Chinese Art - Stephen W. Bushell Temporis

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Royal Mausoleum of Ming.

      Changling, North-West of Peking.

      The pillars are brightened with vermilion and gold; but it is the roof which still attracts most attention, in the interior as well as outside, the beams being often gorgeously inlaid with colours and the intervening ceiling geometrically divided into sunken panels worked in relief and lacquered with dragons or some other appropriate designs.

      The stability of the structure depends upon the wooden framework; the walls, which are filled in afterwards with blocks of stone or brickwork, are not intended to figure as supports. In fact, the space is often occupied entirely by doors and windows carved with elegant tracery of the flimsiest character.

      The Chinese seem to be aware of the innate poverty of their architectural designs and strive to break the plain lines with a profusion of decorative details. The ridge poles and corners of the sagging roofs are covered with finial dragons and long rows of fantastic animals, arranged after a symbolism known only to the initiated; the eaves are underlaid with elaborately carved woodwork brilliantly lacquered; the walls are outlined with bands of terracotta reliefs moulded with figures and floral sprays; but in spite of everything, the monotony of the original type is always apparent.

      Chinese buildings are usually one-storied and are developed horizontally as they increase in size or number. The principle which determines the plan of projection is that of symmetry. The main buildings and the wings, the side buildings, the avenues, the courtyards, the pavilions, the decorative motifs, all the details, in fact, are planned symmetrically. The architect departs from this formal adherence to symmetry only in the case of summer residences and gardens, which are, on the contrary, designed and constructed in the most capricious fashion. Here we have pagodas and kiosques elevated at random, detached edifices of the most studied irregularity, rustic cottages and one-winged pavilions, all placed in the midst of surroundings of the most complicated and artificial nature, composed of rockeries, lakes, waterfalls, and running streams spanned by fantastic bridges, with an unexpected surprise at every turn.

      The Ancient city of Lijiang, 13th c.-14th c. Lijiang old town. Lijiang.

      The Great Wall of China stretching over the mountains, 16th c.

      North of Peking.

      The Old Town of Lijiang, a well-preserved old city of ethnic minorities with brilliant culture, is a central town of the Lijiang County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority in Yunnan Province. As a result of the combination of the multinational culture and the progress of Naxi ethnic minority, the buildings in the town incorporate the best parts of the architectural traits of Han, Bai, and Tibet into a unique Naxi style. All temples are built on the most favourable site according to Fung shui, a geomantic system followed by even the most sophisticated Chinese. Architecturally the roof is a dominant feature, usually made of green or yellow rounded tiles and steeply raked. The ridgepole is decorated with porcelain figures of divinities and lucky symbols, such as dragons and carps.

      Ruins in China are rare, and we must turn to books to get some idea of ancient architecture. The first large buildings described in the oldest canonical books are the lofty towers called t’ai, which were usually square and built of stone, sometimes rising to the height of nine meters, so that they are stigmatised as ruinous follies of the ancient kings. There were three kinds of t’ai; one intended as a storehouse of treasures, a second built within a walled hunting park for watching military exercises and the pleasures of the chase, and a third, the kuan ksiang t’ai, fitted up as an astronomical observatory.

      2. – Military

      The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century B. C. and the 16th century A. D. to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire. The most famous is the wall built by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, of which little remains, and which was much farther than the current wall, which was built during the Ming Dynasty.

      The Great Wall stretches over approximately 6,700 km from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west. At its peak, the Ming wall was guarded by more than one million men. It has been estimated that somewhere in the range of 2 to 3 million Chinese died as part of the centuries-long project of building the wall. The height of the wall is generally from 6 to 9 meters and at intervals of some 180 meters are towers about 12 meters high. Its base is from 4 to 7 meters thick and its summit 3.5 meters wide. The wall is carried over valleys and mountains, and in places is over 1200 meters above sea level.

      The Great Wall at Badaling, 16th c.

      North of Peking.

      Xian city wall of the old Tang imperial city, 1370–1378. Qian (Xian). Xian.

      The Panmen Water Gates as seen from outside the city walls, 1333–1370.

      Suzhou. Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

      Before the wall was built by using bricks, it was created by earth, stones and wood. During the Ming Dynasty bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as well as materials such as tiles, lime, and stone. Bricks were easier to work with than earth and stone as their small size and light weight made them convenient to carry and augmented construction speed. Consequently, stones cut in rectangular shapes were used for the foundation, inner and outer brims, and gateways of the wall.

      Among the later representatives of the t’ai are the towers of the Great Wall, which are built of stone with arched doors and windows – the Chinese seem always to have employed the arch in stone architecture – the storied buildings dominating the gateways and angles of the city walls, often used to store arms; and the observatory of Peking, which is also a square tower mounted upon the city wall. When the tower is planned out as an oblong, broader than it is deep, it is technically called a lou.

      The Xi’an City Wall is not only the most complete city wall that has survived in China, but it’s also one of the largest and most complete ancient military systems of defense in the world. The construction of the City Wall of Xi’an was initiated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1398). The circumference of the city wall is 14 km long. The military defense facilities here including the city wall, city moat, drawbridges, watchtowers, corner towers, parapet walls and gate towers once made up a complete city defense system. The wall now stands 12 meters tall, 12–14 meters wide at the top and 15–18 meters thick at the bottom. Every 120 meters, there is a rampart which extends out from the main wall. On the city wall there is a range of outward parapets interrupted by as many as 5984 crenels, and there are altogether protruding ramparts. On each of the four corners of the city wall there is a watchtower. The city wall is surrounded by a moat, which is 18 meters wide and 6 meters deep.

      The Great Wall at Badaling, 16th c.

      Badaling. North of Peking.

      Arrow Tower (Jian Lou), Dongbianmen, Ming city walls. It used to be southeast tower of the four corner towers of the city walls, 1419–1435. Peking.

      Panmen City Gate was first built during the Wu Kingdom of Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 B. C.) and it is the only well preserved water-and-land city gate in the world now. The current gate was reconstructed in 1351. It consists of water and land gates, the city gate tower and city walls at both sides. Panmen Gate is part of the ancient city wall built in 514 B. C. that surrounded and protected Suzhou.

      The city wall of Peking was a fortification built around 1435. The architect Kuei Xiang constructed nine gates and five fortresses, a design which symbolized the Emperor’s divinity of both the Nine and the Five. It was 23.5 km long. The wall was 15m high, 20m thick at ground level, and 12m thick at the top. It had an extensive fortification system, consisting of the Palace city, the Imperial city, the inner city and the outer city. Specifically, it included many gate towers, gates,

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