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Chapter 44 On Several Characteristics of Chinese Architecture (1)
Chinese architecture is the most prominent independent system in the East, with far-reaching origins, simple evolutionary procedures, successive generations, and orderly clues, and the basic structure has never been affected by external influences to cause complex changes.Not only among the three major oriental architectures, but compared with the other two—Indian and Arabic (Islamic architecture)—it enjoys a longer lifespan, a wider range of ground, and its art has reached the highest maturity point.That is to say, among the various architectural schools in the east and west of the world, it is also a very special straight-through system in comparison.Generally, a building, after a long history, is often mixed with external influences, and its structure, layout, and appearance often undergo fundamental changes, or it may be promoted and migrated through geography, so that the old system is gradually changed, and the appearance of materials is changed, until it reaches its heyday. , most of them have deviated from the original tire shape and have another format.Unique Chinese architecture has gone through a very long time and spread over a vast area. In its heyday or in the reproduction period of its descendants, all important buildings have never lost their original appearance, preserving their inherent main structural parts and layout. The scale, while at the same time in terms of artistic engineering, is indisputably evolved to an extremely high degree.

What's more strange is that the history of the nation that produced this building is not simple, and it does not lack various religious, ideological, and political organizational changes; Contact (such as the introduction of Indian Buddhism), or conflicts and fights in actual interests.

It is a phenomenon worthy of study that this simple structure and flat arrangement of Chinese buildings will be so calm in their initial form, enjoy the direct descendants of thousands of years of reproduction, and form a most special and respectable architectural family.

Although, because the Chinese architecture of later generations has reached the level of extremely complex and exquisite structure and art, it still presents a simple and simple appearance on the outside. People often misunderstand that Chinese architecture is simple and undeveloped at all, and is inferior to other architectures. childish.

This kind of erroneous concept naturally originated from Westerners' careless observation of oriental culture, and they often made impetuous and rash conclusions, which affected the Chinese themselves to have excessive doubts and even contempt for their own art.Fortunately, recently there have been profound scholars in Europe and the United States who have carefully studied oriental culture. After careful understanding, their views have been completely different from before, and they have gradually and thoroughly realized the status and value of Chinese art.But the study of Chinese art, especially for architecture, is a recent trend.There are still very few good contributions made by outsiders on Chinese architecture, and many places are yet to be caught up by us architects in the future, searching for materials and textual research, doing valuable research and discussion, and correcting many gaps and misunderstandings of outsiders.

In principle, a good building must contain the following three elements: practicality; firmness; and beauty.Practical: suitable for the living habits of the local people at that time, suitable for the local geographical environment.Sturdy: It does not violate the reasonable structural principles of its main material, and it is quite permanent under ordinary circumstances.Beautiful person: with a reasonable balance (not the top heavy and the bottom light, towering and wanting to tilt, the top big and the bottom small can't support; or the state of solitary, tall, slender and protruding, etc. violates the laws of nature), and should be stable, comfortable and natural In appearance, it is necessary to honestly reveal all and part of its functions, without concealing anything, without pretentiousness, and reluctantly piled up.

Beautiful, it can also be said, is the natural result of comprehensive practicality and stability.First, Chinese architecture, undoubtedly, once contained the above three elements.The so-called past is because in terms of practicality and sturdiness, there have been doubts due to the changes of the times.Modern China has been in close contact with European and Western cultures, and its living habits are completely different from those of the old days. Of course, many of the old buildings are no longer applicable.In terms of stability, as a result of scientific development, there have been more satisfactory substitutes for non-permanent wood, and more economical and refined methods for construction.

It is an undeniable fact that in the past, after problems in practical aspects occurred due to the passage of time in human living conditions, buildings still retained their pure artistic value.Like the pyramids in Egypt and the Parthenon in Greece, the altars, temples, palaces, and halls in Beijing will continue to enjoy honor forever, although their original practical functions have been completely lost.Although pure artistic value can exist without practical aspects, it can never be independent of solid and reasonable structural principles.Because the balance of beauty and the number of aesthetic features are all the natural results of human's rational skills, under the constraints of physics, to reasonably solve various problems in the structure.

