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Ming Dynasty

Chinese ancient architecture and grottoes from the Ming Dynasty period: 12 entries, including Ganden Monastery, Guangyue Tower, Taihe Palace, and more.

002 Architecture Guangyue Tower The Guangyue Tower stands at the center of the old city of Liaocheng, Shandong. Built in the seventh year of the Hongwu era of the Ming (1374) from timber left over from the city walls and first named the “Yumu Tower,” it is a four-story watch-and-drum tower on a high terrace, used to keep lookout for the city's defense and to sound the night watches and alarms. Drawing on Ming and Qing tower records, the Qianlong Emperor's poems on climbing the tower, and the local gazetteers, this entry tells of its naming and repairs and its part in the 1938 defense of Liaocheng, and presents old photographs from 1936 and 1947. Ming dynasty · Shandong · Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng, Shandong Province
003 Architecture Taihe Palace Taihe Palace stands on Mingfeng Mountain in Kunming, Yunnan. Founded in the Wanli era of the Ming, it is centered on a gilded hall cast of copper. The original copper hall was moved to Mount Jizu in the Chongzhen era, and Wu Sangui, the Prince Who Pacified the West, recast the copper hall on Mingfeng Mountain in the Kangxi era; in the late Qing the complex passed through wartime destruction, fundraising, and continual rebuilding, and old photographs from 1911 onward preserve the former appearance of the Golden Hall with its steps and balustrades. Ming Dynasty · Yunnan · Kunming, Yunnan Province
004 Architecture Sera Monastery Sera Monastery stands in the northern suburbs of Lhasa. It was founded in 1419 by Shakya Yeshe, who had previously entered the Ming court, at Tsongkhapa’s command. The monastery later grew into a Gelug institution with a great assembly hall and three colleges that once housed several thousand monks. Drawing on old texts, monastic scholarship, a monk’s recollections, and historical photographs, this entry traces the Ming court’s gifts, the eighteenth-century succession of its halls, the procession of the flying vajra, the life of debate, and images of the monastery from the early twentieth century onward. Ming dynasty · Tibet · Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region
005 Architecture Ta'er Monastery (Kumbum Monastery) Ta'er Monastery (Kumbum Monastery), in Huangzhong District of Xining, Qinghai, was founded in the Ming dynasty. A Gelug-school monastery of Tibetan Buddhism and the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, it was formerly known as Ta'er Si and the Silver Stupa Monastery. Drawing on Ming and Qing sources such as the Manuscripts of the Forest Lodge, the Sacred Military Records, the Draft History of Qing, and the Memorials on Qinghai, this article traces the monastery's founding and development, its relations with the Ming and Qing central governments, the Lobsang Danjin incident, and its restoration and rebuilding after the Shaanxi–Gansu Hui revolt, and also presents historical photographs of Ta'er Monastery taken between 1900 and 1937. Ming dynasty · Qinghai · Huangzhong District, Xining, Qinghai
006 Architecture Tianyi Pavilion The Tianyi Pavilion stands west of Moon Lake in Ningbo, Zhejiang, a private library built by Fan Qin in the Jiajing era of the Ming and preserved to this day. Drawing on original texts by Huang Zongxi, Quan Zuwang, Ruan Yuan, and others, the entry recounts the Fan family's book collecting, its rules for guarding the collection, and the Qing court's requisition of books for the Siku Quanshu; together with the Historical Records of the Tianyi Pavilion Collection and old photographs of the modern era, it traces the loss of books in the wars of the late Qing, the thefts of the Republican period, the rebuilding of 1933, and the removal of the collection during the War of Resistance. Ming Dynasty · Zhejiang · Haishu District, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province
007 Architecture Yu Garden Shanghai's Yu Garden lies in the old walled quarter of Huangpu District and was the private garden that Pan Yunduan began building in the thirty-eighth year of the Jiajing era of the Ming. After the Pan family declined, the grounds passed through resale; in the twenty-fifth year of the Qianlong era they were purchased by local gentry and wealthy merchants and attached to the City God Temple, and in the late Qing they were managed and rebuilt in parcels by more than twenty trade guilds. Drawing on the Record of the Yu Garden, local gazetteers, archival photographs, and restoration records, this entry traces the garden's transformation from the Pan family residence-garden and the West Garden into a modern public garden. Ming Dynasty · Shanghai · Huangpu District, Shanghai
008 Architecture Tashilhunpo Monastery Tashilhunpo Monastery, also written Zhaxilunbu Monastery, is located in Samzhubzê District, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region. Founded in the Ming dynasty, it is a Gelug monastery of Tibetan Buddhism and has served as the seat of successive Panchen Lamas. Drawing on sources including the General Gazetteer of Ü-Tsang, Illustrated Study of Tibet, Travel Notes from Kham, and Imperially Commissioned Brief Account of the Gurkha Campaign, this article traces the monastery’s founding history, layout, Panchen Lama stupas, damage and repairs during the Gurkha war, and includes twentieth-century historical photographs. Ming dynasty · Tibet · Samzhubzê District, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region
009 Architecture Drepung Monastery Drepung Monastery stands on the southern slope of Mount Gephel Utse, west of Lhasa. Founded in 1416 by Tsongkhapa’s disciple Jamyang Chöjé Tashi Palden, it contains a former villa renamed Ganden Podrang in 1518 and made an office of the Tibetan local government in 1642. The surviving complex centers on Tsokchen Hall, Ganden Podrang, and four colleges; this entry presents Qing-to-Republican records and photographs from 1920 to 1936. Ming dynasty · Tibet · Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region
010 Architecture Vajrasana Pagoda at Zhenjue Temple During the Yongle era, the Tibetan monk Pandita came to pay tribute and presented five golden Buddha figures together with the regulations for a Vajrasana pagoda; Emperor Chengzu built a temple to house him and named it Zhenjue. In the ninth year of Chenghua, following the Central Indian model, a stone platform fifty chi high was raised, with stairways hidden within its walls spiraling up left and right; on its top stood five pagodas each twenty chi tall, already celebrated by Ming poets who climbed them. Ming · Beijing · Haidian District, Beijing
011 Architecture Zhihua Temple Zhihua Temple, in Lumicang Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng District, was completed in the ninth year of the Zhengtong reign of the Ming (1444). After his restoration, Emperor Yingzong erected a shrine to Wang Zhen inside the temple; the Qianlong emperor later approved Shen Tingfang's petition to destroy the statue and the stele, after which the temple lost its patronage and gradually declined. By the Republican era, Abbot Puyuan could only keep the monastery going by renting out rooms and felling and selling its ancient cypresses. In 1930 the two caisson ceilings of Zhihua Hall and Wanfo Pavilion were dismantled and sold: the former entered the Philadelphia Museum of Art the same year, while the latter was purchased the following year by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art from a Beijing antiquities dealer. Ming dynasty · Beijing · Dongcheng District, Beijing
012 Architecture Humble Administrator's Garden The Humble Administrator's Garden (Zhuozheng Yuan) stands in Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu, and was founded in the Zhengde era of the Ming. Wang Xianchen built a garden of ponds, pavilions, and bamboo and trees in the northeast of Suzhou city; afterward the site passed through division and refashioning as the Xu family private garden, the Return-to-the-Fields Garden, the Su-Song-Chang Circuit offices, the Restored Garden, the Eight Banners Fengzhi Guild Hall, and the Supplementary Garden. This entry gathers Wen Zhengming's garden record, inscriptions preserved within the garden, and historical photographs, tracing the Humble Administrator's Garden from a Ming private garden to a Qing guild hall. Ming Dynasty · Jiangsu · Gusu District, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province

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