First edition. Double-page ground-plan, 6 plates of architectural drawings, 4 plates of collotype photographs, and several illustrations in the text. Folio. Original cloth-backed boards (slightly spotted). [viii], 34, [ii]pp. Berlin, A. Asher, 1897.
A beautifully produced monograph about a Buddhist temple (da jue si) located in the Yantai mountains to the north-west of Peking. The ‘Temple of Great Awakening’ dates from the middle of the 15th century (Ming dynasty). Hildebrandt was a civil servant in charge of the German government’s Bureau of Construction. The work was initially submitted to the government (which was unappreciative) and subsequently published by the Association of Architects of Berlin.
