The Structure of an Imperial Chinese City
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THE STRUCTURE OF AN IMPERIAL CHINESE CITY: A PERSON-ENVIRONMENT STUDY OF LIN’AN (1123-1278) ZHOU YULIANG MIP, BE (ARCH) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2004 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank National University of Singapore and Department of Architecture (School of Design and Environment) for providing the research scholarship and the excellent resources to support my studies. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Heng Chye Kiang, for initiating and encouraging my interests in the study of the historic Chinese city, and for providing advice and guidance along the way. I am indebted to many people, without whose help my studies in the past five years would almost be impossible. I give my sincere appreciation to the staffs and fellow research scholars in Department of Architecture and Centre for Advanced Studies in Architecture, NUS, as well as other professionals met at the conferences in Singapore and China, for the comments and supports related to the study. Particularly, I thank Assoc. Prof. Pinna Indorf for the discussion on research methodology in the early stage of the study, Assoc. Prof Li Xiaodong for the valuable suggestion on detailed topics, Mr. Chien Shing-Sun for the proofreading of the final draft. My special thanks are given to the anonymous examiners, I have carefully considered all the comments received and incorporated most of their suggestions into the amendment. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgment i Table of Contents ii List of Tables vii List of Figure s ix Summary xi Chapter 1. Introduction 1-1 1.1. Background of the study 1-2 1.1.1. “Authentic” Chinese architecture and city 2 1.1.2. Design relevance 3 1.2. The development of an idea 1-5 1.2.1. Theories 5 1.2.2. Sources 6 1.2.3. The study of the imperial city of Lin’an 7 1.3. Organization of the thesis 1-9 PART I. CITY, PLACE AND DESIGN Chapter 2. City as a place system 2-11 2.1. Theory and practice: defining the approach 2-11 2.1.1. Design theory and praxis 11 2.1.2. EBS researches and the design 13 2.1.3. The study of theories 14 2.2. EBS and its psychological traditions 2-16 2.2.1. EBS and EP in the broad definition 16 2.2.2. Convergence and divergence of traditions 17 2.2.3. Concepts and terms 19 2.3. Theoretical developments of EP research and urban design theory 2-25 2.3.1. Lynch and urban design theories 25 iii 2.3.2. Lynch’s City image/mental map in the broad framework of EP 27 2.3.3. Map as information: the spatio-physical tradition 29 2.3.4. Map as value: the psycho-social tradition 32 2.4. Rethinking person-environment relationship 2-37 2.4.1. Paradigms of person-environment relationship 37 2.4.2. From “Behaviour setting” to “place” 39 2.4.3. Place or other research model 42 2.5. City, places and models for the study 2-45 2.5.1. City as a multi-layered place system 45 2.5.2. The structure of urban places and place systems 46 2.5.3. Interpreting represented urban places in historical urban studies 49 PART II. IMPERIAL CHINESE CITIES AND PLACES Chapter 3. Historical sources 3-51 3.1. Availability and relevance of the historical sources 3-52 3.1.1. Texts and graphics under the elite tradition 52 3.1.2. Selected texts and graphics 54 3.2. A study of Biji & Fangzhi 3-58 3.2.1. Selected texts and the Siku series 58 3.2.2. Zhi 志/Fangzhi 方志― Local gazetteer 60 3.2.3. Biji 笔记―Miscellaneous Notes 63 3.2.4. A closer look at the selected Biji and Fangzhi 66 3.3. Traditional Chinese maps: a different cartographic tradition 3-71 3.3.1. General features 72 3.3.2. The mode of representation: textualism, mapping and painting 73 3.4. Critical inquiries: text-reading and map-reading 3-76 3.4.1. Different urban representations and the underlying social structure 76 3.4.2. The merit of the sources in the study 77 3.4.3. Interpreting text and map 79 iv Chapter 4. Categorizing urban places: the official system vs. the folk system 4-80 4.1. A general study of imperial Chinese cities 4-81 4.1.1. Architecture and urban form 81 4.1.2. Imperial Chinese cities and the underlying principles 84 4.2. The physical and functional structures