Chinese use all-natural materials to form an elastic system that can last for thousands of years, which is a system that can enlighten the future. As Mr. Lin Huiyin said, Chinese architecture has a particularly great opportunity to directly step into what the West calls modern concepts. However, this modern transformation is not done automatically and requires completely new exploration.
Compared with the development of Western architecture, what are the characteristics of traditional Chinese architecture?
Each of us lives in the natural development and evolution of Chinese architecture, but the average person will not have the concept of architectural history, nor will they realize what stage of architectural history they are in, how the writing of Chinese architectural history has changed in different dynasties, and so on. Generating such a concept requires the intervention of the study of architectural history within the academic scope.
In China, according to modern or Western scholarship, to reshape the concept of Chinese architectural history, the famous architect Mr. Liang Sicheng is one of the pioneers, can be said to be one of the most important figures. When Mr. Liang Sicheng first did research on the history of Chinese architecture, he took the history of Western architecture in Europe as a reference, so we can also use such a basic discursive logic to talk about this problem: Compared with Western architecture, what are the characteristics of Chinese architecture?
Liang Sicheng (1901-1972)
The first basic feature is its special floor plan. Looking at a building now, everyone will say how the shape is, how the façade is, how the plane is, these are actually typical Western architectural concepts. Chinese architecture is a group of buildings formed by the courtyard as the basic framework, it is not discussed in terms of a single building, which is a very special place for Chinese architecture.
Layout of Beijing Courtyard, from Liu Dunzhen's History of Ancient Chinese Architecture
If you look at the Song Dynasty today, especially the Chinese architecture dominated by the Ming and Qing dynasties, you will find that there are basically two kinds of courtyards. A kind of courtyard is formed in the context of a strong Confucian etiquette system, there is a central axis, a different level, there is a master and a secondary, left and right symmetry, sitting north facing south, etc., for example, the courtyard in Beijing, the Forbidden City are very typical, and all the temples are also such a pattern. Another system, which actually has a strong Taoist background, is the Chinese garden. The layout of the garden is free and asymmetrical, it is also a yard, and there are mountains and water in it, forming a small natural world, like landscape painting. The special layout of these two yards should be said to be unique in the world.
Yipu, representative of small gardens in Suzhou Ming Dynasty, Cai Xiaochuan/Photo
When we have such a special floor plan, we solve some of the basic problems of human life in the world. There are a series of spaces in Chinese architecture, from your birth, growing up, marriage, having children, etc., all the way to death, in a typical Chinese residence, there will be such a space, it will not only tell you where you came from, but also will clearly tell you where you are going in the future, in fact, to give you a cultural meaning.
I often conduct research in urban and rural areas in China, and I remember once visiting a very small village near Hangzhou, called Hejia Village, and visiting a very small courtyard. How small is the yard? It is that the door from the courtyard door to the main house is only about three meters, and it is such a shallow yard. Then from the door of the main house, to the middle hall and couplet hanging in the main house, it is also about three meters deep, and in this depth there can be eight immortal tables, or two Taishi chairs. It's probably the smallest Chinese yard I've ever seen, but it still maintains a very dignified, cultured and ceremonial space.
Traditional Chinese village in the middle of the church, stills from the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
The second basic feature of Chinese architecture is the beauty of the environment. Looking at Chinese landscape paintings, including in the real environment, as long as there are places where traditional buildings exist, they form a particularly good relationship with the surrounding landscape trees, really like paintings. Like the Hangzhou I live in, it is particularly typical. In the center of the city is a lake, about half of which is landscape and half of which is house. What are cities in China? From a cultural point of view, Hangzhou is the most typical model, which I call "half landscape and half city".
Specific to what kind of state architecture is in the city, I often take a "West Lake Picture Scroll" by Li Song, a famous landscape painter of the Song Dynasty. That picture is very strange, the whole city is overlooked, the only buildings that can be clearly seen are probably leifeng pagoda, Baochu pagoda, as well as a few larger temples, the roof of the city tower, most of the buildings are invisible, all shrouded in trees. Beautiful or not? This is the city of China, all the buildings are shrouded in nature, and the natural landscape and trees are related. Such aesthetic concepts may have taken shape as early as the Fifth Dynasty or the end of the Tang Dynasty. The Western classical monumental architecture is different, which expresses the building as a very prominent image.
