicine. On the east side of the main hall stood a small water basin in a court with strangely formed stones, where water turtles lived. Back in the main hall of Er Wang another ensemble of ten statues stood on the first floor. The centre was occupied by the Jade Emperor (EB: Yü Huang); beside him stood a statue of the Jade Maiden (EB: Yü Nü), followed by a bronze statue of a teaching Buddha, among further Taoist

173 For Lu Ban see Ruitenbeek, 1996.

Fig. 434: The front of the main hall was framed by two identical incense pagodas. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: T.17).



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deities. For Boerschmann the most interesting statue was the 45-centimetre-high standing Buddha, which he could not date, but suggested that the sculpture must be ‟very old”. His published photograph of the statue is slightly blurred, because the floorboards were constantly shaking. The roof of the hall had some glass tiles on the south side to light the space. He described the arrangement and the placing of the statues in detail. The abbot did not allow him to bring his dogs into this place of ‟great purity”. On the west side of the main hall followed a further court with the ‟Chapel of the Life Giver” (EB: Sung sheng tang) in which many figures of female deities (EB: Tou chen niang niang, Nai mu, Sung tze, T’sui sheng, Kuan yin pu sa and three further niang niang) – along with the Dragon King (EB: Lung wang) – were standing. In this court was a further theatre stage to the south. On a higher terrace to the southwest of the main axis, but on the same axis with the hall for the female deities, a small pavilion (EB: Shen mu tien) contained the sitting statue of the Sage Mother (EB: Sheng mu). The open hall was decorated with stylised flying bats around the entrance. The irregular pavilion had open-worked walls with circular or rectangular openings and the walls were decorated with

Fig. 435: The front of the main hall was framed by two identical incense pagodas. (© Boerschmann 1908, GT, 1914: T.17).

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Fig. 436: The view across the roof of the main hall from the front of the pavilion for the mother of Laozi. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 437: The sectional drawing of the main hall shows the two storeys and the added front hall with a different roof form. This no longer exists. The two sculptures of Er Lang, the son of Li Bing, were on the ground floor on a stepped pedestal. The smaller one was used for processions. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 181).



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Fig. 438: The open pavilion for the mother of Laozi in the northeast from the back. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 439: Behind the main hall followed, after a very small court, the “Hall of the Old King”, with its back integrated into the slope of the hill. In the centre stood the sculpture of Li Bing and his wife. Further groups of sculptures were placed on the left and right. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 182).

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calligraphy. Further up the hill followed the two-storey tower for the God of Literature and Examinations (Kui Xing, EB: Kuei Sing). He marked the turning point on the way up. The statue of Kui Xing stood on the upper floor and the ground floor contained statues that were a variation on the God of Soil, representing the inner earth and the five elements taken as representative of the soil (EB: Chung yang tu shou). From there, visitors had to turn back almost 350 degrees to the last and highest pavilion, dedicated to Laozi (also Laojun, EB: Lao Kün), on the central axis of the complex. The hall for Laozi (EB: Lao kün tien), the father of Taoism, indicated the final element on the way through the complex. Two further gods were placed beside the main statue: the ‟Master of the Inscrutable World Order” and the God for Longevity, Shou Xing (EB: Hüan tu fa shi and Nan ki shau sing). To the left and right the composition ended with the depiction of the sun and moon. The placing of gods along the way and their meaning and relationship positioned the two heroes Li Bing and Erlang Shen in the pantheon of Taoism. In Boerschmann’s point of view, the work of the two heroes was perceived in the context of the overall arrangement of deities as being an emanation of the profound wisdom of ‟nature and mountains”. He ended the chapter with translations of inscriptions in the halls and some extracts from his diary.174

174 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 170–198.

Fig. 440: The overall plan prepared by Boerschmann based on his measurements. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914). See also plate 16.



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Over the course of twentieth century the physical parts of the temple changed dramatically and the interiors have been lost. The government declared the temple a historic monument in 1957. In 1960, during the Great Leap Forward, nearby explosive blasts for the construction of the Yuzhi hydropower station badly damaged the buildings. Members of the construction team used the wooden parts to construct their beds and most probably used parts of the buildings for fuel.175 It is not clear what happened to the place during Cultural Revolution. However, the buildings were reconstructed in 1980s following a much simpler arrangement than the one documented by Boerschmann. The ‟reconstruction” was partly completed in concrete. The layout of the complex changed and became ‟rectangularised”. Details in the spatial arrangement, such as the terrace with the two lions and the two horses, disappeared. In the main court, the two trees went, as well as the drum and clock tower. The roof form of the main hall also changed. The most dramatic change took place in the arrangement of the statues. The main hall currently contains a statue of Li Bing whereas the figure of his wife has disappeared, and the following hall is called Erlang Hall. The side buildings with the female deities also vanished completely. All the secondary deities seem also to have gone.176 The earthquake of 12 May 2008 destroyed the ‟reconstruction”. The complex was

175 Xun Zhou, 2012: 92 and 96. 176 Nan Shunxun, Foit-Albert, 2007: 188–191.

Fig. 441: In the twentieth century the temple was damaged several times, most recently in the earthquake in 2008. Today’s layout and design is based on a reconstruction plan from 1980, which ignored the drum and clock tower in the central court, placed Li Bing in the main hall and Er Wang in the rear hall, ignored the secondary deities, including the wife of Li Bing. The side buildings have been lost, and many other details and basic spatial arrangements changed. (Archive EK).

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Fig. 442: Boerschmann prepared a sketch map of the city of Qufu with the necropolis towards the north. Near the southeast corner on the city wall stood the pavilion for Kui Xing. The huge Temple of Confucius divided the city. Next to the north gate in the city wall stood the temple for his famous disciple Yan Hui. The city had five gates, one at the southwest that led directly into the Temple of Confucius. In front of this gate an alley with trees highlighted the importance of the temple outside the city. Age-old trees also lined the ceremonial axis from the north gate to the burial ground. (© Boerschmann, GT, 19194: 201).



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rebuilt according to the plans from the 1980s and opened to the public in spring 2012 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over about sixty pages the fourth chapter focuses on temples for Confucius (551–479 BC), not only in his hometown Qufu, but in different places around the country. The literature on Confucius in Western languages was already huge, so it seems that Boerschmann decided to limit further information to the buildings and their spatial arrangement. Father Albert Tschepe’s book helped him greatly,177 and for general religious studies he referred to Wilhelm Grube.178 Since no one had ever made a general study of the temples, he focused on the spatial layout as measured during surveys taken on-site. In the case of Qufu, Boerschmann drew a sketch map of the city with the

177 Tschepe, Konfuzianismus, 1906. 178 Grube, 1910.

Fig. 443: An aerial view of the city of Qufu with the actual layout. 1: burial ground, 2: Temple of Confucius, 3: Temple of Yan Hui. (© EK).

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Fig. 444: The ground floor plan and elevation drawing of the tomb of Confucius by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 202).



Fig. 445: The rectangular layout of the Temple of Confucius as published by Boerschmann. He based this drawing of the almost 650 metre long complex on his own measurements from 1907. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914). See also plate 17.

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Fig. 446: The actual site plan prepared by Liang Sicheng around 1935. The different buildings and walls do not follow a strict rectangular system. The two buildings at the north end follow the order of the neighbouring residence of Kong Family. (© Liang, 118).

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location of all sanctuaries and other places of importance. Although in reality the walled city had an irregular shape, it was shown in Boerschmann’s sketch as having an idealised rectangular layout. The surveys, made without proper technical equipment, became the basis for the line drawings. The somewhat abstract, simplified drawings were particularly suited to his purpose – showing a geometric relationship between the layout of the temple, town and the surrounding

Fig. 447: A sectional drawing of the main hall for Confucius as published by Liang Sicheng. Whereas Liang focused on constructive aspects of the hall, Boerschmann focused on the space and the furnishing of the interior. (© Liang, 1935: 118).

Fig. 448: The sectional drawing of the main hall for the honour of Confucius with the following hall for his wife. The Boerschmann’s drawing left out all aspects of the timber construction for the roof. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 214/215).



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landscape. The grave of Confucius in the family cemetery outside the city was depicted in detail with a plan, side view and elevation. But the most important part of the chapter focuses on the main temple in the city, which Boerschmann recorded as being built on a straight north–south axis, 647 metres in length and 152 metres in width. In detailed descriptions Boerschmann leads the reader from one courtyard to the next. At the end of the book, the huge drawing of the floor plan to a scale of 1:600 unfolds to more than one metre in length. He covered all aspects of the complex with sectional drawings, sketch plans showing the locations of sculptures and photographs of the halls, the sculptures and architectonic details of the interior. For Boerschmann the temple was a good example of what he called the ‟architecture of the floor plan”. In the context of the design of the whole environment, he progressed to further terms such as ‟architecture of the landscape” and finally to an ‟architecture of the country”. To understand Chinese architecture, he concluded, one needed to understand the layout, as based on the axis and oriented in the surrounding topography. Boerschmann’s documentation of the Temple of Confucius in Qufu best illustrates the difference between his approach and that of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture in the 1930s. He had visited the temple in 1907 and published his materials in 1914. The Society had visited Qufu in 1935 with the architectural historian Liang Sicheng to measure and document the site and temple as a basis for appropriate repair work. The local construction department provided the master plan of the temple and members of the Society added detailed information of their investigations of single buildings. Liang Sicheng reported on the work in the Bulletin of the Society.179 The survey by the Society was based simply on the search for construction details, in order to repair broken parts. They therefore focused on the main halls and pavilions, but also used the opportunity to cover as many buildings as possible. With the survey results, as well as a study of available literature, chronicles and inscriptions, Liang prepared a report, which was accompanied by twenty-four pages of drawings and more than one hundred photographs. The overall layout plan of the temple was not included but published later.180 In this plan we see that the enclosing temple wall is not at a right angle to the subdividing walls or to single buildings. At the north end of the complex, two buildings have a slightly rotated axis. This happened because they belong to the geometric system

179 Liang Ssu-ch’eng, 1935. 180 Liang Ssu-ch’eng, 2005: 118.

Fig. 449: The arrangement of sculptures for Confucius and his disciples in the main hall according to Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 219).

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Fig. 450: The statue of Confucius in 1907. (© Boerschmann, GT, 1914: 223).

of the adjoining Kong Family Mansion, built in a different period. The courts therefore do not form a perfect rectangular system, but follow slight turns, which cannot easily be identified on-site. Boerschmann stayed in Qufu for ten days in 1907 and made a rough measurement by walking the main distances and counterchecked some lengths with a surveyor’s tape. With this material at hand and some rubbings from graphics of the layout of the temple (which show the complex as right-angled, see fig. 129), he prepared his perfectly right-angled line drawings, including the city wall and gate at the southern end. The plan displays the idea of spatial organisation rather than the absolutely correct measurements. He additionally depicted the central Hall of Great Accomplishment (Dacheng Hall) as a diagram with all the statues and altars. In the Society’s documentation from 1935, the ground plan of the hall was documented with exact measurements, but without details of the interior facilities. The most fundamental differences, however, can be seen in the sectional drawing of the hall. The drawing by the Society shows details of the roof construction



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Fig. 451: A stone pillar at the front of the main hall in the temple of Confucius with sculpted dragons. (© Boerschmann 1907, CA, 1925: 100).

and the complicated elements of the bracket system. Further details of the interior are not included. Boerschmann’s section leaves out the construction of the roof, but includes the display facilities for the honoured sculptures of Confucius and his disciples in the interior. On an even larger scale Boerschmann prepared a plan for the layout of the city in relation to the temple and the graveyard of the Kong Family. The layout of Qufu is shown as a regular rectangular shape, with little deviation from the right angle at the southeast corner. The real layout – a deformed rectangular frame – was of minor importance to Boerschmann, compared to his focus on the relationship between the temples, the location of the tower for the God of Literature on the city wall to the southwest, the general city layout and the family graveyard to the north of the city. For Boerschmann the documentation of space in connection to ritual and worship became the fundamental part of the work. When he visited Qufu, the Qing Dynasty was still in power and the temple was officially part of the state cult. With the May Fourth Movement in 1920s the Chinese

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elite tried to eliminate everything that they considered ‟superstitious”, including the temples for all religious services. The Western idea of ‟science” was intended to replace the former traditional relations between Heaven and Earth, negotiated by way of the practice of Feng Shui and the imperial Mandate of Heaven. Temples for Confucius were often turned into schools or used for other public services. In the light of the New Life Movement, founded in 1934 by national leader Chiang Kaishek and his wife Song Mailing (1897–2003), Confucius and his temples again came into the focus of the state. The New Life Movement opposed Communism, individualism and Western democratic ideas with a mix of nationalism, Confucianism and Western Christianity. In this context Confucian temples enjoyed great popularity again. The commission for an inventory by the Society has to be seen in the context of preparing the temple for this new goal. For Liang Sicheng and the members of the Society, the temple and its history was an outstanding example of a historic monument on a national level. His fundamental study therefore focused especially on the oldest parts in the complex. Nevertheless, it was the changing politics that allowed for the renewal, including proper documentation. Unfortunately Red Guards destroyed many of the temple’s interior installations during the Cultural Revolution.181 The temple and its interior, including the statues, have subsequently been rebuilt, but the result today differs in many aspects from the structure that was documented by Boerschmann. Further temples for Confucius in other parts of China continued the chapter in the book about memorial temples. Some are documented with layout plans, such as those located in Tai’an (Shandong), Luzhou, Dujiangyan, Yichang (Sichuan) or Suzhou (Jiangsu), others simply with descriptions and photos. The thirty pages of the last chapter focus on ancestor temples.182 Again here, Boerschmann recorded stories and history, described the places and documented them with plans, sketches and photographs. Translations of inscriptions on stone tablets as well as his own observations became the basis of the study. The ancestral temple of the Chen and Hi family in Changsha and the Chen Family Temple in Guangzhou are covered in detail. Line drawings and a photo-documentation of the second of these close the volume on memorial temples. The whole book, especially the three case studies of temples for honoured heroes of history (Zhang Liang, Li Bing and Confucius), can be understood from the perspective of Boerschmann’s strategy to publish aspects of what he called the ‟old Chinese cultural circle”, in contrast to the Buddhist culture, which was covered in the first book on Mount Putuo. The first book entirely focused on Buddhism; the second was meant to cover some aspects of Taoism and Confucianism in the context of worship of heroes. The thirty-six plates in the book, with their outstanding print quality, as well as the more than 200 images in the text, illustrate the content perfectly. The huge line drawings folded in at the end of the book are an additional highlight. In 1921 Walter de Gruyter from Reimer Publishers told Boerschmann that all but ten copies of the first book on Mount Putuo had been sold and of the 500 copies of the second volume on Gedächtnistempel only about fifty remained.183 Keeping in mind that the First World War started soon after the release of the book – and that public and private money were in short supply in its aftermath – this can be seen as a great success. One of the first reviews was written by the geographer Ernst Tiessen, a pupil of Ferdinand von Richthofen and a researcher who had made important publications on China.184 His review appeared in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on 19 March 1914. The Reichsanzeiger was a daily newspaper, which published news about the work of the parliament and was read by ministers and the political class. For Boerschmann the education of politicians about his work was of great impor-

181 Wang Liang, 2002: 376–400. 182 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: XIX. 183 Archiv Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Depositum 42 de Gruyter, Ernst Boerschmann, letter, 26.4.1921, de Gruyter to EB. 184 Tiessen, 1902; Tiessen (ed.), Ferdinand von Richthofens Tagebücher, 1907.



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tance. Tiessen referred back to the research of his teacher Ferdinand von Richthofen and compared Boerschmann’s work in the field of architectural history to his own work in the field of geography in China, thereby blaming the German government for his inaction in the second half of the nineteenth century. In Tiessen’s eyes, the British and the French were well ahead of all German scientific efforts. However, with Boerschmann’s work, he argued, Germany would achieve a leading position in the field of research in Chinese architecture. Tiessen praised Boerschmann’s chosen route and his courage in braving dangers on his tour of all the sacred places of the country. He wrote: It is amazing that Boerschmann overcame all obstacles, and succeeded in reaching his final destination, measuring the temples exactly to the centimetre, learning all about the interiors, taking thousands of photographs, writing down all inscriptions, so as to provide a knowledge of places of worship that could not be more desirable.

He continued with his approval and concluded with the hope that Boerschmann would have the opportunity to continue the work. This wish was also an implicit challenge to the German government to continue funding of the work.185 Boerschmann’s early political supporter Karl Bachem again published a review in the newspaper Kölnische Volkszeitung. As a politician, he focused – as in his review of the first book the previous year – on the political impact of research. Bachem noted the turmoil that had followed the revolution: A country like China cannot be ruled in a republican way. China has about 400 million inhabitants. If every 100,000 people elected one deputy, 4,000 delegates would represent the people. […] Only a strong hand can rule a country like China. China has the choice between monarchic constitution or collapse and anarchy.

But he also expressed the opinion that no matter how China developed in the future it would have a significant impact on Europe. In terms of economics especially he foresaw a future market and argued that Germany should be prepared for this. As part of that preparation it was necessary to study Chinese culture and, with the understanding of the inner structure, to create the conditions for mutual understanding: ‟Here now the importance of economic development and scientific research resurfaces.” As a Catholic he thought Christianity and Christian culture could be the key, as well as a good education system. Together with the Christian missions, he argued, the ‟European elements” could be promoted, ahead of economic development. But before all that could start, scientific research was needed to explore the Chinese mind. Bachem argued that the best way would be to study the great architecture of the Chinese people. In relation to Boerschmann’s second book, he said, the ground had been covered to prepare a future economic and cultural relationship between Germany and China. He praised the book highly for the perfect quality of the printing, the style of writing, the illustrations and the deep study of history in the field of memorial temples. Bachem left out details of architecture or history in China. He merely used Boerschmann’s book to express his own point of view about the political relationship between the two nations. But the text also expressed his true opinion – that there was a need to establish German studies in China in the context of German politics. The political position of Imperial Germany in terms of the quasi-colonial port in Qingdao was never mentioned, but can be read between the lines in many parts of the review.186 The comparison of Boerschmann’s work to Ferdinand von Richthofen’s by Ernst Tiessen and the need for further cultural studies to prepare a better foundation for economic activities, as argued by Karl Bachem, focused on two important aspects for the acquisition of money to continue the studies and publications. The proof of the importance of Boerschmann’s work from the pen of a politician and a professor of geography was important in the face of Boerschmann’s difficulties in gaining the continued sponsorship of the Foreign Office.

185 Tiessen, 19.3.1914. 186 Bachem, 19.4.1914.

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But the mix of aspects in the book, with their different points of focus, also provoked harsh criticism. The art historian Max Kutschmann (1871–1943) wrote in his review: Several temple complexes, without regard for their time of construction, place, artistic value and character, but simply because they are dedicated to the worship or the remembrance of persons, are named Gedächtnistempel by the author, and so are constrained on a Procrustean bed.187 […] The large and absolutely certain value of the book lies in Boerschmann’s attempt to portray the architecture in the context of the cult and the design that comes out of the particular surrounding landscape.188

An unnamed reviewer in the London-based newspaper London and China Telegraph wrote in his review that Boerschmann goes ‟deeply into the ideas underlying architectural efforts” in China. He praised the work and the ‟detailed and particularly ample descriptions of the temple which was built for the Chancellor Chang Liang [Zhang Liang]”. The ‟philosophical spirit” and the ‟religious expressions” are highlighted: ‟All these matters are carefully and ably [delineated] and the work should appeal to all who are interested in probing the depths of Chinese culture.”189 Ferdinand Hestermann, who had reviewed the first book at length, found the notes from the diary printed in the book and the descriptions of nature ‟extremely unnecessary”. He further made many minor, pedantic criticisms of several of the individual drawings and photos, but his overall impression was that the work was ‟in one word, monumental”.190 The Sinologist Alfred Forke published a review full of praise. He saw in the book a further step towards a classification of Chinese architecture, but said that such an undertaking could only be made after further studies.191 Frenchman Léonard Aurousseau (1888–1929) published a review in the Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient. ‟Part of the book is near to be perfect,” he wrote, and continued that Boerschmann had certainly brought new and valuable information about Chinese architecture to light, which would help future historians a great deal. Although he also found many small shortcomings, he admired the technical perfection of the drawings and the images. Aurousseau was sure the book would help to shed light on the general topic of Chinese architecture and praised it very highly.192 Otto Franke published his opinion in the paper Literarisches Zentralblatt. He openly praised the sometimes extensive historic explanations of heroes and honoured persons in the context of the temples. Franke foresaw that the future might bring some corrections to Boerschmann’s interpretations, but this would never belittle his achievements in the book.193 Expectations of the book had been high, but there are no reviews by architects. It seems that the focus of Boerschmann’s book on memorial temples was too specific. In his point of view the book focused on only one aspect in the proposed series and he hoped that after the publication of all volumes, a complete picture would emerge. The beginning of the First World War soon after the release of the book prevented further reviews. In a letter Boerschmann had asked Berthold Laufer in Chicago for a review in an American magazine, but he most probably was unable to find the time to write it.194

187 Proverbial for something that is forced into a form or a scheme which it does not fit. 188 Kutschmann, 1918/1919: 141–143. 189 Review, in London and China Telegraph, 22 June, 1914: 25. 190 Hestermann, 1914: 686. 191 Forke, 1915: 298–299. 192 Aurousseau, 1914: 68–72. 193 Franke, 1916: 607–608. 194 I did not find a review by Laufer. For the letter see Walravens, 1982: 206, (letter, 12.5.1914, EB to Laufer).

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A German Scientific Institute in Beijing and further publications about Chinese architecture in Germany Other architects also had heard about Boerschmann’s three-year mission in China and had asked the Foreign Office what had happened to the position after he left the country. As early as February 1911 the architect Heinrich Schubart (1878–1955) inquired at the Foreign Office about the possibility of being appointed to such a post.195 Schubart worked between 1907 and 1910 as an architect in Qingdao. He learned the Chinese language, travelled in northern China and visited places around Mount Tai and Beijing, as well as in Japan, where he collected several stone rubbings, took photos and measured buildings.196 Back in Germany he completed his dissertation at the Technische Hochschule Dresden in 1914,197 which was published under the title Der chinesische T’ing-Stil. Eine baugeschichtliche Untersuchung (The Chinese T’ing style: a historical investigation) in the magazine Zeitschrift für Bauwesen.198 The architect G.Th. Hoech, inspired by an earlier article by Mahlke, speculated about the development of the Chinese roof in 1913.199 He had been in China and Japan in 1897 and continued to study aspects of Chinese architecture. In 1914 he wrote – rather speculatively – about the development of pagodas in Asia.200 In 1914 Boerschmann was still hoping for a German scientific institute in Beijing. On 23 March he asked the Foreign Office again about the establishment of such an institute by the German authorities, having heard from official and private parties about new plans for such an institute. Boerschmann mentioned his own memorandum from 19 June 1910, in which he had given reasons to set up a research base in China, specifying them in even greater detail in the memorandum of 30 June 1911. During his long research period, he wrote, he had always kept in mind the ‟natural continuation” of his aims within the framework of the government brief. Both memorandums had earlier been sent to the Royal Prussian Cultural Ministry for examination. He continued, ‟With great satisfaction it can be ascertained that it dropped onto fruitful ground”, without giving the reason for his positive statement. Boerschmann wrote that the Sinologist Herbert Müller went to northern China in 1912 to carry out studies and collect materials for the museums, and Hermann Schoede had been working on archaeological projects. He had already exchanged opinions with both about the foundation of the institute in Beijing. The geologist Friedrich Solger, who worked for the Chinese government, was also involved.201 In 1914 Schoede negotiated with the Royal Museums in Berlin about support for a permanent office in Beijing, mainly in the field of ethnological studies. Further scientific fields did not yet seem to have been decided upon. Herbert Müller and Friedrich Solger were expecting to receive private funds, he wrote, and would therefore only research independently and not for museums. In addition, Boerschmann had heard privately that the Sinology departments of different universities planned to establish a joint office in China. He expressed the opinion that all those plans could only be realised with the foundation of a central institute in Beijing. This would concentrate the resources and provide the best infrastructure to all researchers in China. The idea for such an institute dated back to Ferdinand von Richthofen and Sinologist Wilhelm Grube, Boerschmann continued. Again he highlighted the fact that his own memorandums had paved the way to establish such an institute. Boerschmann attached another two papers, one entitled Gründe (reasons) and the other Arbeitsplan und Kostenplan (working plan and cost evaluation). He saw no reason for a new memorandum at the moment, since all the different aspects and orientations of the named institutions

195 PAAA: R 138422, letter, 19.2.1911, Schubart to AA. 196 Some of his photographs have been published by Mensching, 1929. 197 Schubart, 1995: 14–15. 198 Schubart, 1914: 497–526 and 733–760. 199 Hoech, 1913: 61–66. 200 Hoech, 1914: 525–542 and 719–734. 201 Solger supported a German Richthofen-Institut in China. See Chun-Shik Kim, 2004: 148.

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Fig. 452: Heinrich Schubart prepared a drawing of a Chinese roof construction for his dissertation in 1914 based on a model from Ningbo in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. (© Schubart, 1914).

were not yet clear. He gave a five-point outline for the foundation of the institute: 1) because of the specific conditions in China, the German government must support the research work there; 2) scientific research about China would support economic and political relationships; 3) an institute in Beijing was necessary for the continuation of scientific research; 4) the institute must ensure totally free scientific research; and 5) the foundation and the funding for the institute must be donated by the government. Finally he asked for the advisory opinions of the following institutions in a four-point demand: 1) the Ministry of the Interior, the Royal Prussian Ministry of Culture, the General Administration of the Museums, the University of Berlin, the Academy of Science, the University of Leipzig (the Institute of Cultural History) and the Colonial Institute Hamburg; 2) the Foreign Office should take his estimate for financial investment in the attached plan as a basis for the allocation of money in the following year’s budget plan; 3) they should authorise Boerschmann to work on a new memorandum; and 4) in the event that the institute was founded, he should be appointed as ‟archaeologist” and head of the institute.202 In the first attachment Boerschmann gave a detailed view of the reasons, the structure and the aims of the institute in eight points. The first two are about general issues, and the third focused on the location of the institute in Beijing. The fourth point discussed the structure and the tasks. As a role model he named the German Archaeological Institute in Athens. Three scientists should be appointed to head three departments, focusing on language and humanities, archaeology and ethnology, and natural science and economic geography. Under the fifth point he summarised the final aims and the position of the institute. He stated that it was essential that the institution be independent in terms of work and finances, and stressed the importance of its having close relationships with Chinese intellectuals and government interests, which would open up further possibilities for cooperative undertakings. For Boerschmann this was an important focus and a long-term aim.203 In the second attachment he focused on detailed plans about the three departments and the finances. The first, ‟philology – historic department”, should focus on language, humanities, literature, philosophy, religion, political science, ethnology and law. The second, ‟archaeology – ethnology department for visible culture”, should focus on archaeology, art history, architecture

202 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 28.3.1914, EB to AA (9 pages). Also published by Walravens, 2002: 150–154. 203 PAAA: R 138424, attachment to the letter from 28.3.1914, EB to AA (8 pages).

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and folklore. The third ‟department for natural science and economic geography”, should focus on botany, zoology, anthropology, geology, economic and political geography, cartography, water engineering and building technology. He required a library with European as well as Chinese books, a collection of drawings, sketches, images and photos, as well as maps and city plans. The staff should consist of three scientific experts, one draftsman, one secretary, two Chinese intellectuals and three servants. Together with the rent for a house, the library and the expenses for travel in the country, the overall cost would amount to 80,000 Marks annually.204 On 8 May 1914 Boerschmann sent an extension to the letter from 28 March to the Foreign Office. Here he referred to an attached clipping from the British newspaper The Times six days earlier. The title reads ‟Chinese Art and Modern Vandals”. The unnamed writer pointed to the ‟ruthless plundering and destruction of the noble monuments of Chinese art” organised by Western collectors and merchants. But he also blamed the ‟incompetence and corrupt officials” in China. The most important part in the article described the idea of Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919) from Detroit, a collector and connoisseur of Chinese art, to fund – in co-operation with the Smithsonian Institute and the Archaeological Society of America – a research and education institute in exactly the same fields as Boerschmann had described in his earlier memorandums. The article also mentioned the ‟China Monuments Society”, with headquarters in Beijing. Boerschmann marked this part of the article for the recipient at the Foreign Office, which gave weight to the arguments he had formulated before. He even went so far as to blame the Americans for ‟stealing” his idea, which he believed had come to them via third parties.205 He also included two reviews of his book Gedächtnistempel. Ernst Tiessen’s article praised his approach highly and stated the undertaking ‟was the biggest ever started from German institutions”. According to Tiessen, as Boerschmann was studying all the different aspects connected to the buildings, it was natural that he needed more time than he expected. This was valuable support for Boerschmann in his arguments with the Foreign Office. Tiessen praised the book as a standard work and a basis for further explorations in the field. He expressed the belief that with the study of architecture and the connected fields of religion and philosophy, the intellectual world of China could become much clearer to the West.206 The second review by Karl Bachem ‟Chinese architecture and economic progress” also pointed in the direction of Boerschmann’s arguments in the letters to the Foreign Office. Bachem wrote that these books proved the need of understanding the Chinese mind for further business activities. Boerschmann marked the parts of the article that supported his own arguments.207 In April 1914 Boerschmann’s material was returned from the exhibition Deutsche Geisteskultur und Deutschtum im Ausland (German intellectual culture and German-ness in foreign countries) at the trade fair for Buchgewerbe und Graphik (Bugra) (book trade and graphics) in Leipzig. He had provided twelve plates (most probably from the exhibition in Berlin in 1912) and four brochures.208 For the main exhibition, Boerschmann had designed a temple for the God of Literature, which was built.209 Unfortunately nothing relating to his design has so far been found. On Friday 15 May 1914 in the 258th session of the Reichstag, Prince Aloys zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, delegate of the Catholics (the same party Karl Bachem belonged to), mentioned Boerschmann’s work in a debate at the Reichstag:

204 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 2nd attachment, 28.3.1914, EB to AA (5 pages). The value of money would equal about €320,000 in 2012. 205 PAAA: R 138424, letter with attachment, 8.5.1914, EB to AA (5 pages). 206 Tiessen, in Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, 19.3.1914, attachment to PAAA: R 138424, letter, 8.5.1914, EB to AA (5 pages). 207 Bachem, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, Nr. 346, 19.4.1914. Attachment to PAAA: R 138424, letter, 8.5.1914, EB to AA (5 pages). 208 PAB: letter, 28.4.1914, Deutsch-Asiatische Gesellschaft to EB. 209 See Lamprecht, 1914: 53.

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I must in this relation […] mention some noteworthy work in which the Reichstag also has an interest. Supported by my faction colleague Dr. Karl Bachem, a German expert, Boerschmann, was granted a subsidy for an expedition to China, and as a result of his work on architecture and the religious culture of the Chinese, the second book has now been published. I hope that this important undertaking will see the further support by the Foreign Office in the future. Therefore I would like to encourage […] beyond the frame of this research area, the sending of some German experts to China, to set up a cultural centre in a German scientific institute. In the area of linguistic and ethnologic research and also in natural science, besides the architectonic and cultural research, a German institute could achieve ideal results, partly also for the economic interest of Germany.210

In the protocol of the session no further comments are documented. In May the Secret Civil Cabinet of the Emperor thanked Boerschmann formally for the second book without making any additional comments.211 In the same month G.L.R. Kettner from the Foreign Office wrote an evaluation of Boerschmann for the Minister of Education and attached his petition from 28 March about the foundation of a scientific institute in Beijing. Initially Kettner opposed the idea of employing Boerschmann in the proposed position. In his view, this would mean granting him further time for the work he was supposed to have already finished several years before. He had just received his last extension, until end of March 1915, and no one in the Foreign Office was willing to extend the time again. But Kettner feared that Boerschmann would not be ready in the given timeframe. He also asked whether it was really true that the ministry was planning – together with the institutions named by Boerschmann – this institute. He remembered that as far back as 1901 the Royal Academy of Science had planned such an institute in Beijing. Herbert Müller had also written a report in 1908, in which he argued for the same aim. According to Kettner the Foreign Office had reacted by sending Adolf Fischer, Ernst Grosse and Boerschmann to China. In 1914 the German public was generally very positive towards China, since exhibitions and other activities like the Turfan expedition had become very popular.212 Due to the political developments in China it seemed to him that the possibilities for further research were quite good and from a political point of view it would be desirable to combine all activities. But whether this was enough to merit establishing the proposed institute should be the subject of further discussions. He also considered the point whether such an institute should be founded by the royal administration or by the Prussian cultural institutions or even – as suggested once by Boerschmann – with private money. He expressed no final conclusion.213 In May the Foreign Office wrote again to the Ministry of Education about Boerschmann’s proposal for a scientific institute in Beijing and again strongly opposed his employment in such an institute.214 In June the Foreign Office delivered the remaining copies of the book Gedächtnistempel to the proposed institutions. The Reichstag now had both the first and the second book.215 On 15 June the Ministry of War sent a letter to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Interior, demanding that Boerschmann finish his studies by the end of 1914, after which he had to be available for his work at the Ministry of War.216 The Foreign Office issued a new edict at the end of June 1914, stating that Boerschmann definitely finish by 31 March 1915. All other things had to wait. In the opinion of the officials, after those publications were complete, other scientists could continue working on Boerschmann’s materials. ‟I request again, that you use this as a rule,” the Foreign Office stated. They added a condition that he present the results at the Foreign Office on 1 October, and immediately present the plan for the

210 For reference see http://www.reichstagsprotokolle.de/Blatt_k13_bsb00003391_00341.html, accessed 20.8.2012. 211 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 29.5.1914, Secret Civil Cabinet to AA. 212 Between 1902 and 1914 four German Turfan expeditions took place. They were organised by Albert Grünwedel and Albert von Le Coq. See Grünwedel, 1912. 213 PAAA: R 138424, letter, May 1914, AA (Kettner) to Ministry of Education. 214 PAAA: R 138424, letter, May 1914, AA to Ministry of Education. 215 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 8.6.1914, AA to EB. 216 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 15.6.1914, Ministry of War to AA.

 A German Scientific Institute in Beijing and further publications about Chinese architecture in Germany 

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final half-year.217 The State Secretary of the Interior also wrote to the Foreign Office, to ensure that Boerschmann would finish in the given time.218 After the inquisitive report from the Foreign Office, Boerschmann wrote again on 10 July to confirm that he had received the edict about the extension until March 1915. For the following year he now planned the publication of the third volume under the general title Pagoden (pagodas), but the volume about the Temple of Azure Clouds that he had earlier suggested was not mentioned. The letters seems to suggest that he planned to combine volumes three and four in a double volume. Boerschmann explained the circumstances and quoted the initial assignment to study ‟Chinese architecture and its relation to Chinese culture”. Furthermore he recalled an edict about his work from the Foreign Office in the spring of 1908 in which advice was given not to become too involved in overarching questions. Other researchers had positively reviewed the results of his work and it was accepted and proven that he had followed the right track. He mentioned the praise of his work in the public debate at the Reichstag on 15 May, where the wish was expressed for further support of his approach with public money: ‟All that proves that I understood my task and performed it correctly.” He opposed the Foreign Office’s demand that he publish his images without descriptions, and argued for a consistency throughout all planned volumes. He felt bound by his own principles to make the best out of the collected material. Boerschmann mentioned a photo book, but due to differences with the editor it had not yet been published. Such a book, however, could never replace the study he was undertaking on the other topics. The best overview of his idea and the content of the work was given by the exhibition at the Museum for Decorative Arts in 1912, he wrote. Boerschmann very much regretted that nobody at the Foreign Office had accepted his invitation for a guided tour of the exhibition. This, he wrote, would have helped them to understand the approach. Furthermore, Boerschmann objected to the accusation in the letter from 30 August 1913, in which the Foreign Office mentioned that he had only published one book after four years of study. As he said, Ferdinand von Richthofen’s China took forty years to complete. And, just like Richthofen, Boerschmann’s books were also works based on primary research. Boerschmann lamented that while the further studies would occupy him for the rest of his life, the state wanted to deprive him of support for such an important work. He expressed his resistance at returning to the military administration, because he felt alienated after almost nine years away. He further feared having a minor role in the military, whereas in research he belonged among the best men in the field. With some resignation he continued that further work with so little positive response from the administration would be impossible for him, while unfunded private studies had no future. Therefore he had developed the ideas in an organic way, and hoped to continue the studies under the aegis of an institute in Beijing. Boerschmann again recalled the debate in the Reichstag in May, where the delegates applauded the idea of founding such an institute. For Boerschmann it seemed clear that the proposed institute would come, no matter whether the Foreign Office or the Prussian Ministry for Culture was in charge, although in his opinion the latter institution would be the better body to oversee it. Finally he applied to the Foreign Office for support and for a recommendation to the Royal Prussian Ministry for Culture as an employee at the institute.219 In the attachment to the letter he included sixteen reviews of the first book. He also added the advertisement from the publishing house for both books in 1914: Gedächtnistempel in paper cover cost 30 Marks and in Russian linen, bound by hand, 42 Marks; Putuoshan in paper cover was offered for 30 Marks and in Russian linen for 35 Marks.

217 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 29.6.1914, AA to EB. 218 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 26.6.1914, Ministry of the Interior to AA. 219 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 10.7.1914, EB to AA (10 pages).

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In the service of the army (1914–1921) The political developments in the summer of 1914 overshadowed Boerschmann’s struggles to prolong his scientific work. On 28 June Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were shot dead in Sarajevo. The attack led to the outbreak of war one month later. China and research into Chinese architecture was no longer of interest to the German cultural and political elite. In August the Imperial Treasury Office stated that the establishment of an institute in Beijing would not happen, ‟not in 1915 nor at any later time”.220 With this comment the question of Boerschmann’s application for the directorship of such an institution was settled. The writer suggested employing Boerschmann permanently at the Ministry of Education, and requested that the Foreign Office supported such a project. Despite this, it was not long before the Ministry of War remembered their ‟lost” officer Boerschmann, and in October 1914 he had to leave Berlin as a vice-sergeant of the reserve.221 The accountant at the Legation informed the Foreign Office on 9 November that Boerschmann was called to military service at the ‟sixth Company of the Ersatz Regiment Königsberg i.Pr. in Pillkallen”, near his hometown in East Prussia.222 By the end of October the Foreign Office had written to Boerschmann again, informing him that they were definitely not planning an institute in Beijing.223 Exactly what happened to Boerschmann during 1915 remains unclear, but he became seriously ill and served in the home service. Starting on 1 November 1915 he became the director of the military building authority in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad).224 In December the authorities awarded him an Eisernes Kreuz II as a combatant.225 In 1915, at the age of 42, he married Amelie (1888–1969), who was 15 years his junior, and the following year a son, Horst, was born. In March 1916 the Foreign Office asked Boerschmann to settle the account of material expenses from 1914. He replied that being in the field prevented him from doing so.226 In the summer of 1918 he became director of the Kriegsgräberfürsorge (war graves commission) in Königsberg. The war ended in November of the same year, and it was his duty to oversee the construction of war cemeteries in the whole region of East Prussia.227 His organisation, Hauptgräberamt, became part of the Ministry of the Interior in April 1920. As head of the organisation he wrote to the Ministry of Finance that his studies of Chinese architecture had helped him to design and build cemeteries fit for heroes.228 In the summer of 1918 he held a series of six lectures about Chinese architecture at the Handelshochschule in Königsberg.229 The outstanding balance of 1,500 Marks with the Foreign Office remained unsettled.230 In June 1919 the Foreign Office demanded that the matter be finally resolved, but Boerschmann argued that his belongings were all in Berlin.231 The following month the Foreign Office requested that the case be cleared immediately.232 Boerschmann asked for leave to settle the balance and asked the Foreign Office to pay the travelling cost for his trip to Berlin.233

220 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 22.8.1914, EB to AA. 221 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 9.10.1914, AA. The magazine Zeitschrift für Ethnologie reported on 17 October that EB had left for the war, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, H. 4/5, 1914: 749. 222 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 6.11.1914, Legationskasse to AA. 223 PAAA: R 138424, letter, 30.10.1914, AA to EB. 224 PAB: letter 20.9.1920, EB to Financial Ministry Berlin. 225 Archiv Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Ernst Boerschmann 1940/44. 301. The medal was given to five million soldiers in the First World War. 226 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 17.3.1916, EB to AA. 227 PAB: letter 20.9.1920, EB to Financial Ministry Berlin. 228 PAB: letter 20.9.1920, EB to Financial Ministry Berlin. Unfortunately none of the designs were in the archives I checked. 229 PAB: letter, 5.7.1921, EB to Director of the Seminar for Oriental Languages, Berlin. 230 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 4.4.1919, EB to AA. 231 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 9.6.1919, EB to AA. 232 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 27.7.1919, AA to EB: 233 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 4.8.1919, EB to AA.



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In November they were still debating about the responsibilities for the cost of the journey.234 Further papers in the case are not in the archive of the Foreign Office. In an application letter to the Financial Ministry from September 1920, Boerschmann outlined why he had to return to the capital. He listed the two published books as part of a proposed series of six. ‟The Reich has pushed me for years to continue my work,” he wrote. However, he had obviously learned from the new, post-war administration that it would be impossible to get a post as researcher, and since he had no private means, the relocation to Berlin would help to live him near the archival material and allow him to carry out further studies in his spare time.235

Asian Architecture in Germany after the First World War The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 marked a major break for all research and publications. After the war, in 1918, the political situation became unstable, as royal Germany had collapsed and the young republic struggled to survive. With the disaster of the war in mind, the German cultural elite turned to Expressionism and found new interest in Asian art, philosophy and also architecture. Bruno Taut (1880–1938), one of the leading Expressionists in architecture, published his famous book Die Stadtkrone in 1919 with many images of Asian architecture; it also used two plans from Boerschmann’s book on Gedächtnistempel from 1914.236

234 PAAA: R 138425, letter, 11.11.1919, EB to AA. 235 PAB: letter 20.9.1920, EB to Financial Ministry Berlin. 236 Image 55 shows the plan of the Confucius Temple in Qufu and image 58 shows the city plan of Qufu. Taut, 1919.

Fig. 453: The German architect Karl Siegfried Döhring published the front view drawing of the Bot in the Buddhist Wat Benchamabophit in Bangkok in 1914. The temple construction started in 1899. (© Döhring, 1914: 61).

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Fig. 454: Döhring measured and published a floor plan of the Golden Mount Temple (Wat Saket) in Bangkok. (© Döhring, 1920).

In the early 1920s a flood of publications about Asia arrived in bookstores; the works focused on different countries, and some were closely related to architectural and cultural development in China. The German architect Karl Döhring, already mentioned, documented Buddhist temples in Thailand. He measured temples, took photographs and collected information for a book that came out in 1920. He had already finished the manuscript in 1913, but the war prevented publication. Döhring documented Buddhist temples around Bangkok and submitted one chapter of the book as his dissertation at the University in Dresden.237 The final book, printed in 1920, consisted of three volumes.238 The first volume contains the descriptions and drawings; the second and third volumes were entirely dedicated to the photos. Döhring had taken 150 of the 180 photos, buying the remainder from local photographers. His working methods showed similarities to those of Boerschmann. Together with Döhring, the German expert on Indian and Tibetan studies, Albert Grünwedel (1856–1935), and Heinrich Stönner (1872–1931) edited the final publication of the series Der Indische Kulturkreis in Einzeldarstellungen (The Indian cultural circle in individual descriptions). Döhring’s book opened the series.239 Boerschmann wrote a positive review and highlighted the fact that besides the buildings Döhring also described their connection to symbolism and religion. Most of the buildings in the books dated from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.240

237 Döhring, 1914. 238 Döhring, 1920. 239 The publisher was the Vereinigung Wissenschaftlicher Verleger with Walter de Gruyter in cooperation with the Asia Publishing House in Bangkok. 240 EB, in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 1925: 366.



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Karl With (1891–1980) studied East Asian art history and gained a doctorate with a study of Japanese Buddhist sculpture in 1918 (overseen by Professor Josef Strzygowski in Vienna). With also published, first in 1920 and then in 1922 as a shortened version, on the architecture of Java in Indonesia.241 The first version included some floor plans, whereas the second one only photographs. With focused mainly on the interpretation of the ninth-century Mahayana Buddhist monument Borobudur Temple in Java and its reliefs and sculptures – the classical work of an art historian. In 1923 a book on Buddhist pagodas in Pagan, Myanmar, came out.242 The author, Thomann, had written it following a visit in 1899. The book has some hand-coloured images on special pages in a different coated paperboard, glued in place by hand. Additionally at the end of the book there are some photographs of pagodas, art relics and people. Without measurements or drawings, the study remained in many respects superficial. Nevertheless, Boerschmann published a very positive review – most probably because he was happy to find any material at all on the topic of Buddhist architecture in Asia.243 In 1915 the Viennese art historian Ernst Diez (1878–1961) had published a book on Islamic art, including India, in the series Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaften.244 In 1926–27 he published another book on Indian art, this time focusing on architecture.245 In it, he quotes With, Döhring and Thomann. The art historian Paul Westheim (1886–1963) edited a small book and wrote a preface on Indian architecture (Indische Baukunst), published by Wasmuth publishers in 1920.246 The architectural historian and archaeologist Oscar Reuther (1880–1954) published a book on Indian housing (Indische Wohnarchitektur) in 1924.247 Two years later the book by Marie Luise Gothein (1863–1931) on Indian gardens came out,248 and in the same year a book on the history of garden art followed.249 Here Gothein included some of Boerschmann’s images of garden art in China. The demand for an overview of Chinese architecture grew. In 1921 the Folkwang Publisher in Hagen brought out two books on China in the series Geist, Kunst und Leben Asiens, edited by Karl With. The double volume had two authors: the first book, entitled China, Erster Teil: Das Land der

241 With, 1922. (First edition in 1920). 242 Thomann, 1923. 243 EB, in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 1925: 507/508. 244 Diez, 1915. 245 Diez, (c. 1926/1927). 246 Westheim (ed.), 1920. 247 Reuther, 1925. 248 Gothein, Indische Gärten, 1926. 249 Gothein, Geschichte der Gartenkunst, 1926.

