Tiantai Hermitage, main hall  天台庵正殿

Building Information

The main hall of Tiantai'an is three bays wide and four rafters deep with an open frame ceiling (cheshang lumingzao 彻上露明造). The transversal structural frame consists of four rather beams supported by front and back eaves pillars. The hall itself is thus supported by one circuit of eaves columns, and the tops of the columns are rounded (juansha 卷殺). Lan’e 闌額, the tie beams through the top of the columns joining inside the columns themselves, are placed between the pillars with no pupaifang 普拍枋 on top of them. The lan’e do not extend beyond the pillars, and the large bearing blocks are placed directly on top of the pillars. The pillar top bracket arms extend out directly from the bearing block, on top of which is an intermediary timber (timu 替木) directly supporting the eaves purlins. This exemplifies the “block-mouth tier” (doukoutiao 斗口跳) described in the Yingzao fashi (1103). Small plank doors are used in the central bay, and the secondary bay holds simple lattice windows.2