What is a pillar? Dong-Ridge, Beam-Beam. The whole is the load-bearing part that holds up the entire temple.
The topic to be talked about today is about the part of the pillar that supports the inheritance of The Chinese national culture. Mr. Liang Sicheng is definitely an important part of this beam. With the help of the exhibition "Dong Liang", you can not only gain an in-depth understanding of the material of this pillar, but also appreciate the profundity of the ancient architecture of the Heavenly Dynasty.
Constructing French Commentary (by Liang Sicheng)
Well, I have come to the door of the Dongliang Pavilion, and I can't wait. I did not look at the exhibition step by step as I used to see the exhibition, but first hurried around the exhibition hall and found that most of the photos on the wall were Mr. Liang's life in various eras. The writings and manuscripts that I care about most are concentrated in the center of the exhibition hall. Because I know a little about Mr. Liang's life, especially the story of his visits to various places is also familiar. For example, when he was surveying the wooden pagoda of the Buddhist Palace Temple in Shanxi, how to survey the size of the pagoda brake in order to survey and map the size of the pagoda in order to climb along the iron cable in the tenth winter moon. To this day, I can clearly remember that the height of the Wooden Pagoda in Yingxian County is 67.31 meters. Remembering the two decimal places is purely out of respect for Mr. Liang.
Although I have a preference for manuscripts, I still have a cursory glance at the yellowed photos on the wall. There was a group photo of Liang Sicheng and his classmates that attracted me, and there was Sun Liren and Zhou Peiyuan in the same frame. It is no wonder that Liang Sicheng is a character, after all, after Liang Qichao, the initiator of the book on the bus, there is of course no shortage of these future prominent figures around him. If only Miss Lin Changmin (who has served as a senator of the State Council, the chief justice of the Cabinet, and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and director of the Presidential Office) could have looked up to him. Among these photographs I also found a middle-aged photograph of Mr. Chu Kai-chi, the founder and sponsor of the Construction Society. The Song Dynasty's "Building the French Style" was also circulated when he stumbled upon it in the pile of old books and arranged for reprinting. Otherwise, we may not have a monograph that systematically describes the ancient architecture of our country to this day. So I also have a lot of respect for Mr. Zhu.
Speaking of the Song Dynasty's "Building the French Style", I will say a few more words. Its author is Li Jie, a famous master of the Song Dynasty. Some people will ask: "It should be a famous architect of the Song Dynasty, right?" "Really not, because at that time there was no such title, all the people who built houses were still craftsmen, and the so-called "intellectuals" were not so concerned about architecture, which may also be the main influence of Confucianism. Confucius once said: "Metaphysics is the Tao, and metaphysics is the instrument." Lao Tzu's doctrine may also mean the same thing: "The Tao is Tao, very Tao." Here the "common way" is the original law of nature, and once it is "tao", that is to say, it is realized or proved by people in some way, then it is not the common way, or according to Confucius, it is the act of the craftsman. For these reasons, the book "Constructing the French Style" has not been favored by the intellectual community since its publication in 1103, and there are reasons why the Song Dynasty died shortly after that, but the most important reason is that the architect was only a craftsman. This is true not only in China, but even in the West, which values scientific development in our perception. As early as two thousand years ago, in ancient Rome, Vitruvius wrote a "Ten Books of Architecture", which is an architectural monograph that is respected by modern people. The name Vitruvius may be unfamiliar to everyone, but the golden section image of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting standing in the circle in large characters must be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. That's Vitruvius. However, even this work was not publicly available until the fifteenth century, and it was previously a manuscript. In this way, Li Jie's "Building the French Style" by Li Jie, a great writer of the Song Dynasty in China, has become the world's earliest focus on architecture that is publicly printed and distributed. The reason why Li Jie was able to write this book was also because he had too many skilled craftsmen before him, and they also wrote various architectural books. Lu Ban we will not mention, there is another is a contemporary of Li Jie, Yu Hao, he once wrote a copy of the "Wooden Classic", but unfortunately this book is completely lost, we can only read a few words from Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Pen Talk". Yu Hao has many legends like Lu Ban, one of which is the story of his construction of the Leaning Pagoda of Kaibao Temple. As soon as I mention the Leaning Tower, you immediately think of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But I would say that if the story is true, then the Leaning Tower of Pisa is weak. The original design of the Leaning Tower of Pisa was erected upright, but because it did not take into account the settlement, it was tilted at the time of construction, and it became more and more oblique later. It's just that his steel structure can withstand this tilt, making him one of the world's architectural wonders. Although Yu Hao's Leaning Tower of Kaibao Temple was also oblique when it was built, his design was like this. His reasoning was that the place of Kaifeng often blew strong northwest winds, and he said that if it blew for hundreds of years, it would naturally come right over. You don't believe it, I believe it! Because I saw his wisdom in "Building the French Style" and trusted his judgment. It's just a pity that before it was a hundred years old, the tower was destroyed by lightning strikes. It is no wonder that it is a wooden pagoda, but now the pagoda of Kaibao Temple is still there, it has been rebuilt into a brick pagoda, and there are glazed bricks on the outside, which is called the iron tower.
