Sir John Davis visited one near Lintsing chau in Shantung, in very good repair, inhabited by Buddhist priests, and containing two idols; each of its nine stories was inscribed with Ometo Fuh, in large characters. It was erected since the completion of the Grand Canal. A winding stairway of near two hundred steps conducted to the top, about one hundred and fifty feet from the ground, from whence an extensive view was obtained of the surrounding country. The basement was excellently built of granite, and all the rest of glazed brick, beautifully joined and cemented.
The objects in building these structures being of a mixed nature, sometimes geomantic and sometimes religious, their materials, size, and structure vary considerably. There are two inside of Canton, and three near the Pearl River, below the city; fifteen others occur in the prefecture. Suchau has two, Ningpo one, Fuhchau two, and Peking six in and out of the walls. One of those at Canton was built by the Moslems about a thousand years ago, a plain brick tower nearly two hundred feet high, from which the faithful were probably called to prayers in the adjacent mosque. Fergusson’s remarks upon Chinese architecture would probably have been modified had the writer enjoyed a wider range of observation and a fuller knowledge of the designs of native builders. They are, however, the conclusions of a competent observer, and the position he gives to the pagoda among the tower-like buildings of the world, arising from its peculiar form, its divisions, and its apparent uselessness, will be generally accepted as just.
Mr. Milne, in his interesting work, has a good account of pagodas; he shows that while their model is of Hindu origin, and has been carefully followed since the first one was erected (about A.D. 250) at Nanking, the popular geomantic ideas connected with their octagonal form and great height have gradually increased and influenced their location. The Buddhists seem themselves to have lost their ancient confidence in the protection of the shé-lí (or saina) supposed to be built in them. The number of Indian words transliterated in Chinese accounts of these edifices further proves their foreign origin. For convenience and accuracy in describing them, it would be best to restrict the term pagoda to the hollow octagonal towers, the word dagoba to the solid ones covering the relics, and tope to the erections over priests when buried.
Pagodas are sometimes made of cast iron; those hitherto observed are in the central provinces. One exists in Chehkiang province, nearly fifty feet high and of nine stories. The octagonal pieces forming the walls are each single castings, as are also the plates forming the roof. The whole structure, including the base and spire, was made of twenty pieces of iron. Its interior is filled with brick, probably with the design to strengthen it against storms. The ignorance of the Chinese of later days of the Hindu origin of pagodas has led to their regarding those now in existence as of native design, and appropriated by the Buddhists for their own ends. Most of them are falling to ruins; and the assurances held out by the geomancers that the pagoda will act like an electric tractor to draw down every felicitous omen from above, so that fire, water, wood, earth, and metal will be at the service of the people, the soil productive, trade prosperous, and the natives submissive and happy, all fail to call out funds for repairing them.[356]
The dull appearance of a Chinese city when seen from a distance is unlike that of European cities, in which spires, domes, and towers of churches and cathedrals, halls, palaces, and other public buildings relieve the uniformity of rows of dwellings. In China, temples, houses, and palaces are nearly of one height; their sameness being only partially relieved by trees mingled with pairs of tall flag-staffs with frames near their tops, which at a distance rather suggest the idea of dismantled gallows. Nature, however, charms and delights, and few countries present more beautiful landscapes; even the tameness of the works of man serves as a foil for the diversified beauties of the cultivated landscape.
Wheelbarrows Used for Travelling.
MODES OF TRAVELLING.