How to describe ancient architecture

Ancient artisans in China liked to use vivid animal images in their art. This is very different from Greece. Most sculptures in Greek architecture use plant leaves to form patterns. Ancient sculptures in China used vivid animal images, such as dragons, tigers, birds and snakes. As for plant patterns, it was not until after the Tang Dynasty that they gradually flourished.

By the Han Dynasty, not only dances and acrobatics were very developed, but also paintings and sculptures were in a flying state. Patterns are mostly moire patterns, thunder patterns and rolling dragons, and sculptures are mostly magnificent animals with two wings that can only fly. It fully reflected the vitality of the Han nationality at that time.

This flying beauty has also become an important feature of China's ancient architectural art.

In Selected Works, there are some articles describing the architecture at that time, describing the glory of the city palace architecture at that time, which seems to be just exaggeration and fantasy. Actually, it is not. The physical data we excavated from the catacombs and the ornate decoration of ancient buildings show that the description in Selected Works is based on reality and not far from reality.

Now let's look at an article in Selected Works, Lu Ling's Photoelectricity Fu by Wang Wen. This poem tells us that the interior decoration of this palace is not only decorated with green lotus flowers and aquatic plants, but also many images of flying animals: flying dragons, angry beasts, red birds, phoenix with wings, snakes hovering around, white deer with its neck stretched out, rabbits crouching there, apes chasing each other with rafters and black ones. There are not only animals, but also people: a group of conference semifinals, with sad expressions and haggard eyes, kneeling face to face in a dangerous place on the roof truss. There are immortals and jade girls on it. "I suddenly caught a glimpse of it, and it sounded like a ghost." After making such a description, the author concluded: "The world of pictures is full of varieties and various sundries. Mountain gods and sea spirits describe their shapes, which are ever-changing, all things are plastic, colorful and fascinating. " This can be said to be the predecessor of Sheikh's Six Laws.

It is not only the interior decoration of the building, but also the image of the whole building and a dynamic performance. China's unique "cornices" have played this role. According to the Book of Songs, the architecture in Zhou Xuanwang has always been like a pheasant (Sigan) spreading its wings and flying, which shows that the architecture in China tends to be beautiful in Yu Feixiang for a long time.

Second, one of the aesthetic feelings of space

The artistic treatment of architecture and gardens is the art of dealing with space. Laozi once said, "Dig a house as a room, and when there is nothing, there is a room." The use of the room is due to the space of the room. And "nothing" in Laozi is also "Tao", that is, the rhythm of life.

The gardens in China are very developed. Next to the three halls of the Forbidden City in Beijing, there are seas on three sides, and Yuanmingyuan and Summer Palace in the suburbs, which are the gardens of the emperor. The old folk house always has a patio and yard, which is also a small garden. For example, Zheng Banqiao described a courtyard like this:

"Ten years of Mao Zhai, a yard, bamboo poles, stalagmite feet, little land and little cost. There is sound in the wind and rain, shadow in the sun and moon, wine and affection in poetry, and companionship in leisure. Not only I love Zhu Shi, but also Zhu Shi loves me. He spent a lot of money to build a garden pavilion or travel around the country, but he couldn't enjoy himself in the end. And we want to see the famous mountains and rivers, but we won't be able to go for a while. Why is it like a room with a small scene, full of affection and taste, lasting forever? For this painting, if it is difficult to collect, it can be hidden in a secret or restored. " ("Banqiao Carved Bamboo Stone")

We can see that this small courtyard has given the painter Zheng Banqiao a lot of rich feelings! Space can gather and release with the artistic conception in the heart, flowing and illusory.

In Song Dynasty, Guo's evaluation of landscape painting is "a landscape that is feasible, promising, tourable and habitable" (Lin Zhi). Feasibility, hope, travel and habitability are also the basic concepts of garden art, and there are also buildings in the garden. It is necessary to live and rest, but not only for living, but also for swimming, feasibility and hope. Hope is the most important thing. All art is "hope" and appreciation. Not only "swimming" can play the role of "seeing" (the promenade of the Summer Palace not only guides us to "swim", but also guides us to "see"), that is, "living" is also "seeing". Windows are not only for breathing, but also for looking at a new realm, so that we can get a good feeling.

