History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c34.s2: Chronology.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c34.s2
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Chronology.
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| Period of Hiâ . . . | B.C. 2205-1766 | Nân-pe-châo dynasties; China | |
| Wu Wong period of Cheu or | | divided into two kingdoms, *cir.* | A.D. 439 |
| Châw . . . . . | 1122-256 | China reunited, capital Honan | 589 or 581 |
| Confucius died . . . . | 477 | Thâng dynasty . . . . | 618-907 |
| Chi-hoang-ti built Great Wall | | Wu-tâi dynasties . . . | 907-960 |
| about . . . . . | 240 | Pe-sung dynasty . . . | 960-1127 |
| Si-Hân dynasty . 201 (or 206)- | A.D. 9 | Northern China captured by | |
| Ho-ti, seventeenth king; Buddh- | | Mongols . . . . | 1234 |
| ism introduced . . . *cir.* | A.D. 90 | Kublai Khân, Yuen dynasty . | 1281 |
| Si-Tsin dynasty . . . | 265-316 | Ming dynasty; Mongol expelled | 1368 |
| Wu-tâi dynasty; China divided | | Ta-t'ing or Manchu Tartar | |
| into two kingdoms . . | 419 | dynasty; now on the throne | 1644 |
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ONE of the great difficulties experienced in any description of Chinese architecture is the absence of plans of either temples, palaces, monasteries or dwellings. Within the last few years the photographic camera has lent its aid in the illustration of the great palaces at Pekin within the walls of the Forbidden City, and of the Imperial Temples north of the city, and an elaborate work has been published with over one hundred photographs taken after the siege,¹ accompanied by a short description, giving only the names of the buildings, and without a single plan or diagram to show their juxtaposition. In some cases views of the interior only are given which might have been of service if we were dealing with buildings erected by any of the European races, but in China where the constructional arrangements are often of a very complicated nature which do not seem to have been regulated by natural laws, to evolve a plan from them is an almost impossible task. This is especially the case in the two most important circular buildings, viz.: the Temple of Heaven (the Ch'i-nien-tien Hall Heaven palace) and the Temple of the Year Star (Huang-Chiang-yen), in both of which the attempt to construct a circular domed building with materials which lend themselves only to rectangular structures has resulted in makeshifts of a very peculiar nature.
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¹ K. Ogawa. 'Photographs of the palace buildings in Pekin.'
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The earliest authority on the subject of Chinese architecture was Sir W. Chambers, but the illustrations in his book,¹ probably executed by an artist who had never been in China, fail to convey a true conception of the buildings now better known from photographs such as those published by M. Ogawa. Further information is given in M. E. Fonssagrives' work on the Ts'ing tombs in Si-ling,² in single chapters devoted to the subject by Sir R. K. Douglas,³ M. Paleologue⁴ and Dr. S. J. Bushell,⁵ in an essay on Chinese architecture by Mr. E. Ashworth,⁶ and from papers communicated to learned societies such as those of J. Lamprey,⁷ W. Simpson,⁸ and F. M. Grattan.⁹ The general conclusion, however, come to after consulting the above works and those by other writers on the subject is that the buildings are not such as we might expect to find among a people whose history and whose civilisation seems so exact a counterpart of that of Egypt. In both countries we have the same long succession of dynasties with dates, extending through 3000 or 4000 years, interrupted only by shepherd invasions which in both countries lasted about five centuries, when the words of Manetho are as literally applicable to the Taeping rebellion as they are to the overthrow of the Hyksos by the uprising of the native Egyptian races. During all this long period the same patriarchal form of government prevailed in both countries—the king being not only the head of the secular government, but the chief priest of the people. Both people early attained a certain stage of civilisation, and maintained it without change or progress during the whole period of their existence. The syllabic symbols of the Chinese are the exact counterpart of the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, as clumsy and as unlike that of any other contemporary nation, and as symbolic of their exclusive segregation from the rest of mankind. In both countries there was always the same calm contemplation of death, the same desire for an honourable funeral and a splendid tomb, and the same reverence for the dead. In these and fifty other particulars, the manners and customs of the two peoples seem identical, and the perfect parallelism only breaks down when we come to speak of their buildings. There are no tombs in China to be compared with the Pyramids, and no temples that approach those of Thebes in dimensions or in splendour.