Fig. 455: The Baguo, literally eight symbols, represents the fundamental philosophical concept of ancient China and was applied to the I Ching, Taoism, Feng Shui and other fundamental philosophies. This sign decorates the front cover of the two books by Fuhrmann and Melchers in 1921. (Melchers/ Fuhrmann, 1921).

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 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)

Fig. 456: The sculpture of a hell guardian with the head of an ox in front of an unidentified temple near Tai’an in Shandong Province. (© Melchers, with courtesy of Empore Kahl).

Mitte. Ein Umriss (China, first part: the Middle Kingdom, an outline) by Ernst Fuhrmann (1886–1956) was meant to introduce the cultural development of the country to a German audience.250 However, Fuhrmann, who was an artist, philosopher, poet and writer, and the head of Folkwang Publishing House in 1921, had no personal experience of China. He tried to interpret the Chinese characters in the context of their relation to Western languages and meanings. The text was heavily criticised and wrong in most respects, but the 220 photos on plates show mainly architecture. The photos focus on temples and monuments, for instance of sacred Mount Tai, the Lingyan Temple in Shandong, the city wall of Jinan, the royal buildings in Seoul, Korea, the temples in Chengde and Beijing, and many interiors and sculptures, mostly photographed by the art historian Bernd Melchers. A few images came from the East Asian Museum in Cologne, taken by writer Norbert Jacques (1880–1954) and art historian Otto Fischer (1886–1948). In the context of the history of photography Fuhrmann became known as the ‟director of the image”251 and the way he used the photos in the book led to

250 Fuhrmann, 1921. 251 Albert Renger-Patzsch, 1998.



Asian Architecture in Germany after the First World War 

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Fig. 457: The layout of Monastery of the Cypress Grove Temple in Beijing as measured and published by Bernd Melchers. (© Melchers, 1921: P.XI).

protests by Bernd Melchers. He thought that the images were misused and created a false impression. Fuhrmann, however, wrote that he only wanted to provide an overview because China was so poorly understood in Europe.252 Although his attempt failed, the images are today of historical value, since most of the buildings shown have changed or disappeared. The second volume, which also appeared in 1921, came out under the title China, der Tempelbau, die Lochan von Ling-yän-si. Ein Hauptwerk buddhistischer Plastik (China, the building of temples, the Luohan of Lingyansi: a masterpiece of Buddhist sculpture), and was written by the art historian Bernd Melchers. It comprised another hundred photos of temples – exterior and interior shots – and about fifty photos documenting the magnificent Song Dynasty sculptures of Luohan at the Lingyan Temple in Shandong, taken by him and printed on plates.253 Between 1915 and 1920 Melchers had stayed in Shandong Province and Beijing at a time when German nationals were not allowed to move freely in China. In the first part of the book he included twelve temples, six

252 Fuhrmann, 1921: 29. 253 Melchers, 1921.

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in Beijing, two in the Western Hills near Beijing, two in Shandong Province, one in Nanjing and another one in Hangzhou. In addition to the book, he prepared an appendix with drawings of floor plans of the twelve documented buildings. All the plans are drawn at a scale of 1:600 to match the scale used by Boerschmann, according to Melchers’ note in the preface. The twelve documented temples are as follows. In Beijing: the East Yellow Temple, known as the Temple of Universal Purity (Pujingchanlin, BM: Dung-Huang-Si), the Monastery of the Cypress Grove (Bailinsi, BM: Bo-lin-si), the main court of the Temple of Agriculture (Xiannongtan), the Imperial Academy (Guozijian, BM: Bi-Yung-Gung) next to the Confucius Temple, the Temple of Ancient Monarchs (Lidaidiwangmiao, BM: Di-Wang-Miau) and the Beijing Eastern Peak Temple (Dongyuemiao, BM: Dung-Yüo-Miau). In the Western Hills he covered the Temple of the Pool and Zhe Tree (Tanzhesi, BM: Tan-Dschö-Si) and the Ordination Terrace Temple (Jietaisi, BM. Djiä-Tai-Si), in Shandong Province he documented the Lingyan Temple (BM: Ling-Yän-Si) and the Four-Door Pagoda (Simenta) near Jinan, in Hangzhou the Temple of the Soul’s Retreat (Lingyingsi, BM: Ling-Ying-Si) and finally the Golden Hill Temple (Jinshansi) with Cishou Pagoda in Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province. All of these temples were documented with descriptions, a series of photos of the exterior and interior, and a floor plan in the appendix. In the first volume by Fuhrmann further photos of the mentioned temples were included. The second part of Melchers’ book focuses on the sculptures in Lingyan Temple near Jinan in Shandong Province. The temple belongs today to the ‟four great temples of China” and has forty clay sculptures of Luohan (Arhats) from the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Melchers thought that this

Fig. 458: Three of the 40 Song Dynasty Luohan sculptures at Lingyan Temple near Jinan in Shandong Province. (© Melchers, 1921: L.17).

Fig. 459: One of the 40 Song Dynasty Luohan sculptures at Lingyan Temple near Jinan in Shandong Province. (© Melchers, 1921: L.17).



Asian Architecture in Germany after the First World War 

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was one of the most impressive sets of sculptures in China. He documented all the forty figures with photographs and a basic plan of their position in the temple. Melchers was not sure about the dates of the sculptures, but suggested the Song Dynasty as a reference. To take the measurements for the plans in the appendix to the book, he used Boerschmann’s method: measuring some reference distances with surveyor’s tape and then walking the other distances.254 Since he spoke only limited Chinese, the Sinologist Ferdinand Lessing (1882–1961) assisted Melchers during the five years they lived together in Jinan from 1915 to 1920. From there Melchers visited Beijing in the summer months between 1916 and 1919, where he documented the temples. (See also fig. 119–121). Bernd Melchers was not only dissatisfied with Fuhrmann’s text, in the preface of his book he also directly questioned Boerschmann’s basic research concept of looking at Chinese architecture in the context of religion: ‟the author intentionally did not consider the religious culture of the Chinese, confident that it did not have a bigger influence on Chinese architecture than was given by mere function.” With this statement Melchers wanted to distance himself both from Fuhrmann and from Boerschmann. He went on to criticise Boerschmann’s work in more detail: in all of the books Boerschmann had published so far, no classifications of the development of Chinese architecture were given. Melchers now wondered why Boerschmann said he could not give such a final conclusion for the history of architecture, while for other fields of research – the connection to religious culture – he had already made absolutely certain and final statements.255 This seemed a contradiction to Melchers. Beside Boerschmann, as references for his own study Melchers named the works of Hildebrand (1897), Baltzer (1903/1907), Mahlke (1912), Schubart (1914) and in addition, the Japanese publications on the Forbidden City in Beijing and Korean architecture by Kazumasa Ogawa (BM: Ogava).256 The book by an art historian challenged the approach chosen by Boerschmann, who had already been criticised for his ‟unscientific” method. Most probably Melchers knew the discourse around Boerschmann’s earlier books and was trying to find his own position in relation to it. Boerschmann, however, took up the challenge and wrote a review of both volumes. He was totally opposed to Fuhrmann’s approach and only praised the book for the quality of Melchers’ photography. The second volume by Melchers made a deeper impression on Boerschmann and the line drawings of temples, measured by the author, received his praise. In the generally very positive review, Boerschmann continued that Melchers had neglected his own distinction between religion and architecture: ‟Melchers could not escape the truth that the Chinese architecture, especially the religious, pictures a unit of formal and religious philosophical, aesthetic and scenic relations, whose parts we portray individually, though as an ideal work of art we must enjoy it as a coherent unit.”257 Boerschmann had visited the Lingyan Temple on his trip to Shandong in 1907, but was unable to take photographs inside the halls. However, his diary reveals that the Song Dynasty clay sculptures had made a deep impression on him. In contrast to Melchers’ suggestion of dating them in the Song Dynasty, Boerschmann dated the sculptures between 1506 and 1522, according to (incorrect) oral history from the priest in the temple. Since he thought these sculptures were of great importance for the development of art, he hoped for a critical study of the sources in the future.258

254 Ibid: preface. 255 Ibid: 12. 256 Ibid: 12. See Ogawa, 1906. 257 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 10.1922/23: 173. 258 Ibid: 169–175. Also in the book Pagoden EB referred to the period 1506–22 as the time when the Song Dynasty sculptures originated. See EB, Pagoden, 1931: 118.

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 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)

Fig. 460: Ernst Boerschmann’s sketch of the White Stupa in Miaoying Temple in Beijing on the basis of a photo taken by Bernd Melchers. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



Boerschmann’s return to research in Chinese architecture (1921) 

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Boerschmann’s return to research in Chinese architecture (1921) After the end of the war, Boerschmann found himself stuck in Königsberg, in East Prussia, working as an architect for the Ministry of War, and, after demobilisation at the end of 1918, for the Ministry of Finance. His work as an architect of the army prevented him from continuing his studies in Chinese architecture. In September 1920 he applied to the Ministry of Finance in Berlin for a return from his duty as head of the Hauptgräberamt in Königsberg to Berlin, in order to continue his studies on Chinese architecture on a private basis.259 However, when Boerschmann finally began working at the Landesfinanzamt Gross-Berlin (Land revenue office of Greater Berlin”) in 1921, he could not find the necessary time to continue the scientific work on his collected material. He negotiated with the Foreign Office again for a fully paid leave of absence from his job to continue research from August 1921 onwards. In order to convince them, he applied for 15,000 Marks at the Verband für den Fernen Osten (Association for the Far East) in Berlin.260 In June 1921 the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin demanded the removal of his belongings from their archive.261 He had stored all of his collections there before joining the army in 1914. In July Boerschmann answered the Museum of Ethnology, stating that he hoped for further public money in order to continue his research in September and to rent a room to relocate the materials from the archive.262 In July Boerschmann offered to give a lecture series entitled ‟Religious architecture in China: presented by monuments and places of worship, with slides” (Religiöse Baukunst in China. Dargestellt an den Baudenkmälern und Kultstätten. Mit Lichtbildern) at the Department of Oriental Languages (Seminar für Orientalische Sprachen) in Berlin.263 It is unknown whether his proposal was accepted. In July 1921 the Association of the Far East offered 6,000 Marks for the same year and another 9,000 Marks for the following year for further work, if the Foreign Office agreed to match the salary payments during the same period.264 On 21 July 1921 the Foreign Office agreed and assigned Boerschmann further work in his research field.265 Finally, after a break of seven years, and three years after the end of the war, the financial problems had been solved and he could continue where he had left off in 1914.

Baukunst und Landschaft in China (Picturesque China) (1923) In a joint effort with the Association of the Far East, between 1921 and 1923 the Foreign Office once more supported Boerschmann’s research into Chinese architecture. But, as illustrated above, soon after the First World War and under the influence of Expressionism, many publishers – and the German reading public – turned to Asian art and architecture for inspiration. This new market and the new technology for the excellent reproduction of photographs were also attractive to Boerschmann with his large collection of images. In March 1923 Boerschmann and the publisher Ernst Wasmuth signed a contract for the photo book Baukunst und Landschaft in the series Orbis Terrarium by Ernst Wasmuth Publishers, with a first edition of 10,000 copies.266 The book was the third in the series.267 The contract indicates that the printing of the photographs would be done in the gravure printing process (Tiefdruckver-

259 PAB: letter, 20.9.1920, EB to Reichsschatzministerium. 260 PAB: letter, 5.7.1921, EB to Verband für den Fernen Osten Berlin. The value of money would equal about €4,600 in 2012. 261 PAB: letter, 27.6.1921, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin to EB. 262 PAB: letter, 23.7.1921, EB to Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin. 263 PAB: letter, 5.7.1921, EB to Direktor des Semiars für Orientalische Sprachen. 264 PAB: letter, 11.7.1921, Verband für den Fernen Osten Berlin to EB. 265 PAB: letter, 5.8.1921, EB to Verband für den Fernen Osten Berlin. 266 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, Berlin, (Ernst Wasmuth Verlag) 1923. 267 The first was about Spain, the second about Greece and a fourth was planned about Germany.

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Fig. 461: Advertisement for the photo-book “Baukunst und Landschaft” in the 1920s. The image shows the two iron lions in front of Chongshan Monastery in Taiyuan. (PAB).

fahren), in order to achieve high-quality results. The images were printed in a sepia brown duotone. No organisation or public money sponsored the book. The captions for the 288 images were printed in five languages (German, English, French, Spanish and Italian). The contract also states that the publisher would try to find a Chinese co-operator for a Chinese version.268 This never happened, but three years later, in 1926, an unrevised reprint of the German version came out, again in 10,000 copies. Boerschmann had taken most of the photos included during his trip from 1906 to 1909; further images from scholars such as Bernd Melchers and from Chinese photographers completed the set. Louis Hamilton translated the English version and Brentano’s Publishers published it in New York in 1923 under the title Picturesque China.269 A. Calavas published the French edition in Paris in the same year under the title La Chine Pittoresque.270 The London-based publisher Fischer Unwin came out with another English version in 1925.271 The fifteen-page introduction was written with laymen in mind, as the book was intended for a general audience and sold mainly due to the excellent photos. The high quality of the printing and the large edition made the book popular among art historians and architects. As it remained Boerschmann’s only major English publication, it was often referred to as his magnum opus.272 ‟The present is fluid, the future obscure, but the past is fixed and clear.” With these words Boerschmann opened the preface of the book. Over the following fifteen pages he tried to convince the reader about his own conviction of the connection between religious culture and Chinese archi-

268 PAB: contract, 3.3.1923, between Ernst Wasmuth Verlag and EB. 269 EB, Picturesque China, New York, (Brentano) 1923. 270 EB, La Chine Pittoresque, Paris, (A. Calavas) 1923. 271 EB, Picturesque China, London, (T. Fisher Unwin Ltd) 1925. 272 The only other English publication was his report published in 1912 by the Smithsonian Institute.



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Fig. 462: The sculpture of a lion as part of the balustrade of the bridge across Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace in Beijing. (© Boerschmann 1906–1909, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 463: The main entrance with honorary gate at the Great Temple at the foot of Mount Tai in Tai’an. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 464: A temple at the south wall in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. (© Boerschmann 1907/1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

tecture. According to the preface, the worship of heaven and earth, the embodiments of religious contexts and the exaggeration of certain religious relationships in the landscape shaped his belief. In flowery language, he tried to lead the reader into a vague atmosphere of religious feelings by describing a selection of specific examples. In the case of the Temple of Azure Clouds and his relation to the city of Beijing he wrote: ‟From the green, yellow and blue glazed roofs of Peking the first morning sun sends out flashes and sparkles, especially to this monastery and the Buddhist pagoda, which radiates the sacred impact back to the city.”273 He discussed the sacred mountains, the monasteries there, the cave temples and the carved rock sculptures, the memorial honour gates and pagodas in the landscape and their meaning, the worship of ancestors and tombs in the landscape as well as specific cities he visited on the trip. All is explained in the context of a religious network that accompanies the Chinese from birth to death. The reader is left with the conclusion that the Chinese still lived in perfect harmony with the environment, something that had been lost in the West because of industrialisation. The careful selection of the images in this book emphasised this idea and showed temples, cities and religious life to a Western audience for the first time in high-quality photography. Compared to much other photography of the time, Boerschmann’s images appear clean and aesthetic, focused purely on architecture and almost devoid of people. It truly was a first attempt to document Chinese architecture with the aesthetic means of his time and based on a cultivated appreciation of evolving architecture photography in the West. But it was certainly not an attempt to present Chinese architecture in a scientific way. On the contrary, Boerschmann hoped to be able to reach the interested layperson and therefore wrote in a rather poetic – but ordinary – language about the religious and cultural roots of architectural expressions. And the economic success of this book, with two German editions of 20,000 copies in total, proved that he had been able to connect with the public.

273 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: VIII.



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Fig. 465: The rock chapels with standing Buddhas behind the Temple for Empress Wu Zetian near Guangyuan in Sichuan Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

For the reception of Boerschmann’s work after 1982 the re-publication of Picturesque China under the new title ‟Old China in Historic Photographs, 288 Views by Ernst Boerschmann”, edited by Wan-go Weng (*1918), is most important.274 In an entry note the editor from Dover Publications wrote that when the skilful and sensitive photographer Ernst Boerschmann photographed China during his sojourn there between 1906 and 1909, his attitude was not that of a reporter or ethnographer. He was seeking out the timeless sites of local religion and legend, especially as embodied in ecclesiastical and traditional architecture and in the setting of such architecture within the landscape, exemplifying man’s oneness with nature.275

Clearly nobody in the publishing house knew about his further research or publications; he was simply depicted as photographer.276 The formerly sepia brown duotone images were reprinted in black and white, and this technique led to a rather low-quality product. On the basis of the 1967 Nagel Guide to China the names of places had been revised according to the transcription in pinyin.277 In addition, the images were now organised province by province, from north to south. Boerschmann’s structure, which illustrated his tour from Beijing to Sichuan and down to Guangzhou, was gone. Furthermore, Dover Publications were not satisfied with the introduction: Boerschmann’s original introductory essay, which told almost nothing about his travels but concentrated on a subjective and at times unscientific interpretation of Chinese philosophy and culture, has been omitted here. In place of this, it has been our good fortune to obtain from Mr. Wan-go Weng, a distinguished historian of Chinese

274 Wan-go Weng (ed.), 1982. 275 Ibid: v. 276 The reprint was not agreed upon with the family beforehand, and so the publisher did not receive further information. 277 Destenay, 1967.

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Fig. 466: The cover of the book “Picturesque China” edited by Wan-go Weng in 1984.

art and culture, a new introduction that places Boerschmann’s sojourn within its historical context and goes on to outline the events and forces that have extensively changed the face of the country since Boerschmann’s day. Mr. Weng goes on to give accurate, up-to-date information about the present condition of scores of sites included in the book.278

This is the most important part of the new reprint. However, the information given on the condition of the single buildings is very superficial. Over just seven pages Weng tried to document the present condition of the monuments after destruction and changes following the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Civil War (1945–1949) and the ravages of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Between 1980 and 1982 he travelled through half of the provinces covered by Boerschmann, and acquired additional first-hand information from Wang Shixiang (1914–2009) and Luo Zhewen (1924–2012), both from the State Administrative Bureau of Museums and Archaeological Data in Beijing, as well as from Chai Zejun, who worked at the Research Institute of Ancient Architecture in Taiyuan.279 In 1961 the state had listed for the first time 180 ‟Protected National Important Cultural Relics” of great historical, artistic and scientific value. This list included thirty-three sites and buildings important in the Communist Revolution. Around 110 sites and buildings on the list had been works of ancient architecture; 23 on the list were included in Boerschmann’s book. During the Cultural Revolution the destruction did not stop with the ancient sites: all historical buildings of significance became the target ‟for mindless vandalism”.280 After 1976 the local authorities started reconstruction work at many important sites. But, as Weng wrote: Even well-intentioned but ill-advised restorations have contributed in some cases to converting treasures into trash. So the marvel is that, of the 288 pictures in this book, roughly half still reflect the current appearance of

278 Weng, 1982: v. 279 Ibid: xiii. 280 Ibid: viii.



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their subjects, giving us the impression that China, after all, is quite imperishable. For the other half of the book, alas, the pictures have become truly historical; they are the previous images of a China that has gone forever.281

In a very short list he named the buildings that had changed dramatically or even disappeared by 1982. Today we only can regret that Weng did not go into greater details about the condition of the places he visited, because it is clear that the economic development of the last thirty years has destroyed the context almost everywhere and many buildings too. The original German book from 1923 was reviewed more than ten times in the press. Boerschmann published a short text to advertise the new book in the magazine Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz. Inspired by the magazine’s general topic of monument protection he wrote: ‟In no other country does heritage protection present such a challenge as in China.” He continued that Western culture challenged the original Chinese concept of arranging buildings in the landscape. ‟What canons do not destroy, is destroyed by the ruthless economic ideas [from the West].”282 The Sinologist Erich Haenisch wrote in his review: ‟Chinese architecture is especially adapted to the landscape” and continued that with Boerschmann’s book everyone could understand this specific value. He praised the quality of the images and the printing.283 French Sinologist and explorer Paul Pelliot (1878–1945) first listed in the magazine T’oung Pao all of Boerschmann’s pre-war publications and continued by saying: [O]ther volumes were to follow, and it seems that the publication has been abandoned or suspended. We should regret it, because, despite the occasional philological mistakes in these works, the author had accumulated information, inscriptions, plans and views collected on-site, most of which are not found elsewhere. At least he has been able to use all of the photographs without further delay. The new book, intended for a broad public, is foremost an album, and will appear in perhaps five languages; at least one French edition is on sale at present. […] Overall, this is certainly one of the best collections of China views that we have seen.284

Art historian Karl With, with his focus on Asian art and architecture, found access to the Chinese development in architecture through Boerschmann’s writings.285 In his review of the book, he regretted that Boerschmann had published only such a cursory introduction and did not include any line drawings of temples or cities. But the coherence between built forms of the Chinese and their philosophy (Weltanschauung) impressed him most: ‟The Chinese architecture is in all details a universal and homogeneous allegory of China’s essence, her culture, philosophy, state system and form of society.”286 Alfred Forke wrote in the Ostasiatische Rundschau that it was Boerschmann who had released Chinese architecture from the ‟fantastic and bizarre” and revealed its distinctive beauty and artistic value. He referred to the inseparable relationship between landscape and architecture illustrated with the photos.287 ‟A strange world reveals itself in the vast number of temples” and ‟on first glance it depresses the Westerner”, wrote Bernhard Brand, editor of the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde. He continued that Boerschmann guides the reader with a steady hand ‟and what at the beginning seemed chaotic is revealed in the end as grand.”288 ‟The basis of Chinese architecture is the religious sediment. Almost every page of this noble work confirms this experience,” stated Father Damian Kreichgauer (1859–1940).289 Art historian Georg Biermann (1880–1949) published a review in the semi-monthly art magazine Cicerone. He expressed his ‟real surprise” to discover

281 Ibid: ix. 282 EB, in Denkmalpflege und Heimatschutz, 1924: 48. 283 Haenisch, 1924: 170–171. 284 Pelliot, 1924: 46–48. 285 Jäger, 1997: 117.‬ 286 With, 1924: 251–252. 287 Forke, 1924: 10. 288 Brandt, 1923: 298–299. 289 Kreichgauer, 1923/24: 1101–1102.

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that besides skilful handicraft, monumental art and architecture could also be found in China. He strongly admired Boerschmann’s introductory text, which he called ‟straightforward” and ‟a model”. In Biermann’s opinion, with this text and the careful selection of the images Boerschmann was able to open the subject up to the layman and show ignorant Europeans something of the monumental art and architecture from China.290 Sinologist Otto Franke also praised the introduction, because it inspired him to think about religious geography and the connection of religion and mountains.291 Art historian Ludwig Bachhofer (1888–1976) published a review in the Zeitschrift für Buddhismus. His text is rather general, but demands that in future works Boerschmann should pay more attention to the dating of the buildings. However, compared to his first two books, Bachhofer found the new photo book more convincing: ‟one feels more discipline and method,” he wrote.292 Friedrich Max Trautz (1877–1952), who soon afterwards published a photo book about Japan in the same series, had a review in the Deutsche Literatur Zeitung. For him the images were ‟overwhelming”. Trautz pointed to the axis, which Boerschmann stressed in his introduction as the shaper of Chinese architectonic layout.293 Johannes Aufhauser (1881–1963) wrote very positively in his review about the connection between landscape, religion and architecture, a topic he saw best presented in Boerschmann’s book.294 After the second, unchanged edition was published in 1926, a glowing review appeared in the magazine Ostasiatische Rundschau.295 William Cohn published a further review in the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift in 1931. He praised the beautiful photographs and recognised the specific order (Boerschmann had

290 Biermann, 1923: 1052. 291 Franke, 1924: 43–45. 292 Bachhofer, 1923/24: 285–286. 293 Trautz, 1924: 904–908. 294 Aufhauser, 1925: 438. 295 Hs., in Ostasiatische Rundschau, Nr.6, 1928: 164–165.

Fig. 467: The title image for the two-volume book “Chinesische Architektur” printed in gold on the linen cover. The abstract roof image is taken from the photo of the theatre stage of the Shanxi-Club in Zigong. (CA, 1925: cover). See fig. 474.



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arranged the images according to province).296 With this photo book, Boerschmann opened the eyes of the German and the international public to the beauty of traditional Chinese architecture. There was no other aim – besides the economic aspect – behind publishing such a collection of photographs.

Chinesische Architektur (Chinese architecture) in two volumes (1925) After the success of the book Baukunst und Landschaft the two-volume book Chinesische Architektur (Chinese architecture) appeared.297 As indicated above, many publishers, art historians and architects reacted to the increasing demand for information about Asian art and architecture during 1920s by producing books. While preparing for Baukunst und Landschaft, Boerschmann had already envisioned the new book as fully covering the topic in a visual manner.298 While his earlier work had served the specialist, with a focus on the relationship between religion and architecture, he was aware that architects and other experts still demanded a general overview that explained architectural development in China. To meet this requirement, Boerschmann again cooperated with Ernst Wasmuth Publishers on the two-volume book. The international success of Baukunst und Landschaft had probably encouraged the publisher, and Boerschmann finally had the opportunity to bring together all the categories he had envisioned before. They agreed in the contract that at least 1,000 copies should be printed. Before the First World War started, he had worked on a series of books, each dedicated to different aspects of religion and architecture. Now the challenge was to explain, in a condensed form, new categories of formal development, based on his photos and line drawings. Twenty different aspects were

296 Cohn, 1931: 36. 297 EB, Chinesische Architektur, 1925 (two volumes). 298 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: XXI.

Fig. 468: The entrance gate of the city wall in Boshan in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann 1907, courtesy of Empore Kahl).

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Fig. 469: The cedar columns at the Hall of Eminent Favour at the tomb of Yongle Emperor Zhu Di (1360–1424) of Ming Dynasty north of Beijing. (© Yamamoto, CA, 1925: T.23).

chosen as a means of discussing the architecture and structuring the two volumes. Each of the chapters had five to fifteen pages of text and ten to twenty photographs on large plates. Text and plates are separate in both volumes. In the first, eighty-five pages of text almost completely without illustration are followed by 170 pages of plates with photos and line drawings. The second volume is structured similarly. In the introduction Boerschmann stated his objectives: ‟It is the intention of this work, in a larger number of photos and drawings, and in the text, to give a comprehensive overview of Chinese architecture.” To reach this goal, he structured the material into the following twenty categories: Chapter I: City walls; Chapter II: Entrance doors; Chapter III: The Chinese hall; Chapter IV: Massive buildings; Chapter V: Pavilions; Chapter VI: Towers; Chapter VII: Central buildings; Chapter VIII: Beams and columns; Chapter IX: Roof decoration; Chapter X: Carved house fronts. The second volume continues as follows: Chapter XI: Balustrades; Chapter XII: Base and frieze; Chapter XIII: Walls; Chapter XIV: Glazed terracotta; Chapter XV: Reliefs; Chapter XVI: Wayside altars; Chapter XVII: Tombs; Chapter XVIII: Memorial stones; Chapter XIX: P’ailous; Chapter XX: Pagodas. The very last text focuses on the essence (Wesen) of Chinese architecture. The first volume of the book opens with a general four-page introduction to Chinese architecture, which is followed by the ten chapters listed above. After the descriptive texts come another eight pages with explanatory notes on the plates. The somewhat artificial structure of the book is further confused by this awkward distribution of information. For example, the first chapter, on city walls, is split into three different parts: the text is on pages 5 to 14 and includes two illustrative line drawings. The explanations of the plates follow on page 87. The images are shown from plate 1 to 9 only with simple captions, for example plate 1 is captioned ‟The Great Wall”. The further explanation on page 87 reads as follows: ‟The Great Wall near Beijing. Early constructions from 500 BC. Today’s conditions in general from fifteenth and sixteenth century. B/L.2.”299 B/L.2 stands for Baukunst und Landschaft, plate 2, where an image of the Great Wall was also published. The images are unfortunately printed on one side of the paper only, which leads to the situation that the other page is left blank (on some occasions the printed image covers a double page, with the result

299 EB, Chinesische Architektur I, 1925: 87.



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Fig. 470: Drawings of brick storehouses, walls and gates in the region between Dongping and Qufu in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.40/41).

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Fig. 471: To the left a two-storey brick building near Dongping and to the right a building with ashlar masonry at the Temple of Supreme Peace (Taipinggong) at the northern slope of Mount Lao, both in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann 1907, CA, 1925: T.39).

that the following double page is left empty). This technical problem doubled the size of the book. However, the printing of the photos and the paper are of high quality. Beside the problem of the functionality of the book, the grouping of the material into the chapters given above is highly questionable. Boerschmann tried to focus on formal aspects of Chinese architecture, leaving out the religious point of view. The deconstruction into separate architectonic parts, elements or ensembles as the basis of architectural composition made no concession to their time of their origin or development. He combined religious buildings with defence structures, everyday architecture with representative buildings. Examples from different regions and times were grouped together, as were buildings for Buddhist, Taoist or Muslim religious purposes. The time of construction is sometimes mentioned, but was not important for the content of the book. Boerschmann was responsible for most of the 591 images used for illustration, but about hundred are of other origin. Some came from German friends, others from Chinese photographers or from collections in Berlin.300 As Boerschmann explained in the introduction, the book only focuses on the ‟artistic culture of old China and its architectonic world of forms”.301 He continued that the book was limited by his own travel-route between 1906 and 1909, and also by the focus on ‟old China” in the ‟here and now”. The unsolved problems with dating the buildings and his approach of looking at a living culture, guided the structure. He excluded the ‟great architecture and religious culture” as well as ‟pure construction”, as he wrote.302 Boerschmann explained the limited descriptions and the separation of the images as a means of focusing entirely on the formal aspects.303 The images themselves should inform the reader and give a clear understanding of the formal grouping. Today we can interpret Boerschmann’s book as a visual catalogue of related forms, without connection to time or place of origin. The aim of showing elements of Chinese architecture in isolation from the original context of technology or function, landscape or city, led, to some extent, to a defective result. The combination of photos with line drawings and sketches suggested an in-depth approach, but the organisation of the text in practice made it almost impossible to understand Boerschmann’s point

300 Ibid: 86. 301 Ibid: 1. 302 Ibid: 2. 303 Ibid: 3.



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Fig. 472: A tower pavilion for the “god of literature” (EB speculated whether it was for Wenchang Wang or for Kui Xing) above the entrance gate on the city wall in an unnamed town in Shandong Province. (Unknown photographer, CA, 1925: T.62).

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Fig. 473: Two timber cupolas from Zhejiang Province. The top image shows the octagonal cupola in the Fujian Club in Ningbo. The image below shows the cupola in the Fayu Temple on Mount Putuo with eight dragons hanging down and snapping the pearl in the centre. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.80).

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Fig. 474: The theatre stage at Shanxi Club in Zigong, Sichuan Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 475: Drawings of wooden lattice for windows and balustrades. To the left from Middle- and West-China, to the right from NorthChina. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.163).

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of view. It would have been easier to focus on a few examples and explain the different elements of all aspects of one complex, or alternatively to select a specific component and explain its historical development. However, Boerschmann did not have enough information for such a project. In the case of Chinesische Architektur the main point seems to lie in the visual presentation – which is problematic for the scholar – but was most probably guided by the intention to show as many images as possible, to convince the buyer or user of the book. In the last chapter of the second volume he described his point of view under the heading ‟the essence of architecture”:

Fig. 476: Different column bases: Top left and bottom left from Wuzhou in Guangxi Province, top right from Fuzhou in Fujian Province and all the rest from Guangzhou. (© Boerschmann 1908/1909, CA, 1925: T.109).



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Fig. 477: Altar made of sand stone in an unnamed temple at Mount Qingsheng near Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.220).

Fig. 478: Balustrades made of limestone in Shandong Province. Top left from Jining, top right from Tai’an, right middle and bottom from the Temple of Confucius in Qufu, bottom left from Yanzhou and in the centre right from Jining and Yanzhou. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: T.177).

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Fig. 479: Honorary gates made of stone between Ya’an and Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.298).



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Fig. 480: An honorary grave for a rich man in the field near Taiyuan. (© Walter Frey around 1930, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

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The fair appreciation of a foreign artistic culture of interest is only possible when one has the conviction that it is truly the perfect expression of the soul of its people. Therefore the old standards that one has must be put aside, if possible, and one must try to explain the foreign world on its own terms. What is important then is only the question with which means and with what success a people or an age created its artistic culture as an image of its spiritual world.304

He argued that the Chinese looked at architecture as an image of the cosmos, and therefore tried to reflect these ideas in design: ‟We see the life and art of the Chinese as imbued with religious relationships.” Since ‟man and nature” are perceived as a unity, natural philosophical beliefs could be seen as – in his words – religious, and he continued that the most important buildings are based on the sacredness of the natural world. Many groups of buildings were related to this notion: wayside altars, memorials, tombs, temples and huge places of worship: And when the feeling of total merging with nature, which is preached by Taoism, fully supports Confucius’ positive attitude to life, and, on the other hand, Buddhism promised a personal salvation in the world of the transcendental, both also make use of the abstractions. Taoism wanted to be enraptured, removed from inconvenient speculations, while Buddhism aims at being free of discomfort from the environment. Each supports in its own way the development of personality. And to these ends as well, architecture provides parables.305

In his arguments, the ‟coherent character” of the Chinese – in close relation to philosophy, religion and nature – produced architecture composed of functional, symbolic and decorative elements that is related to continuity than change. The huge size of the architectural complexes prevented a focus on the object, but rather on the space and time that is needed to move around.306 According to Boerschmann, the development after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 led to a situation in which Chinese society searched for new expressions in architecture. But in his eyes the contemporary architecture still delighted itself in ‟classical blossom”: An upheaval also in the field of architecture is undoubtedly starting. In which direction this upheaval will move and when it will be finished, cannot be said, or even speculated upon. But we can trust that the Chinese architect will design the style of his future extremely individually and admirably.307

His admiration of traditional Chinese architecture also made him believe that Western architects could learn something from the topic – ‟that we again built with the heart”. The deep connection he saw between religious practice, regulations in accordance with nature in a holistic view of life, in connection to politics and society, was opposed by the daily experience of the fragmented Western lifestyle and culture of the 1920s. He saw in his own culture only fashionable, short-lived ideas, which were already fragmented as a result of industrialisation. In the pre-industrial society of China, Boerschmann became aware of the changes in Germany and the West, and like many others of his time, regretted the loss and the disconnection between man and nature. The aim of the book, to explain Chinese architecture according to its parts in twenty chapters and within the structure he chose, is rather problematic. The reader is challenged to develop their own ideas according to the set of images organised under the twenty topics. However, with the book, the expert and the architect familiar or unfamiliar with Chinese architecture was given a handbook of examples, and many readers used it in such a way – in the East as well as in the West. During the 1920s, at the height of Expressionism in architecture, for many architects this became an acceptable format. Boerschmann found it ‟in every architectural office in China” when he travelled there again in 1934. Architects in the West also saw this book as a reference work for their own approach. In Chicago the local architects C.S. Michaelson and S.A. Rognstad used the

304 EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: 48. 305 Ibid: 51. 306 Ibid: 52. 307 Ibid: 53.



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Fig. 481: The Pui Tak Centre in the Chinatown of Chicago, designed by the architectural firm Michaelsen and Rognstad between 1926 and 1928 on the basis of the books by Ernst Boerschmann. (Postcard, archive EK).

book to inform themselves about Chinese design characteristics in order to cater to the tastes of their Chinese clients. The best example is the On Leung Building (today the Pui Tak Centre) from 1926–27.308 This book also helped to give artists in Seattle an understanding of Chinese architecture. The interior design of the Fifth Avenue Theatre is based on Boerschmann’s book. The theatre is within the Skinner Building, designed in a modified Italian Renaissance style in 1926: The theatre interior represents an excellent imitation of Chinese wooden temple construction. […] The decoration is extremely rich and authentic. […] The main lobby depicts a Chinese temple purportedly inspired by the Temple of Heavenly Peace in the Forbidden City [sic]. […] The auditorium is said to have been patterned after the Ming dynasty royal audience hall in the Forbidden City. […] The famed Graumann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood,309 constructed one year later, projected the ambiance of the Orient with little authenticity of traditional Chinese architecture and design. In contrast, the Fifth Avenue seriously attempted to copy interior details from rooms in the Forbidden City of Peking. Boerschmann’s two volume illustrated text, Chinesische Architektur (Berlin, 1925) was the main source book for the decorative scheme. The book contains colour plates, scale drawings of plans and details, and hundreds of black and white photographs of interiors in Peking and elsewhere in China. […] The interior of the theatre was executed by Norwegian artist Gustav Liljestrom (1882–1958). […] In the Fifth Avenue project Liljestrom collaborated with Joseph Skoog, leader of the design team in the architect R.C. Reamer’s office. Together the two created, with the help of Chinesische Architektur, an historically accurate and harmonious interior.310

308 Huping Ling, 2012: 143. 309 The Los Angeles based architects Meyer & Holler designed the building, which opened in 1927. 310 The text is from the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form, http://www.dahp.wa.gov/ gis/pdfs/432.pdf, accessed 14.12.2010.

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This text originates from 1978, when the building was renovated and protected. Many other architects probably used Boerschmann’s book in exactly the same way. However, in this case some of the references are wrong. Boerschmann did not include any images of the Forbidden City; most probably the writer was referring to the Temple of Heaven. Contemporary critics from the field of art history and Sinology had rather mixed opinions about the book. Art historian Alfred Salmony (1890–1958) regretted that Boerschmann only focused on the relatively new buildings from Qing and Ming Dynasty, and left out the earlier development. According to Salmony, the descent in the development of Chinese art began in the Tang Dynasty, and he referred to archaeological findings from the Han Dynasty that also had implications for architectural development. He opposed Boerschmann’s opinion that ‟China’s concealment” in the development of its art had been overcome. Instead he expressed the view that even if the country had political power, its art development would be meaningless. However, Salmony admired the material shown and the fine printing of the illustrations.311 Sinologist Otto Franke praised the two-volume book highly, pleased with the ‟strict focus” on architecture. Franke referred to Boerschmann’s enthusiasm for Chinese architecture in general and his request that the Western architects ‟should again build with the heart” by taking the Chinese examples as a model. He recognised the book as a significant contribution to shaping the image of Chinese architecture in the West in the near future.312 More critical was Otto Kümmel, the founding father of East Asian art history in Germany. ‟The colourful general arrangement is equivalent to the colourful image of the single chapters in which fairly heterogeneous things without regard for scale, time, place, material, function and – the author forgive me – value are concentrated.” Despite the criticism, he was ‟thankful for the treasures” included in the book.313 Sinologist Erich Hauer expressed his pride that it was a German who had documented the Chinese monuments before their ‟total ruin”. But he also wrote ‟the work is no Sinological achievement, but the result of the life’s work of an artist and architect.”314 From the field of architecture, the editor of the Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Konrad Nonn, published a very positive review. He lauded it as the first book ever to depict Chinese architecture in all aspects and also highlighted the many drawings.315 In addition, the British art historian Walter Perceval Yetts (1878–1957) expressed his general happiness with the book, but regretted very much that Boerschmann was not more ambitious and extensive in his approach and had not put all his knowledge of Chinese architecture into the publication: The title Chinesische Architektur, given to the large book under review, is at first somewhat misleading, since it suggests a comprehensiveness, which is lacking. […] His main purpose is to provide pictures of representative buildings standing in China at the present day, and the comparatively scanty text is concerned mainly with grouping these under twenty categories according to style. He achieves his aim admirably with 591 excellent photographs and numerous architectural drawings. Permanent preservation of such graphic documents is of the highest value, especially now that civil war and the progress of Westernization are bringing destruction to the relicts of old China. Nevertheless, students cannot but regret that Dr. [sic] Boerschmann did not plan his book on more ambitious and comprehensive lines, and utilize his extensive knowledge and abundant material to give within the covers of one work a digest of all he had to say about the subject. Thus he would have provided the much needed repertory of Chinese architecture.

In his review Yetts demanded what many expected: an overview of Chinese architecture that provides an orientation for the Western audience.316

311 Salmony, 1928/29: 178–179. 312 Franke, 1926: 616–619. 313 Kümmel, 1927: 207–209. 314 Hauer, 1926: 607–612. A further positive review was published by Aufhauser, 1926: 465. 315 Nonn, 1926: 352–353. 316 Yetts, 1927: 124.



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Officially Boerschmann worked at the Landesfinanzamt Groß-Berlin until January 1924, when he moved to the Reichsbauamt Berlin-Mitte.317 However, he was also working on an arrangement that would give him freedom to research and publish. The Polytechnic University in Berlin gave Boerschmann a lectureship on Ostasiatische Baukunst (East Asian architecture), beginning on 1 April 1925. This included a weekly two-hour lecture in the summer and winter term.318 In August 1927 the Prussian Ministry for Science, Art and Peoples Learning designated him honorary professor,319 a position he held until the Second World War reached Berlin and prevented further teaching in the second half of 1944. In the context of the publication of Chinesische Architektur in 1925, Boerschmann exhibited some material in the publishing house of Ernst Wasmuth in Berlin. A further exhibition entitled Chinesische Baukunst (Chinese architecture) took place from 24 October until 11 November 1926 at the Kunstverein in Frankfurt am Main, with essentially the same material as exhibited in 1912 in Berlin. The catalogue was privately reprinted from the catalogue in 1912. On an inserted sheet of paper the arrangement of materials was shown as follows: Room one: maps of China and some cities such as Beijing, the Forbidden City, city walls, doors, massive buildings, bridges, small wayside altars, honorary plates, graves and tombs, the Temple of Heaven, central buildings, towers, pavilions, halls, the Temple of Confucius, sacred Chinese mountains: Mount Hua, Mount Heng and Mount Tai. Room 2: Buddhist sacred mountains, pagodas, the Temple of Azure Clouds, Jehol (Chengde), Mount Wutai, Mount Emei, Mount Putuo, temples, halls, roof decorations, reliefs, sculptures, glazed terracotta, spirit walls, honour gates, platforms, columns, balustrades, net ornaments, house-fronts, doors, windows and furniture. Room three: architecture and landscape, memorial temples (Gedächtnistempel), mountain temples, landscape, Chinese drawings and rock temples. Room four: Chinese paintings and woodcuts. The photos displayed came from the State Art-Library in Berlin, where the images were kept from the first exhibition in 1912. The paintings were taken from the collection of Richard Wilhelm (1873–1930), head of the China Institute in Frankfurt, from the collection of Marie du Bois-Reymond (1864–1937)320 in Potsdam, who lived in Shanghai for many years, and from the East Asian art department of the museums in Berlin. A further exhibition, Kultbauten in China und Japan (‟Cult buildings in China and Japan”), was held in the architectural museum of the Technische Hochschule Berlin from 19 February to 12 March 1927, with an extension to 7 May. Boerschmann covered the part on China while Franz Baltzer and Professor Hugo Wach (1872–1939) were responsible for the Japanese side. The exhibition focused on temples and how they were embedded in the landscape. In a critical review in an architectural magazine, an unnamed author saw connections between Western and Eastern architectural development, which he underpinned by referencing the results of Grünwedel and Le Coq’s Turfan Expedition, on show in the Museum of Ethnology. However, he also saw many aspects that would need further research. For the exhibition poster, the university arranged a competition among the students, with forty entries, which were exhibited in the same venue.321 In the context of all the exhibitions, Boerschmann published an article about the reason for such undertakings. He saw in the great harmony of Chinese architectural culture a role model, which he contrasted in the article with American usefulness and Sachlichkeit. For Germany he demanded an independent way, based in both the Sachlichkeit and the example of harmony and

317 Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 1924, No. 5: 40. 318 PAB: letter, 20.5.1925, TH Berlin to EB. 319 PAB: letter, 9.8.1927, TH Berlin to EB. 320 Marie du Bois-Reymond was the wife of Claude du Bois Reymond (1855–1925), a doctor at Tongji University in Shanghai from 1908 to 1919. She is best known for her recordings of traditional music and her botanical collections from China. See Steen, 2008: 129–152. 321 Schultze, 1927: 176.

