Research on the history of Chinese architecture at the end of the century
Abstract of thesis: Since the opening of the country in the late 1970s, various architectural styles from 2000 to 2030s and even as recently as 1000s and 2000s have been popular in the post-war West. Philosophical methodologies and ideological trends emerged in droves.
Among them, the binary separation methodological model is the first, such as the "surface structure-deep structure" model of structuralism, the "signifier-signified" model of semiotics, and the "scientific" model of phenomenology. The objective physical world - the living world of pure consciousness" model, and the various architectural histories and theoretical theories derived from it.
There are also Gestalt psychology, environmental psychology, new history, Gombrich's art history theory, and even natural science methods, to name a few, which are refreshing and broaden your horizons.
Keywords: Chinese Architectural History Current Situation For young scholars like us, the entire 1980s can be said to be an era of methodology, and architectural history and theoretical research are no exception.
Since the opening of the country in the late 1970s, various philosophical methodologies and ideological trends have been popular in the post-war West from 20 to 30 years and even in the recent 10 and 20 years.
Among them, the binary separation methodological model is the first, such as the "surface structure-deep structure" model of structuralism, the "signifier-signified" model of semiotics, and the "scientific" model of phenomenology. The objective physical world - the living world of pure consciousness" model, and the various architectural histories and theoretical theories derived from it.
There are also Gestalt psychology, environmental psychology, new history, Gombrich's art history theory, and even natural science methods, to name a few, which are refreshing and broaden your horizons.
Under the influence of these methodologies, young academic orientation focuses on macro-summaries of architectural history, abstract speculation, and bold interpretations and inferences, hoping to enlighten reality and foresee the future, rather than being content with traditional textual research and Empirical “doing learning”.
A group of talented people, who applied Western knowledge to China and drew on the past to discuss the present, emerged.
However, from the perspective of orthodox historical science, just like any historical theoretical research, no matter what method is used in architectural history research, its purpose should be to solve some kind of problem, trigger some kind of thinking, or provide some kind of Learn from.
Without a deep empirical foundation and academic literacy, various "historical philosophies", "theoretical frameworks", and "models" related to architecture will ultimately be nothing more than a flash in the pan, with more thunder and lightning but less rain and dew.
Because the reasoning is hasty, it is of no use to history; the speculation is too cold, and it has no destiny in the world.
These views are a bit harsh on young students, and may not be accurate, but they reflect the fact that there are too many "discussions" on architectural philosophy, although the levels are very different. Few people are interested in exploring the history of architecture, and there are even fewer comments on the reality of architecture.
Leaving aside “theory” here, from a “historical” perspective, it should be admitted that the criticism of logical positivism at the level of philosophical methodology and the negation of positivist methods in the study of specific problems have never been the same. However, it is difficult to assume the role of "avant-garde" in architectural history research.
Indeed, there are not many high-level results in studying the history of Chinese architecture using these "new methodologies" and "new angles" in the past 10 years or so.
Does this mean that although the methodology itself has its own vitality, the era of one-sided treatment of methodology in architectural history research should be over.
However, the real crisis in the study of Chinese architectural history does not lie in this.
Take the study of ancient Chinese architectural history as an example.
First of all, any substantial progress in this area of ??research relies heavily on a solid foundation of physical objects and documentary materials, and sometimes even resorts to old Chinese textual research methods such as phonology and exegesis.
However, the actual situation is often more than enough "bold assumptions" and insufficient "careful verification". Especially for many young scholars, they are weak in this aspect due to subjective and objective reasons.
Secondly, the cooperative and dedicated research situation of “a national game of chess” is no longer sustainable.
However, the contemporary research conditions for creating information sharing are still far away.
In addition, society and even relevant institutions have a pragmatic attitude towards the study of architectural history, as well as the exhaustion of funding sources.
As a result, this knowledge has become increasingly remote and shrinking, with few successors.
Despite this, the research on the history of Chinese architecture has made remarkable and exciting achievements in recent years.
For example, Mr. Fu Xinian’s research on the royal architectural forms, compositions and symbols of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Mr. Yang Hongxun’s research on the restoration of famous ancient buildings, Mr. Pan Guxi, Mr. Guo Husheng and their academic teams conducted a series of studies on architectural culture and the relationship between Chinese and foreign architecture respectively, Mr. Wang Ningsheng’s cultural anthropological analysis of ancient Mingtang, Long Mr. Qingzhong and his academic team’s series of studies on ancient building disaster prevention, Mr. Lu Yuanding, Mr. Huang Hanmin, Mr. Lu Bingjie and others’ respective investigations and research on some typical traditional dwellings in South China, Mr. Cao Xun’s careful research on ancient building propositions, Mr. Zhang Lianggao Inferences about the Chinese architectural subculture circle, Mr. Xiao Mo’s research on Dunhuang architecture, Mr. Wang Qiheng and others’ exploration and interpretation of the connotation of Feng Shui, and the research and development of folk houses and ancient buildings in various places. Of course, special mention should be made of the China Research Institute hosted by Mr. Wang Tan. Research on the history of modern architecture, investigation and research on vernacular architecture conducted by Mr. Chen Zhihua and others.
