Chinese architecture

“ Standing foursquare, amid groves of venerable cedars, this lofty shrine with its spacious verandas and delicate tracery, surmounted by the pide-spreading, double-eaved roof of Imperial yellow tile and capped by a gilded ball, is conceded by many to be the finest example of Chinese architecture in existence. Added beauty lies in the fact that the whole edifice stands in the midst of a circular pond. crossed by four marble bridges which lead up to the great doors. ”

“ Standing among these groves of [63] trees the brilliant colours and fantastic designs of the Chinese architecture have a wonderfully pleasing effect. The wall of the imperial palace, covered with highly glazed yellow tiles, with towers at the corners shining like gold in the sun, is especially striking. Whichever way one turns there is something grotesque and barbarous to be seen, and the signs of decay and rot do not detract from the picture. In fact Peking is like a vast curiosity shop, with all the dust and dirt which are among the conditions of bric-à-brac. ”

“ Architectural beauty does not interest him and consequently architecture is not ranked as a fine art. It is merely the craft of the carpenter and the builder who cater to the vulgar pomposity of the rich and the powerful Native philosophical and artistic traditions, too, seem to conspire to ignore all architectural grandeur and splendor. And because of the attitude of indifference on the part of the artistic and intellectual classes (except in the matter of landscape planning) , Chinese architecture has remained to this day the conventional craft of the building trade. ”

“ There is nothing else in the building—nothing but this mild-faced Buddhist divinity for that brilliant, black-eyed ruler of Chinas millions to worship.
Standing near by is another building of far greater beauty. It is faced all over with encaustic tiles, each made at the kiln a thousand miles away, for the particular place it was to occupy. Each one fits without a flaw, a suggestion to American architects on Chinese architecture. ”

“ MONG the most beautiful specimens of purely Chinese architecture within the walls of the Capital are its picturesque memorial arches or inscription towers commonly called pailous. A lou in Chinese means a tower or structure; while a p'ai is a tablet or inscription. A pailou, therefore, is a tower containing an inscription. Many of these artistic pailous, built by the emperors of China, still grace the streets and the courtyards of the city. ”

“ We do not worship in a Roman basilica, but in the buildings that the northern architects have devised as suitable, both for Christian worship and for our climate. The new Chinese churches need not be replicas of the Chinese temples; the object of the building is different, therefore the building should differ, but there are many other forms in which it is possible for the architect to express in Chinese architecture the eternal truths of Christianity. ”

“ The walls of their houses may be pulled down, and the houses still remain standing. For architecture with the Chinese is in no way an organic total; it is not even a chemically-united composition; but a mechanically-joined something, without any ruling and connecting idea. Contrary to all rules of good architecture, they express in their constructions the principle of the separation and independence of the active elements of the building, instead of their union and harmony. It is variety without unity. Their walls are mere screens in bricks or wood, mere frameworks for tapestry. ”

“ They show little structural art, but much clever ornament. Like the monasteries and the vast lamaseries of Thibet, they belong to the Buddhist religion.
Aside from the ingenious framing and bracketing of the carpentry, the most striking peculiarity of Chinese buildings is their broad-spreading tiled roofs. These invariably slope downward in a curve, and the tiling, with its hip-ridges, crestings, and finials in terra-cotta or metal, adds materially to the picturesqueness of the general effect. ”

“ From these causes it may be that Chinese architecture is not worthy of much attention. In one respect, however, it is instructive, since the Chinese are the only people who now employ polychromy as an essential part of their architecture: indeed, with them, colour is far more essential than form ”

“ Passing into China we encounter a civilization whose antiquity rivals that of India. However, there are no very ancient remains there. But there is documentary evidence that the Chinese, several centuries before the Christian era, built from the same designs that they use to-day. Architecture being the expression of the needs, instincts, character and traditions of a people, and the Chinese having in no way modified their manner of living or their traditions, we can easily understand why their architecture has undergone no modifications. ”

“ The architecture of the Chinese differs from that of the West in almost every detail. A Chinese town is a town without chimneys, and yet the absence of those chimneys which Renaissance architects made such a feature of domestic architecture is never missed, for Chinese roofs are curved and decorated with quaint figures ”

“ This fine specimen of Chinese architecture in past ages stands in the extensive plains that supervene between Tung-chow and Pekin, and is one of its handsomest monuments, as before described it is partly built of white marble, and richly carved, the huge slabs of handsome stone work scattered around it is evidence of the former existence of a very elaborate entrance, and other ornamental appendages, but neglect, and ruin seem to pertain here as elsewhere to all the national erections whether for ornament or use. ”

“ It is said that the thoughts of all nations are written in their architecture; that you can see the nobility of the Middle Ages in the Gothic cathedral, or the fulness of the thought of the Renaissance in the Palladian facade; certainly on the modern Chinese town the story of their change of thought is being rapidly written, perhaps with truth, but certainly not with beauty. The Western man absolutely despising all things Chinese refuses to erect any building which preserves even a detail of the national architecture ”

“ This fear is even expressed in Chinese architecture.
"Why is that strange wall built in front of every household door and even before the Temples?" I asked a friend in China.
"It is put there to fool the devils. They will see that wall and think that there is no door and then will go away and not bother that house any more," I was told.
The very architecture of the Chinese home is to keep the devils out. The strange curves with the graceful upward sweep that makes the roofs so beautiful to American eyes is for the purpose of throwing devils of the air off the track. ”

