383. Pagoda in Summer Palace, Pekin. (From a Photograph by Beato.)
Another celebrated pagoda is that known as “Second Bar Pagoda,” on the Canton river. It is a pillar of victory, erected to commemorate a naval battle which the Chinese claim to have gained near the spot. It is, in design, nearly identical with that of Nankin, but of smaller dimensions, and is now fast falling to ruin.
384. Tung Chow Pagoda. (From a Photograph by Beato.)
These two are of the usual and most typical form, and so like hundreds of others, that it is impossible to deduce any sequence from them with such representations as we now possess. Though pleasing and purposelike, as well as original, they are somewhat monotonous in design. A tower divided into nine equal and similar storeys is a very inferior design to that of the minars of the Mahomedans, or the ordinary spires of Christian churches; and, if all were like these, we should be forced to deny the Chinese the faculty of invention in architecture. In the north, however, the forms seem much more various. One in the Summer Palace ([Woodcut No. 383]) is divided into either three or seven storeys, as you choose to count them. Four of the sides of the octagon are longer than the other four, and altogether there is a play of light and shade, and a variety about the ornaments in this tower, which is extremely pleasing. It is much more like an Indian design than any other known in China, and with the circle of pillars round its base, and the Lât or Stambha, which usually accompany these objects further west, it recalls the original forms as completely as any other object in this country.
In direct contrast to this is the Pagoda of Tung Chow ([Woodcut No. 384]). Its thirteen storeys are almost more monotonous than those of the Nankin Pagoda; but they are merely architectural ornaments, string-courses, in fact; and as the tower is not pierced with windows above the base, it becomes, like an Orissan temple, an imposing object of architectural art without any apparent utilitarian object. It thus escapes the charge of littleness in design, which only too justly applies to most of its compeers.
It is extremely difficult to form a correct estimate of the artistic merits of these towers. Edifices so original and so national must be interesting from that circumstance alone, and it seems almost impossible to build anything in a tower-like form of great height, whether as a steeple, a minar, or a pagoda, which shall not form a pleasing object from its salience and aspiring character alone, even without any real artistic merit in itself. Besides these qualifications, I cannot but think that the tapering octagonal form, the boldly-marked divisions, the domical roof, and general consistence in design and ornament of these towers, entitle them to rank tolerably high among the tower-like buildings of the world.