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¹ 'Designs of Chinese Buildings,' etc. 1757.
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² Si-ling: *Étude sur les tombeaux de l'ouest de la dynastie des Ts'ing*, par E. Fonssagrives.—'*Annales du Musée Guimet.*' 1907.
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³ 'Society in China.' 1894.
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⁴ 'L'art Chinois.' 1887.
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⁵ 'Chinese Art.' 1904.
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⁶ 'Detached Essays of the Architectural Publication Society.' 1853.
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⁷ 'Chinese Architecture,' in '*R. I. B. A. Transactions*,' vol. xvii. (1866-67) pp. 157-178.
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⁸ 'The Architecture of China,' in '*R. I. B. A. Transactions*,' vol. xxiv. (1873-74) pp. 33-50.
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⁹ 'Chinese Architecture,' in '*R. I. B. A. Journal*,' 3rd Series, vol. ii. (1896) pp. 37-64.
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If the Chinese were as closely allied to the Tartar or Mongolian tribes on their north-eastern frontier as is generally supposed, this difference could hardly have existed. When the inner country has been more carefully examined, it is probable that we may see cause to modify our opinion as to the architectural character of the Chinese people.
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This will be especially the case if, as is highly probable, the so-called Indo-Chinese inhabitants of Cambodia are very much more closely allied in blood to the Chinese than they are to any of the races inhabiting India; since by the erection of the buildings described in a previous division of this work, the Cambodians have nobly vindicated their title to be considered as one of the great building races of the world. Considering the short time of their existence, and the limited area they occupied, they may in fact lay claim to having surpassed even the Egyptians in this respect.
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It will be strange if in Ho-nan and Kwang-si we do not eventually find the links which will confirm the connection of the two races of Cambodia and China, and explain what at present can only be regarded as one of the unsolved problems of architectural history.
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A little well-directed industry on the spot would very soon clear all this doubt away. Meanwhile there are other minor causes which may have contributed to the absence of monumental buildings in China, and which it may be as well to allude to before proceeding further. In the first place, the Chinese never had either a dominant priesthood or a hereditary nobility. The absence of the former class is a very important consideration, because in all countries where architecture has been carried to anything like perfection, it is to sacred art that it has owed its highest inspiration, and sacred art is never so strongly developed as under the influence of a powerful and splendid hierarchy. Again, religious and sectarian zeal is often a strong stimulus to sacred architecture, and this is entirely wanting in this remarkable people. Though the Chinese are bigoted to a greater extent than we can well conceive in all political matters, they are more tolerant than any other nation we know of in all that concerns religion. At the present moment three great religious sects divide the empire nearly equally between them. For though Buddhism is the nominal religion of the reigning family, and perhaps numbers more followers than either of the other two, still the followers of the doctrines of Confucius—the contemporary and rival of Sâkya-Sinha—are a more purely Chinese sect than the other, and hold an equal place in public estimation; while, at the present time, the sect of Lao-tse, or the Doctors of Reason, is more fashionable, and certainly more progressive, than the others.¹ Christianity too, might at one time have encroached largely on either of these, and become a very prevalent religion in this tolerant empire, had the Jesuits and Dominicans understood that the condition of religious tolerance here is a total abstinence from interference in political matters. This, however, the Roman Catholic priesthood never could be brought to understand; hence their expulsion from the realm, and the former proscription of their faith which otherwise would not only have been tolerated like all others, but bid fair to find more extensive favour than any. Such toleration is highly laudable in one point of view; but the want of fervour and energy from which it arises is fatal to any great exertions for the honour of religion.
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¹ The population of the Chinese empire is estimated at 400 millions of souls. If we estimate the Buddhists in China at 150 millions of souls and put down 50 millions for the Buddhist population of Tibet, Manchuria, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Ceylon, we shall probably not err greatly on the side of under-estimating them, making 200 millions the total number of followers of this religion in the whole world, or about one-eighth of the human race—not the exaggerated numbers at which they are usually estimated.
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In the same manner the want of an hereditary nobility, and indeed of any strong family pride, is equally unfavourable to domestic architecture of a durable description. At a man's death his property is generally divided equally among his children. Consequently the wealthiest men do not build residences calculated to last longer than their own lives. The royal palaces are merely somewhat larger and more splendid than those of the mandarins, but the same in character, and erected with the same ends.