Song Li Song's "Picture Scroll of the West Lake", shanghai museum collection
The third basic feature, which I call the natural and real construction system. One of the special things about Chinese architecture is its penchant for using natural materials. The most enduring material in the building is stone, and in Chinese architecture, stone is not used as the main material, and the main material is actually wood. If the structure is taken as the main body, the structural body of Chinese architecture is wood, thus forming a special wood-based system.
Of course, many parts of the world actually have a system based on wood structures, so what are the characteristics of China? What is very special is that China's wood structure system is not a simple system, it is prefabricated, and it is made of relatively small wood, which is a very advanced concept.
When Mr. Liang Sicheng was doing research on ancient Chinese architecture, one of his most famous contributions was the discovery of Tang Dynasty architecture. At that time, two places were found in Mount Wutai in Shanxi, one was the main hall of Foguang Temple, and later scholars discovered the main hall of Nanchan Temple. When they found out, Mr. Liang Sicheng and Mr. Lin Huiyin were very excited, because wooden buildings are relatively easy to decay, and according to the general concept, it is not a system that can last forever.
In 1937, Liang Sicheng took a photograph in the main hall of foguang Temple
Like the Yongle Palace in Ruicheng, Shanxi, it is a yuan dynasty building, seven hundred years old; the Dule Temple in Jixian County, Tianjin, and the Longxing Temple in Zhengding, Hebei, are all buildings of the Song and Liao dynasties, nine hundred years, and the wooden pagoda of Yingxian County, Shanxi, which is also more than nine hundred years old. In the Tang Dynasty, foguang temple and nanchan temple have been thousands of years. When you think about it, you think it's a miracle. What kind of system can make perishable wooden structures exist for thousands of years? We often talk about the ecological crisis, the environmental crisis, to engage in sustainable development, in fact, China's traditional architectural system is the most sustainable system, it can actually exist for thousands of years, and it is made of wood, which is very remarkable.
A very important feature of this is the assembly system with very good protected areas. When building this system, the ancient Chinese construction craftsmen thought very carefully about the materials of the building, such as how can it last forever? How is it protected? How do I replace it? The equipment system is not only built quickly, there is an idiom in the "stealing beam for column", that is to say, when the building is maintained, the beam is broken, and the column can be replaced, which can be achieved without affecting the entire system. We also heard a word, "The house does not collapse". That is to say, even if there is an earthquake and the wall collapses, the skeleton of the house is still there.
If you distinguish between north and south, this wooden building system is probably two types. One is the northern system, which we call the beam-raising structure, that is, the beam above the pillar, generally speaking, the pillar and beam are relatively thick, such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, we can see this image. In the south, the most typical form we call the bucket structure, generally speaking, the beam is not mounted on the pillar, but like a braided body, through this pillar, relatively speaking, the column will be more. Of course, in traditional Chinese architecture, there are not only these two systems, but also such as the well-stem structure, which will be built in the northern region, especially in the northeast.
These two types of words alone are not enough to portray the characteristics of Chinese architecture, and the more important feature is the system of bucket arches, in which we can see historical changes. From the Tang Dynasty all the way to the Song Dynasty, the bucket arch system was really useful, the bucket arch was placed on the top of the pillar, and the eaves were extended far away to protect the wooden structure from rain when it rained.
I remember when I was studying architecture, the most impressive thing about the architecture of the Tang Dynasty was the 8 words that Mr. Liang Sicheng said when he saw the main hall of Foguang Temple: "The arch is majestic, and the eaves are far-reaching." "If you have the opportunity to go to the scene of Foguang Temple, you will be shocked, because its bucket arch is really big."