“ Chinese architecture is obviously a construction which lends itself to the use of iron. A Chinese building with iron substituted for wood would look as well, for they always paint their wood; this ought to be a very cheap form of construction in a land which is going to produce iron at a very low rate. ”

“ It is, however, true that in Chungking, the only Chinese city I know really well, there is to this day an artist who paints flowers as a connoisseur, the head of an English technical school, pronounced only one man in England could. And how does this poor artist sell his pictures? Of course, it will never be believed in England that he is an artist at all, when I tell the sad truth—he sells them by the square foot! And when you decide to buy a picture, he—measures it!
The popularly received opinion is that there is no architecture in China. ”

“ CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. The architecture of China does not possess what we might call a serious character. Founded mainly on Buddhistic elements, as far as the more important efforts of their temple architecture is concerned, the only original development that marks the Chinese structural design is the pagoda tower—in itself really a Buddhistic idea—but the Chinese have the credit of carrying it further in their Taas or Pagodas by placing story upon story until sometimes a great height was attained ”

“ The pailow of China are memorial arches, erected, as a rule, to commemorate the virtue and the character of women who have slaughtered themselves that they might follow their husbands to the grave. These arches are heavier than the Japanese torii, or the Korean red-arrow gates, but they are like both in their general outlines and in situation. And all Chinese architecture is very much heavier than the architecture of Korea or of Japan. The torii of Japan marks the approach to a temple, or to some sacred place. ”

“ The religious architecture of the Chinese does not at all resemble ours. They have no idea of the majestic, solemn, and perhaps somewhat melancholy style, that harmonizes so well with the feelings which ought to be inspired by a place devoted to meditation and prayer. When they wish to build a pagoda, they look out for the most gay and smiling site they can find on the declivity of a mountain or in a valley; they plant it with great trees of the evergreen species ”

“ The grand characteristic of Chinese architecture is the pre-eminent importance of the roof. The tʽing is the commonest model of building. The roof is the main feature; in fact the tʽing consists of this roof, massive and immense, with recurved edges, and the numerous short columns on which the roof rests. ”

“ The same observation applies to the Palace of Osirtesen at Karnak, the walls of which are panelled with slabs of polished red granite, bearing the traces of a transparent coating with which they were covered.
THE CHINESE. China is a country where architecture has remained stationary from its early birth, and, consequently, the elementary motives of it are most distinctly preserved; they are placed side by side, without being conjoined by a general ruling idea. The external surface of the wall is still quite independent of the wall itself, and indeed is most frequently movable. ”

“ I have not said much about the temples of Canton or of China, as they are poor affairs compared with those of Japan; besides, one becomes sated with temples which are for the most part copies of one another; the pagodas are much more picturesque at a distance than when closely inspected. The Chinese actually prefer all their places to smack of age, and repair them reluctantly, so that all have a dilapidated air, which gives a very unfavorable impression to a stranger. At best, China has nothing whatever to boast of in the way of architecture. ”

“ Again, why are all the schools and colleges erected on Western patterns. The Chinese are used to and prefer their own architecture, and from a sanitary point of view I hardly think it is inferior. The average Westerner in China has but one idea, and {140} that is that the Chinese must become like a Western nation or must remain untouched by Western civilisation. He absolutely refuses the suggestion that the architecture of China can be altered to suit modern conditions. ”

“ Notwithstanding all this, they are no further advanced in architecture than they were two thousand years ago, or, indeed, in hardly any of the arts. At the same time the Chinese are remarkably skilled in porcelain manufacture, silk weaving, embroidery, colour printing, ivory and jade carving, enamelling, metal-working, casting, and decorative painting. Their ornament is very conventional and rich in colouring, but their ornamental forms are limited, and their decoration so full of repetition that it becomes very monotonous when judged by a European standard. ”

“ THIS picture, No. 48, presents to the reader one of the most interesting buildings in the grounds of the Imperial Summer Palace, standing at the foot of Wan-show-shan upon a basis of white marble, and constructed — doors, windows, pillars, roofs, and all — entirely of solid bronze. It is a very perfect example of Chinese temple architecture, showing, as it does, the most minute details of construction, and the skill with which the Chinese can work in metals, and adapt them to almost every use. ”

“ In China, learning transcends all else in importance, and as Confucius is considered as the fountain head of literature and learning, so he has become to be regarded as Europeans in the Middle Ages regarded saints, and temples to his honor are found in all large cities. The most important is the beautiful example of Chinese architecture in Peking, where the Emperor annually worships before his tablet. ”

“ Of what use are all these to a race who cannot understand what you mean when you speak of the heat being unhealthy, who, however sensitive to cold and wet, flourish in the warmth to which they have been accustomed all their lives? The Chinese do not admire this architecture for its æsthetic effect; they care little about its heat-resisting qualities. They like it because it is Western; because Western people are educated in such buildings; because, I suppose, they expect Western learning to work in some way through those massive stone walls to the minds of the pupils ”

“ Like this palace, they were raised on a solid basement of masonry, and were themselves composed of pavilions of light and ornamental woodwork; the great difference being that they had flat-terraced roofs instead of those covered with tiles, as in snowy Pekin; but the resemblance is curious, and examples even more nearly akin might probably be found if looked for.
The engineering works of the Chinese have been much extolled by some writers, but have less claim to praise as works of science than their buildings have as works of art. Their canals, it is true, are extensive ”