DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0624
434
CHINA
supported independently by its own set of columns, those for the
upper section not visible from the exterior. This is characteristic
of Chinese buildings, which do not rise above a single story. If
additional space is needed, the building is enlarged horizontally,
by adding wings, for example. The walls, which are of no
structural value, are occupied by folding doors filled with tracery.
It is a kind of architecture that impresses through its dignity
and sobriety, its rhythm of line, its quiet and simple massing of
parts.
To these characteristics one more must be added —splendor of
decoration, particularly color. The roof tiles of royal buildings
are yellow, the imperial color in China. Sometimes the tiles
are blue or green; and the choice is determined by strict laws,
indicative of the rank of the owner and symbolic in meaning. The
ridgepoles are decorated with dragons, phoenixes and grotesques,
as if to break the long lines. The beams and undersides of the
projecting roofs and the interior are elaborately ornamented with
gold and vermilion, carvings, lacquer, and inlay, so that the
effect is one of solemn splendor.
Structurally the same as our type building is the Temple of
Heaven (Pl. i66a), the Chinese name for which means “temple
of prayer for the year ’ ’; for here each spring the Emperor went
to offer sacrifices and prayer for a propitious year not only to
heaven but to the imperial forefathers, to the sun, moon, and
stars, and to the spirits of nature in the winds, the clouds, the
rain. Here again color and form are determined by symbolism.
As blue is the color of heaven, so the tiles of the temple are a
deep cobalt and, during the ceremonies of the spring sacrifice,
blue dominates the interior, for the ceremonial vessels are of
blue porcelain, the worshipers are clad in blue; in fact a blue
tone is cast over everything by Venetian blinds made of blue
glass which cover all the doors and windows. So too is the
unusual circular shape symbolic of the spherical appearance of
the heavens. The temple is an imposing structure, its triple roof
with gilded ball pointing with assurance toward the heavens.
This impressiveness is increased particularly by the location
of the building; for it stands upon an elevation, surrounded by
encircling marble terraces and broad stairways, set at the cardinal
points of the compass, with ornamented balustrades.
A characteristic feature of Chinese landscape is the pagoda, a
Buddhistic structure, some of whose forms originated in the um-
brella, that symbol of royalty in India which usually terminated
the stupa, often in a multiple form (Fig. 119). These pagodas
CHINA
supported independently by its own set of columns, those for the
upper section not visible from the exterior. This is characteristic
of Chinese buildings, which do not rise above a single story. If
additional space is needed, the building is enlarged horizontally,
by adding wings, for example. The walls, which are of no
structural value, are occupied by folding doors filled with tracery.
It is a kind of architecture that impresses through its dignity
and sobriety, its rhythm of line, its quiet and simple massing of
parts.
To these characteristics one more must be added —splendor of
decoration, particularly color. The roof tiles of royal buildings
are yellow, the imperial color in China. Sometimes the tiles
are blue or green; and the choice is determined by strict laws,
indicative of the rank of the owner and symbolic in meaning. The
ridgepoles are decorated with dragons, phoenixes and grotesques,
as if to break the long lines. The beams and undersides of the
projecting roofs and the interior are elaborately ornamented with
gold and vermilion, carvings, lacquer, and inlay, so that the
effect is one of solemn splendor.
Structurally the same as our type building is the Temple of
Heaven (Pl. i66a), the Chinese name for which means “temple
of prayer for the year ’ ’; for here each spring the Emperor went
to offer sacrifices and prayer for a propitious year not only to
heaven but to the imperial forefathers, to the sun, moon, and
stars, and to the spirits of nature in the winds, the clouds, the
rain. Here again color and form are determined by symbolism.
As blue is the color of heaven, so the tiles of the temple are a
deep cobalt and, during the ceremonies of the spring sacrifice,
blue dominates the interior, for the ceremonial vessels are of
blue porcelain, the worshipers are clad in blue; in fact a blue
tone is cast over everything by Venetian blinds made of blue
glass which cover all the doors and windows. So too is the
unusual circular shape symbolic of the spherical appearance of
the heavens. The temple is an imposing structure, its triple roof
with gilded ball pointing with assurance toward the heavens.
This impressiveness is increased particularly by the location
of the building; for it stands upon an elevation, surrounded by
encircling marble terraces and broad stairways, set at the cardinal
points of the compass, with ornamented balustrades.
A characteristic feature of Chinese landscape is the pagoda, a
Buddhistic structure, some of whose forms originated in the um-
brella, that symbol of royalty in India which usually terminated
the stupa, often in a multiple form (Fig. 119). These pagodas