Fo guang temple east hall under the setting sun
The shape of the Song Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty is still relatively close, but relatively speaking, the material of the arch began to become smaller, and the depth of the eaves began to become shallower. A really big change happened in the Yuan Dynasty. When we look at the architecture of the Yuan Dynasty now, especially in the Ming Dynasty architecture after that, the bucket arch has no longer played its original role and has become smaller. The bucket arch system of Chinese architecture before the Yuan Dynasty is real, and after the Yuan Dynasty, the bucket arch becomes fake and is decorative.
Relying on a complete social and cultural system is the fourth characteristic of traditional Chinese architecture. Today, architecture is a professional field, and people who have studied architecture understand architecture, and people who have studied architectural design can design architecture. In fact, in ancient China, it was up to some scholars, intellectuals, such as officials of the Ministry of Rites, to decide a series of design issues such as the layout of the building, and they were very aware of the entire pattern of the building. Just like the Chinese language system, ancient Chinese architecture is a social system that belongs to a whole, and all people are well aware of its structure and cultural connotations.
I often give an example of how much people could have learned about architecture at that time. When we read the history books of the Han Dynasty and read the "Records of History", we will see that Huo went to the sick horse to trample the Xiongnu, returned victoriously, and Emperor Wu of Han rewarded him with more than four hundred houses. What concept? That is to say, the "one" of the house can be used as a unit of measurement, and I can reward you with more than four hundred houses, and you will know very well how big and what these four hundred houses are, and there is no need to make additional regulations. The whole society has a complete system, and architecture is an integral part of it, which is a very special place for Chinese architecture.
The fifth feature is the special material, texture and texture of Chinese architecture. Nowadays, people often make fun of modern architects, saying that architects don't like color, and buildings are gray. There are actually special reasons. For example, why are the buildings after the Western Renaissance not too colored? Because the Renaissance wanted to revive Greece and Rome and reshape the aesthetic. When they studied Greece, they found that the Acropolis was all white, so the favorite color of modern architecture was white. As for the architecture of ancient Rome, it was already in a state of ruin at that time, and there was no other color.
Ruins of ancient Roman cities
Archaeologists will tell you that this is a misunderstanding. In fact, Greek architecture is colored, but because of the passage of time, the color has been washed away, so everyone sees it and thinks it is white. And once this aesthetic taste is formed, everyone will habitually use it.
Of course, when the discourse system of western modern architecture was formed, it was actually greatly influenced by the Eastern, especially Chinese architectural traditions, and this influence was not direct, but was realized through Japanese architecture. Using natural materials, colors prefer black and white, this very simple and simple material and practice in Japanese architecture as a basic principle, has been taken by Western modern architecture. The formation of such a set of language systems in Japan was largely in the exchanges between the Song Dynasty and China, learning the simple aesthetics of the Song Dynasty. Therefore, it can be said that the Chinese architectural tradition indirectly influenced the occurrence of a very important aesthetic feature of Western modern architecture.
Another important feature of Chinese architecture is its materials and texture. A large number of natural materials used in Chinese architecture, such as wood, earth, and brick, are actually renewable natural materials, which constitute a system of all natural materials, and generally speaking, they have a very rich texture.
Last but not least is the color. Rich in color and even gorgeous, it is a tradition of Chinese architecture, which is basically preserved in official architecture. For example, the earliest book that can now be seen documenting architecture, the Song Dynasty's "Building the French Style", the part of the color painting is completely preserved, basically in line with the color painting system seen in the Forbidden City. From the "colorful all-over-the-top" with particularly rich colors, all the way to the purest, pure green "jade clothing", there are probably five major types of color systems. Chinese architecture has always been so colorful.
Schematic diagram of the restoration of the "colorful all-over-the-top" color painting of the Song Dynasty, painted by Wu Mei
Of course, there will be changes, for example, if we look at the Song Dynasty's "Map of a Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains", you will see that the building is black and white, in fact, it shows that between the mountains and the water, basically this kind of village or farm is like this. How did it become a cultural idea? In fact, it is directly related to the prosperity of Confucianism. "Everything is inferior, only the reading is high", basically such a value, it is in a sense a kind of reader's residence.