Second, artificial creation and natural trends are reconciled to a certain extent, which is the basis of fine arts. Carving facilities on the necessary structural parts is the icing on the cake; forcing the structure to be purely decorative is superfluous, which is enough to contaminate fine arts.

The beauty of Chinese architecture can be said to have been unconditionally recognized by ordinary people.But the advantages of this building are not in the shallow colors and carvings, or the special style, but in the basic structural principles that produce this beauty, and the Chinese people's absolute understanding of the principles of controlling carvings superior.If we want to praise the glorious architectural art of our country, we should discuss its structural principles and basic technical facilities; In terms of any appearance, learn from the British gentleman Ruskin to sing high-profile high-profile (Gothic) buildings.

The art of architecture is an honest creation within extremely cool physical constraints.Human beings started from making two straight pillars to support a lintel so that they can stand firmly on the ground, to building works such as multi-storey towers. During this period, the hard and arduous progress was partly due to the entry of engineering science and partly to the thought of art. activities and enrichment.These two aspects go hand in hand under the general theme of architectural progress.Although on the side of art thinking, they often betray their common goal—creating good architecture—going beyond the usual track, doing their best to lure the engineering side to sacrifice the principle of honesty in structure, and to make tricks on the outside.In this case, the building itself is often implicated, damaging its real value.There are also many examples of this in Chinese buildings of various generations, so among a series of Chinese buildings, fine works are extremely rare.

Generally, every school of art has its own stages of creation, experimentation, maturity, plagiarism, reproduction, and degeneration, and the same is true for architecture.The early works are extremely creative and experimental.When the test is successful, the results are satisfactory, and the level of perfection is reached, then it enters the stage of full maturity.After maturity, there must be a considerable period of inheritance, and they dare not, and cannot, go beyond the existing rules; this period is often the time to formulate rules and regulations.The next step is to add complexity and richness to trivial details to avoid monotony and seek change. This is when art activities go beyond the goal.At the beginning of this period, it multiplies, and then it degenerates, loses the original backbone spirit, and becomes a meaningless form.After the fall, the successor is the revolutionary hero of the second wave.The second trend is based on the advantages and disadvantages of previous works, and then researches and discusses the essence of the first generation, which is the origin of textual research.

The course of Chinese architecture, using the extremely limited materials we have as a reference, we can already see the ups and downs of each period.We have now come to the age of investigation and research.In this limited number of architectural relics of various dynasties, it is possible to observe and discuss the characteristics of its structure and style, so as to prove whether the spirit and skills of the architecture of that era were up and down or whether they were good or bad.

But this section cannot be discussed until after analyzing the basic principles of Chinese architecture.

Before analyzing the structure, it is necessary to understand the main building materials, because the materials will fundamentally affect its structural law.The main building material in China is wood, which is mixed with masonry and stone tiles.On the outside, a Chinese-style building can be clearly divided into three parts: the base part; the column and beam part; and the roof part.The platform base is a mixture of masonry and stone.From the foot of the column to the structural part on the beam, those directly supporting the roof are all made of wood.Roofs are naturally made of tiles, except for a few that use mausoleum, bamboo chips, and mud bricks.And these three parts - platform, column beam, roof - can be said to be the basic elements of the initial shape of our building.

In "Book of Changes": "In ancient times, caves lived in wild places, and later sages changed them to palaces, upper buildings, lower buildings, and rain and wind." There is also "Historical Records": "Yao also has the world, and the hall is three feet high... "It can be seen that the "building", "yu" and "tang" (base) occupy their positions and forces in the oldest buildings.Naturally, the last thing that has undergone heavy development is the "building" - the whole wooden building, so we should pay special attention to it.

For wooden structures, the principle we use is "architecture system"

Framing System.At the upper ends of the four vertical columns, a "frame" is formed around two beams and two beams.