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ancient wisdom, as expressed in Chinese culture. The study of foreign solutions, he argued, would strengthen the German approach and guide its development towards new forms and new emotions. Boerschmann argued for a new architectural culture in which the spirit of the people was merged and expressed in their buildings. The best example of this he still saw as the harmonious unity of traditional Chinese culture, as expressed in the different elements of the traditional architecture.322

Ceramics in Chinese architecture (1927) In 1924 the Marxist art critic and collector Eduard Fuchs (1870–1940) published two volumes about Chinese ceramics. The first book focused on Tang-Plastik (Tang sculpture), specifically ceramics discovered in the tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and the second on Chinesische Dachreiter (Chinese ridge turrets), specifically from the Ming Dynasty.323 Fuchs had never been to China, but as a collector he was aware of contemporary publications about the subject by specialists. The list of fourteen reference titles published in the second book included none of Boerschmann’s works. In this publication Fuchs tried to raise awareness of the subject in Germany in general and among collectors, and took a somewhat eccentric view of the subject: ‟The Chinese do not build a house, they build only a roof. The pagoda is only the multiplication of the roof, one atop the other. […] The highest building ideal of the Chinese culminates in the construction of the roof.”324 He came to the conclusion that the Chinese even used minor architectures, such as honour gates, only as a frame for the more important roof. The ‟peculiar” form of the roof, he wrote, came from the climatic conditions. The heavy rain necessitated a canopy to protect the people. ‟The Chinese roof is not a replica of the historic tent of the nomads, […] it is not a symbol of heaven, which has lowered itself to earth, as others say; and it is not a symbol of an overturned boat, as third parties have declared.” Fuchs argued that it was the roof’s function to protect the building and its inhabitants from heavy rain and wind and that this determined the form. But the formal aspects, he believed, were assisted by symbolic elements, such as ridge turrets. ‟The ridge turrets are nothing other than protective gods, guardians of those who dwell under this roof.”325 Fuchs argued that this protective aspect was very important in the imagination of Chinese people and therefore they were also very creative in the design of the decoration for the roof. Since a roof cannot be placed on the ground, he naturally saw the next step in the construction in the gate – a roof without a function in the stricter sense. Fuchs therefore spoke of ‟honour roofs” instead of honour gates, which he thought of as counterpart to the Western memorial. In the next section he focused on the religious ideas of the Chinese and the influence of these ideas on the ridge turrets. As a basis for all religious practice in China, Fuchs saw ‟animism that means natural ensoulment”. He continued: ‟The Chinese differ in this point from every other people, because this basic understanding remains unchanged today.”326 In Fuchs’ arguments, the basic existence of the Chinese had not changed over the course of time, and therefore their religious beliefs had not really changed either. ‟The religious assumption of the people is nothing other than the projection of their economic and social living conditions towards heaven.”327 According to his explanations, everything – including stones, plants, animals and even all instruments and machines – had a soul, and may contain power. Therefore it was necessary to ensure that the spirits were friendly and, since everything had a soul, an artificial form was needed to protect the people from evil powers. The image of such spirits were simply created and placed wherever there

322 EB, in Auslandswarte, 2/1926: 24–25. 323 Huonker, 1985: 167. 324 Fuchs, 1924: 15. 325 Ibid: 18. 326 Ibid: 19. 327 Ibid: 20.



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Fig. 482: The front cover of the book by Eduard Fuchs. (Fuchs, 1925).

was need: on the street, in front of a temple, in front of a palace, on the wall – essentially everywhere. But ‟nowhere are these protective spirits placed in such large numbers […] as on the roofs of buildings.” This, he argued, was due to the fact that the roof had to protect the people from the harsh climatic conditions. He also opposed the idea that the figures on the roof were originally only of decorative character with the symbolic significance coming much later. Fuchs continued with the meaning of colour for the ridge turrets, and the interpretation of the different figurative representations. He saw principally fifteen different characters, such as the dragon, phoenix, qilin,328 dog, horse, rabbit, cock or dolphin. The human figures represented the scholar, the saint, the devil, the god of war and the hero upon a horse. Fuchs called the dragon the most significant image, because it was found on every roof with ridge turrets. In contrast to the dragon in Europe, which represented the destroyer, Fuchs saw the dragon in China as the symbol of preservation. He quoted Fuhrmann (1921) and his interpretation of the Chinese dragon as a dinosaur which the ancestral Chinese people had encountered, but did not agree with such a curious interpretation. On the subsequent pages he gave all kinds of interpretations for the figures. In the next sub-chapter Fuchs introduced the art of the Ming Dynasty: ‟The art of the Ming Dynasty is nervous in form and coloration, it is noisy and bizarre to a high degree. In a word: in comparison to the past, it became baroque.”329 Fuchs then focused on some details of production techniques, correct dating, forgery and the collection of ridge turrets in Germany. He gave hints about the market and the problems of buying pieces after the First World War in Germany, because many of the official dealers had lost their permit for the export of goods from China. He criticised the fact that almost no public museum had more than one or two ridge turrets in their collection. Only the East Asian Museum in Cologne, under the guidance of Adolf Fischer, had more, about

328 A mythical Chinese chimera. 329 Fuchs, 1924: 40.

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Fig. 483: The front cover of the book “Chinesische Baukeramik” by Ernst Boerschmann showing a stylised small porcelain pagoda from the temple complex in Jinci near Taiyuan. (Boerschmann, 1927 and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

six of them. In a 1923 exhibition in Frankfurt entitled Chinesische Keramik (Chinese ceramics), about twenty-two pieces had been on display. Almost all of them came from private collectors. The book by Eduard Fuchs contains fifty-six photographs of ridge turrets from the author’s collection. However, many of his assumptions are vague and based on interpretations and not on personal research in China. Fuchs wrote as a collector, and it seems that his only intention for the book was to raise awareness of his collection. In 1927 the British Sinologist Walter Perceval Yetts condemned the work in a single sentence: ‟A poor attempt, full of errors, to give an account of glazed roof-tiles dating from the fifteenth to eighteenth century is that by E. Fuchs, entitled Dachreiter.”330 Maybe Yetts felt challenged to write about the subject because he published a paper in the same year without referring to Fuchs or Boerschmann, who also published a book on ceramics used in architecture in 1927.331 Three years after Fuchs, and in the same year as Yetts, Boerschmann published Chinesische Baukeramik (Chinese architectural ceramics).332 The company of Albert Lüdtke published the book in Berlin. He organised the material into seven chapters: 1) ceramics as a part of Chinese architecture; 2) their history up to the Tang Dynasty; 3) technical aspects of the processing and use of ceramic parts; 4) centres of the ceramic industry; 5) use of ceramics in building groups; 6) the history of Chinese architectural ceramics after the Tang Dynasty; and 7) explanations of the plates. The introductory text of the first six chapters in Chinesische Baukeramik covers fifty-seven pages. The explanation notes for the plates follow from page 59 to 103. The 160 plates were inserted after the text. Some images of terracotta and glazed tiles of different temples around China illustrate the text in the first part of the book. Boerschmann describes how ceramics were used according to building type, which were listed as follows in the fifth chapter: gates, memorial stones, honour gates, decorative parts, spirit walls, reliefs, glazed honour gates, Indian style, roof ornaments, ridge turrets and pagodas. Under each of the topics, Boerschmann introduced more the stylistic

330 Yetts, 1927: 131 (footnote 38). 331 Yetts, 1927–28: 13–43. 332 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927.



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classification than the historical development. With reference to the plates, he described buildings or their elements as documented on his trip. The most important part of the book was the explanation of the plates. Plates 68 to 71 have been chosen here as an example. According to the plates, the images show a small temple for the Jade Maiden, the Taoist goddess Bixia Yuanjun (EB: Taishan niang niang) in the village of Qingyangshu, south of Jinan and northwest of Mount Tai in Shandong Province. Up to the fifteenth

Fig. 484: A drawing of tiles and tile heads from the Han Dynasty with talismanic inscriptions. (© Boerschmann, CB, 1927: 8).

Fig. 485: The ceramic decorations below the eaves on private houses in Kaifeng in a sketch by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, CB, 1927: 40).

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Fig. 487: Boerschmann’s sketch of the village Qingyangshu, south of Jinan in Shandong Province. The map shows under 1 the location for the mosque, under 2, 4 and 5 three temples for Bixia Yuanjun. 3 indicates a guest house and 6 the tower for Wenchang Wang, the god of literature. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 486: Boerschmann roughly measured one of the three temples for Bixia Yuanjun. In the main court a spirit wall stood between the entrance and the hall, and to the left was a well. (© Boerschmann 1907, CB, 1927: 81).



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Fig. 488: A decorated gable at one of the temples for Bixia Yuanjun. The shadow on the terracotta relief proves this temple was perpendicular to the second temple (fig. 490). The previous plan most probably belongs to this temple hall. (© Boerschmann 1907, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 489: Detail of the terracotta relief from the left corner on the gable. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 490: A side view of one of the temples with a richly decorated gable made of terracotta. The lowest row on the relief included Chinese characters that told the story of the goddess. (© Boerschmann 1907, PAB).

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Fig. 491: Details from the right corner of the terracotta relief on the gable. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

Fig. 492: Details from the circular emblem in the centre of the gable. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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century the goddess was known as the Jade Woman of Mount Tai, and later became the Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn.333 Boerschmann illustrated the text with a small sketch of the ground plan, a sectional drawing and a side view of the temple. He dated the building to roughly around 1600, and since he had no proof for this, stated that it could also date from a much later period. The gable and the gable-relief of the temple were made of burned and glazed terracotta, coloured black-blue and yellow. The gable was about ten metres wide and seven metres high. According to religious belief, Bixia used the so-called ‟travel temples” on her imagined trips around the country. She was worshiped as goddess of Mount Tai, and according to Boerschmann, sometimes conceived of on the same level as the Supreme God Shangdi (Celestial Emperor) or the Buddhist Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy.334 Under Bixia Yuanjun’s guidance, the ten judges of the underworld judged in the name of Mount Tai. In large frescos the gable of the temple tells a story about the kings of the underworld, five on each side, shown behind tables. The accused, the convicted and the servants formed different, sometimes even terrible groups. The strips of images began at a height of 1.8 metres. Above the court scene, the goddess appeared in ten positions on a sixty-centimetre-wide strip. Each image was inscribed in detail on the ceramic plates. The ‟wonderful terracotta of the gable” allowed a perfect expression of the divine influence of the goddess. Above the base, made of quarry stone and bricks on the east side, the terracotta began with a frieze of inscriptions on plates. Above them was a figurative relief, in which the Taoist motifs showed the goddess, the pilgrimage to Mount Tai, pilgrims after the climbing of the Heavens Stairs in front of the sanctuary and the altar of the goddess on top. ‟Furthermore, there are the eight Chinese genii [immortals], also Buddhist motifs such as the Southern Sea, which is connected to the Guanyin.” On the west side of the building, the story on the gable showed monk Xuanzang (EB: Hüen Tsang, 602–664) from Tang Dynasty on his trip to India, which brought a Buddhist motif into the centre of the depiction. Boerschmann was told that the monk used to live in the Buddhist Lingyan Temple nearby, and he speculated that this was the reason for placing him among the Taoist deities. The style and the humour in the stories shown reminded him of gothic examples from Europe. His descriptions in the book were taken more or less directly from the notes made on his visit of 1907. Boerschmann hoped that future research would shed light on the history of such a fine depiction of deities in a relief, which he had never seen in any other place during the trip. Not only was the technical aspect of making the terracotta impressive, the story told on the gables, with such extensive images, displayed in an unconventional way on the outside of the temple, was exceptional too.335 The image on plate 68 in the book shows the side view of the irregular gable. The second image on the same plate gave details of the corner and the turrets on the side. The following plates show in detail the central circular motif, with the pilgrims on their way to Mount Tai. Further images of this temple façade are found in Baukunst und Landschaft and Chinesische Architektur.336 Today no trace of the temple or the terracotta reliefs exists.337 Another unconventional example in the book is the temple for Emperor Yao (Yaowangmiao) in Linfen (EB: Pingyang), Shanxi Province. Boerschmann first described this project in his book about Gedächtnistempel in 1914. But in the new book on ceramics he provided different interpretations without referring to his earlier opinion. It is unclear whether this was because he had better sources in 1927 on which to base his new interpretation, or whether he had simply made a mistake. The main hall of the temple had a wooden porch in the form of an honour gate integrated into the façade. The roof ridges on the gate were decorated with legendary animals – on one side stood a lion, on the other an elephant, both made of ceramic. The lion was glazed in yellow, the elephant

333 For further descriptions see Little, 2000: 278. Also Naquin, 1992: 334–338. 334 In Beijing she was the third main deity, with 116 temples after Guandi and Guanyin. See Pregadio, 2008: 235f. 335 EB, Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927: 82. 336 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: 54/55 and EB, Chinesische Architektur II, 1925: P.205–207. 337 I could find no further image from other photographers and also no reference to a similar case.



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mainly in white. In 1927 Boerschmann wrote that the ceramics dated from around 1600 (Ming Dynasty), but provided no further explanations for his assumption.338 On the roof of the main hall he wrote as follows: ‟The long ridge of the great hall is an example of the perfect use of the motif of ridge turrets to their full potential.” He counted twenty-two groups of figures along the ridge with dragonheads on both ends. The decoration on the porch was mainly white or bright ivory with some green, the main roof in contrast was green and yellow with black and white additions. The effect was multiplied by the huge perforated panel infill of, what he called, the ‟basilica-wall” of the lantern-like second floor above the gallery with a single sloped roof around the ground floor. This part of the wall consisted of unconventional, huge ceramic panels, each with a Chinese character in the centre, surrounded by some decorative stripes.339 The unconventional use of ceramics and the form of the integration of the wooden porch into the brick building made the temple an interesting case. Boerschmann did not mention that he had already

338 EB, Baukeramik, 1927: 94. 339 Ibid: 91.

Fig. 493: A terracotta dragon in the City God Temple in Taiyuan. (© Boerschmann 1908, CB, 1927: T.54).

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Fig. 494: Yellow glazed ceramic roof decoration with iron thorns in a temple (EB. Pei shih fang yuan) in the city of Taiyuan. (© Boerschmann 1908, CA, 1925: T.135).

Fig. 495: The tripartite gate to the “Temple of the Family Tung” in Chienchou, in the north of Sichuan Province, was dedicated to the emperors and lords. The unusual “baroque” form with the depiction of glowing flames caught Boerschmann’s attention. (© Boerschmann 1908, CB, 1927: T.22).

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described the temple extensively in his book Gedächtnistempel in 1914. There he had correctly dated the reconstruction of the buildings to the 1870s, after the Taiping rebels had destroyed the original temple between 1850 and 1864. However, the reasons for the different dates ascribed to the ceramics remains unclear. In the book of 1927 he gave a vague date of around 1600 for the illustrative roof decoration, but gave no explanation of how they could have survived the destruction mentioned in 1914. In the earlier book, he had stated, ‟only the massive core is said to have survived

Fig. 496: The temple gate for Cai Shen, the god of wealth, in Fengdu at the Yangtze River, was richly decorated with three-dimensional landscape scenes and abstract patterns. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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the destruction.”340 It is hard to believe that any of the delicate ceramics survived the destruction. When the British missionary Alexander Williamson visited the temple in the 1860s he wrote: ‟The temple of Yaou [Yao] is in a little better condition [than the neighbouring temple for Emperor Yu]; the walls are standing, but it is without a roof, and rapidly decaying. The great image, which is in a sitting position, is quite defaced, and the two attendants mere naked shapeless pieces of yellow clay. The pavilion in the centre is in good repair.”341 Boerschmann referred to Williamson’s book in his account of 1914. It remains unclear why there is a difference between his 1914 and 1927 interpretations of the age of the decoration. Meanwhile the reconstructed temple was again destroyed, either in the Sino-Japanese War or the following Civil War during 1940s, and later reconstructed on the basis of another (possibly original) concept. The general secretary of the Association of the Far East in Berlin, Max Linde, published a review in the bi-weekly magazine Ostasiatische Rundschau: ‟A new book from Ernst Boerschmann! This is positive news for all those for whom China means the deepest experience. Because Boerschmann, as only very few do, understands how to bring his readers to China and explore its magnificent architectonic treasures.” He continued in this tone and recommended the book very warmly.342 E. Bischoff reviewed the book in the bi-monthly magazine Ostasiatische Zeitschrift. He had been in China in 1914 and visited the Forbidden City, already in bad condition at the time, as he mentioned. He had seen a ceramic pavilion there that had fascinated him. The new book by Boerschmann brought back the feelings, he wrote, and revealed for the German reader a specific field of Chinese architecture. ‟The book is in the same way compelling for the layman and friend of the arts as for the specialist, who for the reason of research and the preparation of scientific knowledge focuses on the diverse aspects of Chinese architecture.”343 The young art historian Victoria Contag (1906–

340 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: 15. 341 Williamson, 1870: 342. 342 Linde, 1927: 78. 343 Bischoff, 1927: 162–164.

Fig. 497: The huge colourful Nine-Dragon-Wall in Datong from late fourteenth century is the oldest of its kind in China. Since Boerschmann left out Datong on his trip in 1908, it is unclear from whom he got the photographs he published in “Chinesische Baukeramik”. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/ picture perfect GbR).



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1973) published in Sinica, the magazine of the China Institute in Frankfurt administered by Richard Wilhelm, a summary of Chinesische Baukeramik, Chinesische Architektur and Baukunst und Landschaft, though without going into details.344 The collector Adam August Breuer (1868–1944) wrote a review for the Orientalische Literaturzeitung. He was very enthusiastic, but felt that some aspects

344 Contag, 1928: 171–172

Fig. 498: The entrance gate to the memorial temple of Emperor Yu in Wanxian, Sichuan Province, was decorated with figurative sculptures of people, animals and landscapes. (© Boerschmann 1908, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek).

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Fig. 499: The colourful roof and façade decoration at the Chen Family Temple in Guangzhou. (© Boerschmann 1909, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Fig. 500: The new gate in the city wall of Beijing with green tiles and balustrades made of ceramics. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

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helpful to collectors with dating the ceramics were missing.345 The architect and Sinologist Heinrich Schubart praised, in a generally very positive review, the author for focusing on such a seemingly unusual subject as architectural ceramics. He knew of no comparable overview of the topic in the West and suspected that not even in China, where there was no culture of museums, would such knowledge be easily accessible. He further demanded that Germany should continue to research in the field and also educate researchers in the field of architecture and Sinology.346 Ferdinand Lessing published a further review in the Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen.347

Pagodas (1931) In March 1924 Boerschmann began negotiating the terms of publication with the publisher Walter de Gruyter for the long-awaited book on pagodas, the third volume of Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. In addition they discussed a separate book on the same subject; this was to have about 140 plates and to be published in a run of 3,000 copies. They expected to print 600 copies of the first book, which would be priced at 80 Marks. Copies of the second, ‟plate volume” (Tafelband), would go on sale for 50 Marks. According to de Gruyter, this plate volume would only make sense if it could be sold to the USA and Great Britain too.348 They also searched for a publisher in China and Japan. In London Ernst Benn Ltd349 was approached and in New York the company of German-born Erhard Weyhe (1883–1972), while in Tokyo Marusen Company Ltd and in Shanghai

345 Breuer, 1927: 896–898. 346 Schubart, 1927: 408/409. 347 Lessing, 1929: 230. 348 PAB: two letters, 12. and 19.3.1924, Walter de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 349 Benn published Oswald Sirén’s four volumes work on Chinese sculpture, including architecture, in 1925.

Fig. 501: The map shows all the locations of pagodas described in the book “Pagoden” published in 1931. At that time Boerschmann knew many of the pagodas only from photos and descriptions. (© EK).

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the Commercial Press were asked. De Gruyter offered the book as bilingual, in German and English, with captions for the plates in Chinese too. But he also offered to translate the book into Chinese or Japanese if necessary. De Gruyter wrote to Boerschmann that his company could only take the risk of publishing the plate volume if the foreign firms joined the project.350 In April he produced two plates with photos and two line drawings as a sample, because Erhard Weyhe from New York had announced that he would come to Berlin in June and expressed a interest in Boerschmann’s work.351 In May the samples were sent to the four publishers.352 In August de Gruyter turned down the plate volume as none of them had responded.353 Boerschmann was not amused by the news. Since the autumn of 1923 he had been negotiating to print the material and achieve the best result for both himself and the publisher. After de Gruyter turned down the separate plate volume, Boerschmann proposed that the third volume of Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen would need an appendix with the plates. He even considered changing publishers.354 However, de Gruyter responded that Boerschmann had always previously agreed that the third volume should be a standalone subject, which could be published without the plate volume. In the meantime the Commercial Press in Shanghai and two publishers in London had declined de Gruyter’s offer, and the others had still not given an answer. Boerschmann saw no other option than to change his plans and continue with the third book, but without the plate volume.355 He signed the contract with the publishing house Walter de Gruyter & Co in Berlin in September 1924 for the third volume of Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. An edition of 600 copies was agreed upon: Boerschmann also agreed to receive no money for his work, but would instead produce 3,500 Marks as subsidy for the printing costs.356 Despite this, it took another seven years before the book was ready. In the intervening years he published two articles on the subject: one on iron and bronze pagodas and the other on pagodas from the Sui and early Tang Dynasty.357 The third volume of Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen was published in 1931. Boerschmann split the material into two volumes. The first part has the title Pagoden, Pao Tá, and has 514 images and ten plates. The German government and the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (Emergency association of German science)358 supported the publication. More than half of the photographs included came from external sources. In contrast to his earlier books, Boerschmann now used photos and illustrations from about fifty other persons and publications. A planned bibliography for the second volume never materialised.359 In the preface he explained the concept of the book. In the first two publications of the series, on Mount Putuo in 1911 and memorial temples in 1914, the ‟double face” of Chinese culture had become clear to him. In his view, Buddhism and the ‟old Chinese cultural circle” – which loosely captured Taoism, Confucianism and other religious practices – were interwoven, and could not be considered in isolation. With this work on pagodas, Boerschmann wanted to show the ‟double face” of Chinese culture with the greatest clarity. In a short summary, he gave an overview of the development of the book, since he had started work on it after his return from China in 1909. In 1914 the basic structure had been established, based on his own materials, but the war and his subsequent assignment as an architect for the war cemeteries in East Prussia, had prevented further studies. Between 1921

350 PAB: letter, 26.3.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 351 PAB: letter, 25.4.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 352 PAB: letter, 12.5.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 353 PAB: letter, 13.8.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 354 PAB: letter, 14.8.1924, EB to de Gruyter & Co. 355 PAB: letter, 15.8.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 356 PAB: contract, 27.9.1924, de Gruyter & Co. to EB. 357 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 223–235. EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: 195–221. 358 The Emergency Association of German Science was founded in 1920 and renamed in 1929 as Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 359 EB, Pagoden, 1931: XV.



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Fig. 502: The front cover of the book “Pagoden” published in 1931 shows an incense pagoda and half-timbered houses in a village near Ya’an. (Boerschmann, 1931).

and 1923 the Foreign Office in Berlin had renewed their support of Boerschmann and the newly founded Association for the Far East had supported his studies with a ‟notable sum”. Meanwhile his method of working had become more scientific and he referred to the work of other scholars in the field. ‟First the enormous events of the World War changed the view considerably. East and West became externally and internally much closer.”360 Boerschmann had always fought for an equality of Eastern culture, especially the Chinese, with ‟modern Western culture”. His aim of uncovering the great interconnection of all the people in Eurasia had also influenced his approach to researching pagodas, and had brought him out of ‟the narrow Chinese horizon”.361 However, the topic had soon become so big that he had had to focus entirely on China, in order to show its internal development. Boerschmann also mentioned that new publications had become available that had been published around the world during the war by others. A pamphlet and a catalogue from the pagoda exhibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 in San Francisco fascinated Boerschmann.362 The models shown in the exhibition were made by Father Beck and his associates at the Chinese Orphanage in Xujiahui near Shanghai. The Jesuit Brothers had prepared the models by hand, according to their own research in different archives and materials such as photographs they obtained from fellow missionaries in the different provinces of the republic. Finally they had been able to send eighty-two models at a scale of 1:50 from Shanghai to San Francisco. After the exhibition the models went to the ‟Field Museum of Chicago as its acquired property”.363 The catalogue included a model photograph of each pagoda on display. In the preface, a map of China with

360 Ibid: V. 361 Ibid: VI. 362 Kavanagh, 1915a. Kavanagh, 1915b. The text for the second book (catalogue) was first published 1915 without naming the author: Chinese Pagodas, in Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1915c: 45–57. 363 Kavanagh, 1915b: 4. In 2007 the Field Museum sold most of the pagoda models to a private collector. See Roskam, 2012: 58–65.

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Fig. 503: A model of one of the Twin Pagodas in Taiyuan prepared by Father Beck in Shanghai. Boerschmann got the photo in the early 1920s from the Field Museum in Chicago. (PAB).

reference to the locations of the pagodas provided orientation. This new database helped Boerschmann add to his own findings, and also provided further material for interpretation. He sent his first letter to the director of the Field Museum in Chicago in 1924, asking for copies of photos published in the catalogue of the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco.364 The director of the Field Museum, David Charles Davies (1866–1928), answered at once and offered forty prints.365 Boerschmann asked in his following letter for 68 photos of different pagodas.366 The Field Museum sent them a few days later with the height of the models typewritten on the back. All the models were made to a scale of 1:50, and Boerschmann hoped that from this information he could

364 PAB, letter, 28.4.1924, EB to Field Museum. The list with the images he asked for is lost. 365 PAB, letter, 19.5.1924, Field Museum to EB. Boerschmann wrote in German; the Field Museum answered in English. 366 PAB, letter, 20.6.1924, EB to Field Museum.



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calculate an approximate height for the pagodas.367 He answered with thanks for the ‟36 images of Chinese pagoda models” he had received.368 After the end of the First World War many Germans were repatriated from China. Boerschmann received photographs and reports from them about buildings in different regions of the country, including many pagodas. ‟The number of images became so great that it seemed possible to cover all the provinces of the Chinese empire with their pagodas in a systematic order,”369 he stated, committing himself to a much wider scope than any of his previous publications had had. With this new aim in mind, he also felt the need to research more deeply into the history and religious meaning of the towers. With the help of the local chronicles that he had collected and the Qing Dynasty encyclopaedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng (EB: Tú schu tsi tschéng), compiled between 1687 and 1726, he had some original sources at hand. The continuation of his studies on Chinese pagodas was, however, first delayed by the new book projects in 1923 (Baukunst und Landschaft), 1925 (Chinesische Architektur) and 1927 (Chinesische Baukeramik), as already discussed above. In 1928 the pagoda manuscript seemed ready for printing, but newly available information demanded further revisions. As was the case in Germany, the interest in Asian art and architecture led to new international publications too. The Finnish-born Swedish art historian Osvald Sirén had published several works on Chinese art, sculpture and architecture.370 Boerschmann was in contact with Sirén, who had used some of his images for his book published in 1925. In exchange, Sirén gave Boerschmann some materials for his further studies. Between 1925 and 1929 the Japanese scholars Tadashi Sekino and Daijo Tokiwa published a monumental work about Buddhist architecture in China in five volumes, which included many new images of pagodas.371 These new publications made it necessary for Boerschmann to rearrange the content he had already prepared for his own book. In fact, the original manuscript doubled in length to include more than 550 pagodas in all eighteen provinces of the empire and classified according to formal, historic and regional aspects. ‟A basic structure is found here for a coherent history of pagodas in China, which must also be in a certain sense the history of Buddhism in China,” Boerschmann wrote in the preface.372 The rearranged material was ready for printing in autumn 1930, and he planned to bring out the second volume in autumn 1932. In the preface Boerschmann explained the structure of the topic according to specific characteristics. He had not found enough criteria for a structure based on the time of construction or aspects of regional development: ‟At all times in China there was a coexistence and a confusion of styles, making systematic analysis difficult.”373 Boerschmann took the relationship of form as his criterion for the grouping of the pagodas in the book. He was confident of his ability to analyse the transitions of styles, and in this way would be able chart the historical development. The design of the pagodas was discussed based on a specific landscape or region, and sometimes even according to specific time spans. Such an arrangement gave him the opportunity to organise the material within each group accordingly. The treatment of each pagoda depended on the available material – some of the outcomes amounted only to brief summaries, while others were examined in detail. For the second – unpublished – volume, Boerschmann prepared several in-depth studies of pagodas around Beijing. Some material about the Tianning pagodas, the Lama pagodas, the multi-towered pagodas and a summary about the Chinese pagoda in general – in other words, its history, meaning and form – were included in the

367 PAB, letters, 15.7.1924, 25.7.1924, Field Museum to EB. It remains unknown whether he received the requested 68 images or only the 36 mentioned in the letter. 368 PAB, letter, 19.8.1924, EB to Field Museum. Because most of the images are lost today, the difference in numbers remains unclear. 369 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VI. 370 Sirén, Walls and Gates of Peking, 1924. Sirén, Chinese Sculpture, 1925. Sirén, Les palais impériaux de Pékin, 1926. 371 Daijo Tokiwa, Tadashi Sekino, Buddhist Monuments in China, 1925–1929. In this series five volumes were published with Japanese text and five volumes with plates. The English versions were published between 1926 and 1938. 372 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VII. 373 Ibid.

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first volume. But again, he warned – as in all his books – this did not mean that the research had come to an end. He understood the book as the basis for further detailed studies. Since all the important pagodas had not yet been documented, Boerschmann argued for research on a monographic basis. As an example of how this should be done, he referred to the forthcoming book about the twin pagodas in Quanzhou, in Fujian Province, which was being prepared by the German art historian Gustav Ecke and the French Sinologist Paul Demiéville (1894–1979).374 Boerschmann exchanged letters with Ecke and included some of the findings and photos in his book.375 Boerschmann regarded Ecke’s methodology as being clearly based on a ‟European approach”, but did not expand further on that idea. For the future he expected that the first important new results by Chinese experts in the field would be recorded: ‟The time is not far off, when Chinese science, in our sense too, will be fully developed, and will be heading the research in its own Chinese field.”376 Karl M. Kraatz prepared almost all of the drawings in the book; Johnny Hefter (1890–1953) translated from Chinese into German; Liu Cienye (possibly Liu Chien-Yeh) translated from Japanese to German; and most of the Chinese characters were written by T.C. Tseng. To prepare the book, he got in contact with the Japanese researcher Tadashi Sekino and the art historians Osvald Sirén, Gustav Ecke, Otto Franke, Erich Haenisch, Georg Wegener, Wolfgang Limpricht and Bernd Melchers, to name the most important ones. But there was still no active exchange with any Chinese intellectuals or historians. For the transcription of Chinese characters, he used Otto Franke’s system.377 The table of contents structures the material of the first volume into three sections: the Chinese pagoda and its image in landscape and art; the main forms of large pagodas; and variant forms of pagodas. The first section has three sub-chapters: 1.1) the pagoda in the landscape; 1.2) examples of pagodas in the landscape; and 1.3) the pagoda in art and cult. The second section is structured around eight sub-chapters: 2.1) squared tier pagodas (EB: Quadratische Stufenpagoden); 2.2) squared Tianning pagodas (EB: Quadratische Tienningpagoden); 2.3) ring pagodas (EB: Ringpagoden); 2.4) stepped pagodas (EB: Stockwerkspagoden); 2.5) gallery pagodas (EB: Galeriepagoden); 2.6) glazed pagodas (EB: Glasurpagoden); 2.7) ashlar pagodas (EB: Werksteinpagoden); and 2.8) pagodas in sroups (EB: Pagoden in Gruppen). The third section has four sub-chapters: 3.1) iron and bronze pagodas (EB: Eisen- und Bronzepagoden); 3.2) grave pagodas (EB: Grabpagoden); 3.3) incense pagodas (EB: Weihrauchpagoden); and 3.4) interior pagodas (EB: Innenpagoden). Within the sub-chapters are further subdivisions according to province and place. The first main section contains a kind of introduction to the topic and covers forty pages. The second section is the main part, and has more than 300 pages; the third section follows with about hundred pages. In the introduction to the book, Boerschmann tried to explain the pagoda in the context of Chinese culture and landscape, and also referred to the knowledge of the strange tower in the Western hemisphere. In his view, the location of pagodas defined the relationship between the cities and the surrounding landscape, sometimes even without a visual connection. ‟One intuits relations which surpass the limited beautiful image of the city, as it is known to us, but rather goes beyond, to a higher order of spiritual relations. The basic meaning of these towers is really located herein.”378 Since the end of the eighteenth century the word ‟pagoda” had been in use in Europe, he wrote, and guessed that the Chinese name Baota (EB: Pao ta) had been westernised into pagoda.379 Since the original meaning in Chinese translated as ‟tower of valuables”, meaning the valuables of the Buddhist doctrine, it was the symbol for Buddhist relics, which were often placed in the towers. As a more accurate translation into Western languages, Boerschmann suggested the term ‟Buddha-Tower”, because this seemed more closely related to the development of Buddhism in China

374 Ecke/Demiéville, 1935. 375 See EB, Pagoden, 1931: 355–357. For the letters between Boerschmann and Ecke see Walravens, 2010: 99–160. 376 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VIII. 377 Ibid: IX. 378 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 1. 379 In English ‟pagoda” was first used in the seventeenth century and most probably derived from Portuguese.



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and the cult of relics. This led to his description: ‟one knows them correctly as light houses of the Buddhist world order.”380 But the location of pagodas on top of mountains also brought them close to Taoism and the geomantic Feng Shui concept of manipulating nature and its power. Since there had been a mutual adaptation between the two main religions, Taoism and Buddhism, Boerschmann saw the ideas of Taoism as being responsible for beauty and harmony with nature in the case of the location of pagodas in the landscape. He assumed the Taoists understood the sublime effects of pagodas in the landscape and used them as part of their geomantic system for building towers for the God of Literature (Wenchang Wang or Kui Xing), or purely for Feng Shui reasons. Boerschmann found evidence that the pagoda had become part of the landscape in the discourse on paintings and poems only from the Tang Dynasty (618–907) onwards. In the Song Dynasty (960–1279) the pagoda became an important motif for artistic expression. It was during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), he assumed, that the largest number of pagodas were built in the country; in the final Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) the pagoda had already become an integral part of the image of the landscape. In his literature research, he had found some references to pagodas in China as early as the third to sixth century, but only in an extensive travelogue from the thirteenth century from the Southern Song Empire, which Sinologist Erich Haenisch had translated, had he found a larger number of descriptions of pagodas.381 However, the best collection was included in the encyclopaedia Gujin Tushu Jicheng (EB: Tú schu tsi tschéng), in the part about ‟religious curiosities.” Boerschmann used the descriptions from the encyclopaedia because they provided detailed references.382 He also investigated European visitors’ knowledge about pagodas from the early days of European travel to China. Surprisingly, Marco Polo (1254–1324) mentioned no pagodas in his account of China in the second part of the thirteenth century. Only after 1580, when the Jesuits came to stay in the Middle Kingdom, did the first reports about pagodas reach Europe. The most astonishing account about them was made by the Dutch traveller Johan Nieuhof (1618–1672) during his visit to China between 1655 and 1657. He presented pagodas prominently in many illustrations of cities and landscapes. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the missionaries sent some minor reports on pagodas, but never any in-depth studies. In the nineteenth century some reports by the British diplomat Charles Elliot (1801–1875) and some engravings by the architect Thomas Allom (1804–1872)383 were circulated in the West, and the Russian Porfirij E. Kirilov (EB: Kirilow, 1801–1864) also brought back early descriptions and images of pagodas in the landscape. In the second half of the nineteenth century the pagoda became known in the West as part of the Chinese landscape, after many travellers, merchants and – last but not least – the Western military sent illustrations and reports home. Boerschmann found the first scientific report about the installation of pagodas for Feng Shui reasons in Guangzhou in the magazine Chinese Repository from 1837. In the same magazine British missionary William Charles Milne (1815–1863) published about the pagodas of Ningbo in 1844 and Samuel Wells Williams (1812–1884) about pagodas in Guangzhou in 1850.384 Milne also published an extensive work on pagodas in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1855 under the title ‟Pagodas in China”.385 In the books of the British missionary Joseph Edkins, Chinese Buddhism and Religion in China, both published in 1893, Boerschmann found further information about pagodas.386 The Russian W. Pokotilow published a description about Mount Wutai after a visit in 1889.387 A further Tibetan report was introduced to

380 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 2. 381 Ibid: 2/3. 382 Ibid: 3. 383 He published numerous illustrations of China in China Illustrated in 1845. 384 Williams, 1850 (second print 1882). In this book Williams has a sub-chapter entitled ‟Pagodas, their origin and construction”. 385 In 1857 Milne published the book Life in China. Chapter three is dedicated to pagodas. 386 Edkins, Religion in China, 1877. Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, 1880. 387 In 1935 a full German translation of the report was published by Unkrig, 1935: 38–89.

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Boerschmann and in part translated by Albert Grünwedel.388 Most important was the work of Jesuit Father Beck and his associates (above), who created the models of pagodas for the exhibition in San Francisco, and of which the Field Museum in Chicago provided photographs. As a further important publication Boerschmann named J.J. de Groot’s on the stupa, published in 1919, and praised the ground-breaking investigation in the direction of religion, while noting that de Groot, nonetheless, did not understand the true value of the towers.389 He stated, ‟the artistic formation stands equal beside the religious and geomantic purpose, it even has to help to exemplify the former”.390 This interconnection between the different spheres sometimes tended towards one of the given reasons, such as religion, artistic concept or geomantic purpose, he wrote. Therefore, to approach a final conclusion, a holistic view was necessary which discussed all the different aspects. The first books on Chinese art, for example by the French diplomat and historian Maurice Paléologue (1859–1944)391 in 1887, or the British orientalist Stephen W. Bushell (1844–1908) in 1904, also mentioned individual pagodas, but according to Boerschmann, they did not point out the formal and regional differences.392 In his opinion, this was even more the case in the work of James Fergusson (1808–1886),393 the British architectural historian Banister Fletcher (1866–1953), who brought out his History of Architecture in 1905, and the Frenchmen François Benoit, who published a book on Eastern architecture in 1912.394 The first scholar to create a systematic formal classification of pagodas was the German Oskar Münsterberg in his book on Chinese art history in 1912; he had used Boerschmann’s photos for illustration, but had still made some major mistakes – as Boerschmann mentioned in his review of the book.395 Boerschmann then referred to his own previously published articles, first on pagodas in the early Sui and Tang Dynasties (581–618 and 618–907) in 1924, secondly on iron and bronze pagodas published in the same year; finally he referred to the two volume book Chinesische Architektur from 1925 as well as to the book Chinesische Baukeramik, published in 1927, where he had included some information on pagodas.396 But the most important reference for Boerschmann’s work on pagodas came from the Japanese scholars Sekino and Tokiwa with their Buddhist Monuments in China, published in the years between 1925 and 1929. Here Boerschmann saw for the first time an attempt at a historic, archaeological and partly artistic evaluation, one that became a useful basis for his own study.397 Additionally, the two books of Osvald Sirén played a role, first Chinese Sculpture in 1925 and second L’Architecture, published in 1930 as the fourth part of his five-volume book Histoire des arts anciens de la Chine. In Sirén’s books he found more than forty pagodas classified according to form and historic development. With all this groundwork done by others, now Boerschmann saw for the first time the possibility of starting with the basic structure of an architectural history of Chinese pagodas. Compared to the difficulties inherent in dating and describing the history of timber architecture, such as temples, documenting the history of the massive brick and stone pagodas, he believed, would be much easier. Boerschmann did not pay much attention to the fact that pagodas had been built in timber up to the fifth century. He did not know about the oldest sur-

388 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 232. The manuscript of Grünwedel was published by Walravens, EB, 2012: 63–94. 389 de Groot, 1919. 390 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 5. 391 Paléologue, 1887. 392 Bushell, ‟Chinese Architecture”, 1905: 677–690; and Bushell, Chinese Art, 1904–1906. 393 Fergusson, first print in 1876, second revised print in 1910. Boerschmann owned a version from 1899. See Kunsthistorisches Institut Köln: Bibliothek Werner Speiser, 1966. A part of Boerschmann’s library was bought by Werner Speiser and is listed in the compilation of his library as belonging originally to Ernst Boerschmann. 394 Benoit, 1912. He gave a brief introduction between page 334 and 360 with some illustrations of Chinese architecture, including some pagodas. 395 Münsterberg, 1910/1912. EB, review Münsterberg, in Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, 1913: 177–181. 396 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1924: 195–221, and EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst, 1924: 223–235. 397 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 5.



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Fig. 504: The Twin Pagodas in Taiyuan on a photo from 1929. (© Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

viving timber pagoda. This, the Shakyamuni or Yingxian Wooden Pagoda of the Fogong Temple in Yingxian County in Shanxi Province, dated from 1056. He also failed to include the oldest surviving brick pagoda, the Songyue Pagoda in Henan Province, built in 523. Boerschmann was afraid that he was beginning his documentation too late, due to the rapid developments of modern society in China and the simultaneous decrease in the care and maintenance of the pagodas by the local people, which had resulted in some important monuments falling into ruin or disappearing. It seemed to him the last chance for a documentation of all the available materials: The inner power of Chinese national tradition is visible in the history and form of the pagoda, because they are religious monuments and therefore they belong to the finest web of Chinese culture. They are meaningful symbols, first for the religious concept and history of Buddhism, but also for the Chinese universal attitude that the human spirit and nature are associated in a very natural way with the great political history of China.398

The collection of his 550 pagodas or pagoda groups in the book became the basis for explorations of the differences in styles and regional specifications. Since the Western church tower and the pagodas both represented symbols of religion, he saw a common root of the form in Persian or Indian architectural development. A difference, he noted, was that the church must have a tower connected to the hall, whereas in China Buddhist temples only occasionally had a pagoda, which stood apart, and Taoist temples never had towers. As a result of the difference, European cities had many church towers, which shaped their overall image. But in Chinese cities, only a few pagodas stood inside the walls and a further few were found in the open landscape. Whereas in Europe the towers of the churches were linked to the religious neighbourhoods and separated them within the urban structure, in China the few pagodas connected the network of influence inside and outside the city. For Boerschmann this showed the strong link between the people and their environment:

398 Ibid: 7.

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The pagoda is used for the ensoulment of the landscape and for the distribution of religious influence – which is taken care of by Buddhism – over the entire visible and a far bigger invisible district. […] In China we experience a close connection between religion, a feeling for beautiful landscapes, and a very happy architecture. Nothing proves this better than the universalistic attitude of the Chinese.399

The idea of Chinese universalism – in the words of Boerschmann the interconnection of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism to form together a ‟Chinese religion” – was discussed in for instance the book by de Groot on Chinese religions.400 But de Groot warned in the preface that the area should not be regarded simplistically. Boerschmann used the term ‟universalism” to illustrate the complex roots of the pagoda and its location in the landscape. From the beginning, the pagoda was rooted in Buddhism, but how it was placed and the meaning it had, beyond being a container for relics, was based in the religious geography of the country, in which he saw again strong relationships with Taoism and geomancy. Boerschmann wrote that the ‟ten thousand things” of Chinese culture were deeply connected to each other and each religious system tried to use as much of the other as possible, to become or stay attractive to the people. He referred many times to his observations that the pagoda always revealed close interconnections with the given features of the landscape so that one perceived the vertical tower as a component. And this was the case in all regions, even when the geography and topography differed a lot. With artistic proficiency the value of the landscape seemed enriched by the local history of religion and literature. The local geomancer selected the site for the pagoda, but local folk would discuss its final height: Repeatedly it was reported that the height and size of the tower were changed, to bring them precisely into concordance with the environment. As a matter of fact, pagodas, almost without exception, produce such a fine feeling for architectonic and scenic mood that they become totally equal to art forms such as Chinese landscape painting.401

In Boerschmann’s view, the pagodas were almost never wrongly placed and almost always increased the natural beauty. Therefore, he argued, placing and composing these buildings must be seen as an art form in itself. Supporting his ideas, he wrote: Here [the West in general] the architect often did not work with nature, as the Chinese did, but against it. He will triumph over nature with one’s own work, but achieves this only by destroying nature’s soul. […] He places himself in opposition to the landscape, instead of completing and enhancing, or refining and transfiguring it.402

He continued that while in Europe fine situations could be found, in China the conditions were much better for such an attitude. The Chinese, he said: felt nature as inspired and masculine and were in a position to explain it with plenty of clear and qualified symbols in literature and art, but then it accommodated an architecture, of the light, curving lines of the inner soul, the lines of the parts and ornaments, as a direct allegory towards organic nature. Full of the flowing being, full of consciousness of the unity of all things, which have the same breath, whether created by nature or man, the Chinese created also the pagodas in the landscape.403

In his enthusiasm one always feels the romantic influence that he drew from the poetry and descriptions of the Chinese classics. This alignment sometimes made it difficult for him to construct clear, functional or rational arguments.

399 Ibid: 8. 400 de Groot, 1912. He looked on the ancient metaphysical view as a basis for classical Chinese thought. See Koslowski, 2003: 110. 401 EB, Pagoden, 1931: 8. 402 Ibid: 9. 403 Ibid.



