Culture, Society, and Praxis

Volume 12 Number 1 Justice is Blindfolded Article 3

May 2020

Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geography on the Diversity of Chinese Traditional Architectural Motifs and the Cultural Values They Reflect

Shiqi Liang University of California, Los Angeles

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Liang: Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geograph Culture, Society, and Praxis Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geography on the Diversity of Chinese Traditional Architectural Motifs and the Cultural Values They Reflect

Shiqi Liang

Introduction served as the heart of early Chinese In 2016 the city government of Meixian civilization because of its favorable decided to remodel the area where my geographical and climatic conditions that family’s ancestral shrine is located into a supported early development of states and park. To collect my share of the governments. Zhongyuan is very flat with compensation money, I traveled down to few mountains; its soil is rich because of the southern China and visited the ancestral slit carried down by the Yellow River. Its shrine for the first and last time. It was my temperate zone climate helped facilitate first time seeing southern Chinese buildings, healthy crop growth with its cold, dry winter. and their unique differences struck me Its proximity to nomadic tribes from northern deeply. Born and raised in northern China, I deserts and steppes also stimulated early was accustomed to rectangular, flat, and short development of state governments, as houses. Seeing my ancestral shrine, tall and inhabitants needed to band together to defend circular, almost shaped like a fortress, opened themselves. These ingredients of power my mind. The demolishment of my family’s quickly allowed Zhongyuan to become the ancestral shrine encouraged me to search for cradle and heart of Chinese state and empires. a reason behind the regional architectural In contrast to Northern China’s motif differences. temperate, flat, and wide land is Southern This acknowledgement of architectural China’s tropical, mountainous, and rocky diversity is especially important in this era of features, best exemplified by the Canton rapid modernization. To accommodate a fast- region. The Canton region receives plenty of growing urban population, real estate rainfall in the summer due to the influence of developers favor tall, rectangular, concrete monsoon seasons that create many branches apartment buildings over traditional Chinese of rivers, fracturing the Canton region. South architectures. The buildings in northern cities China’s agricultural history is not as long as no longer look distinguishable from buildings North China’s: its tropical weather and in southern cities. Revisiting those diverse architectural motifs serves as a reminder of Shiqi Liang is a full-time student with a sta- how diverse China proper really is. tistics major at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently working Geographical and Climatic Regional toward her Bachelor's degree while pursu- Differences ing other academic interests, such as human Zhongyuan ( 中原), more commonly geography. Shiqi can be reached at known by the name North China Plain, [email protected].

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unequal distribution of rainfall across seasons ancient times, Jiangnan had been the center did not support early development of of economic and cultural development. agriculture (Pan, 1995). Due to its rocky Physically, the Yangtze Plain is a series of features and agricultural malleability prior to alluvial plains and the Yangtze River’s major more advanced techniques, the Canton region tributaries, making it exceptionally suitable was hard to reach in ancient times. This for rice farming and freshwater fishery degree of geographic isolation gave (Falkenheim and Hung, 2016). Its warmer Cantonese culture its distinctivity and weather also made agriculture more autonomy. The vast linguistic differences prosperous, allowing Jiangnan residents to between Mandarin and Cantonese are a harvest two crops instead of just one each reflection of that autonomy. year. Its efficient agriculture did not only earn Lying between the Canton region and the title “land of fish and rice,” but also North China is the Yangtze Plain, widely transformed Jiangnan into a center of referred to as Jiangnan, which literally means development in art and humanities, as well as “South to the Yangtze River.” Ever since a strong economical center (Falkenheim and Hung, 2016).