Windows play an important role in garden art. With windows, communication takes place indoors and outdoors. The bamboo or castle peak outside the window is a painting when you look through the window frame. The Le Shou Tang in the Summer Palace has windows on almost all sides, and there are many small windows on the surrounding powder wall. Facing the lake view, each window is equal to a small painting (Li Yu said, "One window has a ruler, but there is no intention of painting"). And the same window, from different angles, the scenery is different. In this way, the realm of painting is infinitely increased.

There is a poem in the Ming Dynasty that can help us understand the aesthetic function of windows.

A piano is idle several times,

Count the blue outside the bamboo window.

Curtain doors are abandoned,

The spring breeze explodes within itself.

This small room is isolated from the outside world, but connected with the outside world through the window. No one showed up, highlighting the beauty of this small room. This poem is like a still life painting, which can be appreciated as a still life painting of several apples painted by Cyzanne.

Not only corridors and windows, but all buildings, platforms and pavilions are for "seeing" and for obtaining and enriching the aesthetic feeling of space.

There is a plaque in the Summer Palace called "the first floor of the mountain lake". In other words, this building absorbs the scenery of a large space. Zuo Si's "Sandu Fu": "Eight poles can surround an inch, and everything can be in a moment." Su Shi's poem: "gather far away by tall buildings, and gather for a while to clean up." That's what it means. There is also a pavilion called "Traveling in Pictorial World" in the Summer Palace. "Traveling in the world of pictorial" does not mean that the exhibition hall itself is a painting, but that the big space outside the exhibition hall is like a big painting. When I entered the exhibition hall, I entered this big painting. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, Ji Cheng said in "Yuanye": "The porch is Gao Shuang, the window is empty, and the Wang Yang is a thousand hectares, which is magnificent at all times."

Here shows the aesthetic feeling of national characteristics. The ancient Greeks didn't seem to find the natural scenery around the temple. Most of them appreciate the isolated building itself. People in ancient China were different. They always go through buildings, doors and windows, and get in touch with the outside nature. "The window contains autumn snow in Xiling, at the gate of Wu Dong Wan Li boating" (Du Fu). The poet went from a small room to a thousand years of snow and Wan Li's boat, that is, from a door to a window to infinite time and space. Like "the mountains and rivers embroider households, and the sun and the moon carve beams." (Du Fu) "The eaves fly over the stream, and the window falls on the Jingting Cloud." (Li Bai) They all see the big from the small, and enter the big space from the small space, enriching the feeling of beauty. No matter how grand foreign churches are, there are always limitations. But when we look at the altar of the Temple of Heaven, this table is not facing the roof, but an empty sky, that is, the whole universe is regarded as its own temple. This is very different from the west.

Third, the second aesthetic feeling of space.

In order to enrich the aesthetic feeling of space, various techniques should be used in landscape architecture to arrange, organize and create space, such as borrowing scenery, dividing scenery and isolating scenery. Among them, borrowing scenery includes borrowing scenery, borrowing scenery, borrowing scenery, borrowing scenery and borrowing mirrors. In short, it is to enrich the scenery.