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Fig. 505: The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. (© Boerschmann 1908, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

In the second sub-chapter of the first part of the book he showed examples of pagodas in the landscape, their position in topography and how they were related to the natural surroundings. In the images chosen for the illustrations, the pagodas act as focal points in flat and hilly regions, by lakes and rivers or on mountains, on islands or as parts of monasteries, or as an extension or an interpretation of rocks in the natural surroundings. In wild nature, as well as in the urban environment, they represented human activities, connected to the religious purpose intermingled between Taoism and Buddhism. Boerschmann believed that the striking harmony was achieved by the use of the same element (the tower) in the whole country and by its scale, and the precise composition in every situation. The sub-chapter about pagodas in art and customs introduced small religious devices as used in temples. In Boerschmann’s categorisation the incense burners were an intermediate element between the pagoda in the landscape and these small pagodas placed and used in the interior.

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Fig. 506: Two rocks besides a temple near Shaoxing. The top of the rocks are formed like the roof of a pagoda. (© Boerschmann 1908, Pag, 1931: 30).

He further gave a short introduction about how pagodas were depicted in paintings and used in religious practice. In the second section the examples of the so-called large pagodas were given according to the categories set out above. The different examples were not all documented equally, but in accordance with the material that was available at the time Boerschmann was working on the book. For quite a few of the pagodas he used measured plans, sectional drawings and side views, drawn according to his own measurements, with details of construction or ornamentation. However, many of the line drawings – especially the side views – are based on photos and not on measurements, since he had no means of measuring them without stairways or scaffolding. Additionally, he published inscriptions in Chinese characters and German translations of these. Many photographs, sketches, comparative plans and traditional illustrations explained the complex history, the form and the religious context. Sometimes he used urban and regional maps to show the relationship of the pagodas to topography and geography. In the case of Suzhou, he published a regional map of the city, indicating its wall, the infrastructure of waterways and the surrounding mountains. Boerschmann used this map to show the location of pagodas in relation to the city.404 With such examples he raised awareness of the importance of the relationship between pagodas and the environment. To give an idea of the character of his depictions, some examples are shown as given by Boerschmann. On the basis of Chinese sources Boerschmann produced a description of the history of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. The original square, stepped pagoda dated from 652, and was built by the monk and traveller Xuanzang (EB: Hüen Tsan or Yüen Tschang) after his return from a sixteen-year trip to India. The tower was rebuilt in the early eighth century. The square base measured about 25.5 metres on each side and Boerschmann estimated the height to be 55 metres (54 metres is correct). He visited the pagoda in 1908 and took photographs, but was unable to

404 Ibid: 162.



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Fig. 507: The Small Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an. (© Boerschmann 1934, PAB).

study the building in detail. For the publication he relied on material from Buddhist Monuments and from Osvald Sirén. The image taken by Boerschmann in 1908 shows renovated additions to the stepped roof, whereas in Sirén’s image from 1922 vegetation is growing from each crack up to the final roof. Boerschmann further published historic poems about the pagoda, translated some into German and printed them together with the Chinese originals. Details about the architecture are not included.405 The pagoda still stands in Xi’an and was renovated several times during the twentieth century.

405 Ibid: 39–49.

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Fig. 508: A side view of the Fan Pagoda in Kaifeng. (Unknown photographer, PAB).

The impressive hexagonal, stepped Fan Pagoda in Kaifeng dates from 977 (Song Dynasty). (See also fig. 115). On the basis of inscriptions on stone tablets in the monastery, Boerschmann wrote about the history and the different renovations. The massive body of the pagoda ends abruptly after three storeys and has a circa ten-metre-high pyramidal topping. According to Buddhist Monuments the original tower measured about 66 metres in height. In the book he produced a speculative drawing to illustrate his ideas about the original form and height. The outer surface of the existing building was covered with relief plates showing Buddha, and the friezes still showed bluegreen glazed terracotta. He believed that the blue-green colour had originally covered the whole



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tower. He had heard that a stairway led to the top, but had found no traces of it. His sectional drawing is therefore a speculation, as he noted.406 The pagoda still stands in Kaifeng today. Under the section Ringpagoden (ring pagodas) Boerschmann presented among others the Pizhi Pagoda (EB: Pi tschi ta) dedicated to Pratyeka Buddha at the Lingyan Temple in Shandong. He wrote that the monastery dated back to the sixth century, but the monks told him the most sacred elements were two age-old cypress trees, allegedly from the Han Dynasty. He dated the first pagoda to the mid-eighth century, but had found two dates when the pagoda had been completely rebuilt: 1041–1048 and 1057. Today the date of reconstruction is given as 1056–1063 (Song Dynasty). He measured the climbable nine-storey brick tower – it was 51.6 metres in height. Boerschmann recognised the importance of this pagoda and demanded detailed research into its history and construction. He regretted only being able to provide a description based on his brief visit and the lit-

406 Ibid: 61–69.

Fig. 509: A drawing of the front view of the Fan Pagoda prepared by Ernst Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 64). Fig. 510: A speculative sectional drawing of the Fan Pagoda. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 65).

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Fig. 511: The eleventh century Pizhi Pagoda at Lingyan Temple in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann 1907, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek). See also fig. 119–121 and 532.

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Fig. 512: A drawing of the front view, part of the section and two floor plans of Pizhi Pagoda. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 121).

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erature at hand. However, he prepared detailed drawings and published them together with some photographs.407 The pagoda is still standing today and is protected as a cultural site. In the chapter Glasurpagoden (glazed pagodas) he tried to determine the history and development of the almost eighty-metre-high octagonal Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing. The pagoda, known as one of the wonders of the world, and built in the fifteenth century, was razed to the ground during the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-nineteenth century. Boerschmann reported that only a few of the glazed parts survived in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. During his journey

407 Ibid: 114–124.

Fig. 513: The “North Pagoda” in Taiyuan. (Postcard 1929, collection Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).



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between 1906 and 1909 he left out Nanjing and thus based his research for the book entirely on the literature available. The pagoda was built in the years of the Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor between 1402 and 1424. The Dutch traveller Nieuhof sketched the pagoda in 1656, producing several images and making it known in the West. Boerschmann used different descriptions by Westerners and Chinese for his text and compared them to the glazed pagodas he had visited, such as in Chengde or in the Western Hills of Beijing.408 For the Temple of the Soul’s Retreat (EB: Ling yin sze) in Hangzhou, Boerschmann documented the two pagodas in front of the main hall under the chapter Werksteinpagoden (ashlar pagodas). As in all cases he first gave an introduction to the religious history of the site. With reference to Buddhist Monasteries and to French Sinologist Henri Maspero (1882–1945), he doubtfully but correctly dated the pagodas to the tenth century. He also correctly guessed that the two octagonal nine-storey towers were twenty metres high. Boerschmann had visited the similar White Pagoda, which was made of white stone and stood at a water gate in Zhakou (EB: Tschakou) near Hangzhou and which dated, in his opinion, from 970. This pagoda stood alone and had a solid base made of concrete to stabilise the tower.409 All three pagodas still remain today as protected cultural sites. In the city of Fuzhou he found two seven-storey pagodas, one made of brick and the other of ashlar stone. The irregular layout of the city was structured with an axis and highlighted by two hills within the southern part of the wall. The White Pagoda (EB: Pai ta) made of brick, ashlar stone and plaster, stood at the southeast corner of the city and measured, according to Boerschmann, 42 metres in height. On the basis of different Western sources he dated the pagoda to the ninth or tenth century. Today we know that the pagoda was originally built in 905 to a height of 67 metres, but collapsed in 1534 and was rebuilt in 1548 to a height of 41 metres. The second tower, named the

408 Ibid: 237–256. 409 Ibid: 296–301.

Fig. 514: The pagoda at the Baotong Temple on the side of Mount Hong in Wuchang. The pagoda dated from Yuan Dynasty in 1315, but was rebuilt between 1872 and 1874. (Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

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Fig. 515: The Black Pagoda in Fuzhou on a photo from the model prepared by Father Beck. (PAB).

Black Pagoda (Wuta EB: Hai ta), consisted of ashlar stone executed with superb masonry technique and was dated by Boerschmann, according again to several Western sources, as originating from between the seventh and tenth centuries. Today the date is given as 799 for the first tower, which was rebuilt in the current shape in 936. Gustav Ecke, with whom Boerschmann corresponded about the dating, had insisted on the year 936. Boerschmann therefore suggested that an earlier pagoda had been replaced at that time. He praised the perfect masonry technique and further speculated that both pagodas had meaning in terms of the Feng Shui of the city. The study of the two pagodas is not very far-reaching in the book, and most probably he did not spend much time studying their history and architecture during his visit in 1909.410 Both pagodas are still there today. For illustration in the book he used some photos by Gustav Ecke and some of his own. (See fig. 385/386). The Twin Pagoda (EB: Schuang ta) in Qingshou Temple on the West Chang’an Avenue in Beijing from Jin Dynasty (1115–1235) was assigned to the chapter ‟pagodas in groups”. Boerschmann

410 Ibid: 303–306.



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Fig. 516: The Twin Pagoda in Beijing on a photo taken by German ambassador Mumm von Schwarzenstein around 1901. (Mumm, 47).

published only one photo, which he acquired from someone else. He described the history of the monastery to which the pagodas belonged and dated the two brick towers to 1315. Boerschmann referred to an unnamed chronicle and to the changing significance of the temple. Emperor Qianlong reconstructed the temple around the pagodas in the eighteenth century but by the early twentieth century it had disappeared again. He admitted that he had only had a cursory look at the pagodas on his trip.411 The pagodas were dismantled for road-construction in the mid-1950s. In the first sub-chapter of the last section about variant forms of pagodas, Boerschmann republished his article from 1924 about iron and bronze pagodas. In the second chapter he focused on the different forms and the development of tomb pagodas. A short sub-chapter focused on incense pagodas and the last on pagodas in the interior. The book ended abruptly without a final conclusion. As the book was thought of as the first volume, and as Boerschmann stated in the introduction that the final chapter of the second volume would be ready in 1932, one can believe that he

411 Ibid: 325–328.

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Fig. 517: The front elevation of the porcelain pagoda in the Summer Palace in Beijing in a drawing by Ernst Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, Pag, 1931: 276).

planned to continue in the same way, as explained in the introduction. However, his next research trip, from 1933 to 1935, made it impossible to print the manuscript he had worked on, as new information made it necessary to change many aspects of the book. For the published part, the classification and nomenclature, as introduced before, made it impossible to focus totally on regional aspects in one section or chapter of the book. This, he felt, was a pity and he tried to overcome the shortcoming with a reference system of numbers to guide the reader through the different parts of the book. While the first system refers to the images, a second system of numbers guides the reader to further references in the text, in order to directly connect image and text. Boerschmann was consistent in his application of the system, but with shortcomings in terms of the architectonic aspects. With the complex reference system he created a profound archive of his own knowledge about pagodas, accumulated over more than twenty years of research. Many of the larger pagodas survived the turbulent twentieth century, but many of the smaller grave pagodas and the interior pagodas disappeared. However, the impact of the pagodas on the urban and rural landscape has changed dramatically due to urbanisation and the new high-rise buildings throughout the country. The religious interpretation of the landscape, and



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Fig. 518: The porcelain pagoda from Yuanmingyuan on a photo taken by Ernst Ohlmer in the early 1870s. The first storey is square, the middle octagonal and the top circular. The pagoda disappeared in the course of twentieth century. (Ohlmer, 1898).

the meaning that was given to the pagodas, had already changed profoundly after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912. Boerschmann continued the work on the second volume of the pagoda book after the first went to press in autumn 1930. Due to some changes in the manuscript and technical problems, the first volume was not available in the bookshops until the end of December 1931. To continue the work he received a grant from the Society of Friends of the Polytechnic University in Berlin (Gesellschaft von Freunden der Technischen Hochschule Berlin zu Charlottenburg e. V.) in 1931. In early 1932 he delivered a report about the on-going work at the university. According to this report, he planned to include plates with drawings and maps as an essential part of the second volume. He expressed the hope of completing the manuscript in April 1932 and bringing the book onto the market in the spring of 1933.412 The first volume, which was very expensive to buy, was printed in two versions: first as a continuation and the third volume of the ‟Architecture and the religious culture of

412 EB, in Gesellschaft von Freunden der Technischen Hochschule Berlin zu Charlottenburg, e.V., 1932: 44.

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the Chinese” (priced at 120 Marks), and secondly simply titled Pagoden (priced at 80 Marks). The content, however, was the same. For the success of the book on the market it seemed necessary to get very good reviews in the press. For the publisher, the commercial success would also indicate how to continue with the preparation of the second volume.

Fig. 519: A grave stupa for a monk at Mount Mien in Shanxi Province. In the book “Pagoden” one subchapter focuses on grave pagodas. (© Walter Frey around 1930, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).



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The book on pagodas had at least the same response in the press as the first book, on Mount Putuo. More than twenty reviews can be found in newspapers and magazines.413 The background of the reviewers again shows the wide range of academic fields that took an interest in Boerschmann’s research. The British scholar Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874–1938), who had served in early 1920s as tutor to the last emperor, Puyi, published one of the first reviews in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies in London. He knew Chinese culture from his own long experience in the country: The publication […] has been awaited with anticipation by the many admirers of the two first [books], and they will not be disappointed. It is devoted to a full and scrupulously careful description – architectural, historical, artistic, literary, and religious – of over 550 of the most famous or most characteristic pagodas in China, and to a study of the evolution of their types and their internal and external structure. […] It is possible that many readers of Dr. [sic] Boerschmann’s book will be surprised to learn from it how great is the variety of architectural forms in the pagodas in the different periods and localities.414

He continued with his praise and discussed examples in detail. Johnston knew many of the places from his own visits and was astonished what he could learn from Boerschmann’s depictions. Finally he advised all public and private libraries whose readers had an interest in Chinese culture to buy a copy. The art historian Bernd Melchers wrote a review for the Deutsche Literaturzeitung. He recalled that early in the twentieth century the West had known almost nothing about pagodas. Only Baltzer’s works on Japan had mentioned some aspects, and in 1929 the Benedictine Father and the founder of Korean studies in Germany, Andreas Eckardt (1884–1974), had published a voluminous book on Korean art history, in which he gave an introduction to the pagodas.415 Melchers, however, criticised Boerschmann’s book and regretted that he looked only at China, and made no reference to Japan or Korea. He hoped that the shortcomings of the first volume could be eliminated in the second. Another point of criticism involved the structure of the book. Boerschmann focused first on the relationship of landscape and pagoda, and Melchers felt that this approach meant that the reader encountered the discussion without a background knowledge of the individual buildings. He would have started first with the pagoda and then continued with the relationship in the landscape: ‟It is typical of Boerschmann’s attitude towards his major task that he places the position of the building in the landscape first and puts such a question at the beginning, which should actually have developed when reading.” In his opinion the grouping system did not seem clearcut enough and could cause misunderstandings. Melchers praised the many plans and sectional drawings for the individual pagodas prepared by Boerschmann, but he saw the missing site plans of their temples as a significant problem. He further thought that there was a lack of clear explanations of the spatial relationship of the pagodas within the temples, ‟because here one would expect, according to the examples from Japan and Korea, clear relations, which could be better analysed than the relation of pagodas with the landscape or the city, as Boerschmann tries to indicate. Maybe volume two will provide an answer.”416 With this hope he closed the review, though not without another criticism about the price of the book. He told it was much too expensive and he predicted almost no one would buy it. The price definitely was a problem. Two years after the

413 Some of them are cited in the following passage. Others include Buhot, 1931/32: 248–249; Ritter von Zach, 1932: 25–27; photos in Berliner Börsen Curier 22.5.1932; Otto Fischer in the daily newspaper Neue Züricher Zeitung (1932, exact date unknown). The publisher sent further copies for review to the following magazines, though I could not locate a reference copy of the review: Asia Mayor; T’oung Pao; Anthropos; Burlington Magazine; Artibus Asiae; Journal of the North-China Branch of the Royal Society; Kölnische Zeitung; Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft; Bulletin de l’Ecole Francaise de l’Extreme Orient; East of Asia (Shanghai); Magazine of the Field Museum in Chicago; Deutsche Zeitung Tientsien (China – Gustav Ecke). PAB, list, 26.2.1932. 414 Johnston, 1932: 1087–1091. 415 Eckardt, 1929. 416 Melchers, 1932: 1460–1466.

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Black Friday in 1929 and in the midst of the following economic depression, many people had other concerns than Chinese pagodas. Erich Michelsen (1879–1948) from the Foreign Office in Berlin published his review in the magazine Ostasiatische Rundschau in 1932. In the same year he had become head of the Asia desk at the Foreign Office. Michelsen was a strong supporter of Boerschmann, according to a letter from Boerschmann to Gustav Ecke.417 In September 1933 Michelsen became German Consul in Shanghai, but due to his Jewish background the National Socialists dismissed him and he fled to Kunming, where he died in 1948.418 In the review, he lauded Boerschmann’s lifetime achievements in the field of research into Chinese architecture. In the case of the book on pagodas, he argued that the author combined visual impressions with vivid descriptions: Especially attractive is the part that focuses on Chinese pagodas in landscape and art. The essence of the pagoda and what it means for the religious feeling of the Chinese and the Chinese landscape has hardly ever been so deeply and emphatically captured and described; the almost mythical emotion, with which the author speaks about here, and which is present throughout the work, gives the presentation an impressiveness which no reader can fail to notice.

Michelsen wrote that Boerschmann believed he only could finish the second volume after he had been back to China. He knew this already because the applications for money to finance such a trip had been on his desk at the Foreign Office. However, Michelsen wrote in the review: ‟The current time is not fitting for research on a large scale. Nevertheless, should it be possible, it is a duty of all positions that are related to the support of science to help the author.419 In fact, according to Boerschmann’s letter to Gustav Ecke in Beijing in December 1932, Michelsen had already granted Boerschmann 2,500 Marks for his next trip to China on the condition that other institutions would pay another 10,000 Marks.420 Michelsen used the review to call public attention to the case, in the hope that other organisations would join as patrons. Boerschmann collected the money needed in the second half of 1933, when he returned to China for a sixteen-month journey. The archaeologist Franz Oelmann (1883–1963) was known for his publication on the housing and ceramics of the Roman Empire in Germany.421 Although he had published an article on the history of pagodas in 1931 in Sinica without direct reference to Boerschmann’s new book, he was aware of other publications on the subject by Boerschmann, de Groot, Otto Kümmel and some British authors. Oelmann speculated on the basis of articles by Fergusson, whose arguments were taken by de Groot in the book on the stupa, that the Chinese pagoda had its roots in Indian Buddhist culture. According to Oelmann, Boerschmann argued that the pagoda was developed in China from a stepped tower mountain, whereas art historian Otto Kümmel argued that the pagoda in China in its original form developed from a wooden tower.422 Oelmann combined both Boerschmann’s and Kümmel’s arguments, and speculated about the development of the stupa and a specific pavilion as well as the stepped roof in sacred Indian architecture.423 Prepared in this way, he published a review about Boerschmann’s new book in the Orientalistische Literaturzeitung in 1933. Oelmann wrote in a generally friendly and admiring tone about the author’s 25 years of research. In opposition to other reviewers (such as Melchers), he saw in the introduction a rare account of the distinctive role of pagodas in the landscape. In terms of structure and philology, Oelmann expressed criticism and wondered about the logic of the division of the material into the different categories. But in general he was positive and refused to give a final judgement before the second volume was available: ‟For the time being, only positive things can be said about the way of preparing the mate-

417 Walravens, 2010: 156. 418 For the history of Michelsen see Freyeisen, 2000: 76; and Walravens, 2010: 153, note 84. 419 Michelsen, 1932: 226–227. 420 Walravens, 2010: 156. 421 Oelmann, 1927. 422 Kümmel, 1929: 59. 423 Oelmann, 1931: 196–199. He published a similar short paper the following year. Oelmann, 1932: 192–193.



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rial.”424 In June 1933 Boerschmann thanked Oelmann for his review in a letter and mentioned that Melchers’ criticism about the classification was wrong, but had been accepted by others in their reviews. He called the structure consistent, even if it did not follow a schematic arrangement.425 In 1932 the East Asian art historian Otto Kümmel published his account of the book in the magazine Ostasiatische Zeitschrift. As an introduction he gave a brief summary of the first two books in the series. Kümmel called the focus in the first book, sacred Mount Putuo, ‟chosen at random” and had few positive words for the second book Gedächtnistempel, which, in his view, grouped relatively new buildings of different value in a ‟colourful arrangement”. But, he explained, ‟the Chinese pagoda, the topic of the third volume, is a creation of such rich outer and inner wealth that no one can miss it.” He hoped the second volume would bring more light to a future classification and history of the development of the pagoda in China. For Kümmel it was clear that this could never be done without more far-reaching studies in China and without critical research into the sources. In his opinion, a Westerner without a permanent base in China was unable to give a final history of such a complex building type as the pagoda. But what Boerschmann had published in the first volume met with his full approval. ‟His enduring credit will be that he not only showed the way for future research, but also took some strong steps towards it.” Kümmel further called the research conducted by Chinese historians very modest. ‟Now we call for the second volume. Despite all hardships, the work must be finished, because it has its place among the best works of German scholars on China.”426 Sinologist and philosopher Erwin Rousselle (1890–1949) published his review in the magazine Sinica in 1932. He had taught in Beijing between 1924 and 1929 and studied Buddhism and Taoism. Rousselle expressed almost no criticism of the book, which he considered was a ‟scientific meaningful and artistically valuable monograph in the field of sacred art in China”. Rousselle only mentioned that the author did not critically review the work of de Groot on the stupa, which others had criticised.427 ‟Apart from that the work has our full approval.”428 The art historian and expert in Japanese studies, Friedrich Max Trautz, had written a dissertation about the stupa in Japan under the guidance of J.J. de Groot in Berlin.429 He also worked on the topic of Japanese pagodas, art and architecture.430 Trautz published his review of Boerschmann’s book in 1934 in the magazine of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens. The book had his full admiration. However, he dared not give a final judgement before the second volume was out. At the time when the review appeared, Boerschmann was travelling in China and Trautz wrote that this meant the readers might have to wait for a long time for the second volume. He hoped – as an expert in the field – that the author would also include the history of Japanese pagodas. From his studies, he knew about the exchange between China and Japan, and the common root in the development of pagodas. ‟Everywhere where the author speaks as architect, as an expert with an international reputation in the field of Chinese architecture, the book is a pure pleasure!” This sentence contained some masked criticism that Trautz elaborated on in the field of philology. In view of the many aspects that were touched by Boerschmann, such as architecture, art, history, poetry, religion and folklore, it seemed no surprise to him that some other topics were weaker, such as philology and the relationship to other Asian cultures. The general tone however

424 Oelmann, 1933: 264–265. 425 PAB, letter, 14.6.1933, EB to Oelmann. 426 Kümmel, 1932: 314–316. 427 de Groot, 1919. 428 Rousselle, 1932: 253. 429 Trautz: Der Stupa in Japan, (Diss.) 1921. He also published on related subjects: Trautz, Die Höhe des Stupa des Horyuji, 1935 and with Seiko Kono, Der Grosse Stūpa auf dem Kōyasan, 1934; and Trautz, Eine erhebende Musikaufführung am ‟Fünffachen Stūpa”, in Asia Major Vol. 2, 1925: 582–596.‬‬ ‬ 430 He just had published the book in the same series as Boerschmann’s Baukunst und Landschaft in 1923: Trautz, Japan, Korea, Formosa, 1930.

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was very positive. ‟In summary the volume at hand is in any case a collection of material for which we cannot be thankful enough.”431 The geographer Georg Wegener (1865–1939) published a review in the newspaper Vossische Zeitung in March 1932.432 He focused first on the destroyed Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing. Boerschmann had made the pagoda one of his main objects of study. Wegener praised the book as a typical case of German studiousness and had nothing to criticise. ‟A book of seldom, one is allowed to say, unique qualities lies in front of me,” was how Ernst Tiessen began his review in the newspaper Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. He pointed out that no other German, or any other expert, had ever studied architectural development in China in such detail. The review is a hymn to Boerschmann’s work and is absent of any criticism.433 Theodor Devaranne (1880–1946), who had just published a justification for the missionary work in Japan and China,434 reviewed the book in the missionary magazine Zeitschrift für Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaften. He stated that the pagoda of East Asia added much more beauty to the landscape than the church tower in the West. Like others, he bemoaned the loss of religious practice in China after the revolution of 1911 and expressed his pessimistic view about the construction of new pagodas in the future. Therefore, he argued, it was necessary to document the existing towers, as Boerschmann had done.435 Theodor Bröring saw in Boerschmann’s book a dignified counterpart to the book Buddhist Monuments in China by Tokiwa and Sekino. He referred to the fact that many of Boerschmann’s subjects may have vanished after the revolution and the turbulent political development in China. He highlighted that the book had a high art historical value, because it helped readers to understand the foreign culture, and it also warned in general about ‟European arrogance” about other cultures.436 Architectural experts also praised the book as a perfect first volume, which made the reader curious for the expected second volume. The attempt to begin the classification in the extensive field of pagodas was especially praised.437 The architectural critic Friedrich Paulsen, then working for the magazine Bauwelt, used his review to discuss the new objectivity (Sachlichkeit) in the West and questioned how and why an ‟un-objective architecture” is justified. For the pagoda he noted: ‟The form and the building site are spiritually connected; they should generally promote the favourable secret powers of nature.” But he also saw the danger in modern development and the neglect due to the fact that ‟almost a hundred years of planned looting” of the country had left the society stripped of resources. Paulsen further saw similarities in the lack of maintenance of buildings that had lost their practical functions in both the East and West, ‟the sense of all architectural art […] is the practically futile and – maybe best demonstrated of all buildings [on earth] – by the pagodas.”438 Heinrich Schubart, who had published his dissertation on the ‟T’ing Style” in 1914, stayed in Nanjing as German adviser for the national government between 1929 and 1931. He knew traditional Chinese architecture from several trips and had also conducted investigations in this field of research. His review therefore was of special significance for Boerschmann. Schubart praised the book and provided some small additions about the pagodas in Hangzhou, where he worked during his time in Nanjing. But whereas Boerschmann predicted it would be hard in contemporary times to build new pagodas, Schubart remarked that the Chinese government in Nanjing had just held a competition for a memorial pagoda in the Purple Mountains, next to the memorial for Sun Yat-sen,

431 Trautz, in Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, 10. März 1934: 44–46. 432 Wegener, 27.3.1932. 433 Tiessen, 6.3.1932. 434 Devaranne, Christus an Tori und Pagode, 1931. 435 Devaranne, 10/1932. 436 Bröring, 1932: 1018–1019. 437 Wi., in Deutsche Bauhütte, 26.10.1932. 438 Paulsen, 1932: 517–520.



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Fig. 520: A first handwritten propaganda leaflet in Chinese for the book “Pagoden” in the early 1930s. (PAB).

in Nanjing.439 The Linggu Pagoda was erected between 1931 and 1935 as a monument to those soldiers who had died in the Northern Expedition (1926–1928) according to plans made by American architect Henry K. Murphy (1877–1954).440 The pagoda consisted of reinforced concrete on an octagonal base and reached a height of sixty metres. As a part of the ‟Memorial Cemetery for Heroes of the Revolution” of the Guomindang government, the Buddhist meaning of the form shifted to a memorial and lookout in the Purple Mountains near the Memorial of Sun Yat-sen. Murphy had used an image of the destroyed Porcelain Pagoda in Nanjing as a model.441

439 Schubart, 1933: 142. 440 Cody, 2001: 192/193. 441 Ibid: 194.

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 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)

In Shanghai Arthur de Carle Sowerby (1885–1954) published a review of Boerschmann’s book in the magazine China Journal. He wrote: Recently a magnificent volume devoted to the subject of Chinese pagodas has made its appearance, having been published by the enterprising firm of Walter de Gruyter & Co of Berlin and Leipzig. […] With a coloured frontispiece and an enormous number of really beautiful half-tone and other illustrations of pagodas of every description and from all parts of the country, this handsome volume may be taken as the last word on the subject, furnishing the student of Chinese religious art and culture with all the information he can possibly desire. […] Apart altogether from its value as a book of reference upon a subject of great interest, it is a real work of art such as might adorn a handsomely furnished living room or library and always be a pleasure to take up and look through.442

The Chinese art historian Teng Gu (EB: Teng Ku, 1901–1941) was educated in the Chinese classics and later studied art history in Japan.443 He enrolled in 1931 at the Department of Philosophy at Friedrich Wilhelm University (today Humboldt University) in Berlin and completed his dissertation in June 1932 in the field of ‟aesthetics, philosophy, art history and especially architectural history”, as Boerschmann mentioned in a letter.444 During his time in Germany, he published several articles about Chinese art history, but nothing about architectural history.445 Teng’s dissertation focused on Chinese painting and art theories in the Tang and Song Dynasties.446 In July 1932 the publisher Walter de Gruyter sent him a copy of the book Pagoden for review.447 At the time he was still living in Berlin, but returned to China by the end of the year. According to Boerschmann, Teng Gu promised to publish the review in an unnamed Beijing based art history magazine. The German publisher had earlier promised to start with an advertising campaign for the book Pagoden in China, and Boerschmann hoped that Teng Gu’s review would promote such an undertaking. In July 1933 Teng Gu wrote to Boerschmann and apologised for not writing after his return to China – he said that he was busy and travelling all the time. But meanwhile his review of Pagoden came out in The Book Review, a magazine published by ‟The National Institute for Compilation and Translation”, part of the Cultural Ministry.448 The review appeared in the first pages and Teng Gu hoped this would promote the book in China.449 The journalist and poet Alfons Paquet (1881–1944) published his review in the newspaper Frankfurter Zeitung: Boerschmann’s extensive book Chinesische Pagoden arouses a strong feeling. […] Some of the pagodas stand like the lightning-rod of a radio tower, others with bells draped like toys; one cannot compare them to our towers.

442 Sowerby, 1932: 115. 443 For an introduction of Teng Gu’s education see Guo Hui, 2010: 55f. 444 PAB, letter, 26.7.1932, EB to de Gruyter. 445 Ku Teng, Zur Bedeutung der Südschule, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 5/1931: 156–163. Ku Teng, Su Tung P’o als Kunstkritiker, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 3/1932: 104–110. Ku Teng, Tuschespiele, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 6/1932: 249–255. Ku Teng, Einführung in die Geschichte der Malerei Chinas, in Sinica, 5–6/1935: 199–243. 446 For the announcement of his dissertation see Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, NF, 8. Jg. 4–5/1932: 236. For the publication of the dissertation see Ku Teng, Chinesische Malkunsttheorie in der T’ang und Sungzeit, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 5/1934: 157–175, and Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 6/1934: 236–251, and Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 1–2/1935: 28–57. 447 PAB, letter, 2.8.1932, de Gruyter to EB. 448 The review was attached to the original letter, but is now lost. 449 Here is no space here to discuss the influence of Boerschmann’s work on the research of Chinese architects in the 1930s. The book and Boerschmann are mentioned many times in the different issues of the Bulletin of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture. See for instance Vol. III, No. 1: 192 for the books received as a gift from other scholars by the Society. Boerschmann’s pagoda book is named there, and on page 186 even translations are mentioned. Further see News of the Society in Vol. III, No. 2, 1932: 162, where Zhu Qiqian wrote that Boerschmann announced the sending of his book about ‟towers”. Further see Pao Ting, in Bulletin of the Society of Research in Chinese Architecture, June 1937. In some other cases his name was also mentioned. Unfortunately the transcription of Boerschmann’s name is not always the same. For some aspects of the relation between Boerschmann and the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture see Kögel, 2013: 439–472.



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[…] To wild landscapes they give human closeness, to graceful regions dignity, to land farmed into the smallest fragmented landscapes they give grandness, which concentrates all influences.

He wrote that the Chinese pagoda was placed with sensitivity to the landscape and can be seen as the equal to composition in landscape painting. The review, entitled ‟Nostalgia for the pagodas” (Heimweh nach den Pagoden),450 continues in similarly poetic language and praises Boerschmann’s unconventional approach of not following the dates of construction, but rather grouping the constructions by other criteria. He closed the text with a criticism of contemporary German memorial buildings: those architects charged with the ‟barbaric Bismarck-Towers”,451 should have more

450 Before the First World War the journalist Alfons Paquet travelled several times in Mongolia and China. The title of his review obviously expresses a personal feeling. 451 The Bismarck Towers are a specific genre of German monuments to honour the nineteenth-century Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. About 240 towers were built between 1870 and 1934. After 1898 the towers were based on a model

Fig. 521: One of the 240 Bismarck-towers built in early twentieth century Germany to honour the ex-chancellor of Prussia Otto von Bismarck. (Postcard, PAB).

496 

 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)

Fig. 522: Ernst Boerschmann tried to analyse the pagodas with photos and pencil. Here he used a photo of the North Pagoda in Yunju Temple in the southwest suburbs of Beijing from the book Buddhist Monuments by Tokiwa/ Sekino. The pagoda was first built in the twelfth century, but has undergone many repairs and renovations. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

appreciation of the accuracy which the builders of the pagodas used in the selection of place and in the care for the form of the towers.452 Boerschmann had promised to finish the second volume of the book Pagoden in 1932. But since 1927 he had been trying to find money for a further trip to China in order to double-check information and investigate further buildings. By 1932 the signals of different institutions such as the Foreign Office and the Baessler Foundation were positive and by mid-1933 it was clear that he

called Götterdämmerung. Some were very bulky and rough, dominating the environment and were heavily criticised by progressive intellectuals. 452 Paquet, 4.12.1932.



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 497

Fig. 523: A layout sketch of images for the never published second volume of the book “Pagoden”. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

would be able to undertake another research trip in the name of the German government. In early 1933 Adolf Hitler and the fascistic National Socialists took over the German government in Berlin. The fascists had some reservations about Boerschmann’s topics, but did not actively oppose his goals – however, they also did not support his research more than necessary. While in China he was supported by German and Chinese friends in important cultural and political institutions. During the first three months Boerschmann stayed in Guangdong Province, before moving to Nanjing.453

453 He left a manuscript about the three cities of Guangzhou, Macau and Hong Kong. See forthcoming Kögel (ed.): Ernst Boerschmann und die Städte im Perlfluss-Delta: Hongkong, Macao und Kanton nach einer Forschungsreise 1933 (working title).

498 

Fig. 524: The front view of the White Pagoda in Hohhot according to Boerschmann’s documentation from 1934. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)



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 499

Fig. 525: A detailed drawing of two sides of the relief on the octagonal White Pagoda in Hohhot. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

He met important politicians and intellectuals, discussed the introduction of monument preservation in Nanjing and met leading architects such as Liang Sicheng, Liu Dunzhen and Tong Jun. Hsia Changshi (1905–1996), an architect and art historian educated in Germany, accompanied him on long trips around the country.454 After sixteen months in China, Boerschmann returned to Germany in the spring of 1935. He continued to work on the second volume of Pagoden until the mid-1940s. Although he got permission to print the book, he could not find paper for the printing during the Second World War. In 1938 in the Ostasiatische Zeitschrift Boerschmann published an individual investigation into the White Pagoda (Baita, EB: Pai t’a) in Guisui (EB: Kueihua), today’s Hohhot in the old province of Suiyuan (EB: Suiyüan), which became part of Inner Mongolia in 1954.455 In 1944 he published a final account of his research into the pagodas in an omnibus volume after a conference. There he revealed the relationship of forms in northern China under the rule of foreign dynasties.456 The manuscript of the second volume of Pagoden remained unpublished at his death in 1949. In the 1950s his son tried to find the money needed and the support of Sinologists and politicians for a posthumous publication, but failed.

454 Kögel, 2010: 16–29. 455 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 14.1938: 185–208. 456 EB, in Schaeder, 1944: 182–204.

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 Boerschmann’s research results (1909–1931)

Fig. 526: The Sheli Pagoda at Qixia Temple north of Nanjing dates originally from 601 and was rebuilt in 945. Boerschmann visited the site in 1934 and prepared a proposal for the reconstruction. (© Boerschmann 1934, ­courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).



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 501

Fig. 527: A photo of the Five Pagoda Tower in Hohhot. Boerschmann visited the city in 1934 and documented the pagoda. (© Boerschmann 1934, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture Boerschmann’s documentation of Chinese architecture in a changing socio-political environment The material discussed in the three preceding chapters about Ernst Boerschmann’s research trip between 1906 and 1909 and his later scientific analysis and elaboration of the material, including the reactions it provoked among his contemporaries and the trouble he faced with the official German administration in getting the studies financed, shows that Boerschmann not only had a clear vision from the beginning about the status of Chinese development in the global history of architecture, but also the will to defeat all opposition in order to reach this goal. Hence he did not look simply at architecture, but tried to understand the positioning of buildings and their overall development as a system interacting in relational networks of social, religious and cultural dependencies. In many cases one aspect could not be distinguished from the other, especially because social, religious and cultural practice had merged under the umbrella of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which inter-borrowed, sometimes in rivalry, sometimes as a form of political appeasement. Examining this ‟religious culture” from the secular scientific Western viewpoint was not always easy, because the people Boerschmann met and spoke to in the temples often did not understand the quest for distinct meaning in one specific field. Boerschmann found a solution in conducting surveys on-site, using the primitive means he had at hand. The analysis of the collected material contributed to his legacy – that he was the first to undertake such systematic surveys in an almost totally virgin field of exploration. During the years between 1906 and 1909 he travelled the country and stayed from time to time in Beijing, where the royal family still resided in the Forbidden City. Even though he was interested in the architectural production of the Qing Dynasty, he never made the acquaintance of any carpenter, or of the influential Lei Family (or at least he never wrote about it), the clan of royal builders for most of the Qing Dynasty which was responsible for many buildings in Beijing and its environs.1 Most probably they would not have understood each other, since the Lei Family dealt with practical issues in the service of the emperor on the basis of traditional craft, whereas Boerschmann tried to employ Western methodology to document religious buildings in the context of their use. However, Boerschmann collected some of the colourful traditional depictions of buildings and compared them to the idealised technical drawings prepared after his return to Germany. Indeed, he published some of the coloured traditional depictions of buildings (perhaps from the production of the Lei Family) for gates or tombs, but never wrote more than very basic descriptions.2 While the royal and secular buildings did not fit into his research scope of combining religion and architecture, the lack of technical reliability in the sketchy-looking depictions, which were made with more concern for colouration and symbolic meaning than with scientifically correct measurements, prevented Boerschmann from using them as a basis for ‟scientific” research. The religious culture and its expression in architecture had been the focus of Boerschmann’s work in China right from the beginning. He looked at spatial arrangements within the temples and in the context of religious geography, while consciously omitting the development of construction in timber. The imperial court of the late Qing Dynasty practiced Tibetan Lamaism – partly for political reasons – but it also supported other schools of Buddhism as well as Taoism and folk cult down

1 See for instance Barmé, The Lei Family Builders, in China Heritage Quarterly, No. 8, December 2006. Also Liu Chang, 2004. The archive of the Lei Family was included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007. 2 Boerschmann published, for instance, one coloured drawing of the reconstruction of the Chaoyangmen gate in Beijing’s city wall, the middle gate in the east, which was destroyed by Japanese troops in 1900 and reconstructed in 1903. A further coloured drawing from 1903 shows the memorial temple for the statesman Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) in Tianjin, and a third coloured drawing of details shows an unnamed city gate in Beijing. Boerschmann wrote only that he got them from ‟Chinese architects”, without naming them. EB, Chinesische Architektur I, P. I; P. II and P. III.



Boerschmann’s documentation of Chinese architecture in a changing socio-political environment 

 503

Fig. 528: A traditional drawing of the memorial temple for nineteenth century statesmen Li Hongzhang in Tianjin. He died in 1901 and was very popular in the following years. (CA, 1925: T.II).

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 529: A traditional drawing for the reconstruction of the gate at Chaoyangmen, the middle gate in the eastern city wall of the northern part of Beijing. Japanese forces had destroyed the old gate during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 and the reconstruction took place in 1903. (CA, 1925: T.I.).

to local deities in the regional context, for example the Buddhist Guanyin, worshipped all over the country, Mazu, the goddess of the sea, worshipped along the coast or Bixia Yuanjun, the Heavenly Immortal, worshipped in northern China.3 Furthermore, the state cult for ancient deified heroes like Confucius, Guandi or Wenchang Wang, the annual worship of heaven and the prayer for a good harvest at the winter solstice by the emperor at the Temple of Heaven still took place between 1906 and 1909 when Boerschmann conducted research in China.4 Reading Boerschmann’s notes, one gets the impression that religiousness was an important issue in the early twentieth century and led to investment by the state, including the reconstruction of the damaged religious network left over from the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-nineteenth century. But soon the role of religion and state cult changed dramatically, precipitating the final destruction of the sensitive network of relations he was interested in. The father of the Chinese revolution of 1911–12, Sun Yat-sen, regarded the intensive religious practice of the late Qing Dynasty as one of the major threats to the progress and modernisation of the new nation state and the new society he aimed to create. In his programmatic book from 1922, The International Development of China, in which he called for radical changes, Sun focused on this issue in the context of the need for new prefabricated housing and modern urban infrastructure: When the Chinese builds a house he has more regard for the dead than for the living. The first consideration of the owner is the ancestral shrine. This must be placed at the centre of the house, and all other parts must be

3 For details see Naquin, 2000: 308, 327, 332. In the late eighteenth century fifty-three Tibetan lamaseries were active in Beijing. Naquin, 2000: 585. She counted 254 temples for Guandi in Beijing, 176 temples for Guanyin and at least 102 temples for Bixia Yuanjun. See Naquin, 2000: 500–504. 4 Guandi and Wenchang Wang had become part of the state religious system and enjoyed the level of Secondary Sacrifice, as did Confucius. The Grand Sacrifice was part of the state rituals and took place at the dynasty’s large altars and the tombs. See Naquin, 2000: 324–328.



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complementary and secondary to it. […] Besides the ancestral shrines there are the shrines of the various household gods. […] But if China is going to give up her foolish traditions and useless habits and customs of at least three thousand years and begin to adopt modern civilization, as our industrial development scheme is going to introduce, the remodelling of the houses according to modern comforts and conveniences is bound to come, either unconsciously by social evolution or consciously by artificial construction.5

This challenge to traditional lifestyles and religious convictions was further enhanced by the abolition of the Mandate of Heaven, which had defined the basic framework for the individual and his place under the rule of the emperor and his absolute hierarchical power. After the establishment of the republic in 1912, political unrest followed, with many warlords and autonomous regional leaders fighting against each other until the late 1920s. In 1915, the second autocratic president, Yuan Shikai, even tried to establish a new military state cult involving the honouring of the two ancient deified heroes, Guandi and Yue Fei, on the basis of the Confucian cult, but failed.6 Religion and religious relations in the rural areas or in the urban fabric had already become an increasing obstacle to the implementation of new infrastructure and general modernisation in the nineteenth century. Old Feng Shui masters opposed the alignment of railroads or the siting of industries at specific locations. After returning to Berlin in 1909, Boerschmann observed the development with reservation, and focused on the material he had collected in the understanding that he was documenting a disappearing world. He had visited the temples and cult places in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and tried to conserve what he observed and found. Boerschmann was aware that this culture was vanishing and hoped to preserve in text and plans at least some aspects related to architecture. The religious-geographical determination of situating buildings soon disappeared or was neglected in favour of modern urban development, as he could observe while visiting Guangzhou in 1933, where mountains were excavated and ponds filled up for new urban constructions without consideration of old religious relationships.7 On different occasions Boerschmann criticised both Chinese officials as well as Western collectors after the fall of the dynasty, not for failing to preserve the religious monuments for the future, but for removing or selling them for commercial purposes. He accepted only the difficult political and economic situation after 1911 as an excuse. Boerschmann often worried about the money needed for preservation and wondered where it could come from. His awareness of this lack of resources in China even stimulated him to speed up the documentation, and he understood the work as an archiving of a vanishing culture. When teaching at the Polytechnic University in Berlin between 1925 and 1944, at Berlin University (today’s Humboldt University) between 1940 and 1944, and at the University of Hamburg from 1946 to 1949, as well as through numerous lectures, memorandums, books and articles, Boerschmann tried to raise awareness about the practical need for monument protection in China among students, politicians and the general public in Germany. Although he referred in his writings to the Chinese classics and religious literature, Boerschmann was not a man of theories or a historian in the classical sense, but a sensitive observer who crossed borders in order to raise awareness about an endangered architectural heritage. He was well aware of some of his shortcomings and demanded further individual studies on specific subjects. In Germany Boerschmann lobbied for Chinese architecture to be considered as an ancient architectural world heritage, but one, in contrast with the archaeological remains of Greek, Roman or Egyptian architecture, which was a living culture with its age-old principles still intact. During the 1920s, the rapid changes in China became obvious and when Boerschmann got the chance in 1934, he strongly advocated the protection of monuments to the national government in Nanjing directly.8 His dedication to documentation and his commitment to the protection of monuments make him a forerunner in the field.

5 Sun Yat-sen, 1922: 212. 6 Diesinger, 1984: 259. 7 Kögel, in Forum Stadt 4/2011: 357–370. 8 For his lobbying work see Kögel, in Journal of Chinese Architecture History, 2013: 439–472.

