1 the development of architectural system-from religion to secularism
According to archaeological excavations, in the early days of slave society in China, the buildings of different parties were different, not only in scale, but also in using rammed earth to lift the platform and using lime plaster as decoration. This difference indicates the emergence of building hierarchy in the future. By the Zhou Dynasty, the hierarchical system had become one of the fundamental systems of the country, and it was manifested in the form of "ceremony". Buildings are generally defined according to type, size, quantity and color. These regulations are determined according to the requirements of the supreme ruler. Failure to comply with these regulations is a challenge to the authority of the son of heaven. The provisions of the architectural hierarchy in the Zhou Dynasty were basically based on the requirements of religious activities. For example, Tang Ming is a unique place for emperors to rely on the power of heaven. Some of its symbolic components, such as "Four Ah", are just to show the world its special "ability". Another example is the use of color. Because of its relationship with fire and blood, red has been a color with special witchcraft power since ancient times, so it is called "Ying, Tian Zi Dan".
The Warring States period is an era of "the ritual collapses and the music is bad" and "there is no way in the world", but it has not abandoned Zhou's architectural hierarchy. It can be known from the literature records that the architectural hierarchy at this time changed from the form of etiquette to the form of etiquette, and was implemented accordingly. But its content has changed to some extent, mainly in two aspects. First, the provisions have not changed, but the specific buildings have changed. For example, the ancestral temple in the Zhou Dynasty needed several independent buildings, while the Warring States only needed one main building. Second, due to the emergence of new situations, new regulations have been made. For example, the "Que" in the Zhou Dynasty was only used by emperors and princes, and ordinary officials in the Han Dynasty could also use it, but in different forms, ordinary officials used one Que, while the emperor used three Que.
The documents and regulations of the architectural hierarchy in the Tang Dynasty were well preserved, which also reflected the attention of the ruling class at that time. Different from the Zhou dynasty, the Tang dynasty required the imperial palace system to have different degrees from beginning to end, which is very different from Zhou's "no less than courtesy" In the architectural hierarchy of the Tang Dynasty, the religious meaning weakened, and it began to change to secularization, paying more attention to the volume and related aspects of buildings, and paying more attention to the control of building groups, showing the importance of forms and neighborhood relations between buildings.
During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Tang system was basically followed, while the Ming Emperor Zhu claimed to be the orthodox Han nationality and emphasized the Confucian etiquette system. Therefore, shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, a more detailed and strict building hierarchy was stipulated, and it was constantly revised and supplemented. The architectural hierarchy in the Ming Dynasty intentionally increased the difference between the royal family and ordinary people, and the architecture in the Ming Dynasty tended to be more secular. Although it was stipulated in the early Ming Dynasty that dragons, phoenixes, moons and moons were not allowed in general buildings, if we study these patterns carefully, we will find that even these patterns gradually changed from miraculous surprise to approachability, from extensive to delicate, from stalwart to graceful and restrained, and lost the all-powerful spirit. It can be considered that at this time, people pay more attention to the artistic value of these patterns than their original mysterious religious significance.
The architectural hierarchy in Qing dynasty can be considered as a supplement to the system in Ming dynasty. It pays more attention to and determines the proportional relationship between all parts of the building group, and the image of the building group is more fixed. The Forbidden City in Beijing has reached the peak of art in this respect, and the relationship between volume and space has been thoroughly scrutinized. Generally speaking, the development of ancient architecture in China has experienced many changes from rough to meticulous, from emphasizing religion to secularism, from multiple symbols to paying more attention to artistic effects. These changes have greatly affected the development and changes of ancient architecture form and space. On the other hand, this strict regulation limits the creativity of craftsmen to a certain extent and stifles their enthusiasm for flexible creation, thus making the overall development of architecture stagnant and stepping into the road of conformism. This is also one of the reasons why the classical architecture in China is rigid and lacks innovation.
2 the cultural core of architectural level-the pursuit of the unity of goodness and beauty
It can be seen from both documentary records and textual research that the contents, shapes and standards of various ancient buildings in China are all derived from the basic norm of "ceremony". The imperial examination in Qing Dynasty said: "If you learn etiquette and don't know the system of ancient court, you can't know your rank and the rise and fall of your husband, and you have to take an examination of the Forbidden City." This shows the connection between the two. So, what is a "gift"? "Book of Rites Ji Fang" said: "The husband is a courtesy, and don't think that the people are imitators." So the nobles are equal, the clothes are different, and the court has a position, so the people have some concessions. "Patriarchal etiquette affects people's behavior in living and the creation of living space, and is the core of graded housing.
In ancient China society, Confucian ethics had the greatest influence on later generations. It has always been the basis of the overall orientation of China's culture, and its thoughts of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and righteousness have been relied on and utilized by the rulers of past dynasties, and have become the guidelines guiding the social life and behavior of the country. This point has also been fully reflected in architecture, which is obviously manifested in the ritual of architecture. China is called "the state of etiquette". In the long feudal society, the rulers of past dynasties took the established etiquette system as the ruling criterion, and architecture was no exception. The hierarchy is strict and meticulous, so based on the hierarchy of etiquette, it is not difficult to understand how the order and clarity of the layout of the Forbidden City are formed. The structure and image of the building itself are linked with political and interpersonal norms, which is considered to be based on the sky. Therefore, the architectural level is not a dispensable thing, but an "internal" requirement of the building, which cannot be violated.
