tīngtáng 廳堂

Note

Tingtang is a building type of lower rank than diantang 殿堂 (dian 殿 or diange 殿閣) in the traditional Chinese building hierarchy. Ting itself can refer to a reception hall in government and domestic building compounds (Kroll 2015, 454). Tingtang is a combination of, or general term for, ting and tang and is one of the most important terms in the Song Dynasty Yingzao fashi. Tingtang was also widely used for main buildings and could describe buildings in houses and gardens as well as ancestral shrines.5

We first see the term tingtang in the Northern and Southern Dynasties textual sources and it has been commonly used since the Song Dynasty, although not as frequently as ting 廳, tang 堂 or tingshi 廳事. Before the Yuan and Ming dynasties the word tingtang constituted two distinct building types. Ting and tang were used on different occasions; ting was a more formal building, while tang was a more casual building. In domestic spaces, tang served as the core area for family members and was where family rituals, such as weddings and funerals, were conducted. In terms of layout, tang were always positioned behind ting.

After the Ming dynasty, the distinctions between ting and tang became blurred, and “tingtang” became a general term for both ting and tang buildings. In many cases the terms ting and tang are interchangeable.

Modern scholars are primarily interested in the term tingtang because of the Yingzao fashi. Chen Mingda 陳明達 and Pan Guxi 潘谷西 have argued that tingtang is one of the main structural types in the Tang and Song dynasties, the other being diantang 殿堂.6

Regarding tingtang as a structural type, in most recent scholarship on Chinese architectural history, the tingtang is also described as the most important building in houses and gardens. Therefore, in modern scholarship on Chinese architectural history, tingtang can either refer to a structural type or to a building type（諸葛，2021）. 7

廳堂是等級低於殿（殿堂，殿閣）的建築物，廣泛用於衙署、居住建築（包括住宅與園林）及祠堂。廳堂一詞是廳和堂兩類建築物的合稱或泛稱。廳堂是宋《營造法式》中的重要術語之一。廳堂連用最早見於南北朝的文獻，宋以後使用漸多，但頻率不及廳、堂和廳事。

元明以前廳、堂區分明確，堂在廳後，兩者使用場合有差異。廳較為正式；堂則用於較為随意的場合。但在住宅中，有一個主要的堂，即所謂正寢之堂，是宅的中心，是舉行婚喪禮等家庭禮儀的重要場所。元明以後，廳、堂區分漸模糊，廳堂成為泛稱，廳和堂無論是作為建築物，還是在文獻中也都常常互換使用。

現代建築史學者對“廳堂”的專門興趣很大程度上來自對《營造法式》的研究，並認為唐宋時存在廳堂式與殿堂式（或殿閣式，取決於學者）等構架類型，繼而對兩者的源流及相互關係展開研究。此外，通常的建築史論述也延續元明以來的廳堂泛稱之意，指出廳堂是住宅或園林的主體建築物。因此，廳堂在當前的中國建築史論述中具有建築類型和構架類型的雙重涵義。然而，《營造法式》的本意就是要定義不同的構架類型，還是說不同的構架只是《營造法式》用於建立建築等級體系的技術手段之一，這似乎仍有商榷的餘地（諸葛，2021）。7

Related concepts

diàn 殿 táng 堂 diàntáng 殿堂