Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
early years of the Ming Dynasty, renders a greater sense of stableness and security.
It is this feature of the layout of the city that has won enormous appreciations and
praise from Western architects and city planners for its aesthetic value. The Danish
architect S. E. Rasmussen remarked Beijing as “one of the wonders of the world, in
its symmetry and clarity a unique monument, the culmination of a great civilization.”
1
The American city planner E. N. Bacon praised highly of it, saying “Possibly
the greatest single work of man on the face of the earth was Peking.... it is so bril-
liant in design that it provides a rich storehouse of ideas for the city of today.” He
also highlighted central axis line and the lakes adjacent in yellow and blue, which
appeared prominent and vivid against the greyish surface plan.
2
One should, however, note more the thought underneath the design of the surface
plan. From the architectural perspective, two points should be clarifi ed:
4.2.2.1
Relationship Between Building of City Walls and City Plan
According to Chinese tradition, all ancient cities were built with walls. Hence the
Chinese character “” (
cheng
) has a dual meaning. It may mean “a city” or “the
wall of a city.” It can also be used as a verb. For example, in “Cart Driving,” one
poem from Minor Odes,
Book of Poetry
, one of ancient classics, there is a line, “wall
the place in the north.” Here the word “wall,” used as a verb, means “to build.”
Building of city walls is most essential in the design and plan of a capital city. For
example,
Kaogongji
(
A Study of Engineering
), a volume of the ancient classics
Zhou Li
or
The Rites of Zhou
completed during the Age of Autumn and Spring
(770-476 B.C.), had a paragraph “The Way the Craftsmen Build the City,” which
summarized the experiences in city building since the founding of Zhou Dynasty,
and on its basis established a standard for capital city building as follows:
A capital city should be square in shape, each side being nine
li
long. There should be three
gates on each side. Within the city, there are nine thoroughfares running longitudinally and
another nine latitudinally, each wide enough for nine chariots driving abreast. On the left
side within the city an ancestral temple should be erected. And on the right side there should
be an altar of harvest. The court should be built to face the front while the market square
should be placed at the rear of the court.
It is self-evident that the imperial court is in the center of the city. For this idea,
reference can be made to He Ye-ju's
Research on the System of Capital City
Building
, from which some quotation could be cited as follows:
Why was the imperial court located in the middle of the capital? I think this is closely
related to the doctrine of “to choose the middle” esteemed by the people of Zhou and it cast
great infl uence on the determination of the location of a capital. To build the capital in the
middle of a kingdom is not only convenient for the subjects from different directions to pay
tributes to the king, but also easier for the king to reign over the country from the center.
3
1
Steen Eiler Rasmussen,
Towns and Buildings
, MIT Press, paperback edition, 1969, Preface, p. v.
2
Edmund N. Bacon,
Design of Cities
, revised edition, 1980, p. 244.
3
China Building Industry Press, 1985, pp. 55-56.
