The dignity symbol of caisson is the symbol of feudal hierarchy in China, and caisson can only be used in the noblest buildings, symbolizing the hierarchy of feudal society. Mainly distributed in the Royal Palace (Forbidden City), built and sealed temples and tombs. Generally located above the indoor Buddha statue and the throne, it is umbrella-shaped and supported by a small bucket arch, symbolizing the sublimity of the sky. There are usually colored paintings and reliefs on the algae wells. It was clearly stipulated in the Tang Dynasty that caissons should not be re-arched unless they were the residence of the prince.
The embodiment of ancient world outlook When I first saw algae wells, I really wanted to use the word romance from the west to describe the beauty of algae wells as starry sky. After consulting the data, it is found that the shape of caisson is just below the circle, which accords with the world view of "the sky is round and the place is round" in ancient China. So the caisson has the meaning of symbolizing "heaven", just like the dome in the western church building represents the sky, the caisson in China building is the epitome of celestial bodies.
The ancients in China revered nature and natural phenomena. Therefore, the ancient philosophers advocated "the unity of heaven and man", paid attention to learning from nature, and respected the truth that "the sky is round and the place is round", which is a special annotation to this world view. Similarly, in order to show reverence and worship for heaven, the ancients also endowed "heaven" to the interior.
Special attention has been paid to this. In the ancient buildings in China, decorative caissons "towering like umbrellas and like covers" appeared inside the buildings.
The historical evolution of the structure of the caisson can be traced back to Yungang Grottoes and the stone lotus at the top of Longmen Grottoes in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 BC). When the ancients lived in caves, they opened holes in the top to receive light, which was transparent and went up and down. "Book of Rites. "Li Yun" records: "The former king had no palace, lived in a cave in winter and lived in a nest in summer." It is shaped like an open caisson, and the "well" is decorated with algae, so it is called an algae well. The earliest existing wooden caisson is the caisson on Guanyin Pavilion of Dule Temple in Jixian County. It is a square with four corners erased and eight barrels added.
From the Han Dynasty (202-220 BC) to the early Tang Dynasty (AD 6 18 -7 12), the "algae well" in the literature was a continuous smallpox with inverted lotus flowers painted in a square well. * * * It is called "leveling machine" or "riding dust", which can summarize its functions of adjusting indoor space, removing dust and keeping warm.
In the Song Dynasty (960- 1279), smallpox was clearly divided into three architectural styles: Ge Ping, Pingji and Caijing. After the Ming Dynasty, the development of caissons changed from simple to complex, from practical structural modeling to decorative structure. The structure and form of caisson have been greatly developed, which is extremely exquisite and magnificent. In addition to the increase in proportion, the mirror symbolizing the kingdom of heaven above also began to increase, with lotus petals placed around it and Yunlong painted in the center. Later, more and more emphasis was placed on Yunlong in this center. In the Qing dynasty, it became a group of lifelike carved dragons. The hanging chandelier at Panlongkou does not lose the original shape of the mirror. Because of the prevalence of algae wells in the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed "Longjing".
A complicated wooden decorative craft-caisson, which is very complicated, is composed of tenons and mortises without nails and bucket arches by craftsmen. Inserting all kinds of beams and purlins into the structure to form a caisson is considered to be a complex decorative technique for wooden buildings in China.
The production of caisson woodworking components requires that every link of cutting, inking, tenoning and drilling should be perfect, and there should be no errors in wood grain direction, tenoning position and aperture size. The wooden structure of ancient buildings in China is usually composed of four columns, two beams and two beams, which can be connected left and right, through front and back, stacked up and down, combined at will, and can also be converted into octagonal, hexagonal, circular, fan-shaped or other shapes. Algae wells are usually composed of multiple square barrels and multiple arch arches. The arch of the caisson is not only decorative, but also a sign to distinguish the building grade. Generally speaking, the grander and nobler a building is, the more complicated its structure is.
The combination of tenon and mortise is the key to earthquake resistance. A remarkable feature of wood is that its strength will decrease under long-term load, especially the elastic modulus of wood over 240 years will decrease, and the maximum radial value of caisson often appears in the middle. Ancient craftsmen accurately calculated the center of gravity of beam purlin members, and skillfully distributed the gravity of caisson members through flat column tenons and corner column tenons, thus achieving the purpose of prolonging the life of caisson.
Nowadays, wooden buildings have gradually faded out of people's lives, and people who can drill algae wells are rare.