China
The Chinese nation is a nation that particularly emphasizes and advocates "middle". "Middle" refers to running in the middle of the natural way of heaven and earth, symbolizing things maintaining the middle way. The behavior of "moderate" is impartial, appropriate and timely, and is a symbol of truth, goodness, virtue, beauty and harmony.
As early as the time when ancient ancestors knotted ropes to draw lines to record events, Fuxi performed the Xiantian Bagua based on the Hetu Luoshu, "The way to establish the sky is called Yin and Yang, and the way to establish the earth is called softness and strength , The way to establish a person is benevolence and righteousness, which combine the three talents, so the six paintings in the Book of Changes form the hexagram ("The Book of Changes"·Shuo Gua Chuan)" The six paintings are placed in order, with the first and second as the ground, and the third as the ground. , four are humans, five and six are heaven. Make sure that people are in heaven and earth. In the six-line hexagram, the second line of the inner hexagram and the fifth line of the outer hexagram are called "Zhong", also known as "Dezhong" because they are in the middle. In the old days, those who got the second and fifth lines of the hexagram were called "Dezhong" "In", there are many auspicious assertions.
China’s traditional culture believes that the area where the ancestors of the Chinese nation lived on the earth is at the center of heaven and earth, and is an intercontinental area directly inherited and directly managed by heaven. This country is wise, gorgeous, vast, and rich. The history of these nations can be traced back to the Xia Dynasty with written records, so it is called Huaxia, Zhonghua, Shenzhou, and Kyushu.
The traditional philosophical thinking of the Chinese nation believes that the country with the round sky and people in the middle is called China. Kyoto is the center of the country, the palace is the center of Kyoto, and the highest authority of the country is the center. Initially it refers to the Yellow Emperor, and also refers to the capital built by Yao, Shun and Yu. Later, many countries appeared, generally referring to the Central Plains or the Central Kingdom. The founding of the Republic of China was officially designated as the country's name. On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded.
The definition of Chinese architectural art
Chinese architectural art has increasingly developed into a combination of astronomy, geography, geology, ecology, physics, landscape, architecture, ethics, and mechanics. , energetics, informatics, psychology, aesthetics and other categories and disciplines, integrating the essence of traditional Chinese culture.
Development model
Generally speaking, there are two development models for Chinese architectural art: one is official-style architecture because of its absolute advantages in thought, technology, material and manpower. , thus reflecting the highest artistic level of a certain social period; one is folk architecture, which despite material and technical limitations, is more flexible and diverse in design and construction, integrates with the local environment, and has strong local characteristics. In addition, there are some buildings that cannot be easily classified, such as pagodas, bridges, city towers, drum towers, bell towers, market buildings in the city center, etc. built in the past dynasties.
Essential themes and forms of expression
Chinese architectural art is a huge treasure house of material and cultural knowledge, covering almost all the natural changes, material production, and cultural knowledge of the Chinese nation from ancient times to the present. and the overall, comprehensive and main typical part of life customs. However, in terms of its primary function, it is its practicality; in terms of its fundamental (essence), it is "people-oriented", suitable for and satisfying people's material and spiritual life needs. Its core can be expressed in the simplest way: livable.
Chinese architectural art has two forms of expression. One is the external form, including Qin bricks and Han tiles, Sui and Tang temples and pagodas, Song and Yuan ancestral temples, Ming and Qing palaces, royal gardens, private gardens, archways and cities. , mausoleums, altars, temples, and characteristic houses all display Chinese architectural art forms. One is the subjective essence of connotation. Among the various forms of architectural art, each one contains the philosophical thoughts and artistic standards of Chinese architectural art. The form is unique and romantic, and the connotation is rational and stylized; the single building is standardized, but the group sequence is diverse. For example, Chinese architectural art has inherent and concise structural shapes and organizational rules in terms of plane layout, that is, a single building is composed of "rooms" as units. The artistic shape of a single building mainly relies on the flexible combination of rooms and numerous styles. The curves of the roof are expressed as well as the decoration. A single building is then used to form a courtyard, and then several courtyards are used to form courtyard groups and various large building groups or city groups. An isolated single building does not constitute a complete artistic image, and the artistic effect of the building mainly relies on the combination sequence of the group. Regional, urban, group, and individual planning, design, and construction all comply with the philosophical thoughts, ancestral traditions, and artistic and technical specifications of Chinese architectural art, and are based on geographical location, azimuth area, central axis, north-south orientation, and mathematics. Concept, spatial imagination, structural function, proportion, arrangement and combination, high and low light and dark, straight and straight, color matching, visual soothing, orderly and balanced spread.