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There is no country where property has hitherto been considered so secure as China. Private feuds and private wars were till lately unknown; foreign invasion was practically impossible, and little dreaded. Hence they have none of those fortalices, or fortified mansions, which by their mass and solidity give such a marked character to a certain class of domestic edifices in the western world. Equality, peace, and toleration, are blessings whose value it would be difficult to over-estimate; but on the dead though pleasing level where they exist, it is in vain to look for the rugged sublimity of the mountain, or the terrific grandeur of the storm. The Chinese have chosen the humbler path of life, and with singular success. There is not perhaps a more industrious or, till the late wars, happier people on the face of the globe; but they are at the same time singularly deficient in every element of greatness, either political or artistic.
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Notwithstanding all this, it certainly is curious to find the oldest civilised people now existing on the face of the globe almost wholly without monuments to record the past, or any desire to convey to posterity a worthy idea of their present greatness. It is no less remarkable to find the most populous of nations, a nation in which millions are always seeking employment, never thinking of any of those higher modes of expression which would serve as a means of multiplying occupation, and which elevate while feeding the masses; and still more startling to find wealth, such as the Chinese possess, never invested in self-glorification, by individuals erecting for themselves monuments which shall astonish their contemporaries, and hand down their names to posterity.
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From these causes it may be that Chinese architecture has not attracted much attention. In one respect, however, it is instructive, since the Chinese are the only people who now employ polychromy as an essential part of their architecture: indeed, with them, colour is far more essential than form; and certainly the result is so far pleasing and satisfactory, that for the lower grades of art it is hardly doubtful that it should always be so. For the higher grades, however, it is hardly less certain that colour, though most valuable as an accessory, is incapable of that lofty power of expression which form conveys to the human mind.
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The origin and development of the Chinese temple and other structures—The materials employed in their buildings.
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At one time it was thought that it might be possible with further information on the subject to describe the buildings appertaining to each of the religions, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist, to which they belonged, but externally the temples are nearly all of the same type, and it is only from their interior decoration and by the statues placed in them that any distinction can be made. The Muhammadan mosques, which in other countries have always developed a type of their own, are in China—all in general form—identical with the Buddhist and other temples, and can only be distinguished by their external decoration with texts from the Qorân, and are not even to be recognised by the minaret which in other countries has been their chief characteristic feature.
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The same similarity in design and style of all the religious buildings obtains equally in their civil structures, there being no essential distinction between sacred and secular work, and the further we go back the closer the affinity they have to one another—the temple, the tomb and the dwelling being symbolically repetitions of each other. The general effect, in fact, of a Chinese city, as seen in a bird's-eye view is one of extreme monotony in which every building seems to be covered with the same kind of roof, differing only in dimensions, and in some cases with a more elaborate decoration—and this applies not only to the Forbidden City in Pekin, where the buildings are mainly palaces or public monuments, but to any other city of importance: this arises from the circumstance that the prevailing ordinary type of Chinese architecture is that known as the *T'ing*, which consists of a roof of concave section carried on short columns. If the roof is of great dimensions and elaborately decorated, it covers either a temple, an Imperial hall of audience, or the official residence of a mandarin, if of small size and light construction, it is that of a house; this almost universal concave form of roof, as generally referred to by writers on the subject as a reminiscence of the tent of the Tartars, who are supposed to have introduced it. The authors of this theory, however, forgot that the Chinese have been longer out of tents, and know less of them, than any other people now on the face of the globe. The Tartar conquest, like our Norman one, has long been a fusion rather than a subjection, and does not seem to have produced any visible effect on the manners or customs of the original inhabitants of China. It may also be observed that the typical form of the roof of a Tartar tent was and is domical, like those represented in the Assyrian sculptures, and seldom, if ever, constructed with a hollow curve; so that the argument tells the other way. Be this as it may, the form of roof in question arose from a constructive exigence, which others would do well to imitate. In a country like China, where very heavy rains fall at one season of the year, tiled roofs, such as they almost universally use, require a high pitch to carry off the water; but the glaring sunshine of another season renders shade to walls and windows absolutely necessary. If (as on the left of the diagram No. 489) the slope of the roof is continued so far out as to be effective for the last purpose, the upper windows are too much darkened, and it is impossible to see out of them. To remedy this defect, the Chinese carry out their eaves almost horizontally from the face of the walls, where a leak becomes of slight importance; and then, to break the awkward angle caused by the meeting of these two slopes, they ease it off with a hollow curve which answers most effectually the double purpose of the roof. These projecting eaves have the further advantage of protecting the walls which—constructed in timber only—would decay rapidly if frequently deluged with rain. The protection given to the front and back walls of the house was equally required for the sides, so that the projecting eaves are carried round these; this, however, still left exposed the gable ends, in order to protect which a small pent roof of slight projection was built in under the gable. The only part of such a roof that admitted of decoration was the central ridge, the hipped ridge created by the intersection of the main roof, and the projecting eaves at the sides, under these were added further developments in their origin of a constructional nature, but which, in course of time, became more or less purely decorative forms. The illustration, Woodcut No. 490, which is based upon a drawing by a native artist, will explain the typical form of roof just described. In order to accentuate and give more importance to the roof, the ridge was raised much higher, and in some cases surmounted
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489. Diagram of Chinese Construction.
