Evolution of Wooden Architecture Typical Characteristics of China's Ancient Architectural Tradition

In the world's architectural system, ancient Chinese architecture is an independent development system with a long history. The system was initially formed at least 3,000 years ago during the Yin and Shang Dynasties, with its elegant style and dexterous structure. The development of ancient Chinese architecture has roughly gone through seven periods: primitive society, Shang and Zhou, Qin and Han, Three Kingdoms, Two Jin and North and South Dynasties, Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan, Ming and Qing. Until the 20th century, it has always maintained its own unique structure and layout principles, and has spread and influenced other countries.

Features

From the point of view of construction, the features of ancient Chinese architecture can be summarized as seven: ① the use of wood as the main building materials, creating a unique form of wood structure, as a skeleton, not only to achieve the actual functional requirements, but also to create a beautiful architectural form and the corresponding architectural style. ② Maintain the principle of frame system. Columns and vertical and horizontal beams and squares are combined into various forms of beams and frames, so that the upper load of the building through the beams and frames, columns passed to the foundation. Walls only play the role of enclosure, separation, do not bear the load. ③Create arch structure form. With vertical and horizontal stacked short wood and bucket-shaped square wood stacked into the outwardly suspended arch, this is the transition between the columns and beams, but also gradually developed into the upper and lower levels of the column network or column network and the roof beams between the overall structure of the layer, which is the ancient Chinese wooden structure of the ingenious form of construction. ④ Standardize the monolithic building. Ancient Chinese palaces, temples, residences, etc., often by a number of monolithic buildings combined configuration into groups. Regardless of the size of a single building, the appearance of the outline by the base of the steps, the body of the house, the roof of the three parts: the following is the base of the steps by the masonry, supporting the entire house; standing on the base of the steps is the body of the house, by the wooden columns for the skeleton, which installs windows and doors between the partition fan; above the roof caused by the wooden structure of the roof frame, the roof is made into a soft and elegant curves around the body of the roof is extended outside, covered with a green and gray tiles or glazed tiles. The roof is made of wood frame and the roof is covered with gray tiles or glazed tiles. The plan of a single building is usually rectangular, and in the case of special purposes, square, octagonal, circular, etc.; while the buildings for ornamental use in the gardens can be fan-shaped, zigzag, set of rings and other planes. There are hipped roofs, hipped roofs, roofs, overhanging roofs, hard roofs, roofs and other forms of roofs, each of which has a single eave and a heavy eave, which can be combined to form more forms. ⑤ Emphasize the layout of the building group. The principle is inward and subtle, multi-level, and strive for balance and symmetry. In addition to specific buildings such as the city tower, bell and drum towers, etc., the single building rarely reveals the full outline. Each building group has a courtyard, more than a few or dozens of courtyards, a variety of combinations, rich layers, to make up for the lack of stereotypes of monolithic buildings. The plan layout takes the principle of left-right symmetry, the houses are in the surrounding, and the center is the courtyard. Combination of forms are developed according to the central axis. Only the plan layout of the garden, using the principle of free change. (6) Flexible arrangement of space layout. Indoor intervals using finials, doors, hoods, screens and other movable structures that are easy to install and remove, can be arbitrarily divided and changed at any time. Courtyard is a unity with the indoor space for each other, but also for the building to create a small natural environment to prepare for the conditions, you can cultivate trees and flowers, can be stacked pools, you can build a pergola trellis, and some also have a corridor, as a transition between indoor and outdoor space, in order to add interest to life. (7) the use of color decorative means. Wooden building beams and columns frame, the need to apply paint and other anticorrosion measures on the surface of the wood, which has developed into a unique Chinese architectural oil decoration, color painting. Commonly used green, green, vermilion and other mineral pigments painted into colorful patterns to increase the beauty of the building. Decorative components composed of wood, plus the coloring of the relief decoration Ping Qi appliqués and wood with a variety of diamond lattice, is a practical and decorative masterpieces. After the Northern Wei Dynasty, the colorful glazed roofs, pagodas, walls, etc., so that the building is brilliant and colorful, crystal brilliant.

