What is the landmark of Macao?

The site of Sao Paulo, the most representative scenic spot in Macau, is the front wall of Sao Paulo Cathedral, completed at 1580. This cathedral is a fusion of European Renaissance and oriental architecture, which embodies the blending of eastern and western arts. Exquisitely carved, magnificent.

This church has a pretentious style. The front wall is made of granite. Up and down 5 floors, left and right * * * can be divided into 9 grids from the third floor. There is a flagpole on the right side of the front wall.

Dasanba memorial archway

The folder (the pair on the left no longer exists) has 68 lessons, which is not in line with the position of the church.

The first floor; The second floor

The top layer is a triangular mountain flower with a bronze dove symbolizing the Holy Spirit, and there are sun, moon and stars on the left and right. There is a cross at the top.

second floor

In the middle is the baby Jesus, surrounded by the instruments of torture that crucified him. It consists of four mixed pilasters, with angel bas-relief in the middle and curved gables on both sides.

Third layer

The center is the ascension of the Virgin Mary, and angels play music to celebrate, surrounded by peonies and chrysanthemums (symbolizing Christian technicians from China and Japan).

Fourth layer

It consists of 10 Corinthian cylinder and three windows. The lintel is decorated with seven roses in relief, the middle window is decorated with palm trees, and niches are symmetrically arranged between the columns on both sides of the side window hole to worship the four saints. The fifth floor: there are 3 entrances on the lowest floor of the archway, and 10 supports the decorative wall, with 3 on both sides of the main entrance and 2 on both sides of the side door; Italy's "MATER DEI" is written at the main entrance (meaning this church is dedicated to the mother of God, which means the door to heaven). The lintel of the side door has a relief pattern of the Jesuit slogan IHS (meaning the savior of mankind).

The archway is about 27 meters high and 23.5 meters wide. It is a baroque architecture in Italian Renaissance. It is divided into five layers. The bottom two layers are also rectangular, and the triangular pyramid consists of three to five layers. There is a "cross" bracket at the top, and a bronze pigeon symbolizing the Holy Spirit is embedded below; The bronze pigeon is surrounded by stone carvings of the sun, moon and stars, symbolizing the chastity of the Virgin.

Dasanba memorial archway

The moment of pregnancy; Under the bronze pigeon is a baby statue, with an "immortal fire" statue on the upper left and a "tree of life" stone carving on the right; There is a statue of the Virgin Mary in the middle of the third floor, surrounded by peony and chrysanthemum, the former representing China and the latter representing Japanese; On the left side of the statue is also engraved "Eternal Man". A "Portuguese sailboat" and a "fierce devil"; The fourth floor is a statue of four saints dedicated to Jesus; On the left and right sides of the third and fourth floors, the lion, a symbol of China's traditional culture and art, is carved; On the ground floor, there are three doors. The lintel of the main entrance is engraved with "MATERDEL", which means "Mother of God" in Portuguese, and the signs of Jesus are engraved on the doors on both sides.

All kinds of statues on the St. Paul archway are lifelike, which not only retains the tradition, but also is more innovative; It not only shows the architectural style of Europe, but also inherits the cultural tradition of the East, and embodies the characteristics of the combination of Chinese and Western. It can be called "three-dimensional Bible" and is a famous stone carving religious building in the Far East.

The third floor statue

1. Statue features

The series of statues on this floor is bounded by the statue of the Virgin Mary in the middle. Six pairs of statues are composed of stone pillars with different heights and widths, but symmetrical left and right, and related in form and content. Now, according to the left side and the right side, it is explained as follows:

The first pair: On the left and right are Buddhist busts of China Shishi.

The second pair: the pigeon on the left spreads its wings on the ball, and the double arrow on the right passes through the crown.

The third pair: on the left is a female corpse with devil's head and limbs, and her chest is pierced by a dart gun. On the right is the Chinese sentence "Ghosts are attractive and evil", and on the left is a clockwise right-hand cross. On the right is a skeleton and bones, on the left is a Chinese sentence "Remembering the crime of inaction of the deceased", and on the right is a counterclockwise left-handed cross.

The fourth pair: on the left is a virgin guiding a three-masted sailboat on the sea, on the right is the same virgin stepping on a seven-headed dragon, and there is a Chinese sentence in the upper right corner "The virgin stepping on a faucet".

The fifth pair: On the left is the three-story Ssangyong (? Or human) head spray column and rectangular pool, on the right is a life (? Or bodhi) tree.

The sixth pair: the statue of the Virgin without Original Sin is symmetrical with three angels on both sides.

2. Religious significance

The above six pairs of sculptures not only have obvious non-traditional Catholic forms and contents, but three of them are also equipped with Chinese explanatory characters. This is not available on other floors. According to the research results of Mr. Xin Xu of Macao, "in the baroque architecture of that era, only St. Paul's church in Macao was engraved with Chinese characters." Among the statues of contemporary Catholic churches, this is the only one with a series of meaningful Chinese illustrations, rather than accidental, isolated and insignificant Chinese characters. This unique phenomenon of interpreting statues in Chinese itself has shown that this series of statues have cultural and religious origins from China.

Coseyiro also pointed out that the use of some new artistic graphics, whether in Chinese characters or in things unfamiliar to European religious architecture at that time, was the most distinctive aspect of this religious architecture. For example, the image of the devil and death, and the symbolic expression different from the graphic method of religious art after the Trento Congress.

Dasanba memorial archway

What needs to be mentioned is that these innovative or unprecedented things we see in this masterpiece of art are obviously the result of Jesuits' new methods of missionary work in China, that is, the reflection of gradually adapting to the policy. This is a new teaching method in China, which is different from the "whiteboard" whiteboard missionaries used in Africa and America at that time. It was conceived by Shapiro, planned by Fan Lian, and successfully put into practice by Matteo Ricci and Luo Mingjian.

Therefore, in addition to the new way of missionary work (which was undoubtedly in the first place at that time), it is necessary to study the corresponding relations in all aspects in order to better understand that the artistic development of Jesuits in Macau and China is a strategic result and a reflection of assimilation.

The above theory is undoubtedly very correct and enlightening. This paper generally agrees that "better understanding is a reflection of strategic results and assimilation", but at the same time, it also thinks that we must face up to the other side of the problem, that is, the assimilation of China culture itself leads to being regarded as alienation by Catholic orthodoxy. As mentioned above, the result eventually led to the tragedy that St. Paul's church became not only a ruin, but also a cemetery.

Due to the lack of in-depth understanding of China's religious culture, predecessors, especially western researchers, can only make superficial understanding or even misunderstanding about the statue in this archway and three Chinese sentences with Buddhist connotations. Therefore, the discussion that memorial archways are the result of the integration and assimilation of Chinese and western cultures mostly stays in a superficial and abstract scope. Of course, this is understandable. However, we can't stay on the superficial understanding of images and characters forever, but should continue to explore the deep cultural connotation of its non-traditional Catholicism on the basis of inheriting the achievements of predecessors, and what religious and cultural background stories China has. In my opinion, the statues and figures on the third floor are all based on Buddhist classics, especially the story of Sakyamuni Buddha's past life "Ben Sheng Jing" or "Ben Qi Jing". We must discuss the true source and meaning of images and related sentences, so as to really get the effect of revealing secrets and solving puzzles.