Architecture

That Chinese architecture ii! monotonous is an indisputable fact. The model most generally employed for the majority of buildings, be they dwelling houses, temples or palaces, is tliat of the Ving IMG:p45_3.png:Chinese characters Ithus described by Bushell in I 33 5 Chinese Art. "This consists e entially of a ma ive roof with recurved edges resting upon short columns. The curvilinear tilting of the corners of the roof has been supposed to be a survival from the days of tent dwellers, who used to hang the angles of their canvas pavilions on spears; but this is carrying it back to a very dim antiquity, as we have no records of the Chinese except as a settled agricultural people. The roof is the principal feature of the building and gives to it, when finished, an effect of grandeur or simplicity, of strength or grace. To vary its aspect the architect is induced occasionally to double or even triple it. This preponderance of a part usually sacrificed in Western architecture, is justified by the smaller vertical elevation of the plan and the architect devotes every attention to the roof by the addition of ante-fixal ornaments, and by covering it with glazed tiles of brilliant colour, so as to concentrate the eye upon it. The dragons and phoenixes posed on the crest of this roof, the grotesque animals perched in lines upon the eaves, and the yellow, green and blue tiles which cover it are never chosen at random, but after strict sumptuary laws, so that they may denote the rank of the owner of the house or indicate the imperial foundation of a temple." The great weight of the roof requires the use of many pillars, and though stone is common in China these are generally of wood; one notable exception being the magnificently carved marble pillars to be seen at the temple of Confucius in Ch'ii Fou, Shantung. The space between the pillars is filled in with bricks or blocks of stone, these not being intended to serve in any way as supports; in fact the construction is curiously like that of the modern American building of the newest type, where steel supports sustain the structure, and the portions between are filled with concrete. As Chinese buildings are constructed of bricks and wood they are most perishable, therefore but few ruins of note exist; from the ancient books, however, we can obtain some idea of the architecture in early days. Apart from the form described above there was another known as the T'ai IMG:p45_4.png:Chinese characters or lofty tower; these T'ai being the first large buildings described in the canonical books. Three sorts are described by Bushell; "one intended as a storehouse of treasure, a second built within a walled hunting park for watching military exercises and the pleasures of the chase, and a third fitted up as an astronomical observatory." Among later representatives of the T'ai he cites the towers of the Great Wall, the storied buildings surmounting the gates of cities, and the observatory at Peking, also a square tower mounted on a wall. In addition to buildings Chinese architects have erected beautiful memorial arches of stone 46 known as P'ai lou (q.v.); wonderful bridges of both marble and stone; and, under the influence of Buddhism, pagodas, or T'a IMG:p46_1.png:Chinese characters of infinite variety. The cupola does not exist; the structure bearing the nearest resemblance to it being the " stupa," or " dagoba " erected over the remains of Buddhist priests. Paleologue: V Art Chinois; Bushell: Chinese Art; MiJNSTERBERG: Chines is che Kunstgeschichte; BoERSCHMANN: Daukunst der Chinesen. [F.A]