the Forbidden City
German scholar Ernst Cassirer said in On Man: "Human culture is divided into various activities, which advance along different routes and pursue different purposes." The differences between Chinese and western cultures in origin and cause, development logic and space, construction concept and purpose will inevitably be integrated and reflected in architectural culture or architectural style. Therefore, the differences between Chinese and western architectural cultures should be fundamentally understood as the differences between Chinese and western cultural traditions. China culture emphasizes morality and art, while western culture emphasizes science and religion. China culture pays attention to integration, unity, coexistence and fusion, while western culture pays attention to the unique spirit of different times and highlights the individual characteristics of various schools. The architectural features, artistic forms, sources of development and humanistic ideas contained in the rich and colorful architectural cultures of China and the West can be confirmed and embodied in all previous dynasties' architecture and handed down architectural works.
Ideas and fantasies
Victor hugo, a famous French writer, highly summarized the fundamental differences between the two architectural systems in the East and the West. He believes: "Art has two origins: one is the concept, from which European art comes into being; One is fantasy, from which oriental art is born. " In other words, western architecture has the characteristics of carving in modeling, with emphasis on two-dimensional facade and three-dimensional modeling; China's architecture, on the other hand, has the characteristics of painting, paying attention to artistic image, not paying much attention to the volume, modeling and perspective effect of single buildings, but often paying attention to the group effect of single buildings extending in plane and space. The west attaches importance to the principles of formal beauty such as proportion, balance and rhythm between the whole and the parts of the building. China, on the other hand, attaches importance to space and people's spatial feelings in the architectural environment, which is the unity of dynamic beauty, spatial beauty and vivid beauty. Therefore, it can be considered that the concept of European architecture is mainly embodied in "reality", while the fantasy of China architecture is mainly embodied in "emptiness".
Imitation and freehand brushwork
Aristotle believes that art originates from imitation and art is the product of imitation. Different column buildings in ancient Greek architecture imitate the beauty of human bodies of different sexes. Europeans pay more attention to formal logic, realism, reliance on argument and geometric analysis. In the artistic conception and overall layout of the building, they emphasize the beauty of symmetry, concreteness and simulated geometric patterns. China people attach importance to the understanding, feeling and grasping of external things in people's inner world. And how to embody this spiritual understanding and inner feelings artistically, which has a strong freehand brushwork. It is a summary and feeling of abstract beauty, a combination or fusion of some tangible real scene and the infinite virtual scene it symbolizes, and pursues the artistic conception of "getting carried away". China people also pay attention to realism and argument, but they are mainly freehand brushwork, and their shapes are not as good as gods. For example, the roofs of classical buildings in China.
Ritual and logic
The concept of rites and music comes from Yue Ji in the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, the close relationship between beauty and goodness, art and law, emotion and reason, psychology and ethics. Rite is the ethical standard of society, and joy is the emotional standard of society. The expression of China's rational spirit is the combination of ceremony and music. It can be said that the artistic appeal of China architecture is the romantic mood (music) based on rationality (ceremony). What it embodies and implies is the poetic beauty of China's architecture, which is similar to the general plan of China people to "think square and be round". Western architectural culture pays more attention to logic and argumentation, and its characteristics can be summarized as rationality and struggle spirit, individual and subject consciousness, the concept of heaven and religion, the rationality and logic of architectural art treatment, and the emphasis on the coordination and layout, appropriateness and proportion of art, technology and environment.
Close and open
China's quadrangles, fences, screens, etc. Some people even think that "the closed courtyard symbolizes our closed society" and "China is a brick and tile world with walls" ... The west emphasizes giving priority to external space and calls the central square "the living room of the city" and "the living room of the city" and so on. The French Palace of Versailles, built in 1756, has a 220-acre back garden, which blends with the symmetrical trees on both sides and carved water pools one after another, reaching into the distant urban forest ... Some big houses or mansions in China generally simulate the back garden as a natural landscape, surrounded by buildings and fences, crescent river, three or five pavilions and rockeries ... This is a purely defensive thing for China people.
Conservative and enterprising
The gardens built by China people or their favorite natural scenery are generally lofty and secluded, or refined, which reflects the long-term friendship and pastoral consciousness of China people living in an agricultural society. In terms of the overall layout, space setting and function division of the building, they pay more attention to the inherent requirement of "living in peace with others and not committing crimes with each other", which satisfies the tendency of China people to keep it. It also seems to be exactly the same as the character cultivation orientation of "seeking self-protection from the outside and peace of mind from the inside". Regular gardens in continental Europe give people the feeling of broadening their horizons, grand ideas, complicated techniques and romantic artistic conception in many aspects, such as layout, composition and artistic conception. However, its geometric garden embodies the thinking habit and spiritual concept of opposition between man and nature, man conquers nature and separation between man and nature. In a sense, this reflects the behavior pattern and value orientation of westerners in conquering nature.