The layout of ancient buildings in China is based on the Confucian rites of going up and down and the rites of men and women, so-called "sleeping from front to back" and "front hall and back room". The regulations on the ritual system in the past dynasties have been constantly quoted and enriched, thus embodying the unified pursuit of "ritual" and truth, goodness and beauty in many aspects. Specific analysis, the impact is in the following aspects.
2. 1 Grade of cities and residential areas and grade of residential areas in cities. "Spring and Autumn Annals" clearly divides the grades of cities: "(The city) is the emperor nine miles, the public seven miles, the Hou five miles, and the son three miles". There are similar records in other ancient books. In the city, different residential areas also have different grade regulations. The imperial city is located in the most important position, next to the aristocratic area, with bright colors and exquisite architecture. Then it was surrounded by dark and low civilian areas, which fully set off the noble status of the emperor. This also reflects the basic construction idea of "building a city to protect the monarch and building the country for the people" in Wu Yue Chun Qiu.
2.2 The level and order of living space. The relationship between single buildings in ancient buildings in China not only has functional and visual requirements, but also is designed according to etiquette. There are many records about this in the Book of Rites. Such as hierarchy, "the emperor's hall is nine feet, the vassal is seven feet, the doctor is five feet, and the scholar is three feet", and so on. In residential buildings, due to the different clients, the buildings develop according to the interpersonal relationship of the Three Cardinal Principles and Five Permanent Principles, and the corresponding size, location and decoration are also different, which makes the building groups ideally reflect the political order and ethical norms. In this way, in the whole combination, the difference between master and slave is clear, emphasizing a sense of order in one direction. Because of this, all levels of residence have a common criterion and basis, and they all want to express the content of hierarchical residence with the same etiquette, so they are "isomorphic", such as the spatial structure of quadrangles and Beijing. This isomorphism is also reflected in the same living level in different regions.
2.3 Differences in spatial structure and decoration standards of different grades of residential buildings. In this respect, the hierarchy is the most detailed, and there are clear and detailed regulations on roof truss, caisson, bucket arch, door and decoration. For example, as stipulated in the Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty, "The house below the vassal should not be re-arched, and the hall above the third class should not have five rooms and nine frames. At both ends of the hall house, the gatehouse should not have five rooms and five frames; No hall with more than five products is willing to have three rooms and five shelves, while the hall house has two ends, and the gatehouse is not allowed to have three rooms and five shelves, which is still the door of Aconitum ... "The implementation of this standardization makes all levels of houses look the same or similar as long as they have different scales and spatial volumes, thus enhancing the versatility of architectural space. Therefore, some people think that the space and shape of ancient single buildings in China are not targeted. In the same space, the bed and bedding are bedrooms, and the advertisements and screens are halls, so that "all kinds of buildings in China do not rely entirely on the layout or modeling of the houses themselves to realize the expression of individuality, but mainly rely on various decorations, furnishings and furnishings to form their own styles."
China was a ritualized society in ancient times, and the ethics and order of architecture became the goal of architectural design. In turn, its effect is enhanced by the ritualization of architecture. They are mutually causal and promote each other, making hierarchical and ritualized architecture one of the remarkable features of ancient architecture in China.
3 the influence of hierarchy on the evolution of architectural forms
The architectural hierarchy has been influencing the development and progress of architectural forms in the history of China because of its profound cultural background and the admiration of Confucianism. On the one hand, strict regulations limit the changes of architectural forms. On the other hand, people constantly break through the restrictions on the basis of recognizing it for the purpose of satisfying and showing themselves, and some of these changes are recognized by the provisions of the new hierarchy, which makes the architectural hierarchy itself change. In this way, in order to preserve the differences in the architectural system, the ruling class has to constantly change its architectural style to achieve the purpose of monopolization, thus making the building more complex, gorgeous and meticulous, especially the parts closely related to human perception, such as bucket arches and caissons. These changes have promoted people's understanding of architecture. Throughout the history of ancient architecture, the overall image and structural model of the building have a limited range of changes, but the changes in the parts with hierarchical significance such as arches, bucket arches and caissons are relatively obvious or even excessive. The development of these special parts gradually formed the distinctive features of China classical architecture, and then became one of the leading factors of architectural image and even structural evolution. From the specific provisions of the building hierarchy, it stipulates the building volume occupied by various people, but most people can't or can't change the building volume (people usually express themselves with special components or decorative techniques, but it is difficult to change in scale), so the Forbidden City, which is not limited by the hierarchy, does not need to make a breakthrough in volume to show its uniqueness, thus weakening the pursuit of expanding the single volume. This is also one of the reasons for the lack of technological innovation in this area. Moreover, since the Tang Dynasty, the scale of the single building of the Forbidden City has become smaller and smaller, while the local sculptures have become more and more dense and gorgeous, which has promoted the transformation from the clear architectural style of the Tang Dynasty to the complicated and gorgeous architectural style of the Qing Dynasty.
Today, the feudal hierarchy that once dominated all aspects of people's lives has disappeared, and architecture has begun to pay attention to people's own needs with unprecedented enthusiasm, rather than rules and regulations. The development and progress of China architecture can not be separated from the interaction with China's cultural thought. We believe that with the deepening of understanding, the traditional understanding of architecture will increasingly show its important significance to real life.