From the point of view of traditional culture, the characteristics of ancient Chinese architecture can be summarized in five aspects: ① few real architectural theory. The emergence of architecture as a discipline is a recent affair. What guided the development of architecture were abstract philosophical theories, agreed-upon moral norms and concrete political systems. ② The Confucian tradition of rituals is the main idea guiding the creation of architecture, supplemented by metaphysics and geomancy. ③It is full of Chinese realism in dealing with the world. Specifically manifested in not seeking the permanent existence of the building, but to meet the realistic functional needs as the starting point. The standardization and generalization of building forms, the use of a structure type of building can be adapted to the needs of a variety of functions. ④The standardized building individuals should express their individuality through the combination of architectural space, and the arrangement of building groups is the essence of traditional architectural art, reflecting everywhere the rational way of thinking of combining time and space and the affinity relationship between human and nature. ⑤ Expression of specific themes by symbolism. It expresses the mood in gardens, the worldview in religious buildings, and the political system in palace buildings. Some decorative components and vignettes, and even single buildings, become a kind of symbols containing fixed meanings.

Types

Ancient Chinese buildings were divided into the following seven categories according to their functions: ① Residential buildings. It is the earliest architecture created by human beings, mainly in the form of cave dwellings and dry pens. Early Neolithic sites 7,400 to 6,700 years ago, such as the buildings in Dadiwan, Qin'an County, Gansu Province, are half-cave style, that is, from the ground down to a certain depth of the vertical caves, the plane of the circle, oval or square, the area is very small. 4,900 to 3,900 years ago in the late Neolithic period, the ground up more houses, primitive society, cave dwellings, is gradually evolving towards the form of palace-style housing. The representative type of palatial residence is the courtyard. The Early Zhou architectural site of Fengyi Village in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province is the earliest known complete compound. A large number of bungalows are preserved on the east and west sides of the central axis in the old city of Beijing, where the most typical courtyard houses are mostly concentrated. The earliest remains of dry-structure were found in Hemudu, Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, about 7,000 to 5,300 years ago. The floor was about as high as a person's, under which livestock were kept, and there were railings around the floor, enclosing the platform and the house. Existing dry bar building than the ancient greatly reduced, concentrated in Yunnan, Hainan minority areas. ② urban public **** building. Mainly includes city walls, towers and gates, as well as bell towers and drum towers. City walls originated in the Neolithic era, the material to rammed earth-based. Three Kingdoms to the North and South Dynasties appeared in the rammed earth outside the city wrapped brick wall practice. In the Ming Dynasty, most of the important cities were built with masonry. City gate is the key defense parts. Doorway depth is generally about 20 meters, the deepest up to 80 meters. Tang Dynasty, the emergence of urns in the border city, the Ming Dynasty in the urns on the creation of archery towers, Beijing inner city of zhengyangmen and archery towers, the city's southeast corner of the building is an excellent work of the Ming Dynasty. Bell, drum tower is an ancient city specializing in the time of the public **** building. In the Song Dynasty, it was recorded that the bells and drums were placed in tall buildings. The Ming Dynasty built drum towers and bell towers at the northern end of the central axis of the city of Beijing, the lower part of which is a brick pier, and the upper part of which is a wooden or masonry tier. ③ Palace buildings. Palace refers to the emperor to hold ceremonies, government affairs and residence. Palace building to focus on the domestic financial and material resources at that time, to the highest level of technology built. The earliest known palace site, found in Henan Yanshi Erlitou village, it was built in 1500 BC before the Shang dynasty. The Forbidden City in Beijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties is the last and most mature example of Chinese palace architecture. The city plane is rectangular, 753 meters wide from east to west and 961 meters deep from north to