CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE.
The architecture of China does not possess what we might call a serious
character. Founded mainly on Buddhistic elements, as far as the more
important efforts of their temple architecture is concerned, the only
original development that marks the Chinese structural design is the
pagoda tower—in itself really a Buddhistic idea—but the Chinese have the
credit of carrying it further in their Taas or Pagodas by placing story
upon story until sometimes a great height was attained; as, for example,
in the great porcelain tower at Nankin, which is 200 feet in height,
consists of nine stories, and is 40 feet in diameter at the base. Each
story diminishes in size, and the concave roof of every lower story is
in front of the receding one above. Varnished pillars, resting on a deep
stone basement, support the verandah-like roof of the lowest story, and
a fence of gilded trellis-work surrounds the lower half of the pillars.
The eaves of the roofs curl upwards and end in points from which bells
are suspended. Carved dragons peer out from under the rafters, and the
whole building, inside and out, as well as the roof tiles, is faced with
white porcelain slabs or tiles fastened to the inner brick structure;
some parts—the roofs especially—are painted in alternating bands of
green, yellow, and red.
The greater part of the Chinese houses are wooden constructions, and
have movable walls of various materials, which slide in framework. The
walls do not support the roof, which is, as a rule, supported on posts,
independent of them.
In the gateways to the Confucian temples some attempts at architectural
construction are seen, where a column would have a proper capital and a
base, and a lintel or arched opening would appear. These Pae-lus or
triumphal gates have the usual fantastic curled roofs so peculiar to
Chinese architecture (Fig. 330).
[Illustration: Fig. 330.—Gateway of the Temple of Confucius, Shanghai.]
The genius of the Chinese as great builders and engineers is expressed
better in their works of public utility, as in their finely-constructed
bridges, their canals, and more particularly in the Great Wall, built to
protect their country from the incursions of the Northern hordes, and
which is a monument at the same time to their native love of
exclusiveness from surrounding nations.
The Great Wall was built about B.C. 200, is 1,400 miles long, 15 to 30
feet in height, 25 feet thick at the base, and slopes upwards to 20 feet
in width at the top. It has bastions or towers of defence at intervals,
which are 40 feet square at the base, and the wall is carried over hills
and mountains regardless of all obstacles. Their country is a network of
canals, some of which are 700 miles in length.
Notwithstanding all this, they are no further advanced in architecture
than they were two thousand years ago, or, indeed, in hardly any of the
arts. At the same time the Chinese are remarkably skilled in porcelain
manufacture, silk weaving, embroidery, colour printing, ivory and jade
carving, enamelling, metal-working, casting, and decorative painting.
Their ornament is very conventional and rich in colouring, but their
ornamental forms are limited, and their decoration so full of repetition
that it becomes very monotonous when judged by a European standard.
The architecture of Japan differs very slightly from that of China, as
it is either an offshoot from the older civilisation of China, or has
been derived from the same sources, through the Buddhist religion. Some
changes have occurred in the architecture of Japan in recent years owing
to the more extended use of stone in their buildings, which has been
brought about by their interchange of ideas with Western nations.
Their Buddhist temples are similar to the Chinese, with their curious
turned-up roofs, but the Shinto temples are usually covered with roofs
that have great projecting eaves, which do not turn up at the angles.
The porches or gateways (Torii) to the temples are built in stone, but
in imitation of their earlier wooden construction; they are of the
pillar-and-beam order, and recall somewhat the construction, on a
smaller scale, of the “torans” or gateways of the Sanchi Tope in India
(Fig. 325).
The Japanese carve their wooden rafters, beams, posts, lintels, and
stringcourses very skilfully, with conventional ornament, dragons, and
grotesque animals. The better class of Japanese dwellings are usually of
two stories; the lower story has a verandah, and the upper one is
recessed back, and is smaller than the lower, which produces a pleasing
effect. Their walls are, like the Chinese, more or less movable
partitions.
Japanese ornament and industrial art (which will be treated in another
place) is more virile, has more variety, and is more artistic in
execution, though governed less by architectural arrangement, than the
art of the Chinese. The Japanese are, however, every day becoming more
impregnated with Western ideas, and, as a consequence, their wonderful
artistic feeling and native refinement of design, execution, and
colouring are in a fair way of losing those seductive qualities that
hitherto have characterized the artistic productions of these
interesting people.