The story is now true, and now everyone knows how precious Liang Sicheng's "Annotations on the Construction of the French Style" are. Of course, without Mr. Zhu Qizhao, all this cannot be said.
However, before introducing Mr. Liang Sicheng's writings and work, I must first take a moment to introduce what "Building the French Style" really says. Don't be bothered by me, after listening to my story today, I should have an extra layer of accumulation in my heart when I go to see the exhibition.
"Construction of the French Style" first introduces the types of architecture: what is a palace, what is a que, what are pavilions, platforms, pavilions and the necessary elements that make up these buildings, such as pillars, bucket arches, sitting flat (observation decks), columns, beams, rafters, flat lines, moi, etc.
Then there's how to start building a building: straightening (orienting), leveling (measuring the level), building the foundation (laying the foundation), and so on.
Then there is a section on how to describe a building. note! This is important! As mentioned earlier, the intellectual community does not pay enough attention to architecture, so that there is a lack of a communication platform between the craftsmen and the intellectuals, or the spokesmen of the demand side. "Constructing the French Style" just fills this gap. If a building is described as follows: "The structure of the top of the mountain, seven wide rooms, five deep rooms, eight rafters, four rafters in the middle, front and rear milk rafters, double columns inside the body, gold box bucket bottom, the top of the flat qi, and so on" The craftsmen have understood in their hearts that eight or nine are inseparable from ten. If you add details: "Such as the use of seven paving as bucket arches, the use of second-class materials, three-story platforms, plus platforms..." The general appearance of this project has been depicted. The next details are personalized design: such as what kind of doors and windows, the decoration on the front ridge and the vertical ridge, and what tiles are used. After these are settled, the total cost of the project can be calculated immediately according to the "Construction French Style", the amount of materials used for the building, the number of working hours, and then the total cost of the project. The calculation of labor is so detailed that it is possible to distinguish the difference in time spent in cork and hardwood processing. The cost of handling distances is also recorded one by one, and it is really advanced to achieve this degree in the Song Dynasty. In this way, first of all, it is convenient for the project supervisor to monitor the entire implementation process, and most importantly, no one can easily conceal or overreport the project costs, effectively curbing corruption. Before this book, it is hard to imagine how officials (the demand side) communicated with the craftsmen. The "French-Style" system planned the scope, cost and implementation time of the project. It corresponds to the three elements of modern project management (PMP), and even in modern times, it has practical significance for project implementation! After turning such a big circle, it is really time to say Mr. Liang Sicheng! I hope someone else is reading this article along with me, otherwise I'll be in vain.
Although there are many wonderful features in "Construction of French Style", before Mr. Liang's interpretation, few people can read the terms written in the book, and "Construction French Style" is about the style of Song Dynasty architecture, and even most of it is the construction method of the Tang Dynasty (which has been confirmed to varying degrees in later investigations). At present, we can see very few Tang Dynasty buildings (it is said that there are only three and a half), and even the Song, Liao, and Jin dynasties are few. When Mr. Liang Sicheng got the book, he was studying in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. A professor's question stabbed him with self-confidence that he had been less powerful in colonial psychology. The professor hopes that the students will introduce the ancient architectural system of their respective countries, which is a task that Liang Sicheng can hardly complete. Because there was no such monograph to introduce China's ancient construction system and development context. It is conceivable that when he received the "Construction of the French Style" sent by his father, he must have obtained the most precious treasure. Especially after that, he heard that his Japanese counterparts were spreading that there were no pre-Tang Dynasty buildings in China, and if he wanted to see Tang style architecture, he needed to go to Japan.