south, with four gates opened in the wall, gate towers built, and corner towers built in the four corners. It brought various architectural art techniques into full play, mobilized all architectural languages to express the theme idea, and achieved an unsurpassed achievement. ④ Ritual and Ancestral Architecture. People hold rituals, commemorative activities of the building, where by the "ritual" requirements, and was included in the official ceremonies, known as the ritual architecture; where the folk, mainly human sacrifice object, known as the ancestral temple building. Ritual and ancestral buildings are roughly divided into four categories: altars and temples dedicated to heaven and earth, the sun, moon and stars, and famous mountains and rivers; temples and ancestral halls from the king to the common people who worshiped their ancestors or religious ancestors; Mingtang and Piyong, which held special political, religious and cultural ceremonies to perform rites and music and to promote education and culture; and temples and ancestral halls of celebrities that were revered by the ruling class and commemorated by the people. The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is the most important remnant of ancient altar and temple architecture, built in the eighteenth year of the Ming Yongle (1420). ⑤Tomb building. Is exclusively for the burial and worship of the dead and the use of the building. By the underground and above ground two major components. The underground part is used to bury the dead and their relics, substitutes, and martyrs. The above ground part is specially for the living to hold sacrifices and put the dead god of the Lord of the use. Roughly speaking, after the Han Dynasty, the emperor's tomb was called a mausoleum, and the common people were called tombs. The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Lintong County, Shaanxi, was the first imperial tomb in China. The Thirteen Mausoleums in Changping, Ming Beijing, is a well-planned and imposing group of tombs. (6) Buddhist architecture. It is a place for believers to enshrine Buddha statues and bones, conduct Buddhist Buddhist activities and live in, with three major types: temples, pagodas and grottoes. China's folk built Buddhist temples, began at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Initially, the temple is the layout of the corridor courtyard, the center of the tower, or build a Buddhist temple, or tower, temple and build. Pagodas can be divided into stone pagoda, brick pagoda, wooden pagoda, iron pagoda, ceramic pagoda, etc. According to the structural modeling can be divided into pavilion-type pagoda, dense eaves pagoda, single-story pagoda. Grottoes are Buddhist temples carved into riverside cliffs, originating in India and spreading to China around the 3rd century A.D. Their form is roughly divided into four categories: pagoda temple grottoes, Buddhist temple grottoes, monastic houses, and large statue grottoes. Important remnants of China's grottoes, Gansu Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Shanxi Datong Yungang Grottoes, Henan Luoyang Longmen Grottoes and so on. (7) Gardens and garden architecture. Traditional Chinese gardens are a combination of artificial and natural form of environment with the functions of feasible, visible, swimmable and livable, and the main elements of its composition are mountains, water, flowers, trees and buildings. It is a synthesis of many kinds of art, reflecting the achievements of traditional philosophy, aesthetics, literature, painting, architecture, horticulture and other disciplines of scientific art and engineering technology. According to the affiliation, it can be divided into four categories: royal gardens, private gardens, temple gardens and scenic spots. The most representative gardens are the Suzhou Garden, the Humble Administrator's Garden, the Liouyuan Garden, the Yangzhou Garden, the Wuxi Garden, the Summer Palace in Beijing, the Yuanmingyuan Garden, the Chengde Summer Resort and so on.

The functional types of traditional Chinese buildings, in addition to the above seven categories, there are military buildings, commercial buildings, and bridges and other public **** transportation facilities, Square Table and other architectural vignettes. The Great Wall, which has a history of more than 2,000 years and extends for thousands of miles, has become a symbol of the spirit of the Chinese nation. The Anji Bridge (Zhaozhou Bridge) in Zhao County, Hebei Province, built in the early 7th century during the Sui Dynasty, was the world's first open-shouldered, single-arched stone bridge, about 700 years earlier than the appearance of similar structures in the West. All these reflect the excellence of ancient Chinese architecture.