The left and right ends of the "room" are lowered from the "spine melon column" on the top of the beam frame to the top of the front square.The girders are nailed to the rafters, and the combs are arranged side by side to support the tile boards. This is the simplest way to say the backbone of the "frame system".In short, the most responsible elements of the "framing system" are: ([-]) the vertical columns that support the weight; ([-]) the beams and squares that make these columns connect with each other; ([-]) the structure above the beam: the beam frame, The girders, timbers, and other accessory timbers, are used entirely to support the part of the roof.

"Room" is the lowest unit of a building on the plane.Ordinary buildings are all multi-room and singular.There are "middle" or "bright room", "second room", "slight smell" and "suite room"

Equivalent.

The biggest difference between China's "framing system" and other systems (such as the high-rise "masonry system" or the most common classical "stone" building in Western Europe): ([-]) The supporting part completely relies on columns, so that The part of the wall is not responsible for the structure, but only performs a similar duty as the partition screen of the door and window-separating the room, dividing the inside and the outside. ([-]) The pillars are always conservative and wooden, unlike the ancient Greeks that quickly replaced them with stone pillars, and a bearing wall was added, so that they broke away from the "structure" and became a "stone-base" system.

The characteristics of this frame structure, which affect its appearance, are the following most obvious points: ([-]) The height is invisible and restricted, never exceeding the possible range of wood. ([-]) Even a very solemn building also presents an absolutely exquisite appearance.Structurally, there is no need for strong and thick load-bearing walls, except for buildings such as Yulou, which are deliberately added to express majesty, any large-scale construction does not require walls to block parts. ([-]) There are no restrictions on the doors and windows, and light-transmitting joinery—door screens, windows, etc.—can be completely installed between columns.In practical terms, even before the invention of glass, there was already a lot of light in the room.In the north, due to the climate, there are more walls than windows, but in the south, it is the opposite, which can be stretched freely.

This is but a fundamental aspect of the structure, a characteristic of nature.There are also many super features that have been successfully achieved through special art activities, which make Chinese architecture occupy a very high art position, and at the same time, it is also the spirit of Chinese architecture.The most important of these features are the roof, platform, bucket, color and symmetrical layout.

The roof is the most practical and necessary part of architecture. Since ancient times, China has made it perfect without any trouble.In addition to meeting the actual needs, it also has a unique artistic style.The roof was not only the roof of the house at first, because of the practical problems of rain and sunlight, the part of the eaves had already been expanded.It is not difficult to make the eaves protrude, but the depth of the eaves is low, which hinders the light, and the rainwater flows quickly, causing the problem of splashing water under the eaves.To solve this problem, we invented cornices, using double-layer tile rafters, so that the edges of the cornices are slightly turned up and slightly curved.

And because of the aesthetic relationship, the eaves at the corners of the roof are even more curved.This kind of "cornice" with curved front and raised corners has a very natural and reasonable arrangement in structure, which can almost be said to be facilitated by structural law.

How is the structural law facilitated?To put it simply: For example, the roof tiles of the "Windang" style have four slopes and five ridges.The positive ridge is commonly called the ridge, and its skeleton is the truss.The four oblique ridges are called "vertical ridges". Their skeletons are the parts extending from the oblique angle of the ridge trusses to the eaves trusses, which are called the corner beams and corner beams.Although the rafters nailed side by side on the girder seem to be all parallel, the left and right rafters must be parallel to the "corner beam", so the position of the rafters is gradually inclined from true parallel, like the development of a skirt.

The corner beams are square, and the rafters are round in diameter (the upper layer is square when there are double layers, and the corner beams are still all square when there are double layers).The size of the timber of the angle beam is almost twice that of the rafter. When the rafter and the angle beam are side by side, the two heights are different, so that it is impossible to lay nails on them. flat.A piece of triangular board called "pillow wood" is filled under the raised rafters (as shown in Figure [-] on the previous page).

(End of this chapter)