Mr. Liang Sicheng is holding on to the flesh and blood, and since then he has made a vow to fight for it all his life. After returning to China, he joined the Construction Society sponsored by Mr. Zhu Qizhao. Since the 1930s, he has traveled with colleagues all over the motherland. Dule Temple (Liao), Huayan Temple (Liao), Yingxian Buddhist Temple Wooden Pagoda (Liao), JinCi Temple (Song) and the shocking Tang Dynasty relic: The East Hall of Foguang Temple in Wutaishan, Shanxi! This series of discoveries provided a solid endorsement of his later writings. It has also allowed these precious architectural works to be repaired and preserved to this day.
It is from these buildings that Mr. Liang Sicheng understands the various terms written in the "Construction of The French Style", as well as the architectural form. And he used all the corresponding physical photos and surveys and mappings, together with the drawings of the original work, to explain the "Construction of the French Style". Let people know at a glance. This move of his had a similar effect to Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into German. After all, today's people themselves have a layer of estrangement from ancient texts, coupled with the architectural "black words" in it, which is basically the same as the heavenly book.
It was time to lean down and kneel down to read Mr. Liang's manuscript. Placing the manuscript in a low cabinet may be the organizer's good intentions, and each of our viewers unconsciously makes a respectful move, and I agree with this practice. Here I must mention that the Tsinghua Art Museum is very careful, and the lighting of each manuscript is just suitable for taking pictures. I didn't research how they did it, just felt very sweet and didn't have any reflections.
As I leaned down, I saw many familiar hand-drawn drawings that had been edited in the "Notes on the Making of the French". It's just that these are the originals and the manuscripts, which look much clearer, and the manuscripts drawn with the pencils, I haven't seen before. So I photographed them one by one for future reference. I'll cover some of these inserts that I think are interesting.
When I give a lecture at the Ancient Museum, I always encounter an audience that is very interested in the structure and use of the arch. But since the bucket arch is only a part of the overall architecture, today we still start from the overall framework. But I promise, I will make an introduction to the bucket arch next, and here I will sell it first. [Teeth]
The case of the Hall of the Five Ridges
This is a typical façade of the Five Ridges Hall, reflecting the basic architectural composition of the building (due to the need to avoid gaps in the glass, so the photograph is a bit crooked). In the Qing Dynasty, the Hall of the Five Ridges was known as the roof of the Hall of The Temple, which was the highest level of regulation in the form of architecture, and the current Taihe Hall was a hall with heavy eaves and five ridges, which was the most advanced. This is only a frontal view, in fact, it must be accompanied by a side view to see more clearly.
Dule Temple Mountain Gate
Below we take a map of the actual survey of the mountain gate of Dule Temple as a side illustration. General Buddhist temples begin with the mountain gate, which is said to be a gate, but it is actually a temple. The mountain gate of Dule Temple is the top of the mountain, with three wide rooms, two deep rooms, and a row of columns inside the body. As mentioned earlier, the double pillars inside the body are the bottom of the gold box bucket. The name is also very good, called distraction fighting bottom. From the side, we can clearly see that the mountain gate is a four-frame rafter house. (Note: the five log purlins close to the roof tiles, called a rafter between the two purlins) Remember this concept is very useful, in the future, when you build three (three wide) large tile houses in your home, pay attention to the depth and do not shrink. Here you can also see the structure of the bucket arch, and the Song Dynasty saying that the mountain gate of Dule Temple is six paved: two poles and one out of three jumps. In the Qing Dynasty, it was called Nine Steps (I personally don't like this statement).
