DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0712
688
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE.
Book IX.
more splendid than those of the mandarins, but the same in character,
and erected with the same ends.
There is no country where property lias hitherto been considered
so secure as China. Private feuds and private wars were till lately
unknown; foreign invasion was practically impossible, and little
dreaded. Hence they have none of these fortalices, or fortified man-
sions, which by their mass and solidity give such a marked character
to a certain class of domestic edifices in the western world. Equality,
peace, and toleration, are blessings whose value it would be difficult
to overestimate; but on the dead though pleasing level where they
exist, it is in vain to look for the rugged sublimity of the mountain,
or the terrific grandeur of the storm. The Chinese have chosen the
humbler path of life, and with singular success. There is not perhaps
a more industrious or, till the late wars, happier people on the face of
the globe; but they are at the same time singularly deficient in every
element of greatness, either political or artistic.
Notwithstanding all this, it certainly is curious to find the oldest
civilized people now existing on the face of the globe almost wholly
without monuments to record the past, or any desire to convey to pos-
terity a worthy idea of their present greatness. It is no less remark-
able to find the most populous of nations, a nation in which millions
are always seeking employment, never thinking of any of those higher
modes of expression which would serve as a means of multiplying
occupation, and which elevate while feeding the masses ; and still more
startling to find wealth, such as the Chinese possess, never invested in
self-glorification, by individuals erecting for themselves monuments
which shall astonish their contemporaries, and hand down their names
to posterity.
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 ; and certainly the result is so far pleasing
and satisfactory, that for the lower grades of art it is hardly doubtful
that it should always be so. For the higher grades, however, it is
hardly less certain that colour, though most valuable as an accessary,
is incapable of that lofty power of expression which form conveys to
the human mind.
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE.
Book IX.
more splendid than those of the mandarins, but the same in character,
and erected with the same ends.
There is no country where property lias hitherto been considered
so secure as China. Private feuds and private wars were till lately
unknown; foreign invasion was practically impossible, and little
dreaded. Hence they have none of these fortalices, or fortified man-
sions, which by their mass and solidity give such a marked character
to a certain class of domestic edifices in the western world. Equality,
peace, and toleration, are blessings whose value it would be difficult
to overestimate; but on the dead though pleasing level where they
exist, it is in vain to look for the rugged sublimity of the mountain,
or the terrific grandeur of the storm. The Chinese have chosen the
humbler path of life, and with singular success. There is not perhaps
a more industrious or, till the late wars, happier people on the face of
the globe; but they are at the same time singularly deficient in every
element of greatness, either political or artistic.
Notwithstanding all this, it certainly is curious to find the oldest
civilized people now existing on the face of the globe almost wholly
without monuments to record the past, or any desire to convey to pos-
terity a worthy idea of their present greatness. It is no less remark-
able to find the most populous of nations, a nation in which millions
are always seeking employment, never thinking of any of those higher
modes of expression which would serve as a means of multiplying
occupation, and which elevate while feeding the masses ; and still more
startling to find wealth, such as the Chinese possess, never invested in
self-glorification, by individuals erecting for themselves monuments
which shall astonish their contemporaries, and hand down their names
to posterity.
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 ; and certainly the result is so far pleasing
and satisfactory, that for the lower grades of art it is hardly doubtful
that it should always be so. For the higher grades, however, it is
hardly less certain that colour, though most valuable as an accessary,
is incapable of that lofty power of expression which form conveys to
the human mind.