Even when the architectural group cannot be physically balanced and symmetrical due to the influence of terrain, folk customs or other reasons, people still try to make it achieve psychological and ideological balance and harmony, the balance of collection, and the balance of yin and yang to some extent. Harmony, complementation of the five elements, etc.
It can be seen from this that we must deeply study the ideological theory of the essential subject of Chinese architectural art in order to have a deeper understanding of Chinese architectural art. Because "what you feel may not be able to understand it, only what you understand can feel it more deeply." The significance of Chinese architectural art lies not only in the material and functional form of the building itself, but also in the spiritual essence of Chinese culture such as the national and national thoughts, emotions, concepts, and consciousness contained and inherited in the building; significant. historical significance and far-reaching promotion significance.
Example
The "Book of Changes" has a profound influence on Chinese architecture. In ancient times, with its thinking mode of combining "meaning" and "image" and the principle of yin and yang coordination, it gave birth to the unique ancient Chinese Feng Shui in the world. At the same time, this knowledge has been fully utilized in the field of Chinese architecture.
Let’s take the city of Beijing and the Forbidden City as an example. In accordance with the “Three Talents” of heaven, earth and man in the Book of Changes, Beijing calls the imperial palace the Forbidden City to correspond with the purple-tiny wall in the sky. When there is no water outside the city, a golden "water" river is artificially opened. The entire building is mainly made of "wood", covered with "gold" colored glazed tiles, and the walls are painted with gorgeous "fire" red, standing on the "earth" ground. Take the meaning of the five elements complementing each other.
Aerial view of the Forbidden City
The three main halls of the Forbidden City: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Zhonghe, and the Hall of Baohe, symbolizing the three walls of the Heavenly Palace. The front hall is yang, the back bedroom is yin, and the three palaces in the back are Qianqing Palace, Kunning Palace and Jiaotai Palace. The names of the three palaces are all consistent with the principle in the Book of Changes that Qian is the sky, Kun is the earth, Qian is the king, Kun is the minister, Qian is the father, and Kun is the mother. The so-called Qian sky is clear and light and rises, while Kun earth is heavy and turbid. The union of earth and heaven creates peace, and human relations are auspicious. Surrounding the three palaces are divided into twelve left and right palaces, namely the six east palaces and the six west palaces, which are combined into fifteen palaces, in order to respond to the wonderful movement of the Heluo central axis. The twelve palaces in the east and west correspond to the twelve stars, symbolizing that the woman's way follows the true path, and there is no success but an end.
Beijing city gates, the seven gates of the outer city, represent the rule of the south toward the Ming Dynasty, and the nine gates of the inner city, represent the rule of the ninety-five emperors. The Imperial City Gate has Tiananmen Gate in the south, Di'an Gate in the north, Dong'an Gate in the east, and Xi'an Gate in the west, symbolizing the pattern of the innate Eight Diagrams stemming heaven, earth, and earth, leaving the sun, Kanyue, and the moon. The Meridian Gate, Shenwu Gate, Donghua Gate, and Xihua Gate also host 28 celestial phenomena such as Suzaku, Xuanwu, Qinglong, and White Tiger. Chongwen Gate in the southeast and Xuanwu Gate in the southwest of the inner city symbolize civility on the left and military on the right. The Anding Gate in the northeast and the Desheng Gate in the northwest symbolize civil and martial arts and embrace the world. Dongzhimen and Xizhimen symbolize the yin and yang avenue where the sun and moon appear. The central axis is fifteen miles long, which symbolizes the constant of Heluo Yunchu's success. This is a typical example of ancient Chinese architecture applying the concepts of the Book of Changes.
Similarly in today's modern architecture, we can also find such examples, such as the Xiangshan Hotel designed by the world-famous architect I.M. Pei in the 1980s. Regardless of the overall layout or detail processing, the design Almost all of them are constantly and repeatedly using the figures and symbols of the Book of Changes to strengthen the national culture and artistic connotation of the building itself. This shows that the "Yijing" "unity of nature and man" emphasizes the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and adapts measures to local conditions. 's ideas still have strong vitality in the field of modern Chinese architecture. (The Illustrated Book of Changes/Compilation and Publishing/Shaanxi Normal University Press)
Position in the world of architectural art
“From a global perspective, ancient architectural culture It can be roughly divided into seven major independent systems. However, some of the architectural systems such as ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, ancient India, and ancient America have long been discontinued, some are not widely spread, and some have only limited influence on Chinese architecture. European architecture and Islamic architecture are considered to be the three major architectural systems in the world, and among them, ancient Chinese architecture and ancient European architecture are the most widespread, longest-lasting and most glorious. Preface to "History of Architecture", China Architectural Press 2008).