Figure 1: Climate zones of China. East of the thick red lines is a rough definition of China proper (Lin et al., 2015)

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Liang: Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geograph Culture, Society, and Praxis

Figure 2: Elevation in China. Note that the Northern and Jiangnan region are relatively flatter than Southern China (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, n.d.). Diversity in Architectural Motifs across considering the cost of maintaining it. The China arrangement of Zhongyuan houses also Zhongyuan’s long history with states and reflects social hierarchy valued by empire has caused its culture to have a strong Confucius’ teaching that originated from emphasis on social hierarchy. To showcase Zhongyuan. In a traditional Siheyuan (四合 military and political power, Northern 院 ), a type of rectangular dwelling, the Chinese buildings are often single-storied yet northern building that gets the most sunlight wide to symbolize the vast flat plain those is reserved for family elders, who are buildings sit upon. This emphasis was also considered to be “master of the house.” The caused by the limitation of the readily- building behind it that gets the least amount available material in Zhongyuan: wood. of sunlight is for unmarried daughters and Wooden structures are vulnerable to damp female servants, who are on the very bottom weather, insects, and fire, so building a tall of the social hierarchy. wooden structure is rather inconvenient

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Figure 3: Inside of the Siheyuan of Qi Baishi, a famous Chinese painter (National Architecture Institute of China, 2017).

Figure 4: Tulou in Fujian. Note its thick walls and lack of windows as fortification (UNESCO, 2020).

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Liang: Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geograph Culture, Society, and Praxis

Southern China, because of its relative Jiangnan are also thinner because otherwise, isolation and autonomy, places a heavy those walls would never dry. Jiangnan emphasis on protection and equality among architecture often integrates rivers into part family members. Because of its lack of of daily life, taking advantage of the cheap governance, Southern China was plagued by transportation and blooming trade these bandits. Inhabitants were forced to build water routes provided (Gong, 2009) fortified communal dwellings to protect In comparison to Northern Chinese themselves and their properties. A tulou (土 architecture which uses a lot of color, 楼), typically in Southern China, is a tall, Jiangnan architecture is very plain. Typical rectangular or circular dwelling for a family Jiangnan buildings with black roof and white clan that places a heavy emphasis on defense. walls lack the variety in colors commonly Its thick walls are immune to firearms, its observed in Northern architecture. Chinese doors are made out of fireproof wood, and its architect and scholar Liang Sicheng is be- roofs facilitate more accurate firing. Southern lieved to have thought that this difference China’s isolation from the North also allowed was caused by the different climate between its inhabitants to enjoy relativeequality North China and Jiangnan, but some of his within the family clan, as social hierarchy research on the subject did not survive. North from Confucius’ teaching was not as China has a relatively long winter and influential as it was in the North. All rooms autumn where flowers and trees wilt, while in tulous are of the same size and same the growing season is longer in Jiangnan. building material, with the exception of With flowers blooming almost all year long, bigger family branches getting bigger rooms. it seems excessive to paint the walls with Yet that was out of consideration of different colors when nature served as the comfortable living spaces, rather a reflection ornaments (Gong, 2009). of social hierarchy. Another iconic feature of Jiangnan is its Jiangnan buildings share many similar lavish gardens. If North China’s emphasis on motifs with northern China considering their width is a showcase of its political power, geographical proximity, such as emphasis on than Jiangnan gardens are a showcase of social hierarchy. At the same time because of economic power. Jiangnan residents have the its different geographic factors, the people of economic privilege to build lavish gardens Jiangnan also developed their unique just for aesthetic purposes. The North also architectural motifs. In Jiangnan’s humid has its own lavish gardens, but those are weather ventilation and sunlight is especially reserved for the royal family only. Such important, so Jiangnan buildings are often luxury for members outside of the royal multi-story and intentionally have spaces family was only made possible due to the between walls for ventilation. Walls in wealth accumulated in Jiangnan.

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Figure 5: Scenery in Jiangnan. Note its little use of color and integration with local rivers (Guo, 2009).

