Chinese Traditional Houses and Architecture (excerpts from four documentaries) Part I

One of the things that I admire most in Chinese culture, is the uniqueness and beauty of the Chinese traditional houses. Amidst the buildings and skyscrapers in China’s busiest city, Beijing. We can still get a glimpse of China’s ancient past, like in the Walled City, or the Forbidden City and in other historic sites in the provinces of China wherein you can still get to see traditional houses.

I have watched some documentaries online, and I want to share with you what I have learned. The facts that I’ve gathered here are from the four documentaries I have seen on the internet, namely CCTV 9, Art of Asia – Four Asian Rooms, UNESCO and NTDTV. Images on this blog are from Google Images.

This post of mine is for educational purposes only. For the goal of this blog of mine is to share with you, the wonders and beauty of Chinese culture, music, tradition, food and way of life. This is a two part post.

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The first video that I have seen is about the style of line drawing and how it is integrated in the contemporary design of Chinese traditional houses.

Chinese Civilization : The Charm of Chinese Traditional Houses (CCTV 9)

Line drawing is a Chinese traditional painting technique ink and brush style started in Song dynasty. Plain lines and simple colors are used to capture the rhythm of mother nature.

Some of the people that made marks in the history and style in terms of line drawings.

Gu Kaizhi (16^th B,C) founder the line drawing technique.

Li Gonglin is an artist, civil office and archaeologist  from the Song dynasty, he developed the line drawing system while Wang Qijun is a line drawing style contemporary artist when drawing traditional Chinese tradition houses and architecture. In the Chinese traditional architecture. His painting captures every design of Chinese traditional houses.

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In the next documentary that I have seen. Chinese and Japanese architecture were explained. Architects, carpenters, and artisans of both countries also recreated rooms in Japanese and Chinese styles. I didn’t took included the details with regards to the Japanese Rooms since my main focus is of the Chinese architecture and style.

Aside from the beautifully designed Chinese rooms, I noticed their great fondness for nature, as it is evident in Chinese traditional paintings, photos of flowers, fruits, tress and the backdrop of beautiful hills and flowing waters.

 On the second part of the documentary, gardens were explained briefly, and here we can see that nature is also a part of the Chinese architecture, and in building a house. The life of a government official was vividly pictured here, while the narrator tells each scene, you can feel as if you’re part of the story.

Art of Asia – Four Asian Rooms

Both the Chinese  and the Japanese used impressive halls to receive guests. The Wu family owned an extensive complex of buildings in the town of Dongshan. Their reception hall is the largest and the most important building. The courtyard is surrounded by other structures that made up the family compound.

                                                                            We know that the Wu family was wealthy and socially high-ranking because of the room’s large size, Ornate ceiling carvings, and diagonally laid floor tiles. All designed features reserved by law for important people . 

When receiving guests the head of the household may have sat on a wooden couch, softly lit by lanterns and backed by a receiving folding screen. Similar to these examples by the museums important collections. Their important visitors would have been seated next to the family’s leaders in hard wood chairs. Less important guests sat further away in smaller chairs, and the least important guests would have occupied stools off to the side.

                                    

As a special room for important occasions the owners would have decorated this space with their prized works of art. They would have hung painted scrolls and examples of calligraphy, and in spaces between the rooms pillars. Richly embroidered cushions and pillows would have made sitting more comfortable and giving the room a more luxurious ambiance. Certainly guests by the Wu family would have been impressed by this scale and elegant contents of such a  room in addition to receiving guests the Wu family could also use the reception hall to honor their deceased ancestors by rearrainging the room they could place long altar table  beneath ancestors portraits were family members could make offerings of food and incense. They might have displayed the family shrine before which family members could offer prayers and ask for their ancestors blessings and assistance.The Chinese believe that if their ancestors were honored and cared for in the afterlife all would go well for their living descendants.

The Chinese believe that immersion in nature was an important part of life. Great gardens in Suzhou China integrated outside and inside spaces. A small gardens offers a welcoming view from the scholar’s library.

In China a scholar’s library or studio was a place to quietly enjoy art literature and music. It is a place of intellectual and artistic pursuits for the head of the household also as a place to escape. From the mundane concerns and duties of his job as a government official. In this private place he might practice calligraphy or painting while enjoying his collection of art objects used and treasured by past scholars. Amidst his books and hanging scrolls. He might entertain similar gentleman sipping tea or wine while composing poetry or playing the Qin a stringed musical instrument. He might pass his leisure hours enjoying the songs of  small birds or he might gather crickets and keep them in ornate cages to encourage them to chirp he might tickle them with tiny brushes. These pleasant past times enjoyed alone or with friends are enjoyed in the scholars library where it is easy to forget about the concerns and daily life.