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490. Chinese Roof, with I'rimoya Gables.
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by vertical pierced terra-cotta slabs, which formed a lofty cresting, and the ends of the ridge were decorated with heads of dragons or fish. On each side of the main roof, but set back about a foot from the verge, a heavy rib of tiles was carried down the roof to about two or three feet below the hip, probably to weight the roof; out of this rib the hip ridge grew, being turned up at the extreme angle. The tiles employed to cover the roof were of two kinds: flat tiles with each side turned up, and covering tiles, the lower end of both being stopped with some decorative device, constituting in the latter a kind of antefixa.
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The great projection of the eaves required, however, some added support; with a light roof this could be obtained by a corbel bracket, such as is shown in Woodcut No. 489, carrying the plate on which the rafters rested. In roofs of greater size an assemblage was required, consisting of two to five brackets, one under the other; these brackets could only be attached properly to the columns carrying the roof (generally 6 ft. apart, and sometimes more), so that additional brackets were required on each side to give further support to the horizontal beam or plates carrying the rafters. This led to a construction of which Woodcut No. 491 will give some better conception; this illustration is from the Temple at Nikkô in Japan, but as there is scarcely any pattern in the latter country which has not been borrowed from China it is equally representative of either. Another peculiarity which also gives a local character to all this architecture is the method of framing a roof so unlike that of other people. In early times, and in their domestic work down to the present day, the timber most available for this purpose was either the bambu or a small pine, which, like most endogens, is soft and spongy in the inside, while the outer rings of wood are close-grained, hard, and strong: it is thus practically a hollow wooden cylinder, which, if squared to form a framing as we do, would fall to pieces; but merely cleaned and used whole, it is a very strong and durable building material, though one which requires all a Chinaman’s ingenuity and neatness to frame together with sufficient rigidity for the purposes of a roof.
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491. Bracket Group.
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The roof is usually constructed (as shown in Woodcut No. 489) by using three or four transverse pieces or tie-beams, one over the other, the ends of each beam being supported on that below it by means of a framed piece of a different class of wood. By this method, though to us it may look unscientific, they make up a framing that resists the strongest winds uninjured.