of the city 4-89 4.2.1. The physical layout 89 4.2.2. The functional system 91 4.3. Representing urban places: a study of place names 4-96 4.3.1. Place names and the naming tradition 98 4.3.2. The names of official and landscape settings within the Palace City 100 4.3.3. The names of city gates and residential wards 105 4.3.4. Contrasting naming themes and place representations 110 4.4. Critical inquiries: official place system vs. folk place system 4-113 4.4.1. Official and folk naming systems and place systems 113 4.4.2. The duality of official-folk place system as a basic urban category 115 Chapter 5. The imperial symbolic structure over the city 5-118 5.1. Introduction: the imperial city and its symbolism 5-119 5.1.1. The imperial symbolic models 119 5.1.2. Other principles/patterns 122 5.1.3. Imperial symbolism in a broader context 124 5.2. Pursuing the imperial symbolic manifestation 5-127 5.2.1. Lin’an as the choice of an imperial capital 127 5.2.2. Any conscious overall city plan? 129 5.3. The spatio-physical features 5-133 5.3.1. Two fronts of the Palace City 133 5.3.2. The Imperial Avenue 137 5.4. Imperial rituals and the use of place 5-139 5.4.1. Imperial rituals at Lin’an 139 5.4.2. The Grand Astral Rite 140 5.4.3. The pattern of imperial ceremonies 142 v 5.5. Mapping the idea of the imperial city 5-150 5.5.1. Formalization: a utilitarian explanation 150 5.5.2. The interpretation related to the elite tradition 152 5.5.3. The representation of the ideal imperial symbolic scheme 153 5.6. Critical inquiries: the imperial symbolic structure 5-155 5.6.1. The imperial place system 156 5.6.2. The imperial system and the overall structure of the city 158 Chapter 6. The structure of the city on everyday life 6-158 6.1. A general study on the development of urban wards 6-160 6.1.1. Shi 市 (Market) and Fang 坊 (Ward) as the basic urban unit 160 6.1.2. Fangxiang (坊巷) as an integrated urban unit 161 6.2. Growth and transformation of Lin’an and its commercial services 6-164 6.2.1. The market system 167 6.2.2. Special urban services 170 6.2.3. The typical streetscape 171 6.3. Selected urban place systems 6-175 6.3.1.Jiusi 酒肆— Wineshop 175 6.3.2. Chafang 茶坊— teahouse 177 6.3.3. Wa 瓦— entertainment centre 178 6.4. The “time structure” of place systems 6-182 6.4.1. The city’s “time structure” and the folk festival 182 6.4.2. Yuanxiao 元宵— the Lantern Festival 184 6.4.3. Qingming 清明— the Pure & Bright 185 6.4.4. The temporal rhythm of Lin 186 6.5. Multiple place systems: a section in the central market 6-189 6.5.1. The functional components 189 6.5.2. Cognitive place system: ways of describing places 190 6.5.3. The valence of urban places 195 6.6. Critical inquiries: cognitive urban structure on everyday life 6-197 vi 6.6.1. Spatio-formal cues vs. functional cues 198 6.6.2. The interlinked folk place systems 199 6.6.3. Folk place system and the overall structure of the city 201 Chapter 7. The multi-layered cognitive structure of the city: a conclusion 7-203 7.1. General aspects 7-203 7.2. Imperial place system vs. folk place system 7-205 7.3. The multi-layered cognitive structure of the city 7-207 7.4. Final remarks 7-210 ABBREVIATION 211 REFERENCE 212 Chinese language 212 English language 218 APPENDICES 229 A. Dynasty periods 229 B. The catalogue of Siku 232 C. The catalogue of the selected Biji and Zhi 234 D. The preface of Dongjing Menghua Lu 239 E. Interpreting historical Chinese texts and names 242 F. Theories on name: the modern vs. the ancient Chinese 244 G. An outline of the Confucian thinking 246 H. A classification of building types in Chinese architecture 248 I. The history of the city: Lin’an 249 J. Historical maps of Lin’an 253 K. Reconstructed modern maps of Lin’an 255 L. Other historical or reconstructed maps 259 M. Sections in QM and GS 263 vii List of tables Table 1-1. The organization of the thesis 9 Table 2-1. The intellectual gap between designers and researchers 11 Table 2-2. Research areas of Environmental Psychology 16 Table 2-3. 3-featured mental representation: perception, cognition and evaluation 20 Table 2-4. The restructure of Boulding’s “image” 22 Table 2-5. A comparison of four types of place name after Steward (1975) 34 Table 2-6.