Of course, there is also a system that we can't see very well later, such as the system that only retains the true color of wood. This should be directly related to the Zen culture in Buddhism from the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, which pursues a more simple, natural and direct image. With the end of Zen Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty in China, Zen Buddhism went to Japan, and in the world of Chinese, this aesthetic is rarely seen. At present, there are still rural houses in the Jiangnan area, which maintain the true color of wood and should be a remnant of the Culture of the Song Dynasty.
What kind of modern road is hidden in traditional Chinese architecture?
So, what is the relationship between China's ancient architectural system and the modern architectural system?
The modern architectural system we are talking about is completely based on the context of western development in Europe, the United States and other countries, forming a relationship between tradition and modernity. The Chinese uses all-natural materials to form an elastic system that can last for thousands of years, which is a system that can enlighten the future. Therefore, a lot of the discussion in traditional Chinese architecture is actually about which direction our lives should change in the future. This is not only about reaffirming Chinese cultural identity, but also has significant implications for future development.
In the preface to Mr. Liang Sicheng's "History of Pictorial Chinese Architecture", Mr. Lin Huiyin mentioned that the biggest feature of the wooden structure system of ancient Chinese architecture is that it is prefabricated, and prefabricated architecture is a modern architectural model that the West is exploring at that time. Therefore, Mr. Lin Huiyin came to a conclusion: traditional Chinese architecture is modern from a Western point of view, so Chinese architecture has a particularly great opportunity to directly step into the modern concepts mentioned in the West.
However, this "fantasy" of Mr. Lin Huiyin in the 1930s has not been realized to this day. I think a very important problem is that wood is a natural material, not an industrial material, and its own deformation is relatively large. The great thing about Chinese is that the naturally deformed material is made into a highly elaborate assembly system, which is logically impossible, because the deformed material is difficult to quantify. Through the skill of craftsmen, Chinese made a system of elastic and deformed materials, and no second culture in the world has produced such a system. But at the same time, we must also realize that the transformation of this system into a modern system is not automatically completed, but requires a new exploration to be successful.
In 1933, Lin Huiyin was on the beam of the bell tower of the Kaiyuan Temple in Zhengding, Hebei
For example, as mentioned above, the wooden structure system from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties has undergone great changes, what kind of reasons have contributed to such a big change? Let's take the more intuitive "roof" as an example. There are at least two theories about the form of the roof in China, both of which are controversial. One is the "flying bird," which flies like a bird's wings; another is said to think it's the tent of a tent. I think both accounts make sense, but during the period from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, I prefer that it is a system of "flying birds", the roofs are very flat, and the eaves are picked far away, like the wings of a bird. From the Song Dynasty onwards, the roof of the building began to develop in a towering direction, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it developed to a higher level.
A picture of the change in the appearance of the wooden hall in the past, from Liang Sicheng's "Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture"
Personally, I think that the Yuan Dynasty was a transitional period in which this change occurred. The aesthetic of the tabernacle was actually transmitted through the culture of the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty. We now see paintings depicting the scene of Yuan Shangdu, all of which are set up in tents, like the structure of the Forbidden City, with a very clear central axis, and the building is of course like a tabernacle, very tall, very similar to the Forbidden City of the Ming and Qing dynasties. So you can see that in fact, in the process of the development of Chinese culture, some new things have been integrated, and these changes are clearly reflected in traditional Chinese architecture. So the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty was not a product of natural development, because after the Song and Yuan Wars, the previous traditions were actually interrupted.
In today's parlance, the Ming Dynasty can be called the great revival of Chinese culture, and the Ming Dynasty City of Beijing was a newly planned city formed by completely following the records of classic Chinese books such as "Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji" and superimposing the original plan of the Yuan Capital, rather than the naturally occurring Chinese architectural tradition.
If you want to study architecture, whether you are a young person or an architecture enthusiast, China is the best place in the world to learn architecture. Because we maintain a thousand, two thousand or even longer and more complete clues to the development of architecture, few places in the world have such rich traditions that allow you to see the evolution of architecture over thousands of years.
