隋唐时期佛教寺院与建筑概览

自公元581年隋代建立,至公元907年唐代灭亡,在自6世纪末至10世纪初的这300余年里,中国佛教达到了其鼎盛阶段,出现了十余个各具特色的佛教宗系,而由帝王提倡,国家参与的大规模佛寺建造活动,使佛寺建筑也臻于极盛。有隋-代全国有寺3792所,盛唐时期全国有寺5358所,经过安史之乱摧残之后的晚唐时期,全国仍有寺院4600所。而唐代寺院已经开始出现定型化趋势,唐释道宣的《祗洹寺图经》与《戒坛图经》中所描述的理想寺院形式,为后来唐代寺院定型化起到了一定的推动作用。而唐代寺院在佛殿规模,楼阁建造,庭院配置等方面,都达到了前所未有的规模、尺度与数量,如规模最为宏大的寺院中,可以有数十座,甚至近百座院落,数千间房屋。而唐以后的佛寺中,再难见到如此宏伟巨大的佛寺建筑群。

It is the most important period of Chinese Buddhism and Buddhist temple construction since the year of 581 AD to the year of 907 AD.It is the so called Sui and Tang Dynasties.During this 300 year more period the Chinese Buddhism and Buddhist temple construction reach its highest point.There were more than 10 Buddhist groups in this time.As the emperor cared the Buddhism very much there were many nationally constructed Buddhist temples during this period.There were 3792 Buddhist temples in Sui dynasty and 5358 Buddhist temples in the high Tang dynasty.After the period of troublous of An Lushan and Shi Siming,there were still 4600 Buddhist temples in the later-Tang period.It is important that the Buddhist temple in Tang dynasty had become finalizing its design in plan.The two sutras of"Zhi Huan Temple Plan"and"Jie Tan Temple Plan"that Tang monk Dao Xuan wrote had described the standard plan of Tang period Buddhist temple.The plan had must influenced the temple development in Tang dynasty.It reached the highest point in the scale of Buddhist temple,as well as the construction of multi-storied building and the courtyard arrangement.There had built many Buddhist temples with large size and huge scale.The largest temple in Tang dynasty had arranged with 120 courtyards and several-thousands rooms.We could hardly see such a big Buddhist temple after Tang dynasty.