What are the characteristics of ancient buildings in China?

Compared with the masonry structure system of western ancient buildings, China's ancient buildings are independent institutional systems, and their greatest features are as follows:

1. The wood structure system is dominant. Wood structure system has many advantages: for example, the maintenance structure is separated from the supporting structure, and the seismic performance is high; Convenient materials and fast construction speed. At the same time, wood structure also has many shortcomings: it is easy to be corroded by fire, termites and rain, and its duration is shorter than that of masonry buildings; Due to the increase of engineering quantity, the demand for finished wood is in short supply; It is difficult for beam-frame system to realize complex architectural space. However, there are also a few brick and metal buildings in the ancient buildings in China. For example, "Historical Records" said: "Stone chambers are all the locations of the National Library." ; For example, there are many records in the Notes on Water Classics, and in Wei Shui Pian: "There are stone chambers beside the stream to build the residence of Taigong". Masonry structures are mostly used in tower buildings. Metal buildings are mainly made of copper. Famous bronze buildings include Baoyun Pavilion in the Summer Palace in Beijing, Jin Dian in Wudang Mountain in Hubei and Jin Dian in Taihe Palace in Kunming.

2. China's wood structure system has always adopted the structural principle of frame system: four columns, beams and vertical purlins are added to form a "room", and general buildings are composed of odd rooms, such as three, five, seven and nine rooms. The more bays there are, the higher the water level is. There are eleven rooms in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, which is the highest existing ancient wooden structure. The facade is divided into abutment, roof and roof. Among them, the roof of the official building is the most important part of architectural modeling, which is huge and far-reaching. Roof forms are divided into single slope, flat roof, hard mountain, suspended mountain, circular hall, inclined mountain, rolled shed, cushion roof, double eaves and helmet roof, with double eaves and circular hall as the highest level.

3. Bucket is a key component in China wood structure, and its function is to support the weight of eaves by projecting cantilever beams from columns.

4. Unique external contour: multi-storey abutment, colorful curved sloping roof and courtyard-style buildings show a vast space. More than 2000 years ago, quadrangle architecture appeared in the brick paintings of Han tombs, and the Forbidden City, the largest architectural complex in Ming and Qing Dynasties, also adopted a complex enclosure form.

In terms of architectural thought, China's ancient architecture embodies clear etiquette thought and pays attention to hierarchy: there are strict regulations on modeling, color, scale, structure and components, which improves the architectural form to a certain extent, but also limits the development of architecture. At the same time, the idea of harmony between man and nature is also reflected in the development of ancient architecture in China, which promotes the coordination and integration between architecture and nature. Pay attention to the location of buildings and cities; When it was built according to local conditions, it was built on the mountain, and the garden was particularly obvious, emphasizing Feng Shui.

Ancient buildings, carved beams and painted buildings, and walls are often painted. Painting was quite prosperous during the Warring States period; In the imperial palace of the Han dynasty, there are also many stories of characters, and good and evil are recited as a warning. Later generations painted many landscapes.

There are many famous architectural works in China, among them, the works on the city include Kao Gong Ji, the works on building regulations include Li Jie's "Building French Style" in the Song Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty's "Examples of Qing Dynasty's Engineering Practices". ",garden works include" Garden Metallurgy ". Famous craftsmen include Yuwen Kai in Sui Dynasty, Li Jie in Song Dynasty, Kuai Xiang in Ming Dynasty and Shi Lei in Qing Dynasty.

Integral modeling

The monomer of ancient buildings in China can be roughly divided into three parts: foundation, roof and roof. All important buildings are built on pedestals, which are usually one floor. Large halls, such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City in Beijing in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, are built on tall triple bases. The plane forms of single buildings are mostly rectangular, square, hexagonal, octagonal and round. These different plane forms play an important role in the facade image of the building. Because of the wooden frame structure, the treatment of the house is very flexible, and the door and window column walls are often treated and decorated according to different materials and parts, which greatly enriches the image of the house.

The roof forms of ancient buildings in China are rich and colorful. As early as the Han dynasty, there were several basic forms, such as fairy hall, inclined mountain, hanging mountain, pier top, sharp point, and double eaves. Later, various forms such as hook, single slope top, cross slope top, tank top, arch ticket top and vault appeared. In order to protect the wooden frame, the roof often adopts large eaves. However, the eaves block the lighting, and the rainwater on the roof is easy to wash away the foundation. So later, the curved roof or roof was lifted and the corner was tilted, so the roof and corner were lighter and more lively.