Dorakuji Temple Kannon Pavilion
The next building is the Main Hall of The Temple of TheOdokan, the Kannon Pavilion, and this time we will look directly at the side view. From the small picture in the upper right corner, it can be seen that it is five rooms wide, three deep, eight rafters, double columns inside the body, typical gold box bucket bottom, the center is four rafters, front and rear milk rafters (the exclusive name of two rafter beams), the top floor is a flat beam, connected with a large fork hand (similar to the Tang Dynasty practice), and there are additional Shu pillars. On the second floor, you can sit flat and enjoy the view, and you can look at Guanyin at the same time. Since the tall statue of Guanyin is to be placed, beware of being hollow. In this way, the structure of the building becomes relatively complex. Especially the bucket arch part. The arches on the ground floor and the top floor are all paved, especially the top arches are made of two poles and two ang, and the practice of jumping and stealing hearts. This is almost the same as the arch of the east hall of the Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai, but the material used is one size smaller.
I will not dwell on other details, but I just want to show that Mr. Liang Sicheng's drawings are so delicate and all of them are drawn by hand.
Liang Sicheng was in front of the Dule Temple
There is also a picture on the wall of his photo next to the incense burner in front of the Dule Temple, and when he returned home, he found that the photo was broken, and he thought that the incense burner was damaged. Dule Temple is his first stop on the road to ancient architecture, and it is also one of the representative works of Liao Dynasty architecture. I also visited Dule Temple along his footsteps not long ago, and because I have a deep understanding of ancient buildings, when I enter Dule Temple again, I can describe the excitement. That visit lasted a whole afternoon, and I observed the ancient temple from every angle inside and out. It is now the epidemic period, and there are few tourists in the temple, so I can carefully observe every detail mentioned in "Building the French Style". I saw the legendary shadow arch, the specific practice of inserting columns, the practice of turning the paving, and the actual case of the side corners. Even did some less detailed mapping with the app of the mobile phone. (I have written two articles about the perception of Dule Temple, here is a small recommendation)
Fo Guang Temple front
Fo Guang Temple side
The East Hall of Foguang Temple on Wutai Mountain is one of the three remains of Tang Dynasty architecture in China, and it is also the largest and most completely preserved hall. A textbook building, he basically answered most of the architectural elements, regulations and concepts introduced in "Building the French Style". Mr. Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin found him in early July 1937, and they did not know that the Heavenly Dynasty was about to face an unprecedented crisis. After five or six years of painstaking searching, I finally discovered this ancient temple hidden in the mountains, completely getting rid of the psychological shadow left by the Fallacy of the Japanese. The group basically completed the entire appraisal and mapping in a high mood, and even the lady-type Mr. Lin was on the beam (as evidenced by the photo). Due to the particularity of this hall, as a loyal fan, I am already familiar with the details of this building, and if I had started to narrate here earlier, it would have been difficult to end, so I would have left this opportunity to the docent of the exhibition hall. You can practice here to see his basic structure, understand this temple, there is basically no hall you can't understand.
First of all, it is the roof of the temple (five ridge hall), with seven wide rooms, five deep rooms, eight rafters, four rafters in the middle, with milk rafters in front and back, double columns inside the body, and a gold box bucket bottom groove structure. The arches on the pillars are made of seven paving, two poles and two jumps, using the interval jump to steal the heart. Here it should be explained that the eight shops make five jumps as the highest regulation, and at present, in the buildings of the Tang, Song and Liaojin at home and abroad, the eight shops have not been found as bucket arches. Mr. Liang has a description of Foguang Temple: "The arch is majestic and the eaves are far-reaching. "Because the eaves of the Tang Dynasty buildings are relatively gentle, the pillars on both sides have the so-called "arising", and the corner paving as a bucket arch is particularly spectacular. It really confirms the description in the psalm "like a bird, like a bird, like a bird flying." Specifically, look at the arch like the wings of a bird, look at the roof of the whole building, like a pheasant with wings spread out.
Speaking of which, I think many people will be very interested in the construction of the bucket arch, and I will dare to introduce it to you today with what I know.
The stigma is paved with bucket arches
In the picture is a column top paving, of course, there are two forms of tween paving and corner paving. Today we will only introduce the most typical stigma paving. Before we introduce, let's clarify a few basic questions.
What is a bucket arch?
The bucket arch is divided into two components, bucket and arch, and the bucket is named because it is shaped like a measuring instrument "bucket". Its role is to give the arch on it a stable fulcrum. So what is an arch? It is also because it is shaped like a bow and arched, so it is called an arch. Interestingly, European architecture is also related to this bow, and the root of architecture, Arch, means bow, also known as arch. Simply put, it is the "arch technology". Far from it!