Groups and individuals
China architecture, especially quadrangle architecture, pays attention to group combination, and "courtyard" is generally the basic unit of combination, which is a reflection of China's cultural tradition of emphasizing group and restraining or even curbing personality development, or has a lot to do with it. For example, the endless quadrangles, large and small, square, spread out from the ground layer by layer, show her charm in time, and there is a warm home under every blue-gray roof. The artistic conception of "one roof of the Forbidden City holds two phoenixes in the clouds, trees in the rain and thousands of families" is particularly long and thought-provoking. However, the single building in the west shows the publicity of individuality and the independence of individuality, and thinks that excellent individuals are immortal and handed down from generation to generation. For example, the Pantheon in Paris, the 320-meter-high Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Florence, Italy, and the John Hancock Building in Boston, USA are all philosophical thoughts or cultures.
Static and dynamic
Pools and canals in China gardens are generally elegant and have weak microwaves. Their layout pays more attention to the combination of reality and reality, and emotion leads to more emphasis on the separation of static and dynamic, more static and less moving. This conception and pattern is more suitable for creating a relaxed, spacious, quiet and elegant environmental space, which is conducive to highlighting the leisure nature, transforming the harmonious humanistic temperament and expressing feelings in the landscape. Generally speaking, there is a little "blank space", the so-called "knowing white and keeping black", which achieves the artistic effect and appeal of charm, aura and present meaning. The fountains, waterfalls and flowing springs in western gardens are mostly magnificent and dynamic, which can show some unrestrained, smart, enthusiastic and forward-looking trends. It's like China invented Qigong (Jing) and Westerners developed it.
Hint and exposure
China emphasized curve and implicit beauty, that is, "fable is false, not straightforward". The layout, conception and scenery selection of the garden all emphasize the combination of reality and reality, the complementarity of literature and quality, or the pursuit of natural feelings, or the love of pastoral landscapes, or the expression of feelings and lofty aspirations, so as to achieve implication, mystery and posture with the help of "borrowing scenery" Clever use of "curve" can make nature, environment and garden coordinate with each other, be quiet and peaceful, bring out the best in each other, and look like nature. The technique of "skillful borrowing and skillful style" is similar to that of China's classical poems, which emphasizes implication. It seems to be careless and flowing, but in fact it is a different person. For example, open and flat lawns, huge stadiums and magnificent high-rise buildings. They all emphasize the analysis of axes and geometric figures, and straightness, openness and exposure are undoubtedly important features, which are different from the symbolism, implication and implication of China architecture.
Inheritance and innovation
China's grasp of formal beauty and engineering technology often relies on intuition and experience, and pays more attention to the mastery and application of skills. In the teaching of architectural theory and architectural knowledge, he generally adopts the way of inheritance or oral teaching. On the transmission line of architectural skills or architectural techniques, he mainly teaches each other or is handed down from generation to generation. If there is no successor or later study, people will often die. In the application of architectural skills and techniques, inheritance is generally more than innovation. In architecture, imitation is often greater than transcendence. In architectural theory, attention is paid to the description of building materials, construction technology and management experience, and there is a lack of detailed summary and theoretical results. Relatively speaking, the west starts with geometric analysis, emphasizes the rigor and accuracy of architectural materials, pays more attention to the breakthrough and innovation of architectural theory, actively explores new architectural forms, advocates and actively forms different architectural styles and schools, and adopts systematic and rational methods in architectural education. In a sense.
The compatibility of China culture determines that China traditional culture does not exclude foreign cultures, but absorbs and creates them according to its own situation, so as to better integrate into its own cultural system. From the architectural style, Buddhism was introduced into China from India in the Eastern Han Dynasty around A.D., and the Indian Tower was introduced to create the China Tower. After the Tang Dynasty, Islam was introduced from the Middle East. Islamic mosque architecture was introduced, creating the style of mosque architecture in China. /kloc-during the Qianlong period in the 0/8th century, Italian gardens were introduced and built in the Yuanmingyuan in Beijing, and so on. It should be said that China attaches great importance to introducing and absorbing foreign excellent architectural styles and design techniques.
In short, cities, gardens and buildings as cultural carriers. There is a deep cultural imprint and a strong humanistic spirit behind it. Paying attention to cultural traditions, exploring national characteristics and activating national unique cultural values have become one of the international architectural trends of thought. Architectural style has entered the era of "showing their magical powers", and humanistic pursuit has become a new measure of architectural value. By comparing some differences between Chinese and western architectural cultures, we can see that Chinese and western architectural styles have different cultural backgrounds and unique charm. Therefore, in order to create cities, gardens and buildings with China style and cultural heritage, historical spirit and national characteristics, we must learn from the excellent architectural culture of other nationalities, and strive to skillfully integrate the excellent culture of the Chinese nation into them, and combine the elements of nationality, times, culture and development to create excellent architectural works and cities with national cultural characteristics.