Large Buddhist temples almost always form part of a monastery, but smaller shrines, especially in towns, are often served by a single priest.  The many-storeyed towers called pagodas which are a characteristic beauty of Chinese landscapes, are in their origin stupas erected over relics but at the present day can hardly be called temples or religious buildings, for they are not places of worship and generally owe their construction to the dictates of Feng-shui or geomancy.  Monasteries are usually built outside towns and by preference on high ground, whence shan or mountain has come to be the common designation of a convent, whatever its position.  The sites of these establishments show the deep feeling of cultivated Chinese for nature and their appreciation of the influence of scenery on temper, an appreciation which connects them spiritually with the psalms of the monks and nuns preserved in the Pali Canon.  The architecture is not self-assertive.  Its aim is not to produce edifices complete and satisfying in their own proportions but rather to harmonize buildings with landscape, to adjust courts and pavilions to the slope of the hillside and diversify the groves of fir and bamboo with shrines and towers as fantastic and yet as natural as the mountain boulders.  The reader who wishes to know more of them should consult Johnston’s Buddhist China, a work which combines in a rare degree sound knowledge and literary charm.

A monastery[866] is usually a quadrangle surrounded by a wall.  Before the great gate, which faces south, or in the first court is a tank, spanned by a bridge, wherein grows the red lotus and tame fish await doles of biscuit.  The sides of the quadrangle contain dwelling rooms, refectories, guest chambers, store houses, a library, printing press and other premises suitable to a learned and pious foundation.  The interior space is divided into two or three courts, bordered by a veranda.  In each court is a hall of worship or temple, containing a shelf or alcove on which are set the sacred images:  in front of them stands a table, usually of massive wood, bearing vases of flowers, bowls for incense sticks and other vessels.  The first temple is called the Hall of the Four Great Kings and the figures in it represent beings who are still in the world of transmigration and have not yet attained Buddhahood.  They include gigantic images of the Four Kings, Maitreya, the Buddha designate of the future, and Wei-to,[867] a military Bodhisattva sometimes identified with Indra.  Kuan-ti, the Chinese God of War, is often represented in this building.  The chief temple, called the Precious Hall of the Great Hero,[868] is in the second court and contains the principal images.  Very commonly there are nine figures on either side representing eighteen disciples of the Buddha and known as the Eighteen Lohan or Arhats.[869] Above the altar are one or more large gilt images.  When there is only one it is usually Sakya-muni, but more often there