The significance of the research
(1) Use philosophical concepts to understand the artistic standards and norms contained in Chinese architecture, and discover and inherit the main ideas of Chinese architectural art: nature, harmony, etiquette system, mathematics, tradition and romance. ⑵Use cultural concepts to interpret the historical, regional environment and architectural beauty. ⑶ Use emotional consciousness to examine the space, symbol, and spiritual beauty of architectural art.
⑷ Recognize and study the reality and development of Chinese architectural art by comparing Chinese and Western methods, inherit and carry forward Chinese traditional culture, and innovate and develop through inheritance. ⑸Create, realize, and meet the people’s growing needs for material, cultural, and spiritual life.
Issues about the inheritance, reference and development of Chinese architectural art
Today in the 21st century, people have finally woken up. In the global village, nations with different cultural backgrounds and living habits must * To survive, we must develop an architectural culture that represents its own characteristics and regard "urban beauty" as an urban development strategy. An urban cultural renaissance is being launched around the world, starting with the increasingly urgent global environmental issues, and "turning force into form, energy into culture, dead objects into living artistic images, and biological reproduction into social innovation" "As the theme of the current urban renaissance, urban construction has gradually transitioned from the hardware era to the software era. The cultural connotation of a city has become the internal driving force for the development of urban design. Therefore, architecture, sculpture, environmental art, decoration, and home design have also moved away from single, personal expressions and begun to create and interpret works closely related to the urban environment. Works that are rich in urban heritage, have urban functions, and reveal the future. (Excerpted from Baidu Encyclopedia "Space Art", this article has been modified).
When the research on Chinese architectural art reaches a certain height and breadth, we need to work hard to raise it to a more systematic level. That is to consciously, sensitively and creatively explore, summarize, inherit and develop Chinese architectural art theory. “In order to feel and understand this spiritual world, this invisible world, we must look deeply within ourselves... Therefore, to understand architecture as a history, we must find the various creations around us. The mythical belief in architectural form. Otherwise, in the process of searching for roots, we are likely to fall into the danger of a superficial form transformation" (edited by Wang Fang, "Charles Correa" of China Architectural Press).
Specialized theoretical works on Chinese architectural thought are far from meeting the current and future development requirements of society. To systematically study the theory of Chinese architectural art, in addition to sorting out historical materials and inspecting physical objects, we must also have certain basic conditions. We must have a broad understanding of Chinese thought and literature, philosophy and literary theory, as well as Western cultural theory. foundation and can draw lessons from Western historical methods. Learn something and create something from it.
At present, some Chinese architects lack in-depth or even basic understanding of the richness of traditional Chinese architectural art and its outstanding achievements. Second, there is a lack of in-depth exploration or even interest in exploring the profound cultural connotations contained in traditional Chinese architecture. Third, the understanding of the West is not systematic and deep enough, and cannot be combined with the understanding of China itself. They often do not pay serious attention to the expression of the inherent cultural content of the nation and place, nor do they pay attention to creation that is in harmony with the context of the surrounding natural and artificial environments. They seem to be subject to a popular, a priori, and personal preference of the architect. A certain form of domination, a superficial pursuit of certain fashionable techniques.
As for inheritance and development, Mr. Wu Liangyong proposed the idea of ??"abstract inheritance": The first is to develop the design principles and the essence of basic theories of traditional architecture (design philosophy, principles, etc.) and apply them to The second is to extract the most distinctive parts of traditional images, and use them as a matrix to imbue them with new ideas through abstraction, concentration, and improvement to inspire the image creation of current design creations. In the past, the so-called debate between traditional "physical resemblance" and "spiritual resemblance" can also be resolved to a certain extent. The pursuit of spiritual resemblance does not exclude the resemblance of a certain degree or a certain detail. This is inheritance through reinvention, not plagiarism.
Creators of urban construction have multiple tasks. It can be said that their ultimate goal is to create a suitable living environment with good spatial organization and perfect artistic image. Excellent buildings and the artistic environment they constitute have long-term and even eternal appeal. (Foreword by Wu Liangyong, editor-in-chief Xiao Mo, editor-in-chief of "History of Chinese Architectural Art", China Academy of Art's "History of Chinese Architectural Art".) This requires the creators of urban construction to not only conduct in-depth research on social history and geographical history, but also work closely with Combined with research on related works of art.
The creation of large-scale art works should first clarify the architectural language it wants to express and meet the requirements of ideal aesthetic theory, rather than just designing a special venue; it must play a subtle role through the cultural significance it contains, Subtly influencing the city's own ideas, characteristics, development direction or hidden eternal existence (quoted from Baidu Encyclopedia "Space Art").