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Working methods in China and in Germany Boerschmann was a great collector of all kinds of materials useful for his studies of Chinese architecture. He collected local chronicles and rubbings from stelae, took photographs and bought images from local Chinese or foreign photography shops. During his travels he made basic on-site measurements and sketches of the outlines of buildings, as well as sectional views and perspective drawings, in order to reconstruct the huge temples and temple halls in an idealised way back home. The sketches were based on estimations, rough measurements made by walking the distances and a few counter measurements with surveyor’s tape. The location of temples was recorded with a compass, and the traditional depictions he collected helped create fairly correct presentations after his return to Germany. The traditional images often showed buildings as diagrams in an idealised way. In Boerschmann’s presentations the floor plans of temples are always shown in a right-angled layout (deviating from reality) and the broken parts of the real buildings are ‟reconstructed” according to his own approximation based on the material available. With this method he overcame the impreciseness of reality through idealisation. Boerschmann hoped that this method would help distinct types and typologies to be recognised in order to establish a clear history of the formal development of the spatial arrangement in temples and in the structure of pagodas. As shown in the first chapter of this book, Boerschmann did not initiate research in Chinese architecture, but he was the first to investigate the field in such a comprehensive and strategic way. The German architect Heinrich Hildebrand had based his documentation of the Dajue Temple in 1891 purely on measured drawings and the inscriptions found on stone tablets in the temple grounds. The editor of the book had later asked two amateur photographers for images, with mediocre results. Nevertheless, Hildebrand’s book marked the start of professional documentation of traditional Chinese architecture with illustrations based on accurate measurements. With the combination of written documents translated from the stelae, oral history recorded on-site, drawings based on measurements and finally the photos added later, it was a very good starting-point for his followers. In contrast to Hildebrand, Boerschmann set out with the ambitious aim of documenting Chinese architecture in a systematic and comprehensive way, in order to explain its basic principles to the German (and Western) audience.

Fig. 530: A peasant working in the rice field is a very rare choice of image for Boerschmann. Usually he did not take pictures of people. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, glass-slide, PAB).



Working methods in China and in Germany 

 507

In the nineteenth century the first professional Western photographers had documented aspects of Chinese life, buildings and urban scenes, and were soon followed by the first Chinese photographers.9 Among the Western photographers were Felice Beato (1832–1909) in the 1860s and John Thomson (1837–1931) in the 1870s, whose photographs defined the image of China in the West.10 The head of the German Legation in Beijing, Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein, contributed in this category a ‟Diary in photographs” of the Chinese capital and its environs for his fellows and assistants in 1902.11 During the German Reichstag’s discussions about Boerschmann’s research project, Mumm underlined the need for a good camera and a person able to use it to document Chinese architecture. Others, such as the German merchant Wilhelm Wilshusen (1874–1966), who worked between 1901 and 1919 for the German company Melchers & Co. in China, took many photos on business trips through the country in order to portray the life of the people. He focused on ordinary situations in villages, temples and working places and worked in a reportage style.12 Whereas Wilshusen documented everyday situations, often in the context of his own work as a merchant, Alfons Mumm focused on monuments, temples and important landmarks in and around Beijing with the eye of a sensitive tourist. The bulk of known photos of China in the early twentieth century depicted the country and its people as something exotic. None of the photographers looked at architecture in a systematic or objective way. Boerschmann was the first to focus entirely on architecture in his research and photography, with the aim of using the photos as sources, in addition to sketches and measurements, for the preparation of his later drawings. It is unknown where he learned to use the camera and he never revealed much about the technical aspects of his equipment or the problems with processing the film. During his first stay in China between 1902 and 1904 as a member of the German army he had a camera and took some photos at the Temple of Azure Clouds in the Western Hills near Beijing. Nothing is known about the type of the camera or the number of photos he took in this period. For the research between 1906 and 1909 he used a Goertz Doppel-Anastigmat with a telephoto

9 Bennett, 2010. Cody/Terpak‬, 2011. See also Thiriez, 1998.‬‬ 10 Thomson, 1873/74. Betty Yao, 2010. Lacoste (ed.), 2010. 11 Mumm, 1902. 12 Roschen/Theye, 1998 (4. Edition).

Fig. 531: A lady in front of a pavilion near a lotus pond in Tianjin. The traditional paper windows are broken. (© Boerschmann 1907–1909, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/ picture perfect GbR).

508 

Fig. 532: Sketches of Boerschmann at the Pizhi Pagoda at Lingyan Temple near Mount Tai from 6 October 1907. (© Boerschmann, PAB). See also fig. 511/512.

 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

lens. According to his writings, the majority of the negatives were 13x18 cm in size.13 His original negatives have not yet been found. Maybe some of them were destroyed with his studio at the Polytechnic University in Berlin during the Second World War in 1943, or perhaps they disappeared into the Atlantic when the ship that was carrying some of his materials to New York in the 1950s sank. Boerschmann was pragmatic enough to buy images from local Chinese photographers or commissioned them to photograph specific views. In the later book publications he generally gave a clear account of the photos he had taken himself and those he got from others, but he never mentioned any of the Chinese or foreign photographers by name. Although he bought, for instance, some images from the Japanese photographer Sanshichiro Yamamoto (1855–1943) which he also used in his publications, he never correctly specified them as the work of Yamamoto.14 The only exception is the book Pagoden from 1931, in which he gave detailed information about the origin of the images he used. However, among the more than fifty names no Chinese or Japanese name is included.15 The majority of his photos exclude people. With the exception of some monks in temples, he focused purely on architecture or landscape. This is remarkable – and one only can wonder how he managed to keep the notoriously inquisitive locals out of his images. Boerschmann was obviously

13 EB, Baukunst und Landschaft, 1923: XXI. 14 Yamamoto published an album with more than 100 images called Peking in 1906. A further album with the title Views of the North China Affairs (photographed during the Boxer Rebellion 1900) came out in 1901 in Tokyo. In Boerschmann’s collection several photos have a Yamamoto stamp on the back. 15 EB, Pagoden, 1931: XIV–XV.



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Fig. 533: Boerschmann’s sketches of the pagoda north of the town Jiuxiu in Shanxi Province. K – temple for Jie Zitui, west of the town. P – pagoda north of Jiuxiu. (© Boerschmann, PAB). See also fig. 216.

competent in using the equipment and developed a professional technique in arranging what was in front of the camera. The well-arranged interiors of temple halls in his images show that religious life was still intact when he visited the temples. However, as he was fond of new or renovated temples, he omitted the dilapidated buildings or those he considered to be such. From the beginning Boerschmann consistently focused on straight frontal views or slight side views. Only on a few occasions did he have the opportunity to capture an overall image of the temple complexes from above, given the usually horizontal construction of cities. For the later prints he sometimes retouched the images or focused on specific details that illustrated his ideas. Boerschmann stated several times that the photos would only assist the drawings, especially the floor plans. However, he also used them as a reference and basis for the drawings, especially for the elevation of temple halls and pagodas. Quite a few pagodas had no stairs and could not be climbed, nor was it possible to measure the height of temple halls without scaffolding. Therefore Boerschmann had to estimate the height with the help of the photos and other primitive means. Boerschmann avoided what could be called a tourist perspective with exotic decoration in his photos and tried instead to develop a professional analytical view, to stage antique Chinese monuments in the same way as it was known in the West from professional architectural photography. If we look at the Boerschmann’s three major books, ‟Mount Putuo” (1911), ‟Memorial temples” (1914) and ‟Pagodas” (1931), it is clearly visible how his literary form developed. The first book is based in major part on his own observations, makes little reference to other publications and has no footnotes in the text. The second book has a few more references, but is still strongly based on his own collection of information and recorded oral history. The last book on pagodas is the most scientific with a complex reference system developed around the differently portrayed towers and

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a rich discourse around other researchers’ work, which became accessible to him in the 1920s due to the publication of new academic books and correspondence with other researchers. Before First World War, he had only very limited contact with foreign colleagues, their collections or findings. Also, we can state that many arguments with the German officials before the First World War were based on national concerns. This changed in later years, with the field of Chinese architecture being seen as a scientific subject in its own right. From early on Boerschmann tried to set up an inventory of historic buildings in China, which he began in the second book, on memorial temples, in 1914, in which he listed 157 buildings according to province, place, name and purpose, though leaving out the date of completion.16 He also included an inventory of more than 150 historical persons and sixty deities and mythological figures in the book.17 Boerschmann planned to continue this inventory in the second volume of the work about pagodas, but this was never published and the inventory has not been found in the archives consulted. As a man from the practical rather than theoretical side of architectural documentation, Boerschmann did not always care much about philology and the meaning of terms he used, for which he was criticised by his contemporaries. Another critical aspect was his inconsistent Romanisation of the Chinese language. Sometimes he referred to the system developed by Ferdinand Lessing and Wilhelm Ohtmer, sometimes to the system developed by Otto Franke – and on other occasions he created his own transcriptions on the basis of sound.18 In some cases he also used the transcription system of the English-speaking world, the Wades-Giles system. This still causes some confusion today and makes it difficult to locate all the places or monuments he mentioned.

Space and distance: theoretical and practical problems with architecture in China Boerschmann formulated his concept about how to study Chinese architecture during his first sojourn between 1902 and 1904 and soon after his return to Germany. The practical ideas evolved during his first fieldwork at the Temple of Azure Clouds and his discussions in 1903–4 with Jesuit Father Joseph Dahlmann, who had developed an interest in the connection and meaning of architecture and religion in India. In terms of Chinese architecture, Boerschmann noticed the modular arrangement of space in topography and the religious–geographic relationship of the location of buildings, where others had only seen terrible uniformity or total decay throughout the nineteenth century.19 For example, Reinhold Werner (1825–1909) from the diplomatic Prussian Eulenburg Expedition to China (1859–1862) reported on the architecture he saw in Guangzhou with great disappointment: ‟However, a sea of houses gradually developed in front of our eyes – the uniformity alone excludes all beauty.”20 He continued: ‟An architectural style in our sense cannot be seen in these houses, which are not comparable to our architecture.”21 He saw the tent of the nomads turning into a solid building with swinging roofs. The perception of Chinese architecture in the nineteenth century by Western travellers and visitors generally remained negative, with few exceptions. This was in great contrast to the eighteenth century, when the first reports about Chinese architecture changed the idea of landscape gardening in Europe and left impressions on the intellectual discourse about aesthetics and politics in the Age

16 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: XIII–XVII 17 Ibid: 277–278. 18 Lessing/Othmer, 1912. English translation by Othmer see Lessing/Othmer, 1914. 19 For the aspects of modular culture in China see Ledderose, 2000. He also included a chapter in his study about the modular system in timber construction, mainly based on the studies of Liang Sicheng and Japanese examples. But, like Liang and other Chinese researchers, he does not include the idea of space. 20 Werner, 1883: 134. For a critical reflection on the expedition see Suffa-Friedel, in Kuo Heng-yü (ed.), 1987: 57–70. 21 Werner, 1883: 146.



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of Enlightenment, especially with the publications of William Chambers (1723–1796).22 The German architect Gottfried Semper (1803–1879) wrote very positively about Chinese architecture in his book on style, published in 1860, in which he referred to the publication of Chambers.23 Semper had never been to China and his depiction is in strong contrast to visitors such as Reinhold Werner. But Werner was not alone in his negative perception of Chinese architecture. The German port builder Gustav Ludwig Hummel worked around 1900 in Whampoa, east of Guangzhou. He published a book about Chinese culture with reference to architecture, which he evaluated as miserable:24 The architecture of the Chinese is far behind the European countries; his principle is to build two side walls on which crossbeams rest, and hold the roof. […] A big Chinese city offers nothing for the eye of the foreign visitor; magnificent churches, stately palaces, as we are used to see in Europe are missing; instead of wide streets and large squares, the Chinese city consists of very narrow alleyways and has only relatively small spaces in front of temples.

He only saw one positive thing: ‟Pagodas are the most tasteful buildings of the Chinese.”25 One of the exceptions from the generally negative accounts in the nineteenth century came from Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890), a German businessman and a pioneer in archaeology. He visited Beijing in 1865 and wrote – like the others – about his disappointment with the appearance of Chinese cities and monuments in general. Schliemann accused the administration of the Qing government of neglecting the historic buildings and demanded the demolition of the Forbidden City, which he called the ‟biggest prison on earth”. However, he also visited temples (the Temple of Confucius and Yonghe Lamasery) and found the architecture outstanding, but in bad condition.26 His criticism focused especially on the neglected appearance and lack of maintenance, but accepted the architectonic concept as interesting. It is interesting to note that the absence of maintenance was at least partly a result of military action by Anglo-French troops in 1860 and the resultant disorder in Beijing. The generally rather negative perception of China and Chinese culture in the early years of twentieth century in the West is expressed by the German architect Friedrich Mahlke in 1914 in the following assumption about the whole culture: ‟The observation that a certain stasis in all things through the centuries is clear.”27 Boerschmann, however, wrote two years earlier: ‟Nothing is more erroneous than to speak of China as fossilized and ready to fall into pieces mentally, morally, or even politically. The unity of culture of yesterday and yet of to-day has welded the people and keeps the nation strong.” And he continued a few lines later with his ideas: One imposing conception of the universe is the mainstay of all Chinamen, a conception so comprehensive that it is key to defining all expressions in life – trade, intercourse, customs, religion, poetry, and especially fine arts and architecture. They reveal in nearly every work of art the universe and its ideas. The visible forms are the reflection of the divine.28

With his thorough conception for the study of architecture, embedded in the cultural–religious context of China in late Qing Dynasty, Boerschmann tried to depict more than just technical aspects of craft or simply document buildings. He did not allow himself to think negatively about the current state of the buildings or cities, but instead hoped to reveal the integral aspects of archi-

22 See for reference Weiss, 1997. 23 Semper, 1860. 24 Hummel, 1900. 25 Ibid: 28/29. 26 Schliemann’s book was first only published in French, La Chine et le Japon au temps présent, Paris 1867. The German version came out more than hundred years later. Schliemann, 1995: 29/30. 27 Mahlke, 1912: 400. 28 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 542.

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tectural culture in a positive way, as part of the cultural practice of the people that had continued throughout the centuries, and had followed the same principles. In his first memorandum (Denkschrift) in 1905 Boerschmann mentioned that the cultural historian had to cooperate with the Sinologist, especially because of the complicated meaning of specific terms in the Chinese language. To understand the architecture, he claimed, it would not only be necessary to research texts, but also – in fact to a much greater degree – to research the spatial arrangement of buildings. ‟The spirit of the time and the people is laid down in the buildings […]. For the time being we abandon research in pure tectonic and historical architectural mysteries […].”29 Already here, as early as 1905, he advocated ignoring the construction of the timber halls, which seemed completely incomprehensible to him based on the knowledge of the time. To display the ‟monumental movement of Buddhism in China”, he argued, it was necessary to study the temples in their layout and spatial arrangement. In the memorandum he further highlighted the specific meaning of Chinese architecture for European art history and the understanding of the connections between Greece, Asia Minor, Assyria, India and Tibet with the central area of the Far East. He followed the British missionary and Sinologist Joseph Edkins, who had already written in 1889 about the exchanges between the Far East, Persia and Greece, but Boerschmann demanded proof, to be obtained via fieldwork.30 The adaptation and inclusion of foreign motifs in Chinese architecture seemed very clear to Boerschmann, especially in the Buddhist culture, where he saw elements that recalled Greek examples, such as the form of some columns, or ideas in construction or ornament. In his published work, he speculated here and there about such connections, but never focused on the issue directly.31 Although later in life Boerschmann befriended Albert Grünwedel, who had written about this transfer in the case of Buddhist cultural relics found in the caves of Turfan, he never referred to Grünwedel’s findings. Altogether Boerschmann saw research in Chinese architecture as an enormous task that needed time and money to produce lasting results. From the beginning he believed that his work could only serve as a basis for further research, and proposed documenting some old and simple cult buildings, for example temples to the gods of war, heaven, earth and the like, to achieve an initial understanding of the area. These examples could shed light onto the ‟old natural religions” of the Chinese and their ancestor worship in a simplified way. This would lead, he said, almost automatically to Taoism, Buddhism and the most complex Lama temples. Boerschmann argued that in the same way as the national economy had become a world economy and that national history had become world history in the early twentieth century, it would be necessary to expand the idea of culture and art history from Europe to the rest of the world.32 On one hand this seems a thoroughly anti-national conception of architectural history, one which he, however, contrasted with his statement that this field would be discovered by German energy and resources. He saw Germany as in a race with the interests of other imperialist nations in China, such as the French in the field of archaeology, the British in economic areas and the Americans in many other scientific fields. He claimed architecture as the field that should become the domain of German research. The results, however, he wrote, should help to lift Chinese culture to the level of other world cultures. In fact, bringing Chinese architecture to the level of other ancient classical architectures like that of Greece, Rome, Egypt or the Middle East, was his central aim. Although Boerschmann wrote many memorandums, published papers and books, he never produced a clear concept about how he selected the projects for documentation. Where should he start and what could be the leading idea to follow? Where would he find the important build-

29 The memorandum published in the newspaper Kölnische Volkszeitung in 1905 was reprinted in EB, Putuo, 1911: IX. All further quotes without references in this chapter are from the same source. 30 Edkins, 1889/90: 274. 31 The Chinese architect and historian Tong Jun wrote cursorily about the issue in 1938, depicting some aspects of the Hellenic world in earlier Chinese architecture. See Chuin Tung [Tong Jun], 1938: 410–417. 32 EB, Putuo, 1911: IX–XIII.



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ings? How could he identify them? These many unanswered – and unanswerable – questions led to the pragmatic solution of depicting all the active and interesting temples he encountered on his journey around the country. During his travels Boerschmann often stayed overnight in temples and therefore automatically had access to the subjects of his study. In the preface of the first book, under the subtitle ‟objectives and structure of the work” (Ziele und Aufbau des Werkes), he specified in 1911 some ideas that had already been suggested by the chosen series title, ‟The architecture and religious culture of the Chinese” (Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen), which underpinned his focus on both fields: the architecture and the religious culture. He saw both aspects as inextricably interconnected and hoped to find a system that would demonstrate far more than just the history of buildings, one that would demonstrate the religious, social and cultural fundamentals of an ancient world power. The question of how to define this approach in relation to other areas such as art history, religious study, ethnography or geography remained unanswered. As architect, he chose to focus on surveys, conducted during fieldwork – a logical decision in his profession. Boerschmann must have felt like a discoverer and obviously hoped the material he collected could be used as an archive of important buildings that would finally reveal the historic development of Chinese religious architecture. Up until then only Edkins had suggested a rough sub-division into three stylistic epochs: classical Chinese architecture, the post-Confucian style and Buddhist architecture.33 Such a classification did not help much in the work Boerschmann saw in front of him and in which he planned to play an important role. When Boerschmann set out on his first research trip in 1906 other German researchers had already presented results in related fields. The archaeologist Albert Grünwedel, for instance, discussed the connection between Greek and Greco-Buddhist art. He had led the first German expedition to Turfan in Xinjiang in 1902 and 1903.34 Joseph Dahlmann recommended Grünwedel’s earlier book on Buddhism in Tibet and Mongolia to Boerschmann in 1906.35 A second Turfan expedition was led by Albert von Le Coq (1860–1930), Grünwedel’s assistant at the Museum for Ethnology in Berlin. After a third expedition between 1907 and 1909 – the same time that Boerschmann was in China – Grünwedel published on the old Buddhist cult places in Chinese Turkestan.36 Boerschmann later became friends with Grünwedel, who translated some texts from Mount Wutai into German for him.37 His research into the Buddhist cave culture in Xinjiang and the transfer of concepts from one cultural sphere to another was of great interest to Boerschmann, as he mentioned several times, but had surprisingly little influence on his work. The German explorer Wilhelm Filchner (1877–1957) was also concerned with the issue of religion and temples. He visited Tibet and China between 1903 and 1905, and studied, among other things, the Kumbum Monastery in today’s Qinghai Province. His publication from 1906, with an introduction by Berthold Laufer, was probably unknown to Boerschmann when he set out for China in the same year.38 Filchner had visited the monastery in 1904 for one week and documented religious life, the buildings and some aspects of history.39 He illustrated the work with sketches, photos and maps. The photos are analysed with overlaid drawings and descriptions in the margins. Such a monographic work about the religious architecture of a Buddhist monastery was closest to Boerschmann’s own concept. The works of Grünwedel, Le Coq and Filchner supported the assumed connection between architecture and religion on the fringes of the Chinese empire, and

33 Edkins, 1889/90: 253–288. 34 Grünwedel, 1905. 35 Grünwedel, 1900. 36 Grünwedel, 1912. 37 A Tibetan description of Mount Wutai was translated by Grünwedel, but only published in 2012 by Walravens. This version was in Ernst Boerschmann’s archive. See Grünwedel, Eine tibetische Beschreibung der Wutai shan-Klöster, in EB, 2012: 61–94. 38 Filchner, 1906. 39 Filchner returned in 1920s to Kumbum and published a lengthy book about the monastery. This was known to Boerschmann and he referred to it in his later works. Filchner, 1933.

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Fig. 534: A depiction of the Lamaist temple in Kumbum by Filchner. He used a transparent overlay in the book to explain the different parts. (Filchner, 1906).

gave Boerschmann a reason to follow his idea of searching for relationships between architecture and culture on the basis of his own geometric surveys in the core provinces of the Chinese people.40 After Boerschmann arrived in Beijing in the winter of 1906, he pragmatically began an inventory of the city and its environs. His first tours led him around the capital and the nearby Western Hills, either by horse cart, sedan chair or on foot. The first short trip beyond the city brought him in the spring of 1907 to the Eastern Qing Tombs 125 kilometres northeast of the capital. The second trip took him to the royal summer resort of Chengde, 230 kilometres from Beijing. The third trip led for the first time to an area outside of the direct influence of the capital. He walked via the Western Qing Tombs (130 km) to Mount Wutai (another 360 km) and then a further 200 kilometres to the railway station in Baoding. From there he travelled 500 kilometres by train to Kaifeng in Henan Province and continued by boat the 400 kilometres to Jinan in Shandong Province. The round trip through Shandong Province from Jinan via Tai’an, Yanzhou, Jining and Feicheng involved a distance of between 500 and 600 kilometres. From Jinan he took the train to Qingdao and continued by boat via Shanghai to Hangzhou, Ningbo and the island of Mount Putuo, before returning to Beijing in spring 1908. The logistics for the long walks with heavy equipment and the in places difficult paths

40 In the unpublished second volume about pagodas, Boerschmann also included the Kumbum Monastery, using Filchner’s material.



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Fig. 535: Ernst Boerschmann’s route around the country between December 1906 and July 1909 based on a map of the time. A: Buddhist Mount Wutai, B: Buddhist Mount Emei, C: Buddhist Mount Jiuhua, D: Buddhist Mount Putuo, E: Taoist Northern Mount Heng (Northern Peak), F: Taoist Mount Hua (Western Peak), G: Taoist Mount Song (Centre Peak), H: Taoist Mount Tai (Eastern Peak), I: Taoist Southern Mount Heng (Southern Peak). 1: Beijing, 2: Chengde, 3: Kaifeng, 4: Qufu, 5: Taiyuan, 6: Xi’an, 7: Chengdu, 8: Chongqing, 9: Changsha, 10: Guilin, 11: Guangzhou, 12: Fuzhou, 13: Ningbo, 14: Hangzhou, 15: Suzhou. (© EK).

made the journey an adventure. Boerschmann always travelled with a cook and an interpreter, and for the walks he employed bearers or sometimes used horses or donkeys, which he organised locally. When Boerschmann first set out, he expressed to his superiors the view that research in northern China would enable him to explain the general concept of Chinese architecture. While on the road, he understood that regional differences would challenge this assumption. During the trip Boerschmann articulated a new goal – to visit Shanxi again and continue to Shaanxi and Sichuan Provinces, in order to understand the architectural vocabularies of the entire Chinese empire. After the first trips, he realised that the initial goal of providing a general interpretation of Chinese architecture would only be possible after a general inventory of the major monuments in the country had been made. At that point no list of historic monuments was available. According to the preface in his second book (about memorial temples), he had planned to create such a list.41 The China Monument Society, under the directorship of the American journalist Frederick McCormick, published

41 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914: VI. However, his statement cannot be checked and his name was not listed as member of the Society.

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Fig. 536: On the overland trips all the equipment was carried on mules. Here on the way to Mount Wutai Boerschmann was accompanied by the German post officer from Beijing. It was the only route Boerschmann travelled with another foreigner. (Unknown photographer 1907, BL, 1923: 68).

a list in 1912 with the intention of preventing further vandalism by foreign collectors and Chinese looters.42 McCormick’s list was based on references provided by foreigners, mainly missionaries. Boerschmann deeply regretted that during his time in China between 1906 and 1909 he had never met with a Chinese official who showed an interest in establishing a monument preservation agency. It is also doubtful that he talked much to craftsmen, Feng Shui masters or carpenters, because he believed that the surveys would bring the concepts of traditional architecture to the light in a ‟scientific” way. Today we may wonder why he never had the idea of searching for those who were in charge of construction in order to gain fundamental knowledge about the built heritage. But in the late Qing Dynasty architecture was not a topic for the elite, and craft-related works, organised into guilds, did not belong to the classical arts. For Boerschmann it seemed that the fundamentals of architecture could only be found on-site, with the related history available in local gazettes. As a foreigner he most probably also had problems getting reliable information in the field of crafts, where the members of guilds traditionally kept the fundamentals of their trade secret.43 Before Boerschmann went to China in 1906, he recorded some vague ideas about how to work and where to begin for his supervisors at the Foreign Office. He was well informed about earlier researchers and their tours around the country. The German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen, who arrived in China in 1868 just after the Taiping Rebellion, and conducted research in geography and geology, became an inspiration to Boerschmann. Richthofen travelled on seven routes across the country. In 1871 he left Beijing on his last trip via Taiyuan in Shanxi along the Fen River, crossed over to Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, went across Qinling and the Daba Mountains to Chengdu, from where he planned to travel to Guangzhou. But Richthofen was robbed just after leaving Chengdu and continued via Chongqing on the Yangtze River to Shanghai, from where he

42 McCormick, 1912: 129–188. Foreigners organised the China Monuments Society as a committee in Beijing in 1908. After a first inventory, made by the members in the different provinces, a list of 374 monuments was published in the article. However, it was only a list of temples and monuments and gave no further information. 43 A brilliant account of the building industry in late Imperial China is given by Ruitenbeek, 1993.



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Fig. 537: On many occasions Boerschmann travelled with boats on the rivers. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

returned to Germany in 1872.44 Following Ferdinand von Richthofen’s route, Boerschmann gave the destinations from Beijing via Taiyuan (by train, 520 km), and along the Fen River and then to Xi’an (on foot, 630 km). Like Richthofen 35 years earlier, he walked across the Qingling Mountains to Chengdu (910 km), from where he continued the sixty kilometres to the water engineering works in Dujiangyan by sedan chair. From there Boerschmann walked south via Mount Emei to Leshan (more than 300 km), from where he went by boat on the Min River to Yibin (160 km). He then walked north to Zigong and back to the Jangtze River in Luzhou (200 km). Here Boerschmann took the boat again, continuing on the Yangtze River to Chongqing (200 km). He kept going by boat with several stops via Yichang to Changsha (1,300 km). The distance between Changsha via Pingxian to Southern Mount Heng and further to Guilin was again almost 1,000 kilometres, which he mostly covered on foot. The last distance from Guilin to Guangzhou (roughly 700 km) was covered by boat. The whole trip added up to about 6,000 kilometres, of which he travelled around 500 by train, 2,200 by boat and more than 3,000 kilometres on foot. Walking through the country, taking measurements on-site, recording oral history and collecting documents formed his general approach, which Boerschmann used to create the later drawings and depictions. The building history of temples or individual halls was omitted on the excuse that it was being left for later classification. In the last book, on pagodas (1931), he began with dating the buildings on the basis of reference material, partly from fellow researchers, partly taken from the analyses of his collected data. Although he was aware that he was covering, in part, other scientific areas such as religious studies, ethnography, anthropology and art history, he never made any attempt to adopt the methodology from these fields of research. Instead, Boerschmann hoped that compiling a series of drawings based on his own surveys would allow a classification according to form and spatial order. In this way he hoped to create a growing archive which would finally allow the expected classification on the basis of drawings rather than on construction or miscellaneous written records.

44 Kolb, in Zögner, 1983: 87–99.

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Exploring the sacred mountains in search of religious architecture In historic sources many mountains are listed as sacred in China.45 Among the most important, the Five Great Mountains or Five Sacred Mountains have been subject to pilgrimages by emperors throughout the ages. They are placed according to the five cardinal directions of Feng Shui (East Great Mountain – Mount Tai; West Great Mountain – Mount Hua; North Great Mountain – North Mount Heng; South Great Mountain – South Mount Heng; Centre Great Mountain – Mount Song). Old Taoist places of worship dominated these five mountains, but Buddhism was mounting a challenge, as Boerschmann recorded. Four further mountains were dedicated to Buddhism and called The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism. They are allocated again in the four cardinal directions (east – Mount Putuo; west – Mount Emei; north – Mount Wutai; south – Mount Jiuhua). Boerschmann interpreted the allocation of the cardinal directions to the nine mountains by two religions as an occupation of strategic locations to determine the sphere of influence by the spiritual leadership.46 Therefore he was absolutely certain that on those nine mountains he would find what he was searching for: the principles of Chinese architecture and their relation to religious culture.

45 Hahn, n.y.: 2. 46 It was common in that period to speak about the nine sacred mountains. However, the Buddhist venerated the four sacred Buddhist mountains mentioned. The Taoists also have an additional four sacred mountains: Mount Wu-

Fig. 538: The location of the nine sacred mountains of China based on a map of today. A: Buddhist Mount Wutai, B: Buddhist Mount Emei, C: Buddhist Mount Jiuhua, D: Buddhist Mount Putuo, E: Taoist Northern Mount Heng (Northern Peak), F: Taoist Mount Hua (Western Peak), G: Taoist Mount Song (Centre Peak), H: Taoist Mount Tai (Eastern Peak), I: Taoist Southern Mount Heng (Southern Peak). (© EK).



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When Boerschmann started his research, not much was known in the West about Chinese local chronicles or gazettes, about relationships between places and territories or religious geography in general. For this reason he collected all the records he could obtain in temples and official administrations. Boerschmann studied the most impressive buildings in the ‟most important cult places” and in the centres of spiritual and economic life in the same way ‟as we know it from our own culture”. As he said, the ‟description of details about the life of priests in the temples and on the sacred mountains, the worship, the relationship of the buildings to the close and surrounding area, as well as the historic position” was meant to add to the collection for a sourcebook about China.47 With the thoroughly modern German concept of focusing on spatial arrangements, which probably developed unconsciously out of his determination to focus on the religious use, Boerschmann began his inventory. His training as an architect obviously led to the study of Qing and Ming Dynasty buildings, which demonstrated the most recent developments in architectural composition, and contrasted with the archaeological focus of researchers such as Grünwedel or Le Coq. Fur-

dang, Mount Qingcheng, Mount Qiyun and Mount Longhu. Of the last four Boerschmann only visited Mount Qingcheng in Sichuan. The Five Great Mountains were often called Taoist sacred mountains and together with the four Buddhist sacred mountains they formed the group of nine sacred mountains. See, for example, the book published after a journey in 1935–6 by the two artists Mullikin and Hotchkis, The Nine Sacred, 1973. 47 EB, Putuo, 1911: XIV.

Fig. 539: The “true forms” of the five sacred peaks of Taoism in a rubbing from a stela. The Eastern Peak of Mount Tai is shown in the upper right, the Southern Peak of Mount Heng in the lower right, the Central Peak of Mount Song in the centre, the Western Peak of Mount Hua in the lower left and the Northern Peak of Mount Heng in the upper left. (Chavannes, 1910: Fig.56).

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Fig. 540: The symbolism of the number five applied to the Five Sacred Peaks and their attributed elements. Heng Shan: winter, night, north, Mercury, Black Ruler, water; Tai Shan: spring, morning, wood, east, Jupiter, Green Ruler; Heng Shan: summer, midday, fire, south, Mars, Red Ruler; Hua Shan: autumn, evening, metal, west, Venus, White Ruler; Song Shan: earth, centre, Saturn, Yellow Ruler. Ernst Boerschmann wrote: “These five elements built with the dualism, the trinity, the square and the circle the allegory of the cycle of all things as the basis of the Chinese Weltanschauung”. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



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Fig. 541: In this sketch ­Boerschmann identified the ‟helping mountains” of the Five Sacred Peaks during the Qing Dynasty. Each has one helping mountain, only Mount Hua in the West has three. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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Fig. 542: A depiction of Northern Mount Heng, drawn by Boerschmann’s student Woo Shaoling. Ernst Boerschmann visited the mountain in 1934. (© Woo, PAB). Fig. 543: The library at the great temple of Buddhist Mount Jiuhua, which Boerschmann visited in 1934. (© Boerschmann 1934, glass slide PAB).

thermore, the contemporary religious practice was based on the conceptual framework of the Qing Empire, making it essential to focus on the still-vibrant culture and on the spaces in which this practice was performed. From a conceptual point of view he studied several layers of dependencies of spatial arrangement: first, the symbolic structure of the whole country or the Chinese world order between heaven and earth, as mediated by the emperor; second, the regional topography and its meaning in religious practice; third, the structure of cities and their integration into the region with religious devices as tamers of natural and supernatural forces; fourth, the temple as a sacred spatial effigy of rituals; and, finally, the objects, best presented by his study of pagodas, again in the relationship to the environment. The intermingling of Buddhist and Taoist religious thought, philosophy, Confucian traditions and imperial power and worship sometimes made it difficult to explain or discern the meaning and the historic development in the context of his observations. However, the decision to work with measured drawings made Boerschmann’s approach unique and gave him the opportunity to escape the theoretical considerations. Boerschmann never revealed when he got the idea to visit all nine sacred mountains. In the first memorandum in 1905, he left the topic out. Most probably the idea came about when he decided to continue his studies in western and southern China, after his experiences at Buddhist Mount Wutai, Taoist Mount Tai and Buddhist Mount Putuo in 1907. We only can imagine that he saw the great Imperial Road from Beijing to Xi’an and further on to Chengdu as the most logical way to go west – and on a route already taken by Ferdinand von Richthofen and others. On the way he had to pass sacred Taoist Mount Hua in Shaanxi Province, and Buddhist Mount Emei lay just south of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. By travelling further south via the Yangtze River and the city of Changsha, he came across Taoist (southern) Mount Heng in Hunan Province. Only Buddhist Mount Jiuhua in Anhui Province, the central Taoist Mount Song in Henan Province and the northern Taoist Mount Heng near Beijing were omitted (he visited these three mountains on his trip in 1934). Between 1907 and 1908 he toured three Buddhist and three Taoist sacred mountains. The idea of focusing on both Buddhist and Taoist religious meaning and their symbolic occupation



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of mountains for religious purposes revealed the overall concept based on the geography of the country and the claims of the main religious directions in China. In addition, the sovereign of imperial China claimed the Mandate of Heaven and had adopted Confucianism as the state doctrine, and this was venerated in many temples all over the country. In codified rituals and prayers, the emperor had to negotiate between Heaven and Earth at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing or, for instance, at sacred Mount Tai. Everything was highlighted with symbolic objects, colours, numbers and, equally important, natural geographic positions. From the strong centralised imperial concept underlying the Mandate of Heaven, to the regional religious centres around the sacred mountains, down to the local religious geography and the practice of Feng Shui intermingled with folk religion, Boerschmann detected a fascinating conceptual power, his understanding of which formed and transformed his approach during his work again and again. His most important goal therefore became to uncover the sensitive religious dependency, from small local habits to large state rituals, and determine their symbolic expression in architecture and planning. Boerschmann’s comprehensive holistic approach placed him between all possible specialised positions of architectural and art history, Sinology, religion studies, ethnography and geography. He was not a specialist in any of these fields – even his architectural education was geared towards life as a practising architect. His experience as an architect for the military had not given him further skills in the field of research. His identity as a practising architect guided his interest and his documentation methods. His focus on contemporary buildings of the Qing Dynasty can at least be understood from the limited knowledge of architectural history and historiography as well as from the fact that the relatively new buildings were being maintained and in good order, and thus represented the contemporary thought behind the form. But due to the fact that the empire still performed the rituals in annual circles and local mandarins actively replaced those temples destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion in 1850s and 1860s, Boerschmann could also document reconstructed buildings, which were soon afterwards destroyed or reused for other purposes by the new political power after the revolution in 1911–12. Boerschmann had the rare chance to document architecture in transformation that displayed new (possibly Western) concerns, as shown in the reconstructed halls for the memorial temple of the legendary sage-king Yao near Linfen. Boerschmann’s first book after his journey focused exclusively on the island of Mount Putuo, the Buddhist sacred mountain in the Hangzhou Bay area.48 At first it seems surprising that he began with an island, but with such an isolated place, he could grasp much better the arrangement in space and the meaning of the temples for the rituals in the larger context. Additionally he could cover a whole sacred Buddhist mountain and its architectural heritage. The other sacred mountains were much more complex and not as convenient to study. For example, in the case of Buddhist sacred Mount Wutai, Boerschmann continued his research, and his efforts to produce an accurate map depicting all the temples in the region, until the end of his life.49 At the time Boerschmann began with this work in a systematic way, little was known about Chinese architectural history, so in the religious centres he always looked for the most pristine and most valuable buildings. Despite all his efforts, he missed for instance the Foguang Temple from the Tang Dynasty at Mount Wutai during his research there in 1908. It was not until 1937 that Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin identified the oldest wooden buildings in that region.50 However, it was not only Boerschmann’s bad luck that made him miss these temple halls, which were more than one thousand years old, with their delicate timber construction while visiting the

48 EB, Putuo, 1911. 49 EB, Wutai, 2012: 11–45. Boerschmann listed more than 75 temples in his account, providing a short description of each with reference to the literature from which he had gleaned his information. In these accounts he gave a brief history for each temple with dates of founding, construction and reconstruction. The plan on the CD accompanying this publication shows the locations of the temples. Boerschmann never mentioned any builder or architect for the different temples. The Great Xiantong Monastery, which he documented very well, was built by Buddhist Master Builder Miaofeng. For reference see Puay-Peng Ho, 1996. 50 For a description of the fieldwork see Fairbank, 1994.

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region. He simply lacked the knowledge to identify them. Additionally he showed no interest in construction, studying contemporary rituals and spatial arrangements instead. For him the age of the venerated heroes or the foundation of a temple became the point of reference, and the age of the buildings was simply secondary. The symbolic transformation of deified heroes and their depiction in temples, their relationship on the sidelines of different religious directions and the religious practice in the spatial units studied laid the foundation for his later publications. This is especially true in the second book, on Gedächtnistempel, published in 1914. The chronology in the book is a mix of references to the biographical information of honoured men, the foundation dates of temples and the dates of the actual buildings he visited.51 The lasting value of his work is therefore not in the grouping along the chosen time sequences in the book, but in the documentation of religious buildings in the last years of the Qing Dynasty and recording how they were used in everyday practice. In 1910 and 1912 Boerschmann published two long articles, the first entitled ‟Architekturund Kulturstudien in China” (Chinese Architecture and its Relation to Chinese culture) and the second ‟Baukunst und Landschaft in China” (Architecture and landscape in China).52 With these two texts he defined his conceptual approach for the evaluation of the collected material. In the first article he wrote: ‟There are nine mountains in all, and the number satisfies the occult sense of the Chinese, who do not make any great distinction between the two classes of mountains, and speak of them as the five sacred and the four large famous mountains. They are the foci of religious thought and its manifestations.”53 In the second text he looked into the relationship of religion and the form of landscape for the first time. In several sub-chapters Boerschmann tried to give the reader an impression of the complicated relationships in his findings and how they could reveal the underlying principles of Chinese architecture. One sub-chapter is called ‟Sacred mountains” (Heilige Berge). He began with: ‟It seems important to refer to the relationship between religion and the formation of the ground, because this gives us the key to a similar, but former, independent and real Chinese thought, namely of the sacred mountains.”54 He then referred to ‟five sacred mountains”, a central one surrounded by four others aligned to the main cardinal directions, and concluded that the number of five mountains meant the same as a central building surrounded by four pavilions as he had observed in the temples. The national dimensions of the landscape and the smaller dimensions of the layout of temples symbolically represented Boerschmann’s conceptual reflections: ‟The whole country is seen as a temple, we can speak of an architecture of the country.”55 He exemplified his thought that this concept was projected on each of the mountains and created an image of the Chinese world system, accessible from four sides, according to the cardinal points. The sacred mountains became the destination of countless pilgrims and were therefore covered by numerous large and small temples. At the foot of each of the three mountains he visited, Boerschmann found impressive ‟entrance” temples that were directly related to the peak. As a typical example he named Mount Tai in Shandong Province, which had a height of 1,540 metres above sea level. A few kilometres south, in Tai’an, he found a huge temple within a rectangular wall, the perimeter measuring 1,400 metres. The four corners were topped by towers, and in the middle of each side was a gate aligned with the cardinal direction. The main axis of the temple stretched out to the south and was accompanied

51 EB, Gedächtnistempel, 1914. 52 The first was published in 1910 in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie under the title ‟Architektur- und Kulturstudien in China” and two years later reprinted in English with the title ‟Chinese Architecture and its Relation to Chinese Culture” in the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1911. Washington, D.C., 1912: 539–567. I will refer in the following to the English translation. The second was published in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 321–365. 53 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 559. 54 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 340. 55 Ibid: 341.



Exploring the sacred mountains in search of religious architecture 

 525

by several smaller temples, bridges and honour gates, and continued as the main axis of the city, which was also enclosed by a rectangular city wall. To the north the axis pointed almost straight to the highest peak of the sacred mountain. At the summit, in the temple for the Jade Emperor, the Emperor of the Eastern Peak (Mount Tai), was a popular and widely adored incarnation of the highest god, Shangdi, he wrote. This god was thought of as being at home in the highest mountains, ‟where heaven and earth touch each other”, and in the annual sacrifice the emperor prayed to him in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. But also in the lowlands, in the temple in Tai’an mentioned above, the adored deity was shown as the spirit of Mount Tai (Jade Emperor), ‟as a local epiphany, an emanation of that thought of a general god [Shangdi]. So these two [the Jade Emperor and Shangdi] remain in close interaction and reveal how much the landscape and nature itself becomes a religious substance through the work of architecture, and how much these three factors interact to enhance the effect.”56 In Boerschmann’s opinion, architecture and religion merged with the landscape and created a sacred network maintained in a hierarchical order under the rule of the emperor as negotiator between heaven and earth. In another sub-chapter of the same text Boerschmann discussed ‟The sacred Mount Emei” (Der heilige Berg Omishan) in Sichuan Province. Here Boerschmann explained that Mount Emei represented the western sacred Buddhist mountain: ‟It belongs to the group of the four Buddhist sacred mountains, each of them dedicated to one of the main Bodhisattvas, and together with the five old Chinese sacred mountains they add up to nine.”57 He continued with Mount Emei and his eastern reference, the island of Mount Putuo, dedicated to Bodhisattva Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy. Both mountains are located on the 30th parallel north, which, in Boerschmann’s opinion, was not a coincidence: ‟Their connecting line creates the spiritual axis across the whole country.” According to Boerschmann, each year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims came to Mount Emei because the Chinese thought of it as an outpost of Kunlun Mountain, the longest and most sacred mountain range in central Asia. The range starts at the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau and extends more than 3,000 kilometres to the North China plains. He found an inscription on the mountain which read, ‟here one feels the pulse of Kunlun”. On Mount Emei, Boerschmann witnessed how close the monks felt to the gods. He had a similar experience with the priests on the island of Mount Putuo. For Boerschmann, the idea of a spiritual axis across the country seemed further enhanced by the fact that the huge Yangtze River passed close to Mount Emei and emptied into the sea not far from Mount Putuo.58 With such speculations Boerschmann tried to explain the idea of location in the context of the natural features of the whole country. In the first publications and writings Boerschmann never presented a clear conceptual description of his approach towards architecture, apart from the focus on venerated religious places. He simply hoped to find the most important buildings. Boerschmann was quite aware of how ambitious his goal of researching the whole architectural culture in China in a systematic way was. He also struggled to define a lasting system for inventory and classification. In many of his publications he mentioned the provisional character of the results and that the foremost goal was to collect and save as much material as possible, then to compare and analyse it, in order to find guiding principles. With little to start from in the beginning, it seemed a good idea to focus on the most important religious places and their architecture. The documentation of floor plans, he hoped, would allow a comparison and a starting point for examining further formal and structural relations. The spatial affinity on the large scale was enhanced by his observation ‟that industry and trade serve to strengthen and deepen the religious sentiment, because everything is brought into relation with the forces of nature which are then personified as gods.”59 His idea of space was uncon-

56 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 341. 57 Ibid: 353. The Bodhisattvas of Mounts Putuo, Emei, Jiuhua and Wutai are Guanyin, Puxian, Dizang Wang, and Wenshu respectively. 58 Ibid: 354. 59 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 559.

