History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c34.s2.4

v2.c34.s2.4

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.