The tower of Yuquan Mountain seems to be a part of the Summer Palace, which is a "borrowing scenery". The Guanyun Building in Suzhou Lingering Garden can borrow the scenery of Tiger Hill, and the Humble Administrator's Garden can build a rockery against the wall and a "Liang Yiting" to have a panoramic view of the partition wall and break through the fence, which is also a kind of "borrowing scenery". The Summer Palace promenade divides a landscape into two parts, one is the vast lakes and mountains close to nature, and the other is the artificial pavilions. Visitors can look out from both sides, enriching the impression of beauty. This is a "divided view". In the novel A Dream of Red Mansions, the Grand View Garden uses gates, rockeries and walls. , causing twists and turns in the garden, and the realm is different. Just like different notes in music, visitors have different moods, which is also called "scene separation". The humorous garden of the Summer Palace is a self-contained courtyard, which creates another space and is another kind of interest. The small garden in this big garden is called "Lonely Scene". Hanging a big mirror by the window, the scenery of a large space outside the window is reflected in the mirror, becoming a luminous "oil painting". "Clouds across the window are on the clothes and reflected in the mirror of the mountain spring" (Wang Weishi). "All the sails and shadows pass through the window gap, and the stream looks at the mirror" (Ling Ye's poem). This is the so-called "mirror loan" "Borrowing the mirror" means borrowing the scenery from the mirror, so that the scenery can be reflected in the mirror and turned into reality (Suzhou Yiyuan's side-wall pavilion is in a bad situation, but it is a big mirror, bringing the rockery and Luoji pavilion opposite into the territory and expanding the realm). This is also the intention of digging a pool in the garden to reflect the scenery.

Whether it is borrowing scenery, contrasting scenery, dividing scenery or dividing scenery, it is to enrich aesthetic feeling and create artistic conception by arranging space, organizing space, creating space and expanding space. China garden art has a special performance in this respect, which is an important field to understand the aesthetic characteristics of the Chinese nation. To sum up, as Shen Fu said: "The large and medium-sized see the small, the small see the big, the virtual is real, but in fact it is virtual, or hidden or exposed, or shallow or deep, not only the twists and turns of the Zhou Dynasty" ("Six Chapters of a Floating Life"). This is also the characteristic of general art in China.

Artistic Features of Ancient Gardens in China

First, the art of gardening, learning from nature

The art of gardening naturally includes two aspects: first, the overall layout and combination should conform to nature. The relationship between mountains and water in rockery and the combination of scenery factors such as peaks, streams, slopes and caves should conform to the objective law of natural landscape formation. Second, the image combination of various landscape elements should conform to the laws of nature. For example, rockery peaks are made up of many small stones. When stacking, we should imitate the texture of natural rocks and minimize the traces of artificial stacking. Swimming pools often have natural twists and turns. The arrangement of flowers and trees should be dense and natural. Trees and shrubs are also mixed, pursuing natural wild interests.

Second, separate the space and blend in with nature.

Ancient gardens in China used various methods to separate spaces, among which buildings were mainly used to enclose and separate spaces. Separated space strives to break through the limitations of limited space of garden entities from the perspective, so that it can be integrated with nature and express nature. Therefore, we must deal with the relationship between form and spirit, scenery and emotion, meaning and environment, emptiness and reality, movement and quietness, cause and borrowing, truth and falsehood, finiteness and infinity, impossibility and impossibility. In this way, garden space and natural space have been integrated and expanded. For example, the use of leaky windows makes the space circulate and the vision smooth, so it is continuous and plays a role of mutual penetration in the space. Looking through the leaky window, exquisite floral decorations and colorful patterns have a strong national flavor and aesthetic value; Through the leaking window, bamboo trees are blurred and swaying, pavilions are hidden from time to time, and blue sky and white clouds are flying in the distance, creating a profound and broad space realm and interest.

Third, garden architecture conforms to nature.

Ancient gardens in China have mountains and waters, and buildings such as halls, corridors, pavilions, pavilions, buildings, platforms, pavilions, pavilions, pavilions, restaurants, boats and walls. Artificial mountains, stone patterns, caves, stone steps, stone peaks, etc. All show natural beauty. Artificial water, the shore twists and turns freely, and the water ripples step by step, showing the natural scenery. All buildings are in harmony with the natural environment in the sky and underground, and all parts of the garden are naturally connected, so that the garden embodies the artistic characteristics of nature, indifference, tranquility and implication, and receives ornamental effects such as changing scenery, getting better and better, and seeing the big from the small.

