South Jixiang Monastery, middle hall  南吉祥寺中殿

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The Middle Hall 中殿, also known as the Passage Hall 過殿, was dated to the Song dynasty 宋代. Standing on a 0.40-meter-high stone platform, the Middle Hall is three bays wide by six rafters deep, with a single-rafter hip-gable roof danyan xieshanding 單檐歇山頂.

Characterized as the six-rafter construction 六架椽屋 style, the hall contains the six-rafter-cross beams 六椽栿 connecting the eaves. Only ​​two pillars are used to support the eaves. Its pillar-top corbelling 柱頭斗栱 has five bracket sets 鋪作. These bracket sets reflect the danchao 單抄 structure, meaning they only have one perpendicular bracket arm that extends outward. They are also featured by their single descending cantilever xia’ang 下昂. The roof ridge (zhengji 正脊), jicha 脊剎, wenshou 吻獸, and fangxin 方心 are color-glazed. Lattice doors were once installed in the front and backside of the hall. Today, we can only see the reconstructed doors (Guojia wenwuju, III: 762; 57-C1). 2