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

sciously based on the relational social and cultural-religious determination as described by Mark Edward Lewis for the Warring States Period and the first imperial era in China.60 Lewis introduced five different scales that determined the spatial concept in early imperial China: the human body, the household, cities and capitals, regions and customs, and world and cosmos. Whereas Lewis critically analysed ancient texts and artefacts, a hundred years earlier Boerschmann developed his ideas from the experiences he had while travelling and from his specific preconceptions, which led him to look at and interpret such relational aspects in the everyday culture of the people. Boerschmann’s approach was not academic, but based on recorded observations of a still active cultural practice. The construction of space as posited by Boerschmann was analysed from experience and surveys, interpreted on the scale of the world order, the relational space of the city, the symbolic aspect of the object – represented by the pagoda – and the spatial arrangement in the temple. In his introduction Lewis mentioned the idea of relational space developed by the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), which he employed in his study. Boerschmann never mentioned such conceptual ideas, but, consciously or not, referred to the idea of relational space as developed by Leibniz: I hold space to be something merely relative, as time is. Time is an order of successions. Space denotes, in terms of possibility, an order to things, which exist at the same time. […] I do not say that matter and space are the same thing. I only say there is no space where there is no matter, and that space in itself is not an absolute reality.61

In Boerschmann’s opinion the relational network across China proper developed over time, and by the end of the Qing Dynasty a dense grid of cultural-religious dependencies tied the country together under the umbrella of the Chinese world order. By revealing this network, he hoped to depict the structure and power of the Chinese society and thereby uncover the mystery of Chinese religious architecture and its dependency on the larger frame of reference. The place of objects in space and time seemed to Boerschmann to be determined by religion and based in the parameters provided by a variety of practices, including the state cult of ancient gods, the veneration of heroes, Buddhist and Taoist religious convictions, folk religious practice and age-old philosophical credos, which in mutual dependency had formed the grid of what Boerschmann saw as the backdrop for a conditioned architectural development. He believed that the history was inscribed in the landscape and laid down in architecture, which in turn added to the meaning and the socio-religious network as a common expression of a holistic view of the world.

The layout of the city in relation to the landscape In his early publications Boerschmann named some cities as outstanding examples of the close connection between nature and man-made urban forms. As examples he named the capital Beijing as the seat of the emperor, and Qufu, the ancient hometown of Confucius. Further examples included Yibin at the Jangtze River in Sichuan Province or Guilin in Guangxi Province. In the case of Beijing Boerschmann saw the position of the city in the plains and the surrounding mountain ranges in the north as ideal. He named the two rivers east and west of the city ‟according to the regulations”, without giving further details about which regulations he meant. We can assume that he was referring to Feng Shui, which he never wrote about in detail, but which he knew played a major role for the location of buildings and cities. Boerschmann was obviously not familiar with the book published on the subject of Feng Shui in 1878 by the German missionary Ernst Johann Eitel (1838–1908).62 However, he studied in Berlin before the First World War with Sinologist Johann

60 Lewis, 2006: 1. 61 Quote after Lewis, 2006: 1. 62 Eitel, 1878.



The layout of the city in relation to the landscape 

 527

Fig. 544: A sketch of urban concepts in China by Boerschmann. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

de Groot, who in 1918 published his book on ‟Universism”, in which a full chapter on the practice of Feng Shui is included. But Boerschmann never referred to the work of de Groot in this respect.63 The location of temples in the Western Hills near Beijing, especially the Temple of Azure Clouds, was another topic Boerschmann studied. In the case of this temple he found it worth mentioning that the axis was not aligned in a north-south direction, but followed the topographical preconditions of the place in the direction of the city. It seemed to him that this geometric relationship made the temple a special place among the temples around the city. However, he failed to mention that Dajue Temple (investigated by Heinrich Hildebrand) and Jietai Temple (investigated by Fritz

63 de Groot, 1918. The last chapter is about the practice of Feng Shui (13. Chapter: 364–384).

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 545: A traditional map of Kaifeng from 1907, printed on thin textile. (PAB).

Jobst), both located in the Western Hills, also faced east-west. Furthermore he listed the location of the tombs for the emperors as related to the overall topography of the region. To the north were the tombs of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), and to the east and to the west the tombs of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911). For Boerschmann, the relationship of topography, the course of rivers and the location of tombs and temples in the regional context, gave an idea of the Chinese craftsmen’s awareness of the importance of natural features. In the context of the Ming tombs, Boerschmann spoke of the ‟architecture of horizontal projection […] with monumental effect”. To describe the spirit of such design concepts, he suggested thinking about the ‟architecture of the landscape” on a huge scale.64

64 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 334.



The layout of the city in relation to the landscape 

 529

Fig. 546: A modern map of Kaifeng published in 1931. (PAB).

The relationship between the city and its environment that Boerschmann was interested in changed rapidly after the revolution. In the 1930s the first book reflecting this – entitled In Search of Old Peking – was published.65 The authors documented the changes that had taken place in the last twenty years, because they felt that ‟vandalism” and the ‟indifference […] of the authorities” had led to a great loss of important buildings and monuments within the city. But even worse was the inventory outside the walls: ‟Between the outer walls of Peking and the Western Hills and beyond – a stretch of some twenty miles – what were at one time exquisite beauty spots, are now a wilderness of weeds and ruins.”66 The delicate ancient web of relationships, which Boerschmann was

65 Arlington/Lewisohn, 1935. 66 Ibid: vi.

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 547: Five city maps from Shandong Province, prepared to indicate the location of temples and pavilions in relation to the city wall. (© Boerschmann, PAB). Clockwise from top left: Qingyangshu, Yanshou, Dongping, Wenshang, Jining.



The layout of the city in relation to the landscape 

Fig. 548: Three sketch plans of cities in Shandong Province. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 531

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 549: The sketch of the southeast part of the city of Zitong in Sichuan Province with the location of temples and pagodas in the surroundings. (PAB, © Boerschmann).

Fig. 550: A sketch of the location of the city of Chaohua amidst the topography in Sichuan Province with the indication of his own route. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



The layout of the city in relation to the landscape 

 533

Fig. 551: Six honorary gates in Shandong Province. They are located in the landscape or in the streets in the town. They memorialise important people and act as agent between wilderness and urban structure. (© Boerschmann, CA, 1925: 280/281).

trying to uncover, had gone with the empire. Later researchers studied the urban form of Beijing in depth, both as a capital and as a spiritual symbol.67 A very specific and thorough monumental study of ‟temples and city life” in Ming and Qing Dynasty Beijing was prepared by Susan Naquin.68 However, almost all of the named depictions are based on ancient texts and documents; there was no attempt to study the location of buildings on the basis of measured geographical, urban or architectural plans. The one exception are the urban plans in Wu Liangyong’s book, for instance of Song and Tang Dynasties Luoyang. There the city in the plains is not precisely oriented in a north– south direction, but the main axis refers in the north to Mount Mang and in the south to the valley between two mountain peaks of Mount Longmen, which positions the urban layout according to the given natural preconditions.69 In Boerschmann’s times taking measurements on such a huge scale was impossible. But as an architect, he thought that the measured plans were the only way to understand the intellectual concept of the integral urban and architectural thinking of a still pre-industrial society. However, he never drew a full plan of any city, the dependencies he documented, or the location of religious buildings within them. In the late 1950s in Germany, the Chinese researcher Peng Tso-chih (1921– 1996) attempted, with the dissertation Chinesischer Städtebau (Chinese urban design), to analyse the location of important state buildings in the case of Beijing on the basis of geometrical rela-

67 For instance Wheatley, 1971; or Wheatley, 1975: 147–158; or Meyer, 1976; or Meyer, 1977: 74–77. Wright, 1977: 33–74. There are further many other publications about the development of capital cities without a specific focus on religious relations. See for instance Wu Liangyong, 1985 or Shatzman Steinhardt, 1999. 68 Naquin, 2000. 69 Wu Liangyong, 1985: 39.

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 552: The geometric relation of the city form of Beijing and the location of important buildings as suggested by Peng. (© Peng, 1961: 54).

tions.70 He discussed the issue of Feng Shui and the location of buildings in the capital. In one illustration he used the urban layout of the city to show diagonal connecting lines intersecting points – and buildings – of interest. Peng used the idealised corner points of the city wall as well as the city gates as reference points and claimed that important buildings were placed at the intersections of the lines. He proposed considering the location of important royal and ritual buildings and the location of the city gates as an interactive system that was used to determine the overall layout of the city. However, the system did not work perfectly, since the corners of the city are not exactly perpendicular. Although his model for the location of important buildings provides some important ideas to consider, it lacked the proof that could have been provided by exact measurements made on-site.71 Additionally, it is a much simpler model than that imagined by Boerschmann, who saw the topography and hydrography as especially important references for the location of religious buildings. They never relate symmetrically to any existing man-made concept, but react to the given natural features and the significance of existing venerated places. From an outsider’s perspective, the location of temples and pagodas seemed random, but Boerschmann was convinced he could unravel a hidden network of relational structures by documenting everything related to religious veneration in the context of architecture and urban form. As another example to show the location and the relationship of urban form and natural environment, Boerschmann choose Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. The layout of the city and the surrounding landscape with the memorials to Confucius seemed fully integrated into the – completely flat – landscape. This made the connection between urban form and given landscape even more

70 P’eng, 1961: 5–80. See also Peng, 1972: 124–129 and Peng, 1984: 109–116. 71 P’eng, 1961: 54.



The layout of the city in relation to the landscape 

 535

Fig. 553: With airplane travel in China, aerial photographs became available in the 1920s. Ernst Boerschmann only once flew over Guangzhou in 1933, but he was very interested in such photographs. Here, on a postcard from 1927, the Beihai Park in Beijing is seen. To the top right is the Forbidden City. (Postcard 1927, collection Walter Frey, courtesy of Friederike Assandri).

remarkable. In the words of Boerschmann, ‟the location of city, temple, tomb and sacred way becomes even more impressive as soon as one realises the inner and outer connections” of the whole. In a rough sketch of the urban layout, recorded by him on-site, he showed the 650-metre-long temple of Confucius inside the city, the more than 300-metre-long axis of the front gate, lined with cypress trees outside the city gate in prolongation of the axis of the temple, and the more than 1.5-kilometre-long ‟sacred way” in the north of the city, again lined with old cypress trees, leading to the necropolis of Confucius. The sacred grove, with its thousands of graves of Confucius’ descendants among dense trees, impressed Boerschmann. The location of the sage’s tomb seemed to have been intentionally placed ‟almost on the same axis” as the temple in the city. The urban form with its temples and the relation to the elements of nature in the form of ‟sacred” promenades with ancient trees ‟proves in the most vivid way the habit of the Chinese, to connect landscape and architecture with religious ideas to a whole, where natural terms are not given easily. The area around Qufu is totally flat and shows little rise in the ground.”72 Further proof of Boerschmann’s notion of interpreting each location in a religious light was provided by inexact drawings recorded with improper means. On his own, he was unable to do better, but he was also prejudiced about the geometric relations based on religion or thoughts of veneration. The impreciseness he recorded in the geometric relationships enhanced his preconception of ‟hidden” or ‟sacred” principles and reinforced his belief about the secret knowledge which was used to define the location of the single parts. Boerschmann always looked at it from a holistic perspective and clearly could not imagine that some of the decisions had been taken without a precise consideration of geometric relationships.

72 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 344.

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 554: Puzhou in Shanxi Province, shown in a depiction from 1750. According to Alfred Schinz the numbers show the following institutions: 1–7: administration, 8/9: examination and study halls, 10: Temple of Confucius, 11: Temple of the City God, 12: Bell Tower, 13: Drum Tower, 14: Temple of Guandi, 15: Temple of the Fire God, 16: Temple of the Horse King, 17: Temple of the Jade Emperor, 18: Temple of Chenyuan, 19: Temple of Legendary Emperor Shun, 20: Tower to the God of Literature, 21: Pavilion for the Dragon King (rain), 22: Temple for Shennong (agriculture), 23: Altar to Hungry Ghosts, 24: Temple of Yu the Great. (Schinz, 409).

A further sub-chapter in his article about architecture and landscape in 1912 was entitled Städtebilder (city images). On the Yangtze River in Sichuan Boerschmann passed many harmonious townscapes where he saw ‟elements of a happy location enhanced by architecture”. As an ideal example he described the city of Yibin at the junction of the Min River and the Yangtze River. The city wall had impressive gates to the rivers, and in the southeast corner a graceful structure was dedicated to the God of Examinations and Literature (Kui Xing). In addition, a pagoda within the city wall unified the favourable influence of good Feng Shui and further temples embodied the opposing power to the actual ‟Feng Shui pagoda”, which was usually a tower to the southeast of the city, opposite the eastern or southern river. There were often further temples for Buddhist or Taoist deities, and additionally for famous men, as well as sacred stone reliefs, inscriptions on rocks, altars in rock caves and sacred groves. ‟The necessity to transfigure the beautiful site artistically and religiously can be seen especially in townscapes [and] layouts of the cities,”73 noted Boerschmann. As one of the ‟strangest cities in the world” he named Guilin, in Guangxi Province. He passed the city on his trip from Sichuan to Guangzhou in the early spring of 1909. On the basis of his collected material, he prepared a map showing the waterways, the strange karst cone mountain formations and the layout of the city. Together with the river, the cone shaped karst mountains in and around the city formed the smooth organic layout of the urban form, in strong contrast to the rigid grid of the cities in the northern plains. The use of the mountains as reference points for the

73 Ibid: 356.



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

 537

axis of important buildings in the city, and the location of temples, deities and rock caves, created a relationship between the natural environment and the religiously inspired cultural response of the inhabitants. He recorded a ‟Feng Shui pagoda” on a strange rock in the south of the city (most probably Elephant Trunk Hill with the Puxian Pagoda from the Ming Dynasty). Due to the fact that Bodhisattva Puxian had ridden an elephant, it seemed natural that he was associated with the rock at the corner of the city. Even though Boerschmann did not mention the story of Puxian and the elephant (perhaps he did not recognise it), he wrote: ‟With sure awareness the Chinese have brought their religious assumptions into accordance with the oddity of the given landscape.”74 On another occasion he noted: The Chinese playfully bring points into correlation and features of nature, rivers and mountains, separated from one another by miles, to unite them in the expression of some definite ideas. One of the most definite expressions of this prevailing Chinese idea of unity is given by their grouping of all buildings symmetrically around the axis of the meridian, the north and south line.75

However, the symmetry was not based on geometry, but rather on power and balance within the given regional context. In the overall urban layout, independent of whether it was based on a rigid grid or organic natural preconditions, Boerschmann detected a great effort made by the people to integrate the city with the location of specific buildings over time into a religious network. The competition between Buddhism and Taoism as well as with local folk religion and state rituals produced a meaningful relationship that was further enhanced by poems and literature. Boerschmann therefore saw the modular architecture as an almost neutral structure without its own meaning. The significance was provided by religious, spiritual and philosophical relationships and their embedding into the local, regional or imperial network. He posited that literature and poetry played an important role as negotiators between location, memory, imagination and religious interpretation. The form of the city could take different shapes, according to the given conditions on-site and the efforts made by religious groups, as well as the influence of given historical relations in the regional or national context. It was not the form that mattered, but the living basis for a rigid system of values embedded in the landscape around the city, which still left some space for individual development and variation. For Boerschmann the cultural achievement was found in the density of the delicate network within topography and religious interventions, established in a process of continuous dialogue over hundreds of years.

Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape The Chinese pagoda attracted Boerschmann’s curiosity from the beginning. In contrast to temple halls, which were mostly built in timber, the pagodas he saw were generally made from ashlar stone or brick. The durable materials suited his idea of charting their historic development much better. In his article ‟Baukunst und Landschaft” from 1912 a sub-chapter was dedicated to pagodas.76 Boerschmann noted that in Sichuan and in the southern part of Shanxi he had found ‟Feng Shui pagodas” and ‟Feng Shui pillars” in almost every village, sometimes even on every single estate.77 From his studies, he was able to distinguish between two kinds of pagodas: most of them belonged to the Buddhist temples and were at least partly used as relic chambers; others, which he

74 Ibid. 75 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 543. 76 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 358–360. 77 In 1925 he published a special article on Feng Shui pagodas and Feng Shui pillars. EB, in Asia Major 2.1925: 503– 530.

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 555: The Pearl River Delta in a regional map with the location of the pagodas along the rivers, as shown in Boerschmann’s book ‟Pagoden”. A: Canton, B: Pearl River, 1: Flower Pagoda in the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, 2: Red Mount Pagoda or Chigang Pagoda was build for geomantic purposes, 3: Pazhou Pagoda or Whampao Pagoda served both Buddhists and navigation on the river, 4: Lotus Pagoda, build in Ming Dynasty, served as an important navigation point in ancient times. Pazhou Pagoda, Chigang Pagoda and Lotus Pagoda are called the Three Pagodas of Guangzhou. (© EK, based on Pag, 1931: 186).

Fig. 556: A sketch map of the city of Guangzhou with the Bai Mountains to the north and a Feng Shui Pagoda on the river in the southeast. Around Bai Mountain was a huge necropolis. (© Boerschmann, EB, 1911).

had not found as often, were placed for Feng Shui reasons – to balance the verticality of Buddhist pagodas or the natural distinctions of the region. He found the most beautiful and ‟happiest location” for a city – according to the local Chinese people – in Fushun, a small town forty kilometres from Zigong on the Tuo River in Sichuan. Fushun was a rich commercial town, best known for its trade in salt. At least eight pagodas stood around the city on neighbouring hills. Uncounted pavilions and other buildings on important places gave further meaning to the landscape. Boerschmann asserted that the symbolic number of eight pagodas – with the city in the centre as number nine – ‟maintains the mythical-religious and artistic feeling of the Chinese”.78 Boerschmann interpreted the Chinese idea of culture as an interplay between a religious world-view and a purification in the works of art. In his eyes this was only possible by enhancing the artistic value of ‟city images” (Stadtbilder) in close relation to the natural preconditions of the surrounding environment. Nature and culture strengthened each other and were based, in his opinion, in the religious relations of the people with the soil.79 The location of pagodas therefore expressed the state of the network between the invisible spiritual forces and the cultural activity of the people with active religious rituals as social binders.

78 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 359. 79 Ibid: 354–358.



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

 539

Fig. 557: A photo of Pazhou Pagoda near the Pearl River. In ancient times its name was Sea Turtle Pagoda, one of the three most important pagodas in Guangzhou. The over 50 metre high tower originates from the Ming Dynasty. (© Unknown photographer, collection Boerschmann, courtesy of Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR).

Boerschmann observed the artistic inclusion of the ‟city image” in the surrounding nature and the religious interpretation of the relationship between both nature and the ‟city image”, especially along the coast of central and southern China. The rich change of forms between the mountains and the sea provided a natural location of cities. As an example Boerschmann took Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, and Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, to explain his ideas. In both cases he saw the pagodas as mediators between the landscape and the city. In the case of Fuzhou, the Min River passed from northeast to southwest, and two arms of the river enclosed an island, the ‟southern terrace”, in front of the city. From the island a 500-metre-long bridge, made of stone slabs, crossed the river towards the southern suburb. (For maps see fig. 385/386). The bridge was almost a prolongation of the main axis of the city. The nearly seven-kilometre-long axis came to an end at the North Hill within the city wall, topped by a two-storey building. To the southeast and southwest, the city wall enclosed two hills (Wushi Hill to the west, Yu Hill to the east) with temples on top. In Boerschmann’s opinion, the old White Pagoda (Dingguang Pagoda) had been placed on Yu Hill for Feng Shui reasons. On Wushi Hill to the west stood the Black Pagoda (Wushi Pagoda). In the north Ping Hill provided protection. The two arms of the Min River re-joined some kilometres to the southeast of the city. On an island in the river stood a further slender ‟Feng Shui pagoda”. Halfway between the city and the pagoda, two mountains opposed each other. The mountain on the north side of the river, and east of the city, was home to many Buddhist temples and was known as the ‟Drum-Mountain” (the Gu Mountain). Its counterpart on the other side of the river was named the ‟Flag-Mountain” (the Qi Mountain). Drums and flags were found at the entrance of

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

temples and administrative buildings. ‟Both mountains build a powerful natural, ritual entrance to the city,” Boerschmann stated. The natural features of the surroundings were merged with the layout of the whole and this interaction created in Boerschmann’s view a ‟rhythm of water, mountains and buildings”. The pagodas had the role of enhancing the balanced spatial structure on a local and a regional scale.80 However, if we compare his sketch of the urban environment to an accurate map, it is clear that his assumptions cannot be proved, but rather arose from a fixed preconception. All his knowledge was based on rough estimations, recorded during a short visit and without the proper means of documenting the complex interrelations that he claimed existed in this case. Confronted with such an argument, he most probably would have posited that exactly such imprecise geometric relations made up the character of the spatial religious network of the Chinese, because even the allocation of the Five Sacred Mountains was chosen by the image of the peaks and their environment, and not by the geometric position within the empire. At Guangzhou on the north shore of the West River, Boerschmann visited the richest and most densely populated city in China. He also discussed the location and layout of this city, the surrounding topography and the position of pagodas in the wider environment. Boerschmann found a ‟Feng Shui pagoda” on the southeast of the city. A hill in the north formed part of the city wall, topped by the Five Stories Pagoda (the Zhenhai Tower) for the protective gods of the city. In the northeast within the city wall stood the Flower Pagoda (the Hua Pagoda at the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees) that balanced the ‟Feng Shui pagoda” on the other side of the city. The whole urban

80 Ibid: 362.

Fig. 558: The model of the pagoda in Yenzhou, in Shandong Province, on a photo from the Field Museum in Chicago. (PAB). Fig. 559: The Square Pagoda in Song­ jiang. (Unknown photographer 1930s, archive EK).



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

 541

structure seemed to be a southern extension of a high mountain range, with the northeastern White Cloud Mountain (the Baiyun Mountain) as its crest. This hilly area, extending over thirty square kilometres, was covered with numerous tombs and temples. It was an enormous necro­ polis in visual range of the lively metropolis. Despite, or because of, all the commercial activities Boerschmann wrote: ‟Guangzhou is probably the noblest example of the Chinese need to merge nature, life, and religion in arrangement and design of buildings to a great unity.”81 His will to embed the singular phenomenon into a network of dependencies automatically allocated meaning to the structures that he documented in a very short time, and without the proper equipment or means, during his stay in the spring of 1909. From the larger context of the relationship between religious practice, topography, geography and the location of temples, Boerschmann came to the study of objects. The pagoda was the first architectural type for which he introduced a classification. The early publications on pagodas focused on ‟iron and bronze pagodas” or on the pagodas built in the Sui and early Tang Dynasties.82 In the 1931 book he categorised the pagodas according to the ‟main forms” (Hauptformen) and ‟variant forms” (Nebenformen). This formal classification was further subdivided into ‟squared step pagodas” (Quadratische Stufenpagoden), ‟squared Tianning pagodas” (Quadratische Tienningpagoden), ‟ring pagodas” (Ringpagoden), ‟glazed pagodas” (Glasurpagoden), and so on. In each of the groups he found examples from different regions and provinces, and also from different

81 Ibid: 362. 82 EB, in Jahrbuch der asiatischen Kunst 1924 and in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift. NF 1.1924.

Fig. 560: The model of a dilapidated pagoda in Xinfeng, Jiangxi Province, in a photo from the Field Museum in Chicago. According to the Boerschmann’s information, ‟one of the oldest pagodas in China” and 49 metres high. (PAB).

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

Fig. 561: A photo of the Lama Pagoda in ‟Hai ta sze” (EB) in Beijing. The notes along the edge of the photo give information about the pagoda, but also include considerations about the layout for a publication. Boerschmann had visited the so-called ‟Black Pagoda” briefly in 1907, but when he returned in 1934 nobody could give him any information about the fate of the temple. He believed that the temple and the pagoda had been demolished. (Unknown photographer, UAK, ZUG606-II2.003).

periods, which left Boerschmann with confusing results. In the preface he explained the circumstances that had led him to use such a system. He simply did not have enough evidence for a grouping according to place or region, or the time of construction, which he explained as follows: ‟In



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

Fig. 563: A photo of the ‟Pai ta an”, taken by Gustav Ecke for Boerschmann. The pagoda stood in a field outside of the northern Westgate of Beijing, on the way to Balichuang. Boerschmann had visited the pagoda only briefly and asked Gustav Ecke in 1931 to document the building for him. However, not much was known of the origin of the pagoda, which has since been destroyed. (© Ecke 1931, UAK, ZUG606-II.3.010).

 543

Fig. 562: An elevation drawing of the ‟Pai ta an” prepared in 1931 by Gustav Ecke’s draftsman Yang Yüeh. (© Ecke, UAK, ZUG606-II.3.012).

China there has always been a coexistence and a combination of styles that complicates a systematic inventory of knowledge.”83 Thus he took the form as the starting point for his investigations and groupings. However, Boerschmann was also aware that his results as presented in the book had to be regarded simply as a beginning. By 1931 he already knew about the investigations of Gustav Ecke and Paul Demiéville at the Twin Stone Pagodas at Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou in Fujian Province,84 which he praised for the detailed account that brought to light both the history of the pagodas and the meaning of the decoration.85 Boerschmann believed that only after many further detailed studies could an accurate history of the development of pagodas in China be achieved.86

83 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VII. 84 Ecke/Demiéville, 1935. 85 EB, review Ecke/Demiéville, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Nr.10, 1936: 642–648. 86 EB, Pagoden, 1931: VIII.

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In German art history Heinrich Wölfflin (1864–1945) proposed a formal classification system for the development of art in his book ‟Principles of Art History”.87 Although Boerschmann’s approach shows some relation to this idea of a history of form, he never named a model or prototype that he was following. However, we know that his Chinese friend, the art historian Teng Gu, brought Wölfflin’s formal approach to China in the 1930s.88 Teng Gu and Boerschmann became friends in

87 Wölfflin, 1915. 88 For this aspect see Guo Hui, 2010: 71ff.

Fig. 564: Boerschmann’s sketch shows the comparison of forms and sizes of different pagodas. (© Boerschmann, PAB).



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

Fig. 565: The drawing compares the sizes and forms of different pagodas. 1. (EB. Mongolei 55 m), the White Pagoda in Hohhot. Today the height is 43 metres, in 1938 Boerschmann measured the height at 46 metres and speculated that the original height was about 56.6 metres; 2. (EB. Jehol 58 m), the seven-storey octagonal glazed pagoda at Xumifushou Temple in Chengde; 3. (EB. Peking 56 m), the Pagoda of Tianning in the Monastery of Celestial Peace in Beijing is actually 57 metres high. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 566: The drawing compares the sizes and forms of different pagodas. 4. (EB. Ling yen sze 52 m), the Pizhi Pagoda at Lingyan Temple in Shandong province is 54 metres high; 5. (EB. Wu t’ai shan 54 m), the Great White Pagoda at Tayuan Temple at Mount Wutai is 56.4 metres high; 6. (EB. Yen chou fu 59 m), the Xinglong Temple Pagoda in Yanzhou is 54 metres high. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

 545

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Fig. 567: The drawing compares the sizes and forms of different pagodas. 1. (EB. Fu shun hien), 2. (EB. Huai te chen), 3. (EB. Ta yi hien), 4. (EB. Mien chou), 5. (EB. Te yang hien), 6. (EB. Shuang lo p’u), 7. (EB. K’iung chou), 8. (EB. Tsze tung hien), 9. (EB. Te yang hien), 10. (EB. Tie fo tien), 11. (EB. K’iung chou), 12. (EB. Fen chou). (© Boerschmann, PAB).



Pagodas: Creating harmony between urban settings and the landscape 

 547

Fig. 568: The drawing compares the sizes and forms of different pagodas. 1. (EB. Hung ya hien), 2. (EB. Kien wei hien), 3. (EB. Kia ting fu), 4. (EB. Chung king fu), 5. (EB. Na ki hien), 6. (EB. Wu shan hien), 7. (EB. Kuai chou fu), 8. (EB. Wan hien), 9. (EB. Lung feng ch’ang), 10. (EB. Ling shan p’u), 11. (EB. Fen chou), 12. (EB. Küan hien). (© Boerschmann, PAB).

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the early 1930s and we can only assume that the debate about a formal classification system in the field of art history consciously or unconsciously influenced Boerschmann’s approach.89 But on the basis of today’s knowledge, the structure of the theoretical framework that he used for classification remains unclear. Nevertheless, to show an alternative model developed by Liang Sicheng, I would like to briefly introduce the chart of the ‟Evolution of Types of the Buddhist Pagoda” prepared during the early 1940s as a reference.90 In a very simple way in the illustration Liang combined the pagoda types with their dates of construction. First he identified two prototypes, the Indian stupa and the Chinese multi-storeyed tower, under which he grouped the following five types: uni-storeyed, multi-storeyed, multi-eaved, bottle-shaped and Vajra-based. With small depictions of the different pagodas on the timeline from the fourth to early twentieth century he showed their place in time under the types. With such a simple chart the parallel development of different formal types became visible. Although Boerschmann never saw this chart, the information he had available was very similar and he had studied many of the pagodas shown by Liang. However, he never found such a clear and informative way of illustrating his findings. Otto Kümmel, the German art historian of East Asian art, published a general introduction to the art of China and Japan in 1929. In it he structured the material according to the dates of creation and presented the fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, and ceramics, and so on, side by side. For the selected architecture he referred to Boerschmann’s books, but used the material according to the proven date of construction. For the earlier times up to the Ming Dynasty, he only used a few pagodas made of stone or brick for illustration. And even in the later periods he showed mainly solid brick or stone buildings (pagodas). His depiction of Japanese architecture is quite different: he used photos of timber buildings from the earliest times for illustration. This reflects the fact that by 1929 much more was known about timber construction in Japan than in China, especially about pre-Ming development.91 Boerschmann’s classification demonstrates his uncertainty – his book was based on the materials and findings he had collected and made twenty years earlier, and he did not have the possibility of double-checking or conducting further comparisons on-site in China. As initially conceived, the material about pagodas remained a collection for later classification according to time of construction and formal development. His exclusion of types and development of pagodas in Japan and other southeast Asian countries also prevented him from comparing or referring to parallel developments and cross-fertilisation via travelling monks. The case of Japan in particular would have shed light onto the history of timber construction and in conclusion would have given hints about architectural development in earlier dynasties. His fellow researcher Baltzer had already published on the timber pagodas of Japan in his book of 1905–6.

The temple as an arrangement of spatial units Boerschmann studied the spatial arrangement in the temples with the greatest interest, thereby neglecting the technical aspects of construction as not important for the understanding of his research topic. He recorded a great variety in the number and orientation of temple halls, the topography and the location of deities. He found it fascinating that the given order was never fixed, but could be adapted to the local situation and circumstances. The topography, the location of a waterway, the planting of a sacred grove or the location of a stela with a specific inscription

89 Not much is known about the discourse in this respect between Boerschmann and Teng Gu. But in 1933 Teng Gu published images of the European ruins of Yuanmingyuan, taken by German Ernst Ohlmer in 1872, which he acquired from Boerschmann. Teng Gu (ed.), 1933. For the further relations between Teng Gu and Boerschmann see Kögel, 2013: 439–472. 90 The manuscript for this book, written in English, was finished by 1945, but was not published until 1984. Liang Ssu-ch’eng [Liang Sicheng], 1984 (here in the paperback reprint, 2005: 125). 91 Kümmel, 1929.



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Fig. 569: Ernst Boerschmann compared the size of the main temples on three of the five Great Mountains. From left of right: The Great Temple in Tai’an for Mount Tai in the East, in the centre the Great Temple for Mount Hua in the West and to the right the Great Temple for Mount Heng in the South. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

individualised the given modular system of architectural compositions. He was convinced that the Chinese dualism of yin and yang, the symbolism of numbers as well as the symbolism attributed to prefabricated components – enhanced by regional styles of decoration – meant the buildings and their meaning were understood by all parts of the society. The message in the spatial arrangement and in architectonic expression had developed organically over a long period, and reflected the ‟world system” of the Middle Kingdom with a more or less similar vocabulary laid down according to a symbolic numerology. In all his recordings Boerschmann never looked at a single temple hall alone, but searched instead for relationships and dependencies in the location or in terms of balance with the surroundings, basing this on what he assumed was the aesthetic preconception of religion. He often found this in natural phenomena or in the deliberate implementation of a balancing force like a pagoda. With such a view the single temple became a part of a complex network, which could only be looked at from the most recent time. In his opinion, the development of the relationship between the overall concept and the single temple was enriched by stories and history, by poems and literature. This makes it clear why Boerschmann collected and translated so many inscriptions in order to understand the bigger context, intermingled with the complex relation-

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Fig. 570: The Tianning Temple in Anyang in an isometric drawing by Boerschmann’s helping hand Woo Shaoling in the mid 1930s. (© Woo, PAB). Fig. 571: The Tianning Temple in Anyang in an overall layout plan. (© Boerschmann, PAB).

Fig. 572: A temple built into the slope of the hill near Wanxian. (© Boerschmann 1908, PAB).

 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture



The temple as an arrangement of spatial units 

 551

Fig. 573: A traditional depiction of timber construction from the Yingzao Fashi as published by the German Rudolf Kelling in his dissertation ‟Das chinesische Haus”. (Kelling, 1935: image 28).

Fig. 574: A traditional depiction of timber construction from the Yingzao Fashi with German translations of the different parts as published by Rudolf Kelling. (Kelling, 1935: image 33).

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 Conclusion: Documenting a vanishing culture

ships with the different religious traditions in the country. He saw the single temple as important, but gave more importance to its integration into the holistic and harmonious Weltbild determined by religious culture or philosophy. Boerschmann often treated religion and philosophy as equals, and saw in the temples an expression of both, rooted in the overall concept of harmony between heaven and earth, with the emperor as the mediator. With great admiration he spoke of the architectural concept he found in China: ‟They have developed an architecture which in its floor plans and landscape is unknown to us.”92 Boerschmann’s very first recording and measurement of a temple, the Temple of Azure Clouds (Biyunsi) in the Western Hills near Beijing (1903), became in many ways a model for his later work. First Boerschmann focused on the surroundings, the topography and the relationship to the distant capital. He described the complex from a spatial point of view, its terraces with courtyards, the axis and focal points, the geometry of the composition in the topography, and the symmetry in architectural composition and in landscape design; he recorded the location of symbolic animals such as lions, the function of different halls, the depictions of the deities and the translations from the stelae by Emperor Qianlong (1749). The buildings are described according to their use: in the east the quarters for the emperor with an adjacent garden, to the west the hall of the 500 Luohan, and in the centre the main sanctuary with the hall of the main Buddhist deities. He described the architecture as ‟powerful” or ‟gentle”, depending on the use and the function. In his opinion, the architecture created ‟atmosphere”: ‟It is a marvel of Chinese architecture which holds a permanent value as art and, detached from nationality and time, must delight every architect.”93 Although he described the marble pailou, the honour gate, as being a replica in stone of its timber archetype, not a single passage in the text refers to the fact that the halls are made of timber. All he discussed was the space, and its arrangement, function and use. In addition he described the great Vajra Pagoda made of marble and the tomb-stupas made of bricks in the back graveyard in detail. Someone without a knowledge of Chinese architecture would have the impression that the temple halls also consisted of bricks or stones. Boerschmann totally omitted the fact of the timber construction and did not even try to describe what he saw in his report in 1906. Due to the vast size of the temples, he wrote a later description (1912) about the ‟architecture of the floor plan”.94 In the text ‟Baukunst und Landschaft” from 1912, we find no mention of timber construction at all. The first time that he names timber construction as an issue, is in 1930, in an entry about Chinese architecture in a lexicon about architecture in the world. Under the sub-chapter ‟Building technique” he listed two aspects of Chinese architecture: post construction, and solid construction. As references Boerschmann named some building handbooks, such as the Yingzao Fashi (1103) from Song Dynasty, a further work from the Ming Dynasty (EB: De tien gung, 1631) and the Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli (EB: Gung tscheng dso fa) from the Qing Dynasty, which proves that by 1930 he was aware of the most important publications about timber construction in China.95 He illustrated the article with some drawings of timber constructions, but the description is short and lacks detailed information.96 On many other occasions Boerschmann also used halls made of timber to illustrate specific ideas, but never wrote about the construction. For instance in his book Chinesische Architektur of 1925, he illustrated the sub-chapter about central buildings with examples of timber halls, but there is no mention of the construction materials or methods. In contrast to the neglected timber construction, Boerschmann recorded the implementation of temples in difficult topographic positions, as already mentioned for the Temple of Azure Clouds.

92 EB, in Smithsonian, 1912: 543. 93 EB, in Wochenschrift des Architektenvereins zu Berlin, 1906: 50. 94 EB, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, 1912: 334. 95 Liang Sicheng published a monograph on the Qing Dynasty structural rules, based on the Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli from 1734 in 1934. Boerschmann owned the publication and most probably got it directly from Liang on his visit to Beijing in 1934. See Kunsthistorisches Institut Köln, 1966. However, for his text published in 1930 he had to rely on other sources. 96 EB, in Wasmuth (ed.), 1930: 44–48.



Boerschmann’s goals and achievements up to 1931 

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His description of Fayu Temple on the island of Putuo or of the Erwang Temple in Dujiangyan also represents this approach. After returning from China in 1935 – where he had met Liang Sicheng and discussed the importance of timber construction for the understanding of Chinese architecture – Boerschmann wrote a review about a book on the Chinese house (Das chinesische Wohnhaus) by Rudolf Kelling.97 The architect Rudolf Kelling had never been to China, but based his dissertation at the Technische Hochschule Dresden on material available there. Among other books he got from Chinese fellow students in 1922, he received a copy of the first reprint of the Yingzao Fashi and used it for his analysis. In the review Boerschmann criticised the fact that the author had based his research on printed material without having conducted studies in China. In particular, he pointed out the use of the Yingzao Fashi as misleading, because, he argued, the retraced drawings in the reprint had not yet been understood. Boerschmann knew that Liang Sichang and other members of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture were working in Beijing on the decoding of the manual and was sure that their results would create a foundation for the study of construction. He especially praised Liang Sicheng for his achievements.98 After his visit to Beijing in 1934, where he learned about the work of the Society, the Boerschmann’s interest in construction grew and in the late 1930s his doctoral student Woo Shao-ling focused his studies on timber construction in the Qing Dynasty on the basis of the work of Liang Sicheng and others on the topic.99 However, Boerschmann never addressed the topic of timber construction in Chinese architecture in any of his later writings.

Boerschmann’s goals and achievements up to 1931 After the First World War, Boerschmann once again tried to explain his ideas about Chinese architecture in the context of religion. At that time he was searching for new sponsors and discussed the value of such studies for the German public. In a short article entitled ‟What spiritual values can China give us?” he expressed his opinion that even in the time of political disorder and cultural quest in China after the revolution, the Germans could benefit from their spirit and art, accumulated in its ‟truth”, which could provide ‟seeds” to stimulate spiritual growth. He expressed his believe in the ‟eternal values” of each advanced culture and saw Germany, after the foundation of Weimar Republic in 1919 – like China after the revolution – in a new political situation that needed a foundation, which he saw laid down in the ‟soul of the people”: ‟The worldly-wise form of the human mind is religious conviction.” This, in his opinion, was especially true for China. He further highlighted the role of the family and the clan in the polity, and clearly saw this as a model for German society after the terrible destruction of the war.100 Boerschmann further argued that in China philosophical thought had been lifted into the religious realm. Religion was visible in every simple house in the form of an ancestor altar at the very least. The temples therefore were only the final places in the hierarchy of the religious system. He saw the buildings, the surroundings, the landscape and even the whole country embedded into the same spirit, which formed a unity of divine power and the ‟soul of the people”. Boerschmann argued that it was the duty of Germany to continue research into China and to friendship with the country in order to exchange mutually beneficial spiritual values.101 Obviously Boerschmann was coming to terms with his own disorientation following the radical destruction of the First World War, the defeat of the country and the abdication of the German

97 Rudolf Kelling had written the dissertation at Technische Hochschule Dresden in the early 1920s, but the book was not published until thirteen years later. Kelling, 1935. 98 EB, review Kelling, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 3–4/1936: 142. 99 Woo, Technische Hochschule Berlin (Dissertation), 1941. 100 EB, in Ostasiatische Rundschau, 1922: 57. 101 ibid, 76.

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emperor. While his home country of East Prussia had been lost in the Treaty of Versailles, he tried to promote the ancient Chinese value-system as an example to follow. Consciously or not, his positive reception of the Chinese empire was connected in a naïve way to the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. Boerschmann obviously saw a ‟harmonious society” appeased by religious networks with power over the urban and architectural development and embedded in the natural environment, which he recorded and interpreted according to his own point of view. Looking at many of his photos with bare landscapes, stripped of any tree outside the temple precinct, one can only but wonder how he developed his positive evaluation. His intention of looking to China for a model of the location of buildings did not originate in his own religious belief system, which was not that of a missionary. Rather it must be understood in two other directions. First, he argued for a better integration of architecture and urban planning with the environment in Germany, which he hoped would justify the government support for his research in China. Second, in many of his texts sentimentality radiates from between the lines regarding the rapid disappearance of the ancient culture in China, which he saw challenged by the Western ideas of capitalist economy with its secular and fragmented interests in raw materials, trade and military power. Boerschmann was clearly aware that the network he was trying to save on paper would soon give way to the pressure of modern industrialisation and new development. Therefore in the early period of his studies he was correct in stating that it was essential to record the architectural culture in the context of religious rituals, which quickly disappeared after the revolution in 1911–12. All of his publications until 1931 were based on the material he collected on the trip between 1906 and 1909, and therefore he continued to address the issues of late Qing Dynasty as the basis throughout the 1920s. In terms of architecture Boerschmann condensed his thoughts for the 1930 architecture lexicon entry. Under the short sub-chapter ‟Intellectual foundations” he provided his interpretation: The Chinese created from a logical and simple, while generous and universal, conception of the world, family and state, from a sober, practical sense of a clear type, the structure of the building and the floor plan of the architectural ensemble. But out of metaphysical and religious sentiments, the buildings were given vivid content by resolution of details, by moving lines and surfaces and by overflowing wealth of naturalistic ornamentation. In the intimate relationship with nature, their inspiration and devotion, the constant reference to near and far, the Chinese skilfully integrate all their buildings into the landscape. The happy combination of architecture and landscape is a special feature of China and is denoted by the term Feng Shui, wind and water. The harmony with nature prevented passionate, individual creativity, […] but increased the inner peace and harmony of the buildings.102

The fact that the architectural types and elements were based on authoritative regulations set up the framework, in his opinion, for harmony with a given landscape and its people. But despite such knowledge Boerschmann did not try to find out more about the rules, but rather researched on the basis of fieldwork the effect they had in a given situation. Whereas his recording of temples on the basis of his own surveys led to relatively accurate results, the imprecise details about the height of the buildings measured, the abstracted ‟rectangularised” floor plans, and the many sketches of the larger environment or urban layout were only rough depictions of reality. The value in Boerschmann’s work, however, is in the discussion of the network in which they were embedded. But even this is often based on oral history, on interpretation and comparison, with the possibility of mistakes in translations or misunderstandings. The importance of Boerschmann’s line drawings is maybe not so much in its accuracy of details, but in the discussion he opened about a relational architectural and urban culture that vanished soon after he left China in 1909. Therefore many of his recordings, his photographs and drawings – despite their shortcomings in detail – are today of high value for the discussion about monument protection and cultural heritage on a larger scale. Today the discourse about the handling of historic relics and their preservation in China needs to take into account such points of view, in order to understand the historic meaning that these

102 EB, in Wasmuth (ed.), 1930: 44.



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structures had in imperial times. In cases like the reconstruction of Erwang Temple in Dujiangyan after the earthquake of 2008, it would have been desirable to discuss Boerschmann’s material in the context of other records, in order to find the best result for the reconstruction. The same is true for the late nineteenth-century reconstructions after the Taiping Rebellion, which disappeared again in the twentieth century. Which history and what time should the buildings express after their renovation or reconstruction? For such a discussion Boerschmann’s material can deliver a relevant point of view that is otherwise often buried under technical aspects of preservation. With the disappearance of so much historic heritage with the radical urbanisation in the whole country, the last remaining elements of the religious networks represented in architecture and urban structure are almost gone. The discourse about Boerschmann’s research and opinion, may offer, at least in terms of records, a final perspective of what has been lost in the last hundred years. With the first volume of his last book on pagodas in 1931, a period of investigation and interpretation came to an end, because the Chinese had started their own research project into ancient architecture. Although this was conducted with a different approach, it had almost the same aim. Like Boerschmann, Liang Sicheng hoped to include Chinese architectural history in the history of ancient architecture of the world. He searched for the ‟Chinese Order” in the same sense as Western academia had used the term for Greek or Roman order. By using a Western methodology and terminology, Liang searched for the oldest remaining buildings in order to study their constructive composition. With the focus on ‟real” Chinese examples, in contrary to the buildings from the ‟foreign rule” of the Qing Dynasty, the first generation of Chinese architectural historians focused on timber constructions from earlier periods, such as the Tang or Song Dynasty. The technical aspects of architectural history, which were almost totally neglected by Boerschmann, came into the focus of research and dominated the discipline for a long time. For over twenty years from 1909 to 1931 (with a break of seven years during and after the First World War) Boerschmann analysed the material he collected between 1906 and 1909, the last years of the Qing Dynasty before revolutionary uprisings made research impossible. He saw, recorded and collected material related to a dense network of religious and quasi-religious culture that disappeared after the fall of the empire. The new rulers actively dismissed and opposed the practice of cult as conducted by the previous society and hoped for a radical modernisation, especially in the field of industrialisation and the installation of infrastructure, even against the old practice of Feng Shui, which was seen by many as an obstacle to progress. Besides the new government’s lack of funds to care for the old state temples, the disappearance of the Qing Dynasty empire was seen as a liberation from a foreign rule in the heartland of China, which had for instance forced the men to wear their hair in pigtails as a sign of loyalty. Like the cutting of the pigtail, the new revolutionary elite saw the discontinuation of the rituals and cults as a release. Many temples were soon left without priests and the military seized them for their own purposes. Foreign and local looters traded sculptures and artefacts legally and illegally to collectors. Boerschmann argued against such a practice from very early on and lobbied for monument protection in China.103 The six books, the catalogue and the many articles Boerschmann published before 1931 can be seen as a last legacy of the Qing Dynasty in the field of architectural history and the practice of cult in the context of the environment. No one else worked and published in this field up to 1930 to such an extent. His remaining legacy is that he crossed discipline borders without reservation, which led to interesting results that went far beyond architectural history. With the aim of including Chinese architectural history in the canon of the world history of architecture, he took the first steps on a longer road to raise awareness about an endangered and underestimated heritage in the Western hemisphere as well as in China. The understanding that Chinese architecture has to be looked at as an art in the same sense as the architecture of Western cultures, owes a great deal to the work of Boerschmann and other non-Chinese, who raised awareness about the subject in the transitional period between 1910 and 1930. Even if the Chinese historians after Boerschmann did not follow his

103 For this topic see Kögel, 2013: 439–472.

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suggestions for classification, and dismissed his concern about the religious impact on the location of buildings, the oral history he recorded and the photos he took in connection with the sketches and drawings, today provide us with many new ideas to consider for a deeper understanding of the religious architecture and its relation to the environment in the late Qing Dynasty.