Fourth, trees and flowers are natural.

Different from the systematic gardens in the west, the ancient gardens in China pay attention to the expression of nature in the treatment and arrangement of flowers and trees. Pines and cypresses soar into the sky, willow branches hang gracefully, peach blossoms bloom for miles, branches bend freely, and flowers are overflowing. Its shape and spirit are very important in expressing nature.

Learn from nature, blend in with nature, conform to nature and express nature-this is the place where China ancient gardens embody the national culture of "harmony between man and nature", which is the biggest feature independent of the world forest and the fundamental reason for the eternal vitality of art.

China's Poetry and China's Garden Art

China gardens are called "literati gardens". Beijing Xiangshan Hotel is the masterpiece of Mr. I.M. Pei. Because the combination of architecture and gardens is very good, people call it "elegant architecture with bookish atmosphere", and I call it "elegant, clean and fresh" first, and the two meanings are the same. This is enough to prove that without China's poems, there would be no gardens in China. What about that painting? It is also based on the literati paintings of Nanzong. The so-called "painting in poetry". "Poetry in painting" can't be separated from poetry in the final analysis. This is the dominant idea of China's gardening.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, literati attached their feelings to mountains and rivers, took pride in smoke and clouds, and avoided disasters to send their feelings, not only in actions, but also in poems. The garden should be completed in time. Followed by Sui and Tang Dynasties, Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the same strain. Bai Juyi's building is Lushan Mountain, and the famous works have been handed down from generation to generation. The famous Luoyang Garden written by Li is full of flowers and algae. This ancient garden was built according to literary ideas. The existence of the garden was passed down by Levin. Complement each other, promote each other, the garden is true, the garden is true, the two are the same.

See the master in gardening. That is, the level of the garden reflects the master's cultural level. Many famous gardens of literati and painters are conceived from poetry and prose. In addition to the owner himself, there must be followers in gardening. There are different types of diners, such as literati, painters, flute players, composers, mountain teachers and so on. They discuss with each other, provide their ideas with cameras and build gardens for their owners. Not only that, after the completion of the meeting, it will be a collection of celebrities, poetry and gardening, and will be demolished. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Yuan built a "Music Education Garden" for Wang Shimin, and the author changed it into four. You can get a famous garden here, not once. Especially in the late Ming dynasty. I once said that poetry, calligraphy and painting, and opera at that time were all thoughts and feelings, and they were all expressed in different forms. What is the dominance of thoughts and feelings? Generally speaking, it refers to the thoughts of literati, who are all literati, sensitive to poetry and good at writing, painting and singing. All their gardens have the same consciousness, with elegance as the main performance. There are poems and essays in the garden, and it has been decorated again. It is connected with the forehead, and it is accompanied by the theme of the garden. Garden and poetry are integrated into one. Therefore, whenever people walk into China gardens, they feel full of poetry. If tourists have a high cultural quality, they will certainly be able to sing some good poems, and painters can also draw some scenes of Ming and Qing gardens. I think these scenes are inevitable for every traveler, which is why they appear.

Tang Xianzu's "Going to the Garden" and "Picking up Paintings" for "The Peony Pavilion" are not only operas, but also garden literature, which also teaches people how to understand the spiritual essence of China gardens. "Rhododendron is red all over the mountain, and the smoke outside is drunk and soft", "Twilight clouds and green pavilions, wind and rain and smoke waves draw boats". His empathy for travel is really wonderful. Love is in the garden, love must be written in the garden, and literature will be born with love, and so will the garden.