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Of course the theory here put forward refers more particularly to houses in which the employment of bambu and the small pine still obtains, but drawings in the National Library in Paris show that in the 5th and 4th century B.C., their temples and walls were constructed in the same way as at the present day, and that more than twenty centuries have passed without any material change in general design beyond that of the increased size given to their structures and to the elaboration of the tiled roof with its ridges and hips. The consequent result was the demand for beams and columns of far greater dimensions and strength; so that at a very early period cedar-wood was imported from the southern provinces; the framing of the roof still remained, however, of a most elementary character, in which there was no attempt at trussing, and balks of timber of immense scantling were piled one on the other to an extent unknown in any other country; this necessitated—first, their support by columns of great size, those in the Palace of Heaven being 4 ft. in diameter, and from 60 to 70 ft. high, secondly, the employment of brackets to lessen the bearing of the great beams, and thirdly—in order to carry the widely projecting eaves—the assemblage of a series of bracket corbellings, to which attention has been already drawn. In their treatment of columns and beams the Chinese method is different from that of any other style; there are no capitals to the columns, and the beams they carry at various heights are tenoned into the column, which is always carried up to the roof plate, and constitutes externally a visible part of the wall rising above the verandah roof. This singular arrangement arises from their system of building; the main roof is always designed and framed first, and is then hoisted on to the columns, the position of which and of their stone foundations can only be determined after the framing of the roof is completed; subsequently the verandah roof is framed and then raised on the smaller columns which constitute its enclosure. In order to light the interior of the temple or hall, the intervals between the columns rising above the verandah roof might have been filled with pierced screen work constituting a clerestory, but this is not in accordance with Chinese custom; for although such screens would have received ample protection from the sun by the widely projecting eaves carried on brackets, this interval is always filled in with beams also tenoned into the columns, and generally brought out so as to be flush with the column face. A description has already been given of the roof in which the upper part of the gallery at each end rises above the lower part of the roof of less pitch, and which is known to the Chinese as *I'rimoya*. This, however, is not universal, sometimes the roof is hipped in the usual way at each end, the section through the front and side being the same. The roof of the superstructure shown in Woodcut No. 501 is thus hipped, whilst on the other hand that of the Buddha hall in the Summer Palace, near Pekin (Woodcut No. 494) is of the I’rimoya type, similar to that shown in Woodcut No. 490.
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Timber and brick are the chief materials employed in nearly all Chinese buildings, stone being employed only for the foundation piers on which the columns rest. Brick walls are built in between the wooden columns—being carried up only to the first beams ; in other words they are employed only as a filling-in, and not as a support for the roof. Chinese pagodas, on the other hand, are built entirely in brick with occasionally, as in the porcelain pagoda at Nanking (now destroyed), a covering of porcelain tiles ; there are also two halls of Buddha, lofty two-storey buildings, which are built in brick with terra-cotta glazed plaques outside. The *p’ailus*, *p’ai-fangs*, or memorial gateways—the analogues of the Indian *Toranas*—when built in stone are sometimes copies of wooden structures the beams of which are tenoned into the columns or piers ; in those of a more monumental character which form the chief entrance gateways to some of their temples—as in that erected to Confucius in Pekin (Woodcut No. 502), they are sometimes in marble with arched openings, showing that the Chinese were well acquainted with the principles of the arch and the vault. There are also some examples known as beamless temples attributed to the 11th century,¹ which were roofed with barrel vaults, and probably served to store archives and relics on account of their incombustible nature.
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¹ ‘R.I.B.A. Journal,’ 1894-95, 3rd series, vol. ii. p. 45.
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The walls which enclose their cities are built in brick, and their bridges in stone with marble casing and balustrades. The raised platforms for altars, some of their temples, and generally the Imperial Halls, are all built in marble ; otherwise all Chinese constructions are in timber, the roofs being covered with glazed tiles, yellow, if Imperial structures, and green, blue or purple for others ; the ridge and hip rolls with the dragons and fishes which surmount their roofs are all in glazed terra-cotta. Great importance is attached to the orientation of temples, which as a rule face the south. This, however, is determined by geomancers who have to take into account the configuration of the ground, magnetic currents, the proximity of springs, and rising vapours in their vicinity : to these influences is given the title of *Fong-shuie*—meaning literally “wind and water”—and no structure of any kind, whether temple, palace, or house, is ever built unless in accordance with *fong-shuie*. In order to give more importance to the imperial structures, whether temples or reception halls, they are raised on platforms with triple terraces and balustrades round, and three flights of steps on the south front; the flight in the middle is subdivided into three, the central portion forming an inclined slope which is covered with dragons and clouds in relief, in some cases the treads of the steps on each side are also carved with dragons in relief; the terraces, balustrades and steps being all in white marble. The same description applies to the north and south altars of the Temple of Heaven, and to those of the Temple of Agriculture.
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Temple of the Great Dragon. (From a Photograph by Beato.)
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Temple of the Great Dragon—Buddhist Temples—Tombs—Pagodas—P'ai-lus—Domestic Architecture.