If the above content is to talk about China's traditional architecture and architectural tradition under the premise of comparing with Western architecture, then in order to find the path of the transformation of China's ancient architectural system to the modern architectural system, I think it is more necessary to go back and analyze how our views and angles of traditional Chinese architecture today, including the description of this discourse system, occurred.
In Chinese history, there are not many records of architecture, which is a very strange thing. Because Chinese like to write history, China is a big historical country, but it is precisely because we have never had a history of architecture, and we have sorted out and recorded buildings according to historical evolution, such books and articles are missing. Therefore, it will be said that the "History of Pictorial Chinese Architecture" published by Mr. Liang Sicheng is the first architectural history written Chinese, because there is indeed no such architectural history work in front of it.
My personal opinion is that the development of architecture in China is very different from that in the West. Before the Renaissance, the development of Western architecture was actually very similar to that of China, and architecture naturally evolved in history and was a part of people's lives. After the Renaissance, the West began to have a self-consciousness of reflection, re-studying the history of architecture. They corroborated by searching for monuments and began to look at ancient Greek and Roman architecture in the ruins, a tradition that continued until the rise of archaeology in the 18th and 19th centuries. Therefore, their architectural history is actually an academic achievement, not a naturally formed architectural history in history, but a newly compiled architectural history today. This work written by Mr. Liang Sicheng is also a typical newly compiled architectural history.
Mr. Liang Sicheng's research is a very important work, because in that era, China inevitably collided with the outside world. I read a passage in the preface written by Mr. Lin Huiyin, and I was very touched. It was in the early 1930s, and she said in a very sad tone that ports like Shanghai, which had been opened at that time, were demolishing traditional Chinese buildings while rebuilding some Western buildings, and in the long run, Chinese culture would have a big problem, and she even thought that it might collapse as a whole. In the face of such dangers, Mr. Liang Sicheng and Mr. Lin Huiyin are shouting loudly.
After the Fire of the Yellow Crane Tower, the "Alarm Bell Tower" was restored in the western style of the original site
In fact, the system of traditional Chinese architecture was almost completely preserved at that time, but this phenomenon appeared very sporadically. And when we re-read this text less than a hundred years later, we will find that what Mr. Lin Huiyin feared has happened: the traditional architecture of China, the traditional Chinese architectural system that once existed in its entirety, has completely collapsed. So let's talk about why this happened? What does it have to do with our architectural research?
In the Western tradition, the history of classical architecture mainly discusses large monumental buildings such as palaces and churches, while the contents of private houses are not the focus in the history of Western architecture. Similarly, there are cities and gardens. And with regard to the building itself, it is basically regarded as a separate work of art.
In fact, the Chinese tradition is very different from the Western tradition, not only the official palaces, temples and other buildings, but also the results of architectural art, the content of Chinese folk architecture is very rich, which is simply incomparable to the history of Western architecture. For example, at least in the Song Dynasty, Chinese houses have reached a very advanced level. It is a pity that folk architecture has not been in the main field of architectural history research for a long time, so the destruction of Chinese folk architecture is very serious, which I think is a particularly sad thing.
Another important area is cities. Every time we hear this expression, I find it particularly ridiculous, because China can be said to be the first country in the world to form a national urbanization system on a large scale. Every city in China has historically been an incomparable scale and quality of Western cities, and in the process of our modernization, one of the biggest problems is the destruction of old cities, starting from the demolition of the city wall, demolishing all Chinese cities, and then pursuing urbanization, which is a particularly incredible conceptual misunderstanding.
Therefore, I think that through the study of The history of Chinese architecture, we should be able to form a kind of reflection, we must re-recognize the value of Chinese tradition, and its enlightenment for the future exploration of modern Chinese architecture.
Source| Sanlian Life Weekly
Editor| Liu Yang Zhao Yucen
Xu Yuan, | of the review
display:
Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of China Academy of Art
PUBLICITY OFFICE OF THE CPC CAA COMMITTEE
Press Center of China Academy of Art
CAA NEWS CENTER
CAA Fusion Media Studio
CAA MEDIA CONVERGENCE CENTER