Rigorous founder

The ancient buildings in China are composed of many single buildings, ranging from palaces to houses. Its layout is strictly directional, often north-south. Only a few buildings adopt flexible forms due to the limitation of topography, and some have changed their directions due to the influence of religious beliefs or geomantic thoughts. Founder's rigorous layout thought mainly stems from the geographical position of the middle reaches of the Yellow River in ancient China and the influence of Confucianism.

The layout of ancient buildings in China is always based on a main longitudinal axis. The main buildings are arranged on the main axis, and the secondary buildings are arranged on both sides in front of the main buildings, east and west, forming a square or rectangular courtyard. This courtyard layout not only meets the needs of safe living and facing the sun, but also conforms to the patriarchal clan system and ethical code system in ancient China. When a group of courtyards can't meet the needs, multiple courtyards can be arranged before and after the main building, and cross courtyards (secondary axes) can be arranged on both sides of the main axis. The Confucius Temple in Qufu has ten courtyards on the main shaft, and there are many courtyards on both sides of the main shaft. One axis is in front of Kuiwen Pavilion, and three axes are parallel behind Kuiwen Pavilion. As for the layout of ritual buildings such as temples and tombs, it is even more rigorous. This neat layout is not rigid, but arranges the space with multiple entrances and courtyards into a series of varied and personalized spaces. Like the quadrangle in Beijing, its four courtyards are different. The first entrance is a horizontally long inverted courtyard, the second is a rectangular courtyard, the third is a square courtyard, and the fourth is a horizontally long covered courtyard. Jin Si courtyards have different planes and different building facades. Plants and trees are planted in the courtyard, and rock bonsai is placed to make the space environment fresh and lively, quiet and pleasant.

Landscape landscape

An important feature of China classical gardens is artistic conception, which, like China's classical poems, paintings and music, focuses on freehand brushwork. Gardeners use landscapes, rocks, flowers, trees and buildings to express a certain artistic realm, so China classical gardens are called freehand landscape gardens. As far as the artistic creation of landscaping is concerned, it absorbs all kinds of things, shapes models, supports itself, sublimates natural beauty into artistic beauty through observation and refining, and expresses its feelings. Scenery appreciation arouses some feelings in the trigger of scenery, and then sublimates into an artistic conception, so scenery appreciation is also an artistic re-creation. The re-creation of this art is a self-expression process in which the viewer expresses his feelings and emotions through the scenery. It is also a spiritual sublimation, which purifies people's minds and reaches a higher ideological level.

In China classical gardens, the artistic conception of scenery can be roughly divided into: the realm of governing the world, the realm of immortals and the realm of nature. Confucianism emphasizes reality, has a high sense of social responsibility, cares about social life and interpersonal relationships, and attaches importance to moral and ethical values and the political significance of governing the country. This idea is embodied in landscaping, which is the realm of governing the country and leveling the world. The thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi emphasizes the calmness of nature and the cultivation of body and mind, takes contemplation and intuition as the service, takes romanticism as the aesthetic view, expresses the natural realm in art, and Buddhism and Taoism pursue nirvana and fantasy to become immortals, which is reflected in the landscape of immortals. The realm of ruling the country and leveling the world is more common in royal gardens. For example, about half of the 40 scenic spots in Yuanmingyuan belong to the realm of governing the country and leveling the world, which contains almost all the contents of Confucian philosophy, politics, economy, morality and ethics. The natural state is mostly reflected in literati gardens, such as Canglang Pavilion in Su Shunqin in Song Dynasty and Sima Guang's paradise. The realm of immortals is embodied in royal gardens and temple gardens, such as Pengdao Yaotai in Yuanmingyuan, Fanghu Scenic Area, Huixian Bridge in Qingcheng Mountain, and Feishengyan in Nanyan Palace in Wudang Mountain.

The spiritual connotation of China's ancient architectural art has three characteristics. First of all, buildings with high artistic value also play a role in maintaining and strengthening social, political and ethical systems and ideology. Second, rooted in profound traditional culture, it shows a distinct humanistic spirit. Third, comprehensive integration. All factors and techniques are often used to synthesize a whole image, from space combination to color decoration, which are all organic parts of the whole. Removing any one of them will affect the overall effect of the building.

Wood frame is the main structure.

The ancient buildings in China used wooden structures as the load-bearing structures. The wooden beam-column system was initially complete and widely used in the Spring and Autumn Period of BC, and it became more mature in the Han Dynasty. Wood structures can generally be divided into beam-lifting type, bucket-crossing type and well dry type, with beam-lifting type being the most common. Beam lifting structure is a set of roof truss, which is built on the column foundation along the depth direction of the house, and the beam is placed on the column. Several layers of melon columns and beams are overlapped on the beams, and then the melon columns are erected on the top beams. Two groups of parallel frames are connected to the upper ends of columns with transverse purlins, which are placed on the beam heads and ridge melon columns of each floor to connect the frames with the load-bearing roof. The rafters between purlins form the skeleton of the roof. In this way, two groups of frames can form a room, and a house can be a room or multiple rooms.