All of these, to name a few, have had a great impact on the expansion and deepening of research on the history of Chinese architecture.
The five-volume collection "History of Chinese Architecture" and "History of Chinese Architectural Art" to be published will comprehensively reflect the research level and achievements of ancient Chinese architecture in recent years.
Prospects The object of architectural history research is the ideas and techniques (or craftsmanship) contained in historical architecture, its time and space development sequence, its historical value and its impact on later generations, reality and even the future.
Tai Shigong's "studying the times of heaven and understanding the changes in ancient and modern times" is still the gist of architectural history today.
Of course, you can also add "distinguish the similarities and differences between China and foreign countries" and so on.
There are still two major aspects in the study of Chinese architectural history across centuries.
The first is the historical aspect. Taking the history of ancient Chinese architecture as an example, in the past ten years, with the continuous increase of new archaeological data, such as the nature of the primitive social building complex ruins of Dahankou and the ancient Sanxingdui ruins of Guanghan , the early urban site of Mangshan in Zhengzhou moved up the block building technology.
The Zhouyuan site in Qishan advanced brick-making technology, the Shihuang Mausoleum site provided evidence for the mausoleum system, the discovery of the architectural layout and style of Jiucheng Palace in the Tang Dynasty, and the in-depth study of folk houses in various places, etc., are all for Supplementing and partially rewriting the history of ancient Chinese architecture provides a new material basis.
It should be pointed out that the future history of Chinese architecture may incorporate and absorb more knowledge, methods and research experience from archaeology, cultural anthropology, cultural history, art history, history of science and technology and other related disciplines. .
Another aspect of research involves the relationship between architectural history and reality.
Facing the society and getting in touch with practice is an opportunity for architectural history research to get out of the predicament.
For example, the study of vernacular architecture is not only a survey of residential materials, not only a record of the cultural landscape, but also a survey of some buildings that were once adapted to the natural ecology in the rapid urbanization of the countryside. Research on countermeasures for protective transformation of traditional Chinese settlement patterns.
This task may be partly undertaken by the study of Chinese architectural history.
Of course, these jobs require knowledge preparation in sociology, cultural anthropology, rural planning, etc.
Another example is the protection and technical research of cultural relics buildings. Many foreign architecture departments have architectural preservation majors. The author once participated in the 10th session of the "International Council on Memorial Sites" (ICOMOS) in Colombo. At the conference, I saw with my own eyes that some third world countries have a strong awareness of the protection of their historical buildings. The protection measures have a high technical content and the research is quite in-depth.
These studies are mainly done by archaeologists and architectural history experts.
And it is not only the protection of cultural relics buildings themselves. With the large-scale urban and rural transformation, there will be more and more issues of protective transformation and development and utilization of cultural landscapes in historical areas, which is part of the comprehensive research plan of transformation projects. components.
Therefore, it is thought that my country's first-class architecture departments should also set up a major in historical building protection to conduct in-depth research in this area and provide a base for cultivating high-level professional talents.
Computer-aided research should be introduced in this field to establish historical building data, image databases, etc., to coordinate maintenance, restoration and protective design.
In addition, there is also a discussion on the relationship between architectural culture and actual architectural creation, which is also a major area of ??future research on Chinese architectural history and theory.
Some architectural culture theories often use the "three-stage approach", which first explains what "culture" is, and then discusses what "architectural culture" is.
Finally, let’s talk about architecture.
In fact, architecture has been the carrier of culture since ancient times, and it is the thing that has left the most concentrated and profound imprint on cultural history.
The discussion of architectural culture should start from the architecture itself, and then extend and interweave with other related cultural fields, and form an atmosphere of commentary and criticism about the relationship between society, culture, space, and architecture.
It should be pointed out that one of the most obvious symptoms of the disconnect between architectural history and architectural culture research and realistic creation is the proliferation of "small pavilions" on high-rise buildings in Beijing in recent years.
Due to the lack of a theoretical and practical summary and sublimation of the debate between tradition and innovation for more than half a century in the architectural community, there is a lack of multiple criticisms and value judgments on urban space and its historical theories; the control role of urban design is lacking. lag, confusion in translating traditional architectural language into modern architectural language, which leads to mediocrity and degradation in rhetorical techniques; as well as misunderstanding and misunderstanding of historical consciousness and modern concepts of urban landscape in decision-making, thus proposing a rigid "grafting" of ancient and modern Mandatory requirements, etc.
All of them make a considerable part of the current "ten small pavilions on high-rise buildings" look like a reflection of the old "national form" concept, but it is far less than the several retro trends and works in the history of modern Chinese architecture. bright.
This obviously also involves an important historical theoretical research topic in the future - the "sustainable development" of the urban landscape context, not just the issue of how to retain the "ancient capital style".
It would be of great practical significance if the study of Chinese architectural history could contribute to this from one angle.
The study of the history of Chinese architecture across the centuries needs to look backward and forward, to understand the whole but also to understand a corner deeply. While summarizing the architectural ideas of ancient and modern times, it also needs to explore the formation of new urban and rural landscape context relationships.
The author believes that these are the two main directions for future research on the history of Chinese architecture. Thesis World