What is the role of the bucket arch?
Pay attention to the 3# part, its name is called "eaves", its role can be basically guessed from the name of the point, it is to lift the eaves of the fang (all the square wood below the column head is a fang, not a beam). The pillar we see now is called the cornice, and it's usually built in the wall. If the eaves outside him want to be "far-reaching", they need a strong support, and now it seems that the eaves are doing this, but the eaves are supported by the whole one pillar paving. Now remember this answer: the role of the bucket arch is to support the eaves, to be precise, to transfer the weight on the eaves back to the stigma! The trouble is that "plucking the eaves" is sometimes called "plucking the wind", if it is a log case. There are also some other occasions where the arch is still used, such as supporting the bottom of the flat seat, and if the upper column made of the column is divided (retracted inward), the arch is also needed to act as the interface between the upper column and the lower column.
Which part is more important in the whole set of bucket arches?
In fact, they are all important, but I think that "Hua Gong" is the most important. Here we want to explain why the unit that the great craftsmen set for the bucket arch is a "flower", because they think that the bucket arch blooms like a flower on the pillar! In ancient Chinese characters, Hua means flower. Therefore, there are spring and autumn fruits, lanterns, and canopy, of course, the flower arch is also the "flower arch". Note that only the arch that jumps outward is called "Hua Arch", which is the key to the flowering of the whole paving, so I think it is called "Hua Arch", they are placed in the direction of depth, and other arches, such as the long arch, the melon arch, and the ling arch are in the direction of the width of the face.
Of course, the "ling arch", that is, the 10# component, is also very important, it is the last one to lift the eaves.
Next, let's see how they work together:
A) First of all, the stigma head of the cymbal (20#) acts as a fixed star, and above it is the mud arch, which was previously powerless, because in the wall, the earliest was indeed made of mud.
B) Then it's time to jump out, or to say it's ready to blossom. This is a Hua Arch (19#)
C) At the top of the outer part of the Hua Arch, there is a small bucket "interactive bucket" (12#), because his upper layer is cross-arranged with the melon arch and has an interactive relationship.
D) We don't care about the ones inside, let's look at the blossoming path first. Now speaking of "Ang" (17#), the so-called "Ang" is actually a variant of the Hua Arch, so that the angle of the eaves can be adjusted. It is also the flowering part, but it is more like the unfurled feathers of the bird, let's call it the spread wing part. There is also a small bucket between the upper and lower two angs called the scatter bucket.
E) At this point I would like to introduce an important concept (at least I think it is very important), that is, the concepts of "counting the heart" and "stealing the heart".
First of all, "counting the heart": between the Guanhua arch and the lower ang is connected to a horizontal melon arch to increase the stability of the structure, and the practice of jumping head to connect the horizontal arch is called "ji xin manufacturing". Oops Mom! I'm exhausted! Do you understand?
There is no horizontal melon arch between looking up and down, this is called "stealing the heart to build", a word of stealing, you will understand, cut corners, do a bucket arch is really waste, proper tailoring is necessary, of course, under the premise of building stability.
It is also a scheming and a steal, you may understand why Du Fu described that Afang Palace as a conspiracy!
F) Above Ang is another interactive fight, which holds up the "Ling Arch" and "Play head", and there is also an interactive relationship. As mentioned earlier, "Ling Gong" has an important task, but what is the purpose of playing with the head? Trick? It's not useful to listen, in fact, it is to fill in the gap, and over time it has added a little decorative effect. In the Qing Dynasty architecture, it looks quite beautiful, and there is a new name called "grasshopper head".
Well, let's get to it, no matter how much you don't necessarily get interested.
Finally, in the most pious form, I pasted a few hand-drawn samples of Mr. Liang, as well as some of his manuscripts. These originals are familiar, but I haven't seen them at all. Only after hearing that Mr. Liang crossed south, he stored some of the surveying and mapping documents and photos in a bank in Tianjin. Unfortunately, if Zhu Qizhao had not gone to the rescue at the age of 70, we would not have seen these original manuscripts today. With the traces of blisters, these originals must be the batch. In addition, some of the manuscripts were written in small letters, which shows the rigor of scholars of that era.
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