Bucket is the most distinctive component in China wood structure building. The bucket is a bucket-shaped pad, and _ is an arched short wood. They are staggered and stacked to form a group of brackets with large top and small bottom, which are placed on the column heads to support the load of the beam frame and the eaves that are picked out. In the Tang and Song Dynasties, the hat reached its peak, from simple padding and overhanging members to a circle of "well"-shaped lattice composite beams, and the connecting beams were placed on the column network. In addition to projecting the eaves outward and supporting the ceiling inward, its main function is to maintain the integrity of the wooden frame and become an indispensable part of large buildings. After the Song Dynasty, the width of the wooden frame increased, the column body was raised, and the buckets used at the joint of the wooden frame gradually decreased. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the frontbeams were used between the capitals, which strengthened the integrity of the frame and reduced the deformation of the bucket, which no longer played a structural role. Compared with the Tang and Song Dynasties, the arrangement was more dense, and the decorative effect was strengthened, forming an ornament showing the difference of grades.

The advantages of wooden frame are: first, the load-bearing structure is separated from the maintenance structure, the weight of the building is supported by wooden frame, and the wall only plays the role of maintaining and separating the space. Second, it is convenient to adapt to different climatic conditions. The height of the house, the thickness of the wall, the materials selected, and the location and size of the doors and windows can be determined according to the different cold and warm areas. Thirdly, due to the unique properties of wood and the flexibility of structural joints, even if the wall collapses, the house will not collapse, which is conducive to reducing earthquake damage. Fourth, it is convenient for local materials and processing. In ancient times, the middle reaches of the Yellow River were densely forested, and wood was easier to process than brick and stone.

Decoration

The ancient buildings in China pay special attention to decoration, and all the building parts or components should be beautified. Because of the different properties of parts, the selected images and colors are different.

Abutment and steps are the base of the house and the steps to enter the house, but they are all carved and decorated with railings, which is particularly solemn and majestic. Roof decoration can make the outline image of the roof more beautiful. Such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City, with double eaves and five ridges and four slopes, the two ends of the main ridge are decorated with a big kiss in the shape of an dragon, and the tail is rolled up. The eaves with four vertical ridges are decorated with nine small glazed animals, which increases the artistic appeal of the roof image.

Doors, windows and partitions belong to cornice decoration, which is a spacer to separate indoor and outdoor space, but they are particularly decorative. Doors and windows enhance the artistic effect of building facade with their diverse images, patterns and colors. Interior eaves decoration is a device used to divide the interior space of a house, such as partition doors, partitions, multi-layer boards, bookcases and so on. , can make indoor space separate and communicate. Another device for dividing indoor space is various covers, such as leg covers, floor covers, round lampshades, flower covers, railing covers, etc. Some even have to install glass or paste yarn, draw flowers or write inscriptions to make the room full of books.

Smallpox is an indoor ceiling and a decoration over the room. Generally, the production of folk houses is relatively simple, and it is often made of wooden strips, nailed to the beams, and then pasted with paper, which is called "ridge ceiling". Important buildings, such as palaces, are called "wellhead ceilings". Wooden poles are used to build a square grid between beams, and wooden boards are placed in the grid and painted with colorful pictures. Caisson is a kind of roof interior decoration which is more decorative than ceiling. Its structure is complex and its lower part is round. It consists of three wooden frames, rising upward like a well. Mostly used between the top of the temple and the altar. It is called caisson.

Architectural painting is an important feature of ancient architecture in China and an indispensable architectural decoration art. At first, it was a kind of paint coated on wooden components such as beams, columns, doors and windows to prevent corrosion and moth-eaten, and later it gradually evolved into a color painting. In ancient times, the application of color painting in architecture was strictly graded, and people's houses were not allowed to draw color paintings. Even in the Forbidden City, there are strict differences between different buildings. Among them, Hexi seal color painting is the highest level, with dragon as the theme, which is applied to the main hall of foreign dynasties and courts with luxurious style. Rotary color painting is a kind of patterned color painting with elegant and flexible picture layout, which is often used in secondary palaces, annex halls, doors and other buildings. The other is Soviet-style color painting, which is mainly composed of landscapes, figures, insects and flowers, and is mostly used in pavilions in gardens.