Why many ancient buildings in the north are red

Chinese architectural color initially reflects the function of nature, before the Tang Dynasty, there is no color, highlighting the original color of the material.

Tang Dynasty: the color reflects the hierarchy

The Tang Dynasty, the building has a unified plan, the building under the "Ministry of Rites" tube, there is a hierarchy of division. During the Tang Dynasty, all buildings used a combination of vermilion and white, resulting in a bright and pleasing, simple and bright color beauty.

Yellow became a special color for the royal family, the Imperial Palace Temple with yellow, red tones, red, green, blue, etc. for the royal officials and eunuchs of the color, the people's houses can only use black, gray, white and other colors. It can be said that the Tang Dynasty is the use of color to maintain the interests of the ruling class.

The Tang Dynasty buildings were majestic, simple and robust. Architecture in this period, the application of bricks more widely, the glaze firing more progress, the ratio of building components gradually tend to stereotypes. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of architectural development in Chinese history, and the more complete ones preserved to this day are the main hall of Nanchan Temple and the main hall of Buddha's Light Temple in Wutai Mountain, and many others have not been preserved and are recorded in murals. In addition, the tower of relics all over the world, thick and upright, simple style of building components and the beauty of the strong and rich, so that the decorative arts of the Tang Dynasty has a fascinating style.

The Tang Dynasty prevailed straight lattice windows, window pane patterns have tortoise brocade pattern and dense pattern of the ball and so on. Interior walls often have murals, ceiling form is very simple. At this time, the composition of color painting has been initially used "halo", which has a certain role in the Song Dynasty color painting to halo, halo as the basic principle of enlightenment. In the use of patterns, in addition to the lotus petals, long and narrow lace is often used to form a band of curly grass pattern, or in the curly grass pattern mixed with figures. These patterns are not only full of composition, the lines are also smooth and elegant, but also commonly used half of the areole and the whole areole arranged between each other, as well as back to the pattern, the bead pattern, tasseled pattern, flame pattern and Flying Nymphs, such as the rich and full of decorative motifs.

Song Dynasty: color reflecting the mainstream

Tang and Song dynasties, Song Dynasty architecture is the inheritance and development of Tang Dynasty architecture. The extensive use of paint, as well as the influence of Indian Buddhism, the building color is highlighted as red. The colors of this period reflected the prevailing culture of the time. The Song Dynasty preferred stable and simple, light and elegant hues, which were influenced by the rationalism of Confucianism and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism as the basis of the Song Dynasty social thought.

The architectural specifications of the Song Dynasty were generally smaller than those of the Tang Dynasty, but they were more beautiful, colorful and varied than those of the Tang Dynasty, with the emergence of a variety of complex forms of halls and pavilions.

Song Dynasty architecture by the Tang Dynasty has a great influence, mainly in the hall, temple tower and tomb building as a representative, decorated with more colorful paintings, carvings and glazed tiles, etc., building components began to standardize, and there is a summary of architectural writings such as the "wooden scripture", "building method". Organic combination of decoration and architecture is a major feature of the Song dynasty, the temple tower decoration scale is reasonable, the shape is complete and thick. Suzhou Huqiu Pagoda, Quanzhou Renshou Pagoda is a typical work. The stone carvings of the Zhaoling Mausoleum and the patterns of the tombs all have the beauty of rigidity and richness, which have a guiding significance for the development of later folk patterns.

In terms of decoration, a large number of buildings in this period used openable, latticework combination of extremely rich doors and windows, compared with the Tang and Liao buildings of the board door, straight latticework windows, not only changed the building's appearance, but also improve the indoor ventilation and lighting. The lower part of the house of the Sumeru seat and the Buddha Hall inside the Buddha seat is mostly made of stone, colorful composition, carving is also very beautiful. The forms and carvings of the column bases tend to be diversified. Columns in addition to round, square, octagonal, but also appeared in the melon flute columns, and a large number of the use of stone columns, columns are often carved on the surface of a variety of patterns. At the same time, the indoor space increased, giving people a cheerful feeling. The roof or all covered with glazed tiles, or with glazed tiles in conjunction with green tiles to become a shear edge roof. Painting and decorative proportions, composition and color have achieved a certain artistic effect, so the building gave a soft and brilliant impression.

Yuan Dynasty: style beautiful and splendid

Yuan Dynasty palace buildings also inherited the tradition since the Tang and Song dynasties, after the Yuan Dynasty, decorative patterns tend to be plain, realistic route, the colors and patterns of the palace buildings for the precision study, style beautiful and splendid.

Song died and Yuan Xing, architecture was once influenced by foreign craftsmen, and the northern craftsmen mainly, its architectural structure is bold and rugged, and its artistic style is wild and unrestrained. Yuan Dynasty due to a large number of nationalities, and the various nationalities have different religions and cultures, through mutual exchanges, to the art of traditional architecture added a number of new factors. At this time, religious architecture is quite developed, from Tibet to the metropolis built a lot of Lamaist monasteries and pagodas, brought some new decorative themes and sculpture, frescoes of new techniques. Metropolis, Xinjiang, Yunnan and some cities in the southeast of the construction of Islamic worship temples, began to combine with Chinese architecture, forming an independent style, decoration, color is also gradually integrated. And the crossing tower is another type of architecture of Lamaism. It is most famous in Beijing's Yuntai. On the coupon stones of Yuntai and the inner walls of the coupon holes, Lamaist motifs such as heavenly deities, golden-winged birds, dragons, clouds, etc. as well as scriptures in six languages are carved. These carvings are in high relief, the posture and look of the characters are very strong, various patterns have a lively and jumping warm atmosphere, different from the traditional style of the Han, is an excellent work of carving in the Yuan Dynasty. Lamaism carving subjects and techniques to the Ming and Qing architectural art a lot of influence, especially on the official building influence.

Ming Dynasty: colorful and pleasing

Ming early state of Nanjing, mainly rely on Jiangnan craftsmen. Yongle moved to Beijing, Beijing Palace construction, but also to the southern craftsmen. Ming Dynasty architectural rigorous, work Li, clean, elegant, quite Jiangnan art style, only after the rendering of the royal aristocracy, the volume is huge, colorful, go to Jiangnan elegance of the wind is far away. But its roots, really similar to the Jiangnan building. Brick production increased dramatically, the number and quality of glazed tiles are more than any past dynasties. Official building has been highly standardized, stereotyped. The main part of the house, that is, often can get sunshine part, generally with warm colors, especially love with vermilion; Lattice under the shadow part, with green and blue matching cold colors. In this way, the warmth of the sunlight and the coolness of the shadows are emphasized, forming a pleasing contrast. The use of color, in feudal society is limited by the hierarchy. In general civil residential buildings, more green-gray brick walls and tile roofs, beams and square doors and windows are mostly made of native-colored wood surfaces, which also look very elegant.

Cited from the Xizi Hutong/b673870/d43056045.htm

Personally, I thought that it also has to do with the colors that the rulers believed in, such as the famous five elements of the color, interested in checking