Postscript In the 1930s, the quality and quantity of research in Chinese ancient architecture changed dramatically. Both Chinese and foreign scholars started to understand the importance of the topic for art history and national identity. The foundation of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture by Zhu Qiqian in 1930 was the most important step on the path towards a scientific documentation of historic buildings. Zhu Qiqian asked Boerschmann in 1931 to join the group as a corresponding member, which not only shows that he was recognised in China, but that the leading people in the field were hoping for his input.104 In the same year Zhu Qiqian convinced the young architect Liang Sicheng and his wife Lin Huiyin to join the Society. Both were educated at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States under the well-known Beaux Arts architect Paul Philippe Cret (1878–1949), from whom they learned about Greek and Roman architectural history.105 The architect Liu Dunzhen (1897–1968), educated in Japan, joined the group in 1932.106 Liang Sicheng focused (with field trips and site measurements for reference) on the decoding of the old building manuals like the Yingzao Fashi from the early twelfth century and the building regulations of the Qing Dynasty (Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli) from 1734.107 The members of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture founded in China the modern historiography of ancient architecture between 1931 and 1937 with a transformed Beaux Arts methodology. The Western method was adopted and used in the search for a Chinese Order. The idea behind a Chinese Order was equivalent to the Western system of classical order in Greek or Roman architecture. The leading architectural historian Liang Sicheng was keen to transform formal aspects of ancient Chinese constructions methods into a ‟grammar of Chinese architecture”, intended to become a guideline for modern Chinese architects. Wilma Fairbank wrote in the book on Liang Sicheng and Lin Weiyin that Liang did not like Boerschmann’s approach As for Chinese architectural history, at that time the two pioneers in the West were [Osvald] Sirén, who had written The Walls and Gates of Peking (London, 1924) and The Imperial Palaces of Peking (Paris, 1926), and Boerschmann, whose books were Picturesque China (New York, 1923) and Chinesische Architektur (Vol.1–2; Berlin, 1925). Liang Sicheng commented in 1947, that neither knew the grammar of Chinese buildings and that they wrote uncomprehending descriptions of Chinese buildings. But of the two Sirén was better. He used the Yingzao Fashi, but carelessly.108

It is true that Boerschmann never made any attempt to understand the evolution of timber construction and never believed in the value of the Yingzao Fashi, of which he owned a reprint from 1926,109 but focused instead on the relationship between the setting of temples and topography, in the light of the religious geography and its impact on the location of buildings that he found between 1906 and 1909. The fine web of dependency between religion, state power and natural phenomena changed dramatically after the revolution of 1911–12. The perfect fusion he described between philosophy, religion, state power and the people was probably idealised and was already

104 Meldung, in Ostasiatische Zeitung Nr.6, 1931: 247. 105 See Kammann, 2006: 16ff. 106 See also Cody/Steinhardt/Atkins (ed.), 2011. 107 Fairbank, 1994; Shatzman Steinhardt, 1984; Kammann, 2006: 50f. About the Yingzao Fashi see Glahn, 1975: 232–265. 108 Fairbank, 1994: 29. 109 See letter printed in Walravens, 2010: 104 (letter, 23.6.1926, EB to Ecke).

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Fig. 575: Chinese lions as gardians in temples. Clockwise from top left: Mount Wutai, Luojiang, Chengdu, Beijing, Mianyang and Guangzhou. (© Boerschmann, Sinca 13.1938).

criticised by his contemporaries. But many of the aspects he documented, although they disappeared with modernisation, played a key role in the initial location of buildings and in the arrangement of space throughout history. In this sense Boerschmann’s results still provide us today with a framework for further questions. Moreover, his initial fear that this culture would disappear with modernisation very quickly became a reality. It was a comprehensive first and last attempt to document architecture on the basis of measured plans with a holistic concept based on religious culture and practice. In the course of the twentieth century most of the relations he depicted vanished due to a mix of events and forces, beginning with civil war, revolutions, political campaigns, urban development and radical changes in the topography. The China Boerschmann was looking for is lost today. Between 1933 and 1935 Boerschmann again stayed in China for sixteen months to conduct further research. The material from this trip and its outcome cannot be presented here, because it is beyond the scope of this study. He collected material for the second volume of the book Pagoden, discussed issues about monument preservation with politicians of the central government in Nanjing,110 visited the three sacred mountains – the North Great Mountain (Heng Shan), the Centre Great Mountain (Song Shan) and the sacred Buddhist mountain in Anhui Province, Mount Jiuhua – and studied the new urban and architectural development intensively. In Beijing he meet Liang Sicheng and members of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture, in Nanjing he had talks with the art historian Teng Gu, with leading politicians, educators and cultural activists like Cai Yuanpei, and, after his three month stay in Guangdong in late 1933, he wrote a manuscript about

110 Kögel, 2013: 439–472.

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the urban development of Macau, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, which was never published.111 The deteriorating relationship between the German and Chinese governments at the end of 1930s prevented further book publications. The manuscript of his second volume of Pagoden was finished in 1940s but was never published. After his return to Germany in 1935 Boerschmann published a few general reports about the new China, but only one scientific account based on new material; this focused on the White Pagoda in a suburb of Hohhot in Inner Mongolia after a visit he made in 1934.112 A last account about his studies of pagodas came out in 1944 in an omnibus volume of a conference.113 There he compared the formal development of pagodas in northern China. This was his last scientific publication before his death in 1949. However, in 1937 Boerschmann expressed his great satisfaction that the Chinese had finally established institutions like the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture and institutions on the national level for the preservation of historic monuments. He praised the work of Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen as a milestone in scientific research and was confident that future development would bring a sensible consideration of how to handle the issues of monument preservation.114 However, Japanese aggression led to the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began on 10 July 1937 and prevented further action on monument protection and research in this period. Early in 1938, the German National Socialist government recognised the puppet regime of Manchukuo as an independent nation and gradually shifted its political allegiance from China to Japan. But, following a proposal by Boerschmann, on 12 April 1938 the Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst (Society for research in East Asian art) in Berlin appointed Liang Sicheng as a corresponding member.115 However, Liang Sicheng and his family had already left Beijing in September of the previous year, after the Japanese army arrived in the city. German art historian Gustav Ecke told Boerschmann that he and his Chinese friends in Beijing were very happy about this honour. He had just received a letter from Liang and promised to send the official letter from Berlin to his new address.116 Liang Sicheng followed his father Liang Qichao (1873–1929) who was a corresponding member of the named Society until his death.117

111 The manuscript is in preparation for publication. See Kögel (ed.) Hong Kong, Macau und Kanton (forthcoming). 112 EB, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Oktober 1938: 185–209. 113 EB, in Schaeder (ed.), 1944: 182–204. 114 EB, in Wasmuths Lexikon der Baukunst, 1937: 128. 115 Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, NF, 13. Jg. 6/1937: 260. 116 Walravens, 2010: 159, (published letter, 5.7.1938, Ecke to EB). 117 Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Ostasiatische Kunst, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, NF, 5. Jg. 2/1929: 93.

Addendum The Chinese religious pantheon in Boerschmann’s work It is impossible to explain in full the religious pantheon of the Chinese in this addendum. However, some deities and religious figures are important in Boerschmann’s work and I will therefore provide a very brief introduction to the most significant figures or terms in the context of his work. This introduction is only intended to give an overview and an historical perspective in the context of Boerschmann’s architectural research. Many of the deities derive from folk religion, nature worship, ancestral worship, Taoism, Confucianism or Buddhism and are sometimes shared by the different religions. Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, is a goddess from ancient times with references found on oracle bones from the fifteenth century BC. Folk belief has it that she lived in the Kunlun Mountains in the Far West. The Jade Emperor (Yu Huang) is in Chinese folk culture the ruler of heaven. He is one of the most important gods in the traditional religious pantheon. He is associated with the creation myth, and, according to some versions, he created man from mud. The birthday of Jade Emperor is celebrated in Taoist temples on the ninth day of the first lunar month of the year. The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors are a group of semi-mythological rulers and heroes dating from a period more than 4,000 years ago. In ancient Chinese mythology Goddess Nüwa created mankind (this is sometimes also said of the Jade Emperor) and repaired the wall of heaven. Sometimes she is named as one of the Three Sovereigns. The Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, 2696–2598 BC) is another legendary ruler and hero of the Three Sovereigns. During the Warring States Period (c. 481–c. 221 BC) and the early Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) he became a popular figure of worship. The mythological Emperor Shaohao (2600 BC) is one of the Five Emperors. He is considered the son of the Yellow Emperor. The Shaohao Tomb in Qufu, Shandong Province, was built as a pyramid during the Song Dynasty in 1111. The legendary Emperor Yao (c. 2356–2255 BC) belonged to the Five Emperors and is referred to as a sage-king and a role model for later emperors. His son-in-law was Emperor Shun, who also belonged to the Five Emperors. The legendary ruler Yu the Great (2200–2100 BC) founded the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070–c. 1600 BC) and is famed for the introduction of flood control and irrigation. According to ancient records Yu is considered the eighth grandson of the Yellow Emperor. He inherited the throne from Emperor Shun, because Shun was so impressed by his irrigation engineering. Yao, Shun and Yu were still honoured in a huge tri-partite temple in Linfen when Boerschmann visited in 1908. The legendary Cangjie (c. 2650 BC) is said to have invented the Chinese characters and is claimed as the historian of the Yellow Emperor. He is shown with four eyes and four pupils. He was honoured in several temples in the early twentieth century. The legend says that before he invented the characters information was memorised in coloured knotted ropes. Even today Cangjie is part of popular religious practice. Since the Song Dynasty, officials who have to work with words have honoured him every day. The Duke of Zhou, from the Zhou Dynasty (1045–221 BC), is credited with writing the I Ging or Book of Changes and the Book of Poetry. The I Ging consists of sixty-four hexagrams, which were interpreted throughout history by Chinese philosophers. The Duke of Zhou is also known as the God of Dreams. The Goddess of Mount Tai or the Heavenly Jade Maiden (Bixia Yuanjun), also called the Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn, is often considered the daughter of the Emperor Lord of Mount Tai in Shandong Province. Early twentieth-century pilgrims came from all over China and even Mongolia to make sacrifices to her. She was one of the most popular female Taoist deities from the Ming Dynasty onwards.

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The God of Place, Tu Di Gong, is worshiped in folk religion and Taoism. In the past every village had a shrine to this god. He was in charge of agriculture and weather. In times of drought and famine he was called on as a heavenly bureaucrat. Sometimes he is also called the Earth Spirit Dizhu, who is connected to the practice of Feng Shui. As a direct complementary of the God of Place in the village, the City God watched over the affairs in towns and cities and was worshiped in separate temples. The legendary hero Jie Zitui (†636 BC) helped the Duke Wen of Jin (697–628 BC) regain power after nineteen years in exile. When he wanted to reward him, Jie Zitui hid in the woods. Duke Wen set fire to the woods to force him out and burned Jie Zitui to death. The Qingming Festival in spring still commemorates Jie Zitui together with the visiting of graves and burial grounds in remembrance of the ancestors. The philosopher Laozi, it is said, lived between the sixth and fourth century BC, though other scholars believe he is a purely mythical figure. Some ancient historians placed him as a contemporary of Confucius and there is a famous ancient stone engraving showing a meeting of the two. Laozi is the named the author of the book Daodejing, a classical text. The oldest fragments of the text date from the fourth century. The text is fundamental in both philosophical and religious Taoism. The book also influenced Confucianism and Buddhism. Laozi is one of the Three Pure Ones in Taoism, because he is named as the founder of philosophical thinking in the religion. He is venerated as deity in most forms of Taoism. Confucius (551–479 BC), known in China as Kong Qiu, was a philosopher in the Spring and Autumn Period (c.771 BC–c. 403 BC). The name derives from the Spring and Autumn Annals in the State of Lu, in the region of today’s Shandong Province. The philosophy of Confucius emphasises correctness of social relationships, personal and official morality, justice and frankness. His ideas were officially sanctioned and developed into the system which we know today as Confucianism. Many years after his death some texts, known as the Analects, were edited. According to them, he invented nothing and understood himself only as a transmitter. One of the ‟Four Books” of Confucianism is Great Learning. It consists of a short text, said to be by Confucius, and ten comments by his disciple Zengzi. One of the major topics is ‟how to investigate things”. Emperor Wu of Han (Wudi, 176–87 BC) made Confucius’ works the official imperial philosophy, which continued in place until the early twentieth century. Soon after his death, his hometown Qufu became a place of worship. He is known as the Great Sage or the First Teacher. In the seventeenth century the Catholic missionary Mattheo Ricci reported on his philosophy to the West and Latinised his name to Kong Fuzi, from which Confucius is derived. He was worshiped from the seventh century with a Middle Sacrifice and only promoted to the status of Grand Sacrifice in 1906, during the late Qing Dynasty. Previously the Grand Sacrifice had been reserved for the worship of Heaven and Earth and the imperial ancestors. The philosopher Yan Hui (521–409 BC) was a favourite disciple of Confucius who died at the early age of thirty-two. His temple is within the walled city of Qufu. The first emperor of the Han Dynasty venerated Yan Hui. His tomb is in the Yan Family Cemetery. A stela at the tomb dates from the Ming Dynasty. The philosopher Zengzi (505–436 BC), a famous pupil of Confucius, edited and commented on the teaching of the Great Sage. His disciples are believed to have continued the work, especially on the Analects. The administrator and water engineer Li Bing (third century BC) lived in the Warring States Period and is famed for the irrigation engineering at Dujiangyan in Sichuan Province. This system made it possible to irrigate the plains of Sichuan and prevent seasonal flooding. He was given the title of king in the Song Dynasty without being a member of the royal family. Aside from him, this only ever happened to Confucius, Yue Fei and Guang Yu. Er Wang is considered the son of Li Bing, and legend says that he continued the work of the father. Zhang Liang (262–189 BC) was a statesman in the early Han Dynasty and is also known as one of the Three Heroes of the early Han Dynasty. He was given the title Marquise Wenchang of Liu by



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Emperor Gao, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty, for his contribution in establishing the new dynasty. Taoism is considered a religion and a philosophy. Philosophical Taoism is based on the writings of Laozi and Zhuangzi (fourth century BC). It was not institutionalised, but developed several schools, such as the School of Naturalists or Yin-Yang School. The most important school of religious Taoism is the Celestial Master School, founded in 143. The Quanzhen School is a succession of the Celestial Masters and was founded during the Jin Dynasty; the School of the Sacred Jewel was founded in fifth century, the Way of the Orthodox Unity was founded in the Tang Dynasty, and the Wuliupai was founded in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The last shares its roots with Chan Buddhism and focuses on internal alchemy. The Three Pure Ones, the Taoist trinity, are the highest gods in Taoism. The Three Pure Ones are the Jade Pure One, the Supreme Pure One and the Grand Pure One. Each represents a deity and a heaven, and different Taoist schools developed around each of them. The congregation of all three results in the return to the Way or Tao. Feng Shui literally translates as ‟Wind-Water”. Boerschmann referred to Feng Shui many times as a reason for a specific form or spatial arrangement in the environment, but never explained the practice or what he understood of it. Most probably he had only second-hand information and understood that Feng Shui played an important role in the location of buildings. It is said that traditionally Feng Shui is about heavenly time and earthly space. Throughout China two schools existed: the Form School and the Compass School. The first was originally concerned with the correct location of the burial places and later developed into a complex technique about the relationship of human beings and the environment. The second is a more recent development and is based on the eight cardinal directions. In the era of the Three Kingdoms (220–280), the Five Tiger Generals refer to five generals in the state of Shu Han under Liu Bei (161–223), who was a military leader and emperor during the era. In the fourteenth-century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms he is remembered as a good ruler who selected good advisers for his government. In the important Battle of the Red Cliffs (winter 208–209) on the Yangtze, southwest of Wuhan, the allied forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan (182–252) successfully defended themselves against northern warlord Cao Cao (155–220). Guan Yu (†219), deified as Guandi and sometimes also called Laoye, was a general serving under Liu Bei in the civil war that led to the collapse of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He played an important role in the establishment of Liu Bei as emperor in the period of the Three Kingdoms. His life was fictionalised in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Guan Yu was deified during the Sui Dynasty (589–618) and is still popular in Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism throughout China today. Guan Yu is sometimes called the Taoist God of War in the West, but he is rather worshipped for the code of brotherhood and righteousness. During the Ming Dynasty he was given the title king, without being part of a royal family. In Chinese opera he is depicted with a red face and a green costume. Officially Guan Yu was promoted to the level of Middle Sacrifice and honoured by the emperor for the first time in 1853. He is also known as one of the Five Tiger Generals. Further members of the Five Tiger Generals include Zhang Fei (†221), who served under Liu Bei and played an important role in the Battle of the Red Cliffs. Ma Chao (176–222) led the troops in the uprising against Cao Cao and served under Liu Bei. Zhao Yun (†229) and Huang Zhong (†220) also served under Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang (181–234) served as chancellor under Liu Bei. He was buried at Mount Dingjun and remembered in a memorial temple in Chengdu. Pang Tong (179–214) served as adviser to Emperor Liu Bei. Because Pang was killed while riding on Liu Bei’s horse, the emperor promoted him posthumously with the title of Marquise of Guannei and Marquise Jing. Zhenwu or the Perfected Warrior (†215) was a general under the warlord Sun Quan, an alley of Liu Bei. He was first known as the Dark Warrior and transformed into the Perfected Warrior in the eleventh century. He is associated with the sacred peak at Mount Wudang in Hubei Province. During the Ming Dynasty he was made popular by the emperors. In the Forbidden City in Beijing, a temple was dedicated to him and the Qing emperors also made sacrifices there.

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Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature and Culture, is a Taoist deity. Scholars and writers prayed to him before examinations. Folklore tells us that he was a real person from the city of Zitong in Sichuan Province, where the most important temple of the cult is found. However, he appeared in seventeen reincarnations in a period of over three thousand years. Boerschmann was generally interested in the cult of Wenchang Wang, because he was often worshiped in a tower-like structure next to the temple of Confucius or outside the city. In 1857 he was promoted to the rank of a Middle Sacrifice, on the same level as Confucius and Guandi at that time. Kui Xing, the God of Examinations and Literature, is said to be an associate or servant to Wenchang Wang, the God of Literature and Culture. He is linked to a star in the constellation of Ursa Major. It is unknown when the veneration of Kui Xing began, but in the early twentieth century he was worshiped in dedicated shrines, often at the southeast corner of the city wall or in freestanding towers outside the city wall. Sometimes he shared the same shrine as Wenchang Wang. Boerschmann referred to him as ‟another” god of literature. Taoist master Chen Tuan (920–989) was a legendary Taoist sage. According to legend, he lived on Mount Wudang and later at sacred Mount Hua. He is known today as a cultivator of Qi and Taiji. Taoist immortal Ningfeng Zhenjun, the Elder of the Five Sacred Mountains or Perfect Sovereign Ningfeng is worshiped at Jiangfu Temple on Mount Qingsheng. The region was the birthplace of religious Taoism. The poet Su Xiaoxiao (†501) was a famous courtesan living in Hangzhou in the Southern Qi Dynasty (479–502). Her romantic poetry provided inspiration for many later writers and her tomb at West Lake in Hangzhou became an important site. The tomb was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in 2004. Lü Dongbin goes back to a historical person in the early Tang Dynasty. He is honoured as one of the Eight Immortals, often referred to as Genies in Taoism. Most of the Eight Immortals are said to have lived in Tang and Song Dynasty. They include philosopher Han Xiangzi, He Qiangu – the only female deity among them, Royal Uncle Cao, Iron Crunch Li, Lan Caihe, Elder Zhang Guo and Han Zhongli. Sometimes Lü Dongbin is called the leader of this group. According to folklore, he lived at end of the eighth century, during the Tang Dynasty. From the Song Dynasty onwards many stories appeared about him and he was credited with having shown the way of the Tao to many ordinary people. But he is also described as a drinker, a ladies’ man and a productive poet. The Eight Immortals are also linked to the development of Qi Gong exercises. Li Bai (699–762), also known as Li Bo, is regarded one of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty. His work influenced many scholars in China, East Asia and around the world. Along with Li Bai, Du Fu (712–770) is called the greatest of Chinese poets. He is honoured in Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage in Chengdu. Han Yu (768–824) was an essayist and poet, and a precursor of Neo-Confucianism. He is famed for his prose and influenced the Song Dynasty poet Su Shi (1037–1101), also known as Su Dongpo, who was born in Meishan, near Mount Emei in Sichuan Province. He served as a politician and statesman in the Song Dynasty in different cities. He is best known for his poetry, travel literature, records of iron industry and his interest in hydraulic engineering. Fan Zhongyan (989–1052) was a scholar official, literary figure, strategist and educator and served as chancellor in the Song Dynasty. The Celestial Queen or Mazu, Goddess of the Sea, is thought to protect sailors and fishermen. Mazu is worshipped in the southern Chinese coastal provinces and in Vietnam and Taiwan. There are many legends about the Lin Maoning, born in 960, who died while climbing a mountain to heaven at the age of 28 (or according to another legend at the age of 16), and who is said to have become the Goddess of the Sea. Over time, Mazu was worshiped by Taoists and Buddhists and equated with Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. Mazu became an empress figure during the Yuan Dynasty. Yue Fei (1103–1142) served as a general during the Southern Song Dynasty. He led the defence against the invading Jurchen-ruled Jin Dynasty from the north. His own superiors executed him on false charges. After his death he was seen as a patriot and national hero and evolved into an epitome of loyalty in Chinese culture. Posthumously he was honoured as a prince and his tomb near West Lake in Hangzhou became a memorial temple for martyrdom and loyalty.



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The Four Dragon Kings are deities in Chinese mythology: each of them rules a sea in one of the cardinal directions. The Dragon Kings often appear in classical Chinese literature. Several temples throughout the country have been dedicated to the Dragon Kings. They also feature in many Buddhist legends. Buddhism arrived from India in China more than 2,000 years ago. Scholars classify Chinese Buddhism into about ten schools. Chan (Zen) Buddhism developed into a powerful school between the sixth and the ninth century. Later Chan Buddhism fused with the Pure Land School. In the eight century Esoteric Buddhism was established in China. The Tang Emperor Wuzong initiated the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution in 845, in which he also wiped out other foreign religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Nestorian Christianity. During the Song Dynasty aspects of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism began to merge. The Yuan Dynasty favoured Esoteric Buddhism. During the Ming Dynasty Chan Buddhism was favoured by the court and the final Qing Court endorsed the Gelukpa School of Tibetan Buddhism. The religion of Buddhism was founded in India on the teaching of Gautama Buddha (fifth to sixth century BC). He is also referred to as Shakyamuni Buddha. Amitabha Buddha is the principal Buddha of the Pure Land School. Medicine Buddha Bhaisajyaguru is in China depicted as one of the trinity of Buddhas, alongside Shakyamuni and Amitabha. Chinese Buddhists recite the mantra of the Medicine Buddha to overcome mental and physical sickness. He was popular in the seventh century in the ancient Indian kingdom of Gandhara. The Chinese monk and traveller Xuanzang visited the area – in today’s Afghanistan – in the seventh century, before returning to China. The Twelve Heavenly Generals or Twelve Divine Generals are protective forces in some Buddhist denominations of Bhaisajyaguru, the Buddha of Healing in Mahayana Buddhism. Pratyeka Buddha is one of three types of enlightened Buddha. The Laughing Buddha, also called Milofo, is a folk deity usually identified with Maitreya Buddha, the Future Buddha or as Bodhisattva Maitreya. Rubbing his belly brings good luck and prosperity in popular folklore. Weito is the protector of the Buddhist faith and stands at the entrance of Buddhist temples. He is placed with his back to the Maitreya Buddha, the Laughing Buddha. According to lore, Weito was the son of a heavenly king who was sent back to earth by Shakyamuni Buddha after entering Nirvana. Luohan is the Chinese word for Arhat, which derives from Sanskrit. Many disciples of Buddha became Arhats in their lifetimes and reached a certain high stage of attainment. From India only sixteen Arhats are known, but in China the number of Luohan is eighteen, as defined in the late Tang Dynasty. The last two are Taming Tiger Luohan and Taming Dragon Luohan. The display of 500 Luohan in different temples can probably be understood as a metaphor for a great many. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who decline to enter paradise in order to help others to attain enlightenment. Bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit), the Goddess of Mercy, is the tutelary deity of Mount Putuo, sacred to Buddhists, in Zhejiang Province. During the Tang Dynasty the cult of Guanyin grew and by the sixteenth century she had become a Chinese goddess figure, in part even independent from her Buddhist origin. Guanyin is also referred to by Taoists as an Immortal and she is very popular in folk belief. Avalokitesvara was originally considered a male bodhisattva, but from the Song Dynasty onwards the depiction of Guanyin shows both genders and she later turned into a female deity. In China fisherman and sailors prayed to her to ensure safe voyages. Due to her various manifestations she is popular and worshiped in Chinese communities around the world. Bodhisattva Wenshu (Manjusri in Sanskrit), also the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, is the tutelary deity of Mount Wutai, sacred to Buddhists, in Shanxi Province, which has strong associations with Taoism. Mount Wutai is also associated with the northern lineage of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and is also holy in Tibetan Buddhism. Mount Wutai is the home of the oldest existing wooden buildings from the Tang Dynasty. Wenshu is sometimes shown sitting on a lion. Bodhisattva Puxian (Samantabhadra in Sanskrit), the Universal Worthy, or sometimes called the Bodhisattva of Great Action, is the tutelary deity of Mount Emei, sacred to Buddhists, in Sichuan

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Province. The mountain was originally a sacred Taoist site and became sacred Buddhist ground in the third century. Bodhisattva Puxian is shown sitting on an elephant. In traditional Chinese iconography Puxian is depicted in his female form. Bodhisattva Dizang (Ksitigarbha in Sanskrit), Bodhisattva of the Underworld and Death is the tutelary deity of Buddhist sacred Mount Jiuhua in Anhui Province. In some areas he is also regarded as a Taoist deity. According to legend, an Indian prince began to meditate in Mount Jiuhua in Han Dynasty and after his death his body did not decay. People understood he was an incarnation of Ksitigarbha and began to build temples on the mountain. Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602–664) travelled in the Tang Dynasty for seventeen years overland via Uzbekistan to India and brought many Buddhist scrolls to China. In Xi’an he set up a large translation organisation and worked on the translation of original Buddhist scripts. His journey along the Silk-Road inspired the novel Journey to the West during the Ming Dynasty. He built the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an in 652, to hold, among other things, the sutras and figurines he had brought back from India. Ashoka-stupa refers to Ashoka the Great, an Indian Emperor from the fourth century BC. Ashoka turned to Buddhism and built the Sanchi Stupa near Bhopal in India. According to the legend he built 84,000 stupas, each with a relic of Buddha and sent them to other Asian countries. In China the Buddhists told Boerschmann that they also had 84,000 – or 84 – original small stupas from that period.

 Ernst Boerschmann in the context of German–Chinese relations and research into Chinese architecture 

 565

Ernst Boerschmann in the context of German-Chinese relations and research into Chinese architecture (1860–1949)

Ernst Boerschmann’s life and research

Other research in the field

Politics in China and Germany 1851–1864, Taiping Rebellion

1868–1872, Geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen in China

1856–1860, Second Opium War, first destruction of the royal garden Yuanmingyuan by Anglo-French forces

1865, Heinrich Schliemann visited China 1871, foundation of German Empire by Emperor Wilhelm I 1872, Ernst Ohlmer took photographs at the destroyed Yuan­ mingyuan 1873, born in East Prussia

1878, publication of Ernst Eitel’s study on Feng Shui

1871–1901, Guangxu Emperor

1897, publication of Heinrich Hildebrand’s book on the Dajie Temple 1898–1914, Jiaozhou Bay and Qingdao as German Concessions 1900, Boxer Rebellion, killing of German ambassador Klemens von Ketteler in Beijing 1903/07, publications of Baltzer on Japanese architecture 1902–1904, first visit to China as architect for the German army 1906–1909, research trips in China 1909, return to Berlin and analysis of the collected material 1911, published Putuoshan

1911, Wuchang Uprising

1912, exhibition Chinesische Architektur in Berlin

1912, foundation of the Republic of China

1914, published Gedächtnistempel

1914, Heinrich Schubart published his dissertation: Der chinesische T’ing-Stil

1914–1918, served in Königsberg/ East Prussia during the First World War

1915, exhibition of pagoda models in San Francisco

1918–1921, Boerschmann served in Königsberg/East Prussia

1919, first reprint of the Song dynasty building manual Yingzao Fashi

1914–18, First World War, Germany loses its concession in Qingdao

1919, Treaty of Versailles, foundation of Weimar Republic in Germany and May Fourth Movement in Beijing

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Ernst Boerschmann’s life and research

Other research in the field

Politics in China and Germany

1921, returned to Berlin and carried out further research into Chinese architecture

1921, Bernd Melchers published on Chinese temples

1921, foundation of Communist Party in Shanghai

1923, published the photo-book Picturesque China 1924, Osvald Sirén published The Walls and Gates of Peking 1925, published Chinesische Architektur (two volumes)

1925, second reprint of Yingzao Fashi

1925–1927, lectureship in Chinese architecture at Polytechnic University in Berlin

1925–29, Tadashi Sekino/Tokiwa Daijo published Buddhist Monuments in China

1926, exhibition Chinesische Architektur in Frankfurt and Berlin

1926, Osvald Sirén published The Imperial Palaces of Peking

1927, publication of Baukeramik

1927, Shanghai massacre, killing of Communists by Republican Government

1927–1944, professorship in Chinese architecture at Polytechnic University in Berlin 1929, Black Friday in New York 1930, Fohzien Godfrey Ede (Xi Fuquan), dissertation on royal tombs of Qing dynasty

1930, foundation of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture in Beijing

1929–1931, Heinrich Schubart stayed as German consultant for urban development in the new capital of Nanjing

1931, published Pagoden

1931, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin became members of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture

1931, Japan annexed Manchuria

1931, corresponding membership of the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture in Beijing 1932, Liu Dunzhen became a member of the Society 1933–1935, research in China, partly accompanied by Hsia Changshi 1934, meeting of Boerschmann and Liang in Beijing

1933, National Socialists elected in Germany 1934, Liang Sicheng published Qing Structural Regulations

1934–1936, Sino-German railway treaties accelerated railway construction in China

1935, Rudolf Kelling published Das chinesische Haus, partly on the basis of the Yingzao Fashi 1935, Gustav Ecke and Paul Demiéville published The Twin Pagodas of Zayton 1936, Annelise Bulling, dissertation about architecture from Han to Tang Dynasty in Berlin

1936, Anti-Comintern Pact signed by Germany and Japan

 Ernst Boerschmann in the context of German–Chinese relations and research into Chinese architecture 

 567

Ernst Boerschmann’s life and research

Other research in the field

Politics in China and Germany

1937, friendship with Johannes Prip-Møller from Copenhagen

1937, Johannes Prip-Møller published monumental work on Buddhist Architecture

1937, Chinese political delegation of Guomindang visited Berlin

1937, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin conducted fieldwork in the region of Mt Wutai, discovery of oldest timber constructions 1937–1945, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin escaped to Sichuan Province

1937–1945, Second Sino-Japanese War 1937, Nanjing Massacre

1938, received the Jade Order on white ribbon with red-blue edge from the Chinese government

1938, end of Sino-German cooperation 1939–1945, Second World War

1940, Boerschmann became professor for Chinese architecture at Berlin University

1940, Dennis Mirams published A Brief History of Chinese Architecture in Shanghai

1940, Woo Shaoling dissertation Der Holzbau der Qing Dynastie 1941, Hitler recognised Wang Jingwei’s puppet regime in Nanjing 1944, Gustav Ecke published Chinese Domestic Furniture in Beijing 1946–1949, Boerschmann served as provisional professor for Sinology in Hamburg

1947, Liang Sicheng in United States for lectures and as a member of the design team for the United Nations building in New York

1946–1949, Civil War in China

1949, died at the age of 74

1949, Osvald Sirén published The Gardens of China

1949, proclamation of People’s Republic of China 1949, Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic established

Literature Archives Private Archive of Boerschmann family, Berlin (PAB). Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes Berlin (PAAA). University Archive of Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin. University Archive of Humboldt-University, Berlin. University Archive of the University Cologne (UAK). Bundesarchiv: German Reichstag Session Reports online, http://www.reichstagsprotokolle.de/en_index.html. Historical Archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg. Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. Archiv Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Sammlung Fotografie, Kunstbibliothek. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum (SMB-PK, EM).

Literature Offizieller Führer durch die Internationale Hygiene Ausstellung in Dresden 1911. Berlin: Rudolf Mosse, 1911. Offizieller Katalog der Internationalen Hygieneausstellung. Dresden Mai bis Oktober 1911. Berlin: Rudolf Mosse, 1911. Vasili Alekseev: China im Jahre 1907. Leipzig/Weimar: Kiepenheuer, 1989. Johannes Aufhauser: Review Boerschmann: Baukunst und Landschaft, in Historisches Jahrbuch, Bd, 45, 1925: 438. Johannes Aufhauser: Review Boerschmann: Chinesische Architektur, in Historisches Jahrbuch, Bd. 46, 1926: 465–465. Léonard Aurousseau: Review Boerschmann: Gedächtnistempel, in Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, 14/1914: 68–72. Lewis Charles Arlington, William Lewisohn: In Search of Old Peking. Beijing: Vetch, 1935, (reprinted Hong Kong/ Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). Karl Bachem: Chinesische Baukunst und religiöse Kultur, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, 7. April 1913, (review Boerschmann: Putuo). Karl Bachem: Chinesische Baukunst und wirtschaftlicher Fortschritt, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, Nr. 346, 19.4.1914, (review Boerschmann: Gedächtnistempel). Franz Xaver Bachem: Meine Sammler-Erlebnisse mit Altchina-Bronzen. Köln: private printing, 1933. Ludwig Bachhofer: Review Boerschmann: Baukunst und Landschaft, in Zeitschrift für Buddhismus, 5.1923/24: 285–286. Franz Baltzer: Die Tempelanlage von Hôriûji bei Nara in Japan, in Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung, Nr. 83, 18.10.1902: 507–510 and Nr. 91, 15.11.1902: 559–560. Franz Baltzer: Das japanische Haus, eine bautechnische Studie, in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, 1903: 5–56, 229–276, 409–428, 587–612. (Published as book, Franz Baltzer: Das japanische Haus, eine bautechnische Studie. Berlin: W. Ernst, 1905). Franz Baltzer: Die Architektur der Kultbauten Japans, in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, 1905: 260–290, 415–438; 1906: 33–64, 285–310, 549–612. (Published as book, Franz Baltzer: Die Architektur der Kultbauten Japans. Berlin: W. Ernst, 1907). Franz Baltzer: Chinesische Architektur, in Die Kunstwelt, Jg. III, Heft 6, 15.12.1913: 192–198. Bao Yuheng, Qing Tian, Letita Lane: Buddhist art and architecture of China. Lewiston: E. Mellen, 2004. Vinca Baptiste: Missions archéologiques françaises en Chine. Photographies et itinéraires, 1907–1923. (Edouard Chavannes, 1907; Victor Segalen et Augusto Gilbert de Voisins, 1909; Henri Maspero, 1914; Victor Segalen, Augusto Gilbert de Voisins, Jean Lartigue, 1914; Victor Segalen, 1917; Jean Lartigue, 1923.) Paris: Musée Guimet, 2005. Wolfgang Bauer: China and the search for happiness: Recurring themes in four thousand years of Chinese cultural history. New York: Seabury Press, 1976. (Translated by Michael Shaw). Christoph Baumer: Wutai Shan. Mittelpunkt des chinesischen Buddhismus. Klöster und Pilger am heiligsten Berg Chinas. Hamburg: Detjen-Verlag, 2009. (English version Christoph Baumer: China’s Holy Mountain: An Illustrated Journey into the Heart of Buddhism. London: Tauris, 2011).

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Niederteufen: Niggli, 1975. Werner Blaser: China Court-houses, Hofhäuser. Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1979. Dr. Boerschmann: Eine Verfügung der chinesischen Sanitätsbehörde in Peking, in Gesundheit. Zeitschrift für Städtehygiene und Gesundheitstechnik. No. 2, 1911. Ernst Boerschmann: Über das Studium der chinesischen Baukunst, in Kölnische Volkszeitung, Nr. 124, 12.2.1905: 1–2. Ernst Boerschmann: Über das Studium der chinesischen Baukunst, in Ostasiatischer Lloyd, 31.3.1905: 573–576. (Reprint from Kölnische Volkszeitung Nr. 124, 12.2.1905: 1–2.) Ernst Boerschmann: Pi-yün-ssu bei Peking, ein buddhistischer Tempel, in Wochenschrift des Architekten-Vereins zu Berlin. Vol.1, No.11/12, 17/24.3.1906: 47–48 and 49–51. Ernst Boerschmann: Architektur- und Kulturstudien in China, in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1910: 390–426. Ernst Boerschmann: Einige Beispiele für die gegenseitige Durchdringung der drei chinesischen Religionen, in Zeitschrift der Ethnologie, 1911: 427–435. Ernst Boerschmann: Ein vorgeschichtlicher Fund aus China (Provinz Schantung), in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1911: 153–160. Ernst Boerschmann: Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. Einzeldarstellungen auf Grund eigener Aufnahmen während dreijähriger Reisen in China. Band I, P‘u T‘o Shan. Die heilige Insel der Kuan Yin, der Göttin der Barmherzigkeit. Berlin: Verlag Georg Reimer, 1911. Ernst Boerschmann: ‟Chinese Architecture and its Relation to Chinese Culture”, in the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1911. Washington, D.C., 1912: 539–567. Ernst Boerschmann: Baukunst und Landschaft, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1912: 321–365. Ernst Boerschmann: Chinesische Architektur, Begleitwort zu der Sonder-Ausstellung chinesischer Architektur in Zeichnungen und Photographien nach Aufnahmen von Ernst Boerschmann. Berlin: Königliches Kunstgewerbe-Museum (catalogue), 1912, (private reprint in 1926). Ernst Boerschmann: Review Münsterberg: Chinesische Kunstgeschichte, in Mitteilungen des Seminars für Orientalische Sprachen, Bd. XVI, 1913: 177–181. Ernst Boerschmann: Beobachtungen über Wassernutzung in China, in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin, 1913: 516–537. Ernst Boerschmann: Die Baukunst und religiöse Kultur der Chinesen. Einzeldarstellungen auf Grund eigener Aufnahmen während dreijähriger Reisen in China. Band II: Gedächtnistempel Tzé Táng. Berlin: Verlag Georg Reimer, 1914. Ernst Boerschmann: Welche geistigen Werte kann China uns geben?, in Ostasiatische Rundschau, 3.1922: 57–58 and 75–76. Ernst Boerschmann: Review Fuhrmann: China, Land der Mitte, Melchers: China, der Tempelbau, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, 10.1922/23: 169–175. Ernst Boerschmann: Baukunst und Landschaft in China. Eine Reise durch zwölf Provinzen. Berlin: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth, 1923 (reprint in 1926). 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Ernst Boerschmann: Review Thomann: Pagan, in Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung, 45 Jg., Nr. 41, 1925: 507/508. Ernst Boerschmann: Chinesische Architektur. Berlin: Verlag Ernst Wasmuth (two volumes), 1925. Ernst Boerschmann: K‘uei-sing Türme und Feng-shui Säulen, in Asia Major 2.1925, 503–530.

