In recent years, with the rapid development of modern architecture in Beijing, the issue of maintaining the style of the ancient capital has become increasingly prominent and urgent. Not only do we see that many modern buildings violate the cultural connotation of the ancient capital, violate the traditional pattern of respecting heaven and earth, and the unity of nature and man, they even cause great damage to the style of the ancient capital. Beijing West Railway Station and the National Grand Theater are all distinctive illustration. Will the modernization of Beijing be at the expense of its own historical context?
The location selection of capitals in the past dynasties of the country was mostly based on Feng Shui principles such as "compare with each other
win". The natural environment refers to the mountains, rivers, geographical situation and superior products. The ancient city of Beijing was the capital of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In China, every dynasty has used Feng Shui and Yixue to prove the location of its capital. It is said that "since ancient times, the place where the capital was built has won the right time from the sky, the right terrain from the bottom, and won the hearts of the people. There has never been anything like this before."
However, since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Feng Shui style and ecological environment of the ancient capital of Beijing have undergone significant changes. In terms of its natural conditions, in the city of Beijing, according to the "Scenery of the Imperial Capital" published in the eighth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty (1635): "To the west of the imperial city, there are deep forests of ancient trees, high mountains in spring, quiet in summer, and cense in autumn and winter..." It is a scene of deep forests of ancient trees, blocking out the sky and the sun. At that time, the pine forests around Beijing were so dense that only one person could ride a horse on the road. Dense mountain forests also bring abundant water resources. Diaoyutai, Yuyuantan, Goldfish Pond and other places have springs trickling all year round. In many places, "springs gush from the ground and flow all the way through." Nowadays, Beijing's appearance is so good that it can be said that the terrain is still there, but its appearance has changed.
In the past 50 years, Beijing’s ecological environment has been deteriorating. First, under the slogans of "big steel making" and "asking for food from mountains, rivers, lakes and seas", forests were destroyed to burn charcoal, and forests were cleared to open up wasteland. Even the precious plants in the Beijing Botanical Garden were once destroyed and replaced with food. Then came the rapid development of Beijing's modernization construction, followed by deforestation, vegetation destruction, ecological deterioration, and sharp decrease in water surface. With major initiatives such as most of the moat sections turning into underground rivers and Taiping Lake north of Xizhimen being converted into subway land, the water area of ??Beijing has shrunk dramatically.
The area of ??green space in Beijing has also declined sharply due to various reasons. Coupled with the severe damage to vegetation and trees in the suburbs of Beijing and the northwest provinces, the warning that "sandstorms are approaching Beijing" has become a harsh reality. In recent years, Beijing's summer temperatures have exceeded those of Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing, which were known as the "three big furnaces" in the past. I'm afraid it has something to do with the inappropriate human activities mentioned above. In recent years, with the rapid development of electric power and communications industries, especially mobile phone industries, electromagnetic pollution, the most serious form of physical pollution, has become increasingly serious. Faced with many similar problems, old people often say that "Feng Shui is gone", which is not necessarily superstitious.
In urban construction, the primary and strategic link
is site selection and planning. Chinese cities generally build buildings first, and then build urban circles. Yuandadu is one of the few capitals in history that has unified planning, unified construction, and unified relocation.
“Distinguish the direction and position” is an important principle in the selection of base site and planning layout of traditional Chinese architecture. Feng Shui theory is also called "orientation theory". The location selection in Beijing is very particular. The location of Beijing, whether viewed from the Chaoyang direction or from the Zhengyang direction, is "backed by mountains, facing water, and facing the sun." "Being like the earth and tasting the water" is also a basic principle in building site selection. The folk saying of "not acclimatized to the soil and water" is mainly due to the quality of the soil and water. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, who paid great attention to health preservation, believed that the standard for good water quality is "its taste is precious and sweet, and its quality is precious and light". He once ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to make a special silver bucket to compare the water quality of famous springs in the world. It was found that only the Yuquan water in Beijing and the Yisun water near Mulan Paddock in Chengde were the lightest and sweetest. For this reason, Qianlong also specially wrote "The No. 1 Spring in the World at Yuquan Mountain".
The exquisite Feng Shui pattern and rich cultural connotation of Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties can be regarded as the best among all capitals in China. In the overall planning and architectural design of Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the extremely rich cultural orientations and symbolic principles of Yi Xue were used. These contents themselves are the theoretical basis of Feng Shui.
