Splendid Palace of Linglang - Timeless Rivers and Mountains

Author: Zhang Weiran, Gu Jingxia (editors)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2007-01-01
Features: One of the series "Changcang Heishan." This series selects several topics from the historical geography of China, using various landscapes as carriers to introduce related historical events, cultural elements, important figures, customs and traditions, folk legends, and to narrate their historical geographical changes, cultural origins, developmental context, and historical vicissitudes, exploring the profound historical and cultural as well as humanistic connotations carried by these landscapes. This book focuses on temples. As a crucial spatial carrier of Buddhism, temples are rich in social and cultural content. Adopting a perspective of historical and cultural geography, this book takes Sinicized Buddhist temples as its subject, vividly depicting the fundamental aspects of Buddhist temples in the development of Chinese culture. It covers seven aspects: the basic structure of Sinicized Buddhist temples, the Four Sacred Mountains of Chinese Buddhism since the Middle Ages, other Buddhist scenic spots across the country, the historical changes in the distribution of Buddhist temples, the distribution of grotto-temples, the relationship between temples and social life, and Buddhist legends and stories associated with temples. It delves deeply into the origins, developmental context, and historical vicissitudes of the profound Buddhist culture.