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Chinese Dynasties and Emperors Ancient Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, before 2100 BC: Yellow Emperor (2698–2598 BC)1, Emperor Shaohao (2600 BC), Emperor Yao (c. 2356–2255 BC) Xia dynasty, c. 2100–c. 1600 BC: Emperor Yu the Great (c. 2200–2100 BC) Shang dynasty, c. 1600–c. 1046 BC Zhou dynasty, c. 1045–256 BC (Western Zhou, 1050–770 BC and Eastern Zhou, 770–250 BC / Spring and Autumn, 770–479 BC: Duke Wen of Jin (697–628 BC) / Warring States, 476–221 BC)

Imperial Qin dynasty, 221–206 BC Han dynasty, 206 BC–220 AD (Western Han, 206 BC–9 AD and Eastern Han, 25–220 AD: Emperor Liu Bai (161–223) / Xin dynasty, 9–23 AD) Three Kingdoms, 220–280 (Wei, Shu and Wu) Jin dynasty, 265–420 (Western Jin, 265–317 and Eastern Jin, 317–420 / 16 Kingdoms) Southern and Northern Dynasties, 420–589 Sui dynasty, 581–618 Tang dynasty, 618–907: Emperor Gaozong (628–683), Empress Wu Zetian (624–705) Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, 907–960 Song dynasty, 960–1279 (Northern Song, 960–1127 and Southern Song, 1127–1279) Liao dynasty, 907–1125 (Western Xia, 1038–1227 and Jin dynasty, 1115–1234) Yuan dynasty, 1271–1368 Ming dynasty, 1368–1644: Hongwu (1328–1398), 1st emperor; Xuande (1399–1435), 5th emperor; Wanli (1572–1620), 13th emperor Qing dynasty, 1644–1911: Shunzhi (1638–1661), 3rd emperor; Kangxi (1654–1722), 4th emperor; Yongzheng (1678–1735), 5th emperor; Qianlong (1711–1799), 6th emperor; Jiaqing (1760–1820), 7th emperor; Daoguang (1782–1850), 8th emperor; Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908), concubine of Xianfeng, 9th emperor; Guangxu (1871–1908), 11th emperor; Puyi (1906–1967), 12th emperor

Modern Republic of China, 1912–1949 People’s Republic of China, 1949– present Republic of China on Taiwan, 1949–present

1  Only the emperors mentioned in the book are listed here.

Index Historic Events, Persons and Deities Amitabha, Celestial Buddha 203, 204, 308, 310, 563 Ashoka (269–232 BC), Indian emperor 48, 165, 328, 564 Bhaisajyaguru, Medicine Buddha 204, 563 Borobudur (9th-century), Mahayana Buddhist temple in Java 421 Boxer Rebellion (1898–1900) 28, 39, 49, 68, 77, 85, 220, 504, 508, 565 Cai Shen, God of Prosperity 387, 388, 396, 461 Cangjie (c. 2650 BC), legendary figure 161, 211, 559 Cao Cao (115–220), chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty 246, 561 Chambers, William (1723–76) 378, 511, 580 Chan-Buddhism (Zen), school of Mahayana Buddhism 170 Chen Tuan († 989), legendary Taoist sage 229, 562 Cultural Revolution (1966–76) 33, 34, 92, 161, 163, 170, 185, 244, 268, 272, 273, 276, 287, 310, 356, 401, 410, 432, 562, 581 Diamond Throne Pagoda, Vajra Throne Pagoda 54, 56, 62, 63, 82, 83 Dizhang Wang (Ksitigarbha), bodhisattva 178 Du Fu (712–770), poet 251, 256, 261, 562 Duke Wen of Jin (697–628 BC), ruler in the state of Jin 208, 560, 583 Dungan Revolt (1862–77) 302 Eastern Wei Dynasty (534–550) 202 Eight Taoist Immortals 247, 298, 396 Emperor Daoguang (1782–1850) 88, 115, 583 Emperor Gaozong (628–683) 253, 254, 583 Emperor Guangxu (1871–1908) 88, 91, 115, 116, 290, 565, 583 Emperor Hongwu (1328–98) 228, 583 Emperor Jiaqing (1760–1820) 88, 115, 583 Emperor Kangxi (1654–1722) 18, 45, 65, 91, 92, 216, 236, 255, 357, 358, 362, 583

Emperor Puyi (1906–67) 32, 100, 489, 583 Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799) 45, 54, 63, 65, 92, 95, 108, 109, 128, 255, 485, 552, 583 Emperor Shaohao (2600 BC) 145, 559, 583 Emperor Shunzhi (1638–61) 86, 88 Emperor Wanli (1572–1620) 65, 198 Emperor Xuande (1399–1435) 45 Emperor Yao (c. 2356–2255 BC) 18, 211, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 458, 559, 583 Emperor Yongzheng (1678–1735) 115 Emperor Yu the Great (c. 2200–2100 BC) 247, 248, 583 Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) 56, 63, 85, 86, 88, 89, 290, 583 Empress Wu Zetian (624–705) 247, 431, 583 Erlang Shen, semi-mythical folk hero 390, 393, 400 Fan Zhongyan (989-1052), politician and literary figure 187, 562 Feng Shui, literally translates as „wind-water“, philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment 26, 32, 46, 47, 76, 77, 90, 109, 113, 168, 180, 193, 198, 223, 224, 225, 227, 248, 250, 254, 280, 281, 312, 313, 323, 326, 327, 333, 353, 354, 410, 421, 471, 484, 505, 516, 518, 523, 526, 527, 534, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 554, 555, 560, 561, 565, 572, 574 First Opium War (1839–42) 85 Five Emperors (c. 2852–2070 BC), group of mythological rulers and deities 222, 559, 583 Forbidden City, imperial palace in Beijing 25, 40, 50, 75, 76, 78, 344, 372, 425, 447, 448, 449, 462, 502, 511, 535, 561 Foreign Office 35, 50, 52, 57, 65, 101, 102, 108, 111, 114, 115, 120, 194, 195, 207, 337, 340, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 351, 352, 363, 373, 378, 379, 380, 381, 383, 384, 385, 411, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 427, 467, 490, 496, 516

Four Dragon Kings, divine ruler of the four oceans 563 Four Heavenly Kings, four Buddhist gods, each watching over one cardinal direction 54, 110, 356 German Legation 35, 45, 51, 57, 75, 86, 100, 196, 507 Goddess Nüwa, ancient goddess, created mankind and repaired the pillar of heaven 289, 559 God of Place, Tudi Gong, Chinese earth god 261, 268, 560 Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli (1734), Qing Structural Regulations 26, 552, 556 Great Leap Forward (1958–61) 276, 401 Great Wall 88, 90, 91, 109, 110, 340, 436, 578 Guandi (Guan Yu, †220), deified general 90, 91, 92, 132, 133, 159, 160, 218, 219, 220, 233, 234, 241, 247, 249, 250, 252, 253, 254, 256, 258, 290, 295, 299, 321, 322, 359, 368, 385, 458, 504, 505, 536, 561, 562 Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy (Avalokitesvara) 191 Gujin Tushu Jicheng (1700–1725), Complete Collection of Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current Times 353, 469, 471 Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) 33, 123, 136, 149, 154, 214, 241, 246, 247, 252, 253, 270, 298, 346, 387, 448, 453, 479, 559, 560, 561, 564 Hinduism, dominant religion of the Indian subcontinent 364, 365 Imperial Road 156, 252, 522 Islam, introduced in China in 716–18 50, 364, 365 Jade Emperor, one of the Three Pure Ones 132, 133, 136, 137, 207, 283, 290, 309, 396, 525, 536, 559 Jade Maiden (Bixia Yuanjun), empress of Mount Tai 132, 136, 154, 231, 396, 453, 559 Jie Zitui, minister of the state of Jin 207, 208, 211, 509, 560 Jin Dynasty (265–420) 161, 484, 561, 562 Jugendstil 343, 373

 Kui Xing, god of examination 130, 137, 143, 145, 149, 154, 159, 211, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227, 250, 251, 252, 254, 277, 280, 281, 400, 402, 439, 471, 536, 562 Laozi, philosopher and poet 151, 229, 251, 252, 255, 260, 398, 399, 400, 560, 561 Lei Family, imperial builders in Qing Dynasty 502, 569 Lei Shen, Lei Gong, god of thunder 387 Liao Dynasty (916–1125) 45, 66, 102, 103 Li Bai (Li Po) (701–762), poet 149, 562 Li Bing (c. 3rd century BC), administrator and engineer 252, 262, 263, 264, 266, 295, 390, 391, 396, 398, 399, 400, 401, 410, 560 Liu Bai (161–223), warlord 252, 583 Lu Ban (507–440 BC), ancient Chinese carpenter, engineer, and inventor 218, 396, 578 Lü Dongbin (796–?), scholar and poet, one of the Eight Immortals 228, 247, 261, 296, 297, 298, 299, 301, 396, 562 Luohan, „perfected person“ who has attained nirvana 14, 54, 56, 57, 60, 61, 65, 66, 109, 134, 135, 165, 166, 167, 174, 191, 254, 255, 310, 328, 358, 423, 424, 552, 563 Ma Chao (176–222), military general and warlord 246, 247, 561 Maitreya, future Buddha 54, 157, 203, 204, 357, 563 Mandate of Heaven 30, 33, 410, 505, 523 May Fourth Movement, student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919 409, 565 Mazu, goddess who protects seafarers 171, 316, 504, 562 mihrab, semicircular prayer niche 327 Milofo, the laughing Buddha, Chinese version of Maitreya 203, 356, 357, 563 minbar, pulpit in the mosque 327 Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) 36, 45, 66, 72, 86, 109, 120, 121, 123, 134, 149, 171, 189, 197, 198, 204, 205, 219, 220, 222, 246, 268, 280, 298, 314, 322, 358, 436, 448, 450, 451, 459, 471, 483, 519, 528, 537, 538, 539,

Historic Events, Persons and Deities  548, 552, 559, 560, 561, 563, 564 mosque 75, 129, 136, 167, 169, 238, 324, 325, 327, 348, 454 New Life Movement (started 1934) 410 Panchen Lama, highest ranking Lama after the Dalai Lama 14, 80, 95, 108 Pang Tong (179–214), adviser to warlord Liu Bei 252, 253, 254, 561 Pratyeka Buddha, „a lone buddha“ 134, 479, 563 Puxian (Samantabhadra), bodhisattva of Universal Worthy 204, 206, 254, 272, 273, 275, 276, 277, 387, 388, 525, 537, 563, 564 Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 34, 45, 48, 66, 72, 86, 90, 109, 128, 131, 132, 158, 161, 197, 202, 213, 237, 246, 254, 260, 283, 298, 299, 302, 310, 327, 409, 446, 469, 471, 487, 502, 504, 505, 511, 516, 521, 523, 524, 526, 528, 533, 552, 553, 554, 555, 556, 560, 577 Qin Hui (1090–1155), chancellor of the Song dynasty 161, 163 Red Guards (1966–76), paramilitary social movement 92, 158, 161, 244, 272, 276, 356, 410 Sage Mother 397 Second Opium War (1856–60) 66, 565 Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama 56, 134, 204, 310, 473, 563 Shangdi (Celestial Emperor), supreme god and sky deity 458, 525 Shou Xing, god of longevity 400 Smithsonian Institute 348, 381, 415, 428 Song Dynasty (960–1279) 25, 128, 130, 134, 135, 136, 137, 157, 161, 167, 168, 170, 187, 193, 256, 299, 305, 306, 423, 424, 425, 471, 478, 479, 552, 555, 559, 560, 562, 563, 570 Su Dongpo (1037–1101), poet and scholar 149, 161, 241, 279, 280, 562 Sui Dynasty (581–618) 128, 205, 214, 385, 561 Su Xiaoxiao (†501), courtesan and poet 161, 562 Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) 18, 27, 29, 31, 157, 161, 189, 385, 482, 504, 516, 523, 555, 565

 585

Tang Dynasty (618–907) 66, 123, 136, 139, 167, 198, 202, 203, 214, 222, 233, 237, 247, 251, 253, 254, 256, 277, 280, 314, 385, 448, 450, 452, 458, 466, 471, 523, 561, 562, 563, 564, 566 Three Gorges Dam 287, 289, 290, 296, 298, 576 Three Kingdoms (220–280) 159, 161, 211, 220, 247, 256, 268, 295, 298, 300, 385, 561, 583 Three Pure Ones, the three highest gods in the Taoist pantheon 229, 242, 387, 389, 560, 561 Three Sovereigns (2852–2070 BC), mythological rulers and deities 213, 222, 559, 583 Vaisramana, chief of the Four Heavenly Kings 110 Wang Lingguan, Numinous Officer Wang, guardian deity in Taoism 387, 392, 393 Warring States Period (475–221 BC) 385, 526, 559, 560 Weito, protector of the Buddhist faith 198, 251, 252, 356, 357, 563 Wenchang Wang, god of literature 16, 136, 143, 149, 192, 193, 195, 220, 226, 248, 249, 250, 253, 254, 286, 287, 305, 321, 322, 439, 454, 471, 504, 562 Wenshu (Manjusri), bodhisattva associated with transcendent wisdom 117, 204, 206, 260, 261, 387, 388, 525, 563 Xia Dynasty (c. 2070–c. 1600 BC) 559 Xi Wangmu, Queen Mother of the West 229, 559 Xuanzang (603–664), Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and translator 136, 236, 237, 238, 458, 476, 563, 564 Yan Hui (c. 521–481 BC), disciple of Confucius 143, 146, 147, 402, 403, 560 Yao Wang, god of medicine 387, 388, 396 Yellow Emperor (Huangdi, 2698–2598 BC), legendary Chinese sovereign 161, 221, 222, 559, 583 Yingzao Fashi (1103), Treatise on Architectural Methods or State Building Standards 25, 551, 552, 553, 556, 565, 566, 572, 573, 575 Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) 102, 180, 354, 483, 562, 563

586 

 Indices

Yue Fei (1103–1142), military general 16, 36, 159, 161, 162, 163, 164, 505, 560, 562, 570 Yue Yun (1119–1142), adopted son of Yue Fei 161 Zengzi (505–435 BC), philosopher and disciple of Confucius 149, 560 Zhang Fei (†221), military general 159, 256, 258, 287, 290, 295, 296, 297, 298, 561

Zhang Liang (†189 BC), early Han dynasty strategist 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 375, 385, 386, 387, 390, 391, 410, 412, 560 Zhao Yun (†229), military general

Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–256 BC) 145, 559 Zhuge Liang (181–234), chancellor during the Three Kingdoms 159, 161, 247, 253, 256, 257, 298, 561

254, 268, 269, 561 Zhenwu, Dark Warrior, high-ranking Taoist deity 226, 281, 561

Persons Alekseev, Vasili (1881–1951), Russian Sinologist 156, 568 Allom, Thomas (1804–1872), British architect and artist 471 Assmy, Hans, German doctor 285 Aufhauser, Johannes (1881–1963), German Catholic theologian 434, 448, 568 Aurousseau, Léonard (1888–1929), French 412, 568 Bachem, Karl (1858–1945), German delegate at the Reichstag 7, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 57, 371, 411, 415, 416, 568, 578 Bachhofer, Ludwig (1888–1976), German art historian 434, 568 Baltzer, Franz (1857–1927), German engineer and architect 7, 51, 53, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 345, 346, 369, 376, 377, 425, 449, 489, 548, 565, 568 Bayern, Rupprecht von (1886–1955), Bavarian Prince 56, 57, 109, 121, 569 Beato, Felice (1832–1909), Italian photographer 507, 575 Beck, Father, missionary 467, 468, 472, 484, 569 Beissel, Stephan (1841–1915), German Jesuit and art historian 370, 569 Benoit, Francois, French author 472, 569 Bethmann Hollweg, Theobald von (1856–1921), German Imperial Chancellor 347 Biermann, Georg (1880–1949), German art historian 433, 434, 569 Blaser, Werner (*1924), Swiss architect, publicist 34, 569 Bode, Wilhelm von (1845–1929), German art historian 344, 352, 380, 383, 574

Bois-Reymond, Marie du (1864–1937), German writer 449 Borrmann, Richard (1852–1931), German architectural historian 344, 345 Breuer, Adam August, German collector 463, 465, 570 Bröring, Theodor (1883–?), German 492, 570 Bülow, Bernhard zu (1849–1929), German Imperial Chancellor 51, 155 Bushell, Stephan W. (1844–1908), British Orientalist 472, 570 Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940), Chinese educator 557 Calavas, A., French publisher 428, 569 Carle Sowerby, Arthur de (1885–1954), British explorer and publisher 494, 579 Chavannes, Edouard (1865–1918), French Sinologist 152, 153, 154, 156, 270, 342, 364, 370, 372, 381, 519, 568, 570, 571 Chiang Kaishek (1887–1975), Chinese politician 244, 410 Cloud, Frederick, D., American author 158, 161, 571 Cohn, William (1880–1961), German-British art historian 369, 434, 435, 571 Contag, Victoria (1906–1973), German Sinologist, art historian 462, 463, 571 Cret, Paul Philippe (1878–1949) French-American architect 556 Dahlmann, Joseph (1861–1930), German Jesuit and Indologist 7, 28, 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 65, 72, 364, 365, 366, 367, 381, 510, 513, 570, 571

Davies, David Charles (1886–1928), director Field Museum Chicago 468 Demiéville, Paul (1894–1979), French Sinologist 470, 543, 566, 570, 572 Devaranne, Theodor (1880–1946), German theologian 492, 571 Diez, Ernst (1878–1961), Austrian art historian 421, 571 Döhring, Karl Siegfried (1879–1941), German architect and writer 382, 419, 420, 421, 569, 571 Eckardt, Andreas (1884–1974), founder of Korean studies in Germany 489, 572 Ecke, Gustav (1896–1971), German art historian 25, 26, 470, 484, 489, 490, 543, 556, 558, 566, 567, 570, 572 Ede, Fozhien Godfrey (Xi Fuquan, 1902–1983), Chinese architect 90, 91, 115, 116, 566, 572, 592 Edkins, Joseph (1823–1905), British missionary and Sinologist 353, 471, 512, 513, 572 Eitel, Ernst Johann (1838–1908), German missionary 526, 565, 572 Elliot, Charles (1801–1875), British diplomat 471 Erlemann, Heinrich, (1852–1917), German missionary and architect 149, 346 Fergusson, James (1808–1868), Scottish architect and writer 65, 372, 377, 472, 490, 572 Filchner, Wilhelm (1877–1957), German explorer 513, 514, 572 Fischer, Adolf (1856–1914), German private scholar 351, 416, 451 Fischer, Otto (1886–1948), German art historian 422, 428, 489

Persons  Fletcher, Banister (1866–1953), British architectural historian 472 Forke, Alfred (1867-1944), German Sinologist 45, 369, 370, 381, 412, 433, 572 Franke, Otto (1863–1946), German Sinologist 100, 353, 370, 381, 412, 434, 448, 470, 510, 572 Fuchs, Eduard (1870–1940), German critic and collector 450, 451, 452, 572, 574 Fuhrmann, Ernst (1886–1956), German artist and poet 157, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 451, 569, 572 Gothein, Marie Luise (1863–1931), German art historian 421, 573 Griffin, Marion Mahonny (1871–1961), American architect 33 Griffin, Walter Burley (1876–1937), American architect 33 Grootaers, Willem A. (1911–1999), Dutch Reverend 225, 226, 227, 573 Groot, J.J.M. de (1854–1923), Dutch Sinologist 28, 102, 379, 380, 472, 474, 490, 491, 527, 573 Grosse, Ernst (1862–1927), German ethnologist 351, 352, 416, 491, 580 Grube, Wilhelm (1855–1908), German Sinologist and ethnologist 28, 403, 413, 573 Grünwedel, Albert (1856–1935), German expert on Indian and Tibetan studies 65, 121, 416, 420, 449, 472, 512, 513, 519, 573 Gruyter, Walter de (1862–1923), German publisher 35, 347, 361, 385, 410, 420, 465, 466, 494, 570, 577 Haenisch, Erich (1880–1960), German Sinologist 108, 433, 470, 471, 573 Hamilton, Louis (1879–?), American translator 428, 569 Häring, Hugo (1882–1958), German architect 34, 574, 581 Hauer, Erich (1878–1936), German Sinologist and expert for Manchuria 448, 573 Haupt, Albrecht (1852–1932), German architect 370, 573 Hedin, Sven (1865–1952), Swedish explorer 95, 100, 573 Hefter, Johnny (1890–1953), German Sinologist 470

Hestermann, Ferdinand (1878–1959), German ethnologist 372, 412, 574 Hildebrand, Heinrich (1853–1924), German architect 7, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50, 53, 68, 71, 72, 73, 372, 377, 425, 506, 527, 565, 574, 578 Hinckeldeyn, Karl (1847–1927), German architect 344 Hoech, Gottlieb Theodor (1850–1924), German architect 413, 574 Hsia Changshi (1905–1996), Chinese architect and art historian 14, 499, 566, 574, 592 Huc, Évariste Régis (1813–1860), French Sinologist 353, 574 Hummel, Gustav Ludwig, German engineer 511, 574 Ito Chuta (1864–1957), Japanese architect and architectural historian 25, 68, 71, 346 Jacques, Norbert (1880–1954), Luxembourgian novelist 422 Jessen, Peter (1858–1926), German director of Ethnology Museum 193, 344, 345 Jobst, Fritz, German-Chinese translator 7, 65, 66, 68, 108, 528, 574 Johnston, Reginald Fleming (1874–1938), British scholar 489, 574 Kelling, Rudolf, German architect 551, 553, 566, 570, 574 Kirilov, Porfirij E. (1801–1864), Russian traveller 471 Kraatz, Karl, German draughtsman 341, 344, 353, 375, 470 Kreichgauer, Damian (1859–1940), German father 433, 575 Kümmel, Otto (1874–1952), German art historian and director of the Museum for East Asian Art 25, 344, 345, 352, 448, 490, 491, 548, 574, 575 Kutschmann, Max (1871–1943), German art historian 412, 575 Lang Freer, Charles (1854–1919), American collector 415 Lartigue, Jean (1886–1940), French archaeologist 202, 214, 217, 342, 568, 575 Laske, Friedrich (1854–1924), German architect 344, 345, 346, 377, 379, 384, 575 Laufer, Berthold (1874–1934), German-American Sinologist and anthropologist 100, 211,

 587

222, 367, 368, 369, 372, 381, 383, 412, 513, 572, 575, 580 Le Coq, Albert von (1860–1930), German archaeologist 382, 416, 449, 513, 519 Lee, Chen Kuen (1915–2003), Chinese-German architect 34, 574 Lessing, Ferdinand (1882–1961), German-American Sinologist 425, 465, 510, 575 Liang Sicheng (1901–1972), Chinese architect and architectural historian 26, 27, 36, 37, 123, 193, 405, 406, 407, 410, 499, 510, 523, 548, 552, 553, 555, 556, 557, 558, 566, 567, 574, 575 Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), Chinese statesman 161, 187, 502, 503 Liljestrom, Gustav (1882–1958), Norwegian-American artist 447 Limpricht, Wolfgang (1877–?), German botanist 97, 470 Linde, Max (1862–1940), German doctor and patron of the arts 462, 576 Lin Huiyin (1904–1955), Chinese architect and architectural historian 26, 123, 523, 556, 566, 567 Liu Cienye, Chinese translator 470 Liu Dunzhen (1897–1968), Chinese architect and architectural historian 26, 499, 556, 558, 566 Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, Aloys zu (1871–1952), German delegate at the Reichstag 415 Luo Zhewen (1924–2012), Chinese architectural historian 26, 238, 273, 302, 316, 326, 432, 576 Mahlke, Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm (1871–1944), German architect 377, 378, 413, 425, 511, 576 Maspero, Henri (1882–1945), French Sinologist 342, 483, 568 McCormick, Frederick, American journalist 193, 515, 516, 576 Melchers, Bernd (1886–1967), German art historian 108, 134, 157, 158, 165, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 428, 470, 489, 490, 491, 507, 566, 569, 576, 592 Messing, Otto, German director of the Deutsch-Asiatische Bank Tianjin 370, 576 Michaelson, C.S., American architect 446

588 

 Indices

Michelsen, Erich (1879–1947), German translator and employee at the Foreign Office 490, 576 Milne, William Charles (1815–1863), British missionary 471, 576 Montgelas, Max von (1860–1938), German military attaché 56 Morrison, Hedda (1908–1991), German-Australian photographer 231, 576 Müller, F.W.K. (1863–1930), German Orientalist 344, 345, 349, 379 Müller, Herbert (1885–1966), German Sinologist 379, 382, 413, 416 Mumm von Scharzenstein, Alfons (1859–1924), German ambassador in Beijing 40, 41, 51, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 101, 485, 507, 573, 576 Münsterberg, Oskar (1865–1920), German philologist 372, 381, 472, 569, 576 Murphy, Henry K. (1877–1954), American architect 493, 571 Nieuwenhuis, Anton Willem (1864–1953), Dutch explorer, ethnographer and geographer 371, 372, 577 Nonn, Konrad (1877–?), German architect and editor 448, 577 Oelmann, Franz (1883–1963), German archaeologist 490, 491, 577 Ogawa Kazumasa (1860–1929), Japanese photographer 25, 344, 577 Ohlmer, Ernst (1847–1924), German member of Chinese Maritime Customs 487, 548, 565, 577 Olbrich, Joseph (1867–1908), Austrian architect 373 Paléologue, Maurice (1859–1944), French diplomat and historian 472, 577 Paquet, Alfons (1881–1944), German journalist and poet 494, 495, 496, 577 Paulsen, Friedrich (1872–1947), German architect and critic 370, 381, 492, 577 Pelliot, Paul (1878–1945), French Sinologist 433, 577 Pollard, Samuel (1864–1915), American missionary 346 Prip-Møller, Johannes (1889–1943), Danish architect 26, 36, 567, 572, 577 Rainer, Roland (1910–2004), Austrian architect 34, 578

Reuther, Oscar (1880–1954), German architectural historian and archaeologist 421, 578 Rex, Arthur Count von (1856–1926), German diplomat 101, 156, 352 Richthofen, Ferdinand von (1833–1905), German geologist 347, 350, 353, 370, 387, 410, 411, 413, 417 Richthofen, Oswald von (1847–1906), German diplomat 50, 52 Rognstad, S.A., American architect 446, 447 Rothkegel, Curt (1876–1945), German architect 77, 346, 385 Rousselle, Erwin (1890–1949), German Sinologist and philosopher 491, 578 Scharoun, Hans (1893–1972), German architect 34, 574, 581 Schinz, Alfred (1919–1999), German architect and researcher 34, 226, 238, 536, 578 Schliemann, Heinrich (1822–1890), German archaeologist 511, 565, 578 Schmarsow, August (1853–1936), German architect 73, 578 Schoede, Hermann, German curio collector 382, 413 Schubart, Heinrich (1878–1955), German architect and Sinologist 413, 414, 425, 465, 492, 493, 565, 566, 578 Seek, Franz, German architect 372, 373, 579 Segalen, Victor (1878–1919), French ethnographer and archaeologist 342, 568 Sekino Tadashi (1868–1935), Japanese architect and archaeologist 25, 26, 120, 575, 579 Semper, Gottfried (1803–1879), German architect 511, 579 Sirén, Osvald (1879–1966), Swedish art historian 25, 26, 120, 202, 204, 205, 224, 465, 469, 470, 472, 477, 556, 566, 567, 579, 580 Solger, Friedrich (1877–1965), German geologist 413 Song Mailing (1897–2003), Madame Chiang Kaishek 410 Stönner, Heinrich (1872–1931), German Indologist 420 Strzygowski, Josef (1862–1941), Austrian art historian 382, 421, 579 Sun Dianying (1887–1947), Chinese warlord 90

Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925), Chinese politician and revolutionary 32, 56, 492, 493, 504, 505, 579 Taut, Bruno (1880–1938), German architect 33, 419, 579 Taut, Max (1884–1967), German architect 33, 578 Teng Gu (1901–1942), Chinese art historian 494, 544, 548, 557, 575 Thomson, John (1837–1921), British photographer 507, 580, 581 Tiessen, Ernst (1872–?), German geologist and geographer 410, 411, 415, 492, 578, 580 Tokiwa Daijo (1870–1945), Japanese Buddhologist 25, 120, 566, 579 Tong Jun (1900–1983), Chinese architect 33, 158, 499, 512, 580, 592 Trautz, Friedrich Max (1877–1952), German art historian and expert on Japanese studies 434, 491, 492, 580 Tschepe, Albert (1844–1912), German Catholic priest 28, 132, 134, 137, 139, 143, 149, 372, 403, 580 Unkrig, Wilhelm Alexander (1883–1956), German Mongolist 121, 471, 577, 580 Voisins, A.G. de (1877–1939), French writer 342, 568 Volpert, Anton (1863-1949), German Catholic missionary 149, 154, 372, 580 Wach, Hugo (1872–1939), German architect 449 Wang Shixiang (1914–2009), Chinese architectural historian 432 Wang Yintai (1888–1961), Chinese politician 353 Wegener, Georg (1865–1939), German geographer 470, 492, 581 Weiss, Fritz Max (1877–1955), German consul 254, 378, 511, 580 Weng, Wan-go (*1918), ChineseAmerican art historian 431, 432, 433, 581 Westheim, Paul (1886–1963), German-Mexican art historian 421, 581 Weyhe, Erhard (1883–1972), German-American publisher 465, 466 Wilhelm, Richard (1873–1930), German Sinologist 449, 463

Places  Williamson, Alexander (1829–1890), Scottish missionary 215, 223, 224, 462, 581 Williams, Samuel Wells (1812–1884), American Sinologist 471, 581 Willis, Bailey (1857–1949), American geographer 120, 581 Wilshusen, Wilhelm (1874–1966), German merchant 507, 578 With, Karl (1891–1980), GermanAmerican art historian 421, 433, 574, 581

Wölfflin, Heinrich (1864–1945), Swiss art historian 544, 581 Woo Shaoling, Chinese architect and architectural historian 82, 522, 550, 567 Yamamoto (1855–1943), Japanese photographer 62, 82, 436, 508, 581 Yetts, Walter Perceval (1878–1957), British surgeon and Sinologist 298, 448, 452, 581 Yuan Shikai (1859–1916), Chinese general, politician and „emperor“ 41, 505

 589

Zeng Guofan (1811–1871), Chinese official 131 Zeng Guoquan (1824–1890), Chinese general 131 Zhang Yao (1832–1891), Chinese politician 158 Zhao Erfeng (1845–1911), Chinese viceroy of Tibet 270, 344 Zhao Erxun (1844–1927), Chinese governor of Sichuan 254 Zhu Qiqian (1871–1964), Chinese politician 25, 494, 556, 571 Zuo Zhongtang (1812–1885), Chinese statesmen 161, 302

Places Anyang ̶̶ Tianning Temple 36, 128, 550 ̶̶ Wenfeng Pagoda 128 Baidicheng ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Emperor Liu Bei 298 Baoding ̶̶ Western Qing Tombs 7, 88, 90, 91, 114, 115, 116, 117, 514 Beijing 102, 545 ̶̶ Beihai Park 78, 535 ̶̶ Big Bell Temple (Dazhongsi) 36 ̶̶ Confucius Temple 76, 109, 149, 189, 235, 261, 306, 424, 581 ̶̶ Drum and Clock Tower (Gulou and Zhonglou) 75 ̶̶ Eastern Peak Temple, Dongyue Temple (Dongyuemiao) 11, 424 ̶̶ East Yellow Temple, Temple of Universal Purity (Pujinchanglin) 424 ̶̶ Five Pagoda Temple (Wutasi) 36, 76, 82, 83 ̶̶ Fragrant Hill Park (Xiangshan) 97, 108 ̶̶ Imperial Academy (Guozijian) 424 ̶̶ Imperial Ancestral Hall (Taimiao) 76 ̶̶ Jade Spring Mountain (Yuquanshan) 108 ̶̶ Lama Temple (Yonghegong) 75 ̶̶ Monastery of Celestial Peace (Tianning Temple) 102, 103, 107, 545 ̶̶ Monastery of the Cypress Grove (Bailinsi) 423, 424

̶̶ Ordination Terrace Temple, Jietai Temple (Jietaisi) 108, 424 ̶̶ Pagoda of Cishou Temple (Chishousita) 102 ̶̶ Qianmen City Gate 77 ̶̶ Summer Palace 84, 85, 108, 429, 486, 579 ̶̶ Temple of Agriculture (Xiannongtan) 76, 114, 342, 424 ̶̶ Temple of Ancient Monarchs (Lidaidiwangmiao) 36, 424 ̶̶ Temple of Azure Clouds (Biyunsi) 7, 30, 36, 41, 43, 47, 52, 53, 56, 73, 82, 102, 108, 111, 343, 348, 374, 417, 430, 449, 507, 510, 527, 552 ̶̶ Temple of Enligthenment, Dajue Temple (Dajuesi) 36, 42, 372, 506, 527 ̶̶ Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) 36, 109, 112, 343, 448, 449, 504, 523, 525 ̶̶ Temple of the Pool and Zhe Tree, Tanzhe Temple (Tanzhesi) 424 ̶̶ Twin Pagodas, Qingshou Temple 566, 570 ̶̶ Western Hills 7, 36, 41, 45, 47, 52, 65, 97, 102, 107, 108, 109, 111, 114, 424, 483, 507, 514, 527, 528, 529, 552 ̶̶ West Yellow Temple, Temple of the Dalai Lama (Dalaimiao) 76, 80, 81 ̶̶ White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan) 36 ̶̶ White Stupa Temple, Miaoying Temple (Miaoyingsi) 76 ̶̶ Yuanmingyuan 108, 487, 548, 565, 575

Boshan 136, 435 Changsha ̶̶ Ancestral Temple of Chen Family (Chenjia Citang) 302, 316, 332 ̶̶ Ancestral Temple of Hi Family (Hijia Citang) 305 ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 304, 305 Chengde ̶̶ Imperial Summer Residence 92, 93 ̶̶ Manjusri Statue Temple (Shuxiangsi) 14, 99 ̶̶ Pacified Distant (Land) Temple (Anyuanmiao) 99, 100 ̶̶ Potala Temple (Putuo Zongchengzhimiao) 14, 93 ̶̶ Saihu Lake 92 ̶̶ Temple of Happiness and Longevity of the Sumeru Mountain (Xumifushou Zhimiao) 95, 96, 101 ̶̶ Temple of Universal Happiness (Pulesi) 14, 15, 97, 98, 99 ̶̶ Temple of Universal Peace (Puningsi) 99 ̶̶ Tile Pagoda of Longevity (Liuli Wanshouta) 97 Chengdu ̶̶ Azure Ram Palace, Temple of Laozi (Qingyanggong) 258, 259, 260 ̶̶ Baoguang Temple (Baoguangsi) 254, 255 ̶̶ Cottage for poet Du Fu (Du Fu caotang) 256 ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Zhuge Liang 256 ̶̶ Memorial Temple of the Bathing Flowers 256 ̶̶ Temple of the Grashall 256 ̶̶ Wenshu Temple 261

590 

 Indices

̶̶ Wuhou Temple (Wuhouci) 256, 257, 258 Chongqing 10, 285, 286, 515, 516, 517 Dayi ̶̶ Ancestral Temple of Tung Family 267 ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Zhao Yun 254 Dingzhou ̶̶ Liaodi Pagoda 120 Dongping 154, 225, 437, 438, 530 Dujiangyan ̶̶ Dragon Taming Temple (Fulongguan) 17, 261, 262, 263, 264, 390, 392 ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 17, 263, 265 ̶̶ Two Kings Temple (Erwangmiao) 17, 20, 261, 262, 266, 390, 391, 393 Feicheng 152, 154, 514 Fengdu ̶̶ Temple of the Maternal Goddess (Wangmudian) 287 ̶̶ Temple of the Underworld 287, 288 Fuzhou ̶̶ Black Pagoda (Wushita) 334, 484, 539, 542 ̶̶ Gushing Spring Temple (Yongquansi) 334 ̶̶ White Pagoda (Dingguangta) 333 Guangzhou ̶̶ Ancestral Temple of Chen Family 302, 316, 332 ̶̶ Flower Pagoda (Huata) 22, 323, 538, 540 ̶̶ Huaisheng Mosque 326 ̶̶ Hualin Temple (Hualinsi) 326, 328 ̶̶ Lotus Pagoda (Lianhuata) 538 ̶̶ Monastery of the Sea Banner (Haitongsi) 328 ̶̶ Pazhou Pagoda (Pazhouta) 538, 539 ̶̶ Red Mount Pagoda (Chigangta) 538 ̶̶ Sea Tamer Tower, Zhenhai Tower (Wucenglou) 322 ̶̶ Temple for the God of Medicine (Yaowangmiao) 328, 329 ̶̶ Temple of the Six Banyan Trees (Liurensi) 323, 326, 538, 540 Gubeikou Pass ̶̶ South Heaven Gate 90, 91, 92, 578 Guilin

̶̶ Cave of the Seven Stars (Qixingyan) 314 ̶̶ Flower Bridge (Huaqiao) 17, 314 ̶̶ Fujian Club 317, 440 ̶̶ Sheli Sarira Pagoda (Shelita) 318 ̶̶ Wanshou Temple (Wanshousi) 314 Hangzhou ̶̶ Baochu Pagoda (Baochuta) 16, 159, 168, 170 ̶̶ Leifeng Pagoda (Leifengta) 16, 159, 168, 171 ̶̶ Ligong Pagoda (Ligongta) 165 ̶̶ Liuhe Pagoda (Liuheta) 16, 159, 168, 170 ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Yue Fei (Yuewangmiao) 36 ̶̶ Memorial Temple of the Trible Loyality (Temple for Guandi) 159, 160 ̶̶ Phoenix Mosque (Fenghuangsi) 167 ̶̶ Shengyin Monastery 165, 168 ̶̶ Temple of the Soul‘s Retreat (Linyinsi) 161, 165, 424, 483 ̶̶ West Lake 16, 36, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 165, 168, 170, 172, 337, 562, 580 ̶̶ Zhenhai Pagoda 168, 171 Hengyang ̶̶ Monastery of Wild Goose Hill 312 ̶̶ Temple of the Dragon King 312 ̶̶ Wild Goose Pagoda 312 Hohhot ̶̶ Five Pagoda Temple (Wutasi) 82, 501 ̶̶ White Pagoda (Baita) 498, 499, 545 ̶̶ Xilituzhao Temple (Xilituzhaosi) 23 Japan ̶̶ Aoyama Palace 71 ̶̶ Horyu-ji Temple 69 ̶̶ Ise Grand Shrine 71 ̶̶ Itsukushima Shrine 74 Jiexiu 207, 208 Jinan ̶̶ Four-Door Pagoda (Simenta) 424 ̶̶ Phoenix Mountain (Biaoshan) 132 Jining ̶̶ Chongjue Temple (Chongjuesi) 151 ̶̶ Iron Pagoda (Chongjuesi tieta) 150, 151 ̶̶ Wu Family Shrine 154

Juyongguan ̶̶ Cloud Platform Gate 109 Kaifeng ̶̶ Fan Pagoda (Fanta) 128, 130, 478, 479 ̶̶ Iron Pagoda (Youguosi) 128, 130, 131 ̶̶ Song Dynasty Imperial Palace 128 ̶̶ Youguo Temple (Youguoosi) 130 Leshan ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Su Dongpo (Sansuci) 279 Liling ̶̶ Pagoda of the Emerging Origin 306 Linfen ̶̶ Temple of Emperor Yao (Yaowangmiao) 214 Lintong ̶̶ Huaqing Palace (Huaqinggong) 233, 573 Manchukuo 32, 92, 100, 558, 579 Mian Mountain ̶̶ Temple of the Cloud Summit (Yungfengsi) 209, 211 Mount Emei ̶̶ Clear Tone Gallery (Qingyinge) 276 ̶̶ Golden Summit Temple (Jingdingsi) 273 ̶̶ Myriad Years Monastery (Wanniansi) 272 Mount Hua 7, 228, 229, 231, 343, 449, 515, 518, 519, 521, 522, 549, 562 Mount Jiuhua 12, 343, 515, 518, 522, 557, 564 Mount Putuo ̶̶ Chan Temple of Universal Salvation (Pujisi) 174, 182, 183, 184, 353 ̶̶ Foding 11, 180, 181 ̶̶ Huiji Temple (Huijisi) 180, 353 ̶̶ Multi Treasure Pagoda (Duabaota) 354 ̶̶ Stone Temple or Fayu Temple (Fayusi) 174 Mount Qingcheng ̶̶ Shangqing Temple (Shangqinggong) 266 Mount Tai ̶̶ Pizhi Pagoda (Pizhita) 134, 479, 480, 481, 508, 545 Mount Wutai ̶̶ Foguang Temple (Foguangsi) 123, 523 ̶̶ Great White Pagoda (Dabaita) 119, 120, 545

Places  ̶̶ Tayuan Temple 117, 118, 119, 120, 545 ̶̶ Xiantong Temple (Xiantongsi) 120, 121, 124 Nanjing ̶̶ Linggu Pagoda (Lingguta) 493 ̶̶ Porcelain Pagoda (Liulita) 109, 482, 492, 493 ̶̶ Sheli Pagoda (Shelita) 319, 500 Ningbo ̶̶ Guildhall for the Fujian People 171 ̶̶ Monastery of the Heavenly Child (Tiantongsi) 170, 180 Northern Mount Heng 515, 518, 522 Puzhou ̶̶ Yingying Pagoda 220, 222 Qingdao 40, 41, 42, 47, 52, 120, 128, 154, 155, 157, 377, 411, 413, 514, 565, 574 Qingling Mountain ̶̶ Temple of the Marquise of Liu (Liuhouci) 19, 241, 242, 246, 386 Qingyangshu ̶̶ Heavenly Jade Maiden (Bixia Yuanjun) 136, 154, 559 Qufu ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 21, 143, 145, 402, 403, 406, 407, 409, 419, 443, 535 ̶̶ Temple of Yan Hui 143, 147, 403 Shanghai ̶̶ Longhua Pagoda Temple 36 ̶̶ Pagoda of the Beauty of the Dragon (Longhuata) 157 ̶̶ Square Pagoda (Fangta) 36, 540 ̶̶ Xujiahui (Zikawei) 47, 467 Shanxian ̶̶ Monastery of the Iron Buddha 211, 212 Shaoxing 24, 170, 476 Shashi ̶̶ Longevity Pagoda (Wanshouta) 302 Southern Mount Heng ̶̶ Grand Temple of Mount Heng (Nanyue Damiao) 306, 309, 310 ̶̶ Shangfeng Temple (Shangfengsi) 310 ̶̶ Temple of the Iron Buddha 308, 312 Suzhou

̶̶ Ink Pagoda 193 ̶̶ Kaiyuan Temple (Kaiyuansi) 189, 190, 543 ̶̶ Lengqie Pagoda 16, 192, 193, 195 ̶̶ Lingering Garden (Liuyuan) 187 ̶̶ Lingyan Temple (Lingyanshansi) 16, 134, 135, 136, 193, 195, 422, 423, 424, 425, 458, 479, 480, 508, 545 ̶̶ Mysterious Essence Temple (Xuanmiaoguan) 189 ̶̶ North Pagoda 190 ̶̶ North Pagoda (Beisita) 189 ̶̶ Pagoda of Auspicious Light (Ruiguangta) 16, 189, 195 ̶̶ Surging Waves Pavilion (Canglangting) 187 ̶̶ Temple for Confucius 187 ̶̶ Tiger Hill Pagoda 16, 193, 195 ̶̶ Twin Pagoda (Shuangta) 16, 191, 192, 193, 195 ̶̶ West Garden Temple (Xiyuansi) 191 Tai‘an ̶̶ Dai Temple (Daimiao) 134, 137, 138, 140 ̶̶ Iron Pagoda 137, 141 ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 137, 139 Taiyuan ̶̶ Chongshan Monastery (Chongshansi) 197, 428 ̶̶ City God Temple 196, 459 ̶̶ Imperial Longevity Temple 203, 204 ̶̶ Jinci Temple (Jincisi) 198, 202, 203 ̶̶ Manshan Pavilion (Manshange) 204, 205 ̶̶ Monastery of Eternal Joy (Yonglegong) 198 ̶̶ Royal Honorary Temple 197 ̶̶ Twin Pagoda (Shuangta) 196, 198, 199, 200, 201, 468, 473 ̶̶ Well Temple 206 Tianjin 37, 40, 41, 52, 65, 502, 503, 507, 572, 574 Wanxian ̶̶ Cave Temple of Lord Chen 290 ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Zhang Fei (Huanhougong) 295, 296, 297 ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 290, 292, 293, 294 ̶̶ Temple of the ‟Torrent Regulator” 290 Wenshang 154, 530

 591

White Horse Pass ̶̶ Memorial Temple for Pang Tong 252 Wuchang ̶̶ Baotong Temple 483 Wuzhou ̶̶ Memorial Gate 317 Xi‘an ̶̶ Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayanta) 136, 236, 237, 475, 476, 564 ̶̶ Huajuexiang Mosque (Qingzhensi) 238 ̶̶ North Gate 233, 235 ̶̶ Small Wild Goose Pagoda (Xiaoyanta) 236, 477 ̶̶ Xuanzang Tomb Pagoda 237 Ya‘an ̶̶ Golden Summit Monastery (Jinfengsi) 269 Yangtze River ̶̶ Precious Stone Fortress (Shibaozai) 288, 289 Yanzhou ̶̶ Xinglong Pagoda Temple (Xinglongta) 36 Yibin ̶̶ Half-side Temple (Banbiansi) 282, 283, 578 Yichang ̶̶ Cave Temple of the Dragon King, Longwangdong Temple 299, 300 ̶̶ Lingguan Temple 299 ̶̶ Temple of Confucius 109, 143, 145, 149, 196, 197, 283, 286, 299, 402, 405, 449, 511, 536, 575 Yuncheng ̶̶ Guandi Temple (Guandimiao) 90, 91, 92, 218, 219, 241 Yunyang ̶̶ Zhang Fei Temple 295 Zhaohua 248, 249 Zigong ̶̶ Memorial Temple for the Jade Emperor 283 ̶̶ Shanxi Club 284, 441 Zitong 249, 250, 532, 562 Zunhua ̶̶ Eastern Qing Tombs 7, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 348, 514

Photocredits In order to achieve the best image quality in this publication, the author searched for original material. In some cases, however, it was impossible to get ether negatives or positives of the photos or drawings. In a few cases scans of printed material from books or articles were made. It was also impossible to clear the use of all copyrights, since Ernst Boerschmann collected images from many different individuals, mostly without indicating the name of the photographer. In many cases Boerschmann’s descriptions of the photos are rather rudimentary. All efforts have been made to identify the image and the photographer, and to check that the image really shows what was written on the back in Boerschmann’s handwriting. Today, some of the photographs are in private collections and the archives of public institutions. Without the help of many individuals it would have been impossible to bring together the visual material in this book. All of Ernst Boerschmann’s images are published with the permission of the family. The following institutions and individuals were kind enough to allow the reproduction of photographs or drawings from their public or private collections. Ernst-Christian Boerschmann, Berlin (PAB) Emily Kachholz, Berlin Bodo Niemann, Berlin/picture perfect GbR Empore Kahl, Berlin Ang Ye, Berlin Peter Bretschger for the images of Hsia Changshi, Freiburg Renate Erhart for the images of Heinz von Perckhammer, Innsbruck Peter Bork for the postcard of the Chinese pavilion in Memel Tong Ming for the drawing of Tong Jun, Shanghai Friederike Assandri for the images of Walter Frey, Berlin Max Ede for the images of F.G. Ede, Freiburg Michael Kämpfe, Berlin Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstbibliothek, Berlin bpk – Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte/Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées in Paris University Archive Cologne (UAK), Cologne

Abbreviations for the images The books are only indicated by the name of the author, the year and the page number. They are found in the literature list. CA, 1925: T.II refers to the book Chinesische Architektur, 1925: Tafel II. refers to the book Pagoden, 1931. Pag, 1931 CB, 1927 refers to the book Chinesische Baukeramik, 1927. BL, 1923 refers to the book Baukunst und Landschaft in China, 1923. GT, 1914 refers to the book Gedächtnistempel, 1914. Putuo, 1911 refers to the book P‘u T‘o Shan, 1911 Melchers, 1921 refers to Bernd Melchers: China. Der Tempelbau. Die Lochan von Ling-yän-si. Ein Hauptwerk buddhistischer Plastik. Hagen i.W.: Folkwang Verlag, 1921. PAB Private Archive of the Boerschmann Family. UAK University Archive Köln (Cologne). EK Eduard Kögel