Qian Yong in Qing Dynasty said in Fu Yuan Cong Hua: "Gardening is like poetry, there must be twists and turns, which echo back and forth. The most taboo is stacking, and the most taboo is miscellaneous, which is a good structure. " To put it bluntly, gardening is no different from writing poetry. From poems, we can understand the methods of gardening, and gardens can swim into poems. Poetry and gardening are also conceived, so I say gardening is a garden. Still have to be able to express artistic conception. China's aesthetics focuses on artistic conception, and the same artistic conception can be expressed by different forms of artistic techniques. Poetry has the realm of poetry, words have the realm of poetry, songs have the realm of music, painting is like painting, and music has the realm of music. It is skillful in gardening, transporting literature, painting and music. Can be combined with landscape flowers, ponds, pavilions. People are in their own territory, with poems and paintings, each with its own beauty. Therefore, "although it is man-made, it is open to the sky." The unique garden in China in the world is actually built with poems.

Poetry is empty, gardening should not be piled up. Therefore, "the leaves are dry and rainy, the water surface is clear and round, and the wind is falling." Landscape is more empty than reality, and literature is extremely ethereal. China gardens can inspire infinite feelings with tangible scenery, which in turn can produce infinite scenery. These scenery are intertwined, vague and inseparable, and the China gardening technique of blending scenes. In Wen Xin Diao Long, the so-called "writing for love" means landscaping for love. Emotion can produce literature and scenery. Its source is also one.

Poetry and passion for gardening. If the garden is successful, there must be a study and a recitation hall, called the garden, where reading and appreciation can be practiced. Therefore, in the Netscape Garden in Suzhou, there are pavilions for reading and painting, places for studying in the garden, and places for studying in Shaoxing. This famous man can confess. Although there is no name, the actual function is the same as that of people with money. Therefore, holding an elegant cultural and wine gathering in the garden has become a special way for China to visit the garden. Historically, the grand occasion of Beijing Yiyuan Garden and Nanjing Suiyuan Elegant Collection in Qing Dynasty was passed down as a much-told story by later generations, leaving many famous articles. As for the works of tourists, there are really too many, and the poems donated with the garden have been posted into a poetry gallery.

Reading note novels in the late Ming Dynasty is like visiting a garden. And there are many words that are really like gardening. These literati often own famous gardens or participate in garden affairs, so from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the literati gardens in this period can be said to be the most developed, with a high level and many famous artists. The book Landscape Metallurgy summarizes and reflects the ideas and methods of gardening in this period, while the article is elegant and parallel. I suspect that his books must be polished by classics, so they are not just craftsmen's books. Li Yu's "the words of one family, bedroom appliances and drama department" is also appealing to both refined and popular tastes. Li Ben is also a literary playwright. Not to mention Wen Zhenheng's "Song of Eternal Sorrow", literati have passed down from generation to generation with paintings and poems, and their homes have famous gardens, and Suzhou Art Garden still exists today. As for the garden, it must be written by literati, writing scenery and painting feelings, adding color to the spring stone. The role of the plaque in the garden as a starting point is well known.

China gardens must take care of music, and the waterfront pavilion is their place. There are thirty-six Yuanyang pavilions in Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden and Zhuoying Shuige in Master's Garden. At that time, Mr. Zhang made up a garden with the Sulu old man (that is, the western section of the Humble Administrator's Garden), and played music here with Wuzhong Quyou, which was in harmony with the garden. Therefore, Mr. Yu's play was bookish and profound. Its respect for human ink belongs to me, and I know what I mean.

The word "decent" in gardening has to be borrowed from literature. Noble people have bodies, and gardens also have bodies. The word "decent" is the same as gardening news. Therefore, I use Song Ci to compare Suzhou gardens: Master Wang's gardens, like Yan Xiaoshan's poems, are fresh and unconventional; Lingering in the garden is like a poem written by Wu Meng, which has seven layers and cannot be broken into pieces; In the Humble Administrator's Garden, idle clouds, wild cranes and other ethereal places have come and gone without a trace, so Jiang Baishi and others have left; Canglang pavilion carries songs and poems; Just a garden is like a clear word, which can be understood from its realm. If a gardener has no poetic foundation, where does the inspiration come from? Styles should not be mixed. Poetry and songs are formed according to different emotions. Poetry should never be regarded as a growing song. What kind of feelings, what kind of content and what kind of style are independent.