There are many water inlets in the old Beijing city. For example, the water inlets in the inner city are Jishuitan Shuiguan on the north side and Jinshui River Shuiguan on the south side of Xizhimen. The moat of the Forbidden City is commonly known as "Tongzi River". The water inlet is on the west side of the outer northwest corner of the Tongzi River and south, which is a double-hole secret passage; the water inlet of the Jinshui River (in the direction of the five elements, it belongs to gold in the east and west, and the river from the west is called "Jinshui River") in the Forbidden City is today. A single-hole secret passage along the Tongzi River to the west of Shenwumen. They are all in the northwest stem direction, that is, the direction of "Tianmen". The outlets of the water system in the inner city of Beijing are all located in the southeastern Xun direction, that is, in the "dihu" direction (entering the Tonghui River). According to the concept of Feng Shui, water governs wealth. Where water comes from, it is called the Heavenly Gate. If there is no source, it is called the Heavenly Gate. The open door of heaven symbolizes the endless source of wealth; the closed door of the earth symbolizes the endless supply of wealth. Correspondingly, in terms of architectural design, a corner is missing from the northwest corner of the inner city wall of Beijing and the outer edge of the northwest corner of the Tongzi River. The Tianmen in the northwest is missing a corner, which is called "the Tiankou is missing", which symbolizes the opening of the Tianmen. The water inlet and outlet are both secret passages, symbolizing the opening of the heavenly gate and the closing of the earthly household respectively.
When the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, the northern city wall of Yuan Dadu was retracted to the south by no more than five miles. In addition, in order to avoid the vast Taiping Lake, a corner of the northwest city wall was cut off. , the principle is similar to the missing corner on the outer edge of the northwest corner of Tongzi River. Both are closely related to the arrangement of the spatial orientation of the water inlet.
The use of water to symbolize wealth in traditional Chinese culture is not necessarily superstitious, but is just auspicious words, and it is not difficult to give a scientific explanation. The so-called "water dominates wealth" means that where there is plenty of water, the resources on the ground are rich and the people are rich; on the contrary, the resources on the ground are scarce and the people are poor. The Tianmen in the northwest and the household in the southeast are respectively the inlet and outlet. This is because China's terrain is generally high in the northwest and low in the southeast. This arrangement makes the water flow smoother.
In recent years, with the rapid development of modern architecture in Beijing, the issue of "maintaining the style of the ancient capital" has become increasingly urgent. However, many modern buildings violate the cultural connotation of the ancient capital. The large pavilion located on the daunting tall gate of Beijing West Railway Station is a typical example.
Most people familiar with Beijing know that this pavilion is an imitation of the "Wanchun Pavilion" located on the highest peak among the five pavilions in Jingshan. The difference is: the "Wanchun Pavilion" on Jingshan Mountain is a wooden frame structure, while the pavilion at the West Railway Station is a steel frame structure. It is said that its weight is as high as more than 700 tons. Copying the "Wanchun Pavilion" on Jingshan Mountain into a modern building is completely different from its cultural connotation.
Many ancient buildings in Beijing have legends and origins. Jingshan, in the early Ming Dynasty, was called "Zhenshan", which means "Zhenwang Qi" or "Evil King Qi". According to legend, the palace of the Yuan Dynasty was buried under it. Later it was renamed "Long Live Mountain" and "Jingshan" in the 12th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1655). According to the "Beijing Situation Outline": "The word "scape" is from the sun, and the sun is in Beijing. It is said that there are no two days in the sky, and there are no two masters in the people. The mountain shape is Wutai (five peaks), which corresponds to the five qi (qi of the five directions) in the sky. "Hold the sun." These five pavilions vividly create the artistic conception of "the scenery is from the sun, and the sun is in Beijing".
But the "sun" here does not actually refer to the natural "sun" in the sky, but symbolizes the "sun" in the capital on earth, the so-called "Son of Heaven". The word "jing" in Jingshan means both "日" above "京" and "京" below "日". Wang Bo, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a poem in his "Preface to Prince Teng's Pavilion": "I hope Chang'an will live in peace under the sun." From then on, people compared "Nixia" to Kyoto.
The "Wanchun Pavilion" was built on the most important north-south "central axis" of Beijing, symbolizing the emperor's central and righteous position; built on the commanding heights of Beijing, it also symbolized the emperor's Power is supreme in the world; the name of this pavilion is "Wanchun Pavilion", which symbolizes the eternal stability and inheritance of the emperor who is in the middle and right.
"Shi Ming Shi Pavilion" records: "A pavilion means a stop, and it is also a place where people stop and gather." The railway station is a gathering place for passing passengers, and its main function should be to facilitate passengers to quickly and accurately arrive at the station. Take a train to reach its destination.
If a huge pavilion is placed on such a tall doorway, why would tourists want to "stop and gather" there? In terms of architectural psychology, placing a behemoth weighing hundreds of tons on the beams of a doorway that is larger than the building, what kind of sense of security can it give people? In terms of construction economics, how expensive would it be to build beams that could support such a heavy building? What's more, it is also a failure in terms of maintaining Beijing's ancient capital style and even in terms of architectural aesthetics...