Figure 6: Jiangnan gardens often included ponds, sculptures, buildings, rare plants and other architectural miscellaneous that reflected the owner’s wealth. Zhuozheng Yuan (拙政园), which roughly translates to “humble administrator’s garden”, is a classic piece of Jiangnan gardening. It consisted of 48 different buildings, 21 precious trees, 40 steles, 101 tablets, and countless bridges connecting series of pools and islands. (Ministry of Culture, 2003) It is also massive: composed of three sectors, Zhuozheng Yuan takes up 51,950 square feet (Zhangzhugang, 2015)

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Liang: Architecture and Geography of China Proper: Influence of Geograph Culture, Society, and Praxis

Region Northern China Jiangnan Southern China North of Qinling-Huaihe line South of the lower reach of Further south of Jiangnan, Key cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Yangtze river includes Canton region Xi’an Key cities: Shanghai, Key cities: Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing Guangzhou

Geographic ● Temperate zone, dry ● Warm temperate zone ● Subtropical, affected by and climatic ● Flat, with few ● Series of alluvial plains monsoons, humid features mountains and Yangtze River’s ● Rocky and lack ● Rich slit from the major tributaries agricultural malleability Yellow River ● High agricultural ● Certain degree of ● Proximity to nomadic productivity due to autonomy due to its tribes in deserts and favorable conditions inaccessibility in the steppes in the North early years ● Lack of stones

Architectural ● Wide, heavy emphasis ● Multi-story buildings, ● Tall, multi-story motifs on north-south and east- emphasis on ventilation buildings west axis ● Thinner walls ● Primarily made out of ● Flat, often single-storey ● Integration with local mud, timber and bamboo ● Rectangular rivers ● Rectangular or circular ● Heavy use of wood ● Rare use of bright colors ● Heavily fortified, ● Reflects social ● Lavishing gardens to emphasis on defensive hierarchy within family display economic power purposes members based on and social hierarchy ● Reflects equality among Confucius’ teachings family members within the same family clan

Figure 7: Comparison of geographic features, climatic features, and architecture across Chinese regions

Architecture as a Reflection of Human gardens, wide and flat Siheyuan--are a Geography reflection of diversity among Chinese By examining regional differences in societies caused by geographic variation. architectural motifs, it became clear that With the recent industrialization and people of different regions adopted different modernization, more and more traditional cultural values, with the ultimate cause being architecture is being replaced by mundane different geographic factors. Geography has mass-produced apartment complexes to immediate direct influences on architectural accommodate the booming population. Yet it motifs, such as limiting readily available is nevertheless still important to protect and building materials. However, it also had a maintain this traditional architecture: their more subtle influence on human society and differences serve as a reminder of how culture that led those societies to reflect diverse human societies are. As we become elements they prioritize in their architectural more and more integrated with each other, motifs. These distinctive architectural motifs- there has never been a better time across -heavily fortified tulous, lavaishing Jiangnan history to celebrate the diversity within us.

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References

Falkenheim, V. C., & Hung, F.F. (2016). Jiangsu. Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www. britannica.com/place/Jiangsu#ref591116. Gong, Z. (2009). Introduction to Implication of Jiangnan Water Town Architectural Elements in Design. Fujian Business University Journal. doi:1008-4940(2009)03-0101-003. Guo, Yan. (2009, Apr. 29). Photo of Wuyuan. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. (n.d.). Elevation map of China. http:// https://mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/post/174018951220/elevation-map-of-china-with- borders-of Lin, G., Fu, J, Jiang, D, Wang, J, Wang, Q & Dong, D. (2015). Spatial Variation of the Relationship between PM2.5 Concentrations and Meteorological Parameters in China. BioMed Research International. doi:10.1155/2015/684618. Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China. (2003). Humble Administrator's Garden. web.archive.org/web/20160303190333/http://www.chinaculture.org /gb/en_travel/2003-09/24/content_34754.html. National Architecture Institute of China. (2017, Sep. 15). Visiting 32 Old Homes of Famous Person within Beijing's Second Ring; Most Are Under Appropriate Care. http://www.naic.org.cn/html/2017/yjh_0915/21470.html. Pan, Y. (1995). North China's Geographic Foundation in the Development of Early Civilization. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 187–189. http://www.ixueshu.com/document /e54c9055ccb4d79a318947a18e7f9386.html. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (2020). Fujian Tulou. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113/. Zhangzhugang. (2015, Apr. 23). Suzhou Zhuozheng Yuan. http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/in- dex.php?title=File:Suzhou_Zhuozheng_Yuan_2015.04.23_08-13-49.jpg&oldid=367589937

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