1. Differences in building materials. The choice of materials for Chinese and Western architecture is not only affected by natural factors, but more importantly, by cultural mentality. Chinese architecture has used earth wood as the main building material since ancient times, while the West mainly uses stone as the main building material.
The Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin. Due to the vast geographical environment, there are large natural differences between various regions. However, whether it is residential buildings or palaces and other buildings, they all chose civil engineering. For building materials. China's primitive economy based on agriculture has given people a special attachment to the land and plants, creating a lifestyle in which the Chinese have valued the harmonious coexistence between man and nature since ancient times. This is because in the choice of building materials in ancient times, people have Naturally, very common civil engineering materials are used as the most basic building materials. The later derived cosmology of "the unity of nature and man" regards man and nature as a whole. It can be said that the ancient Chinese people who emphasized "the harmony between nature and man" regarded civil structures as the basis of architecture. The most basic materials are essentially the embodiment of attaching importance to the affinity relationship of life. According to research, ancient Chinese cave dwellings, shallow cave dwellings, nest dwellings and other buildings were basically made of loess and trees. With the advancement of human production technology, building materials are also constantly improving. However, the tradition of using loess trees as the main building materials was still followed until the Ming and Qing Dynasties and became the most basic feature of traditional Chinese architecture
. For example, in southern China, due to the humid climate and lush vegetation, in addition to using green tile roofs and brick walls, a large number of building materials in southern residences are wood. The Hui style, which uses white walls and green tiles, bricks, wood and stone carvings, pavilions, pavilions, and stacked courtyards as its main architectural tone, is a typical wooden structure architectural form. Similar to this are the wooden and bamboo buildings that are common in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau in my country. In the southwestern region, due to the humid climate, residential buildings were raised off the ground, resulting in so-called stilted buildings. The materials used in these residential buildings were all wood. However, folk houses in northern my country generally use bricks and loess as building materials. For example, cave dwellings in the northwest and adobe houses in the northeast all inherit the tradition of cave dwelling in ancient my country. In comparison, ancient Greece and Rome located on the coast of the Mediterranean had rugged terrain, short rivers, lack of plains, sparse soil and abundant stone resources, including large amounts of limestone, marble and other stone resources. This also became the natural environment basis for ancient Westerners to choose stone as a building material. In addition, the primitive economy of the West, which was dominated by hunting
created Westerners' human-centered cultural mentality, which later evolved into the philosophical tradition of "dividing the body into two", all of which have influenced Westerners' social culture. . Westerners choose stone as a building material. On the one hand, it embodies their rational spirit of pursuing truth. On the other hand, in the relationship between man and nature, it emphasizes that human power can overcome everything. Due to the development of productivity and the influence of religious concepts, stone metaphors the mystery and sacred beauty of religion. This "stone-love complex" born in primitive culture has made stone architecture the mainstream architectural culture in Europe for more than 2,500 years, from ancient Greece to the rise of Western modernity in the early 20th century.
Temples in ancient Greece, the Colosseum in ancient Rome, churches in medieval Europe, etc. are all buildings that use stone as the main building material. Classical architecture until the Renaissance and official buildings such as palaces used stone as the main building material. Chinese architecture, which uses earth and wood as building materials, tends to be simple, natural, graceful and harmonious in texture, and is richer in the sentiment of life and feminine beauty. Western buildings, which use stone as the main building material, are hard in texture and have little plasticity, giving people a sense of strength, strength and rigidity, embodying a masculine beauty.
Differences in the two architectural structures
Yu Hao, who was good at building wooden pagodas in the Northern Song Dynasty, said in the "Wooden Classic", a book on the method of building a house: "Every house has three parts, starting from the beams. Above is the upper part, above the ground is the middle part, and above the ground is the lower part.” Here "above the beam" refers to the roof, "below the ground and above the beam" refers to the body of the house, and the steps and platform below the body of the house are the foundation of the house. Yu Hao's description clearly pointed out the three components of Chinese architectural structure: roof, body and foundation.
Whether it is a timber-framed stacked-beam or tunnel-type building, or a hybrid building with a civil-timber structure, as an individual Chinese architecture, it is composed of these three parts. Among spatial shapes, the most striking structural feature of Chinese architecture is the beauty of the roof. Traditional Chinese buildings mostly use beams and columns to support the roof. At the same time, in order to prevent the components made of civil engineering as the main material from being damaged or rotting, bracket technology is used to extend the eaves outwards under the support of brackets to drain accumulated water in rainy weather
Roof. Liang Sicheng once had this explanation: "The Chinese roof curve, which has always been regarded as extremely unique and mysterious, is actually just a straightforward and natural result of the structure. There is nothing beyond the principles of mechanics or artificiality. At the same time, it is practical and beautiful. All are extremely successful. The whole curve and outline of this kind of roof, the towering upper part and the light eaves spread like wings, make the actual part which is extremely boring and clumsy become the crown of beauty of the whole building, which is unprecedented in other buildings. Characteristics." As Liang Sicheng said, the roofs of Chinese architecture are diverse and have become the most exciting part of Chinese architectural space modeling. This kind of sloping roof that spreads like wings has its own characteristics in different historical periods. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, the roof of the building had a gentle slope and the eaves had far-reaching overhangs, which cast beautiful shadows under the sun, making people feel deeply. Feel its natural and vivid beauty. The roofs of buildings in the Qing Dynasty
have steep slopes, which make people feel solemn and solemn. Generally speaking, due to the influence of Confucian "neutralization" thought, Chinese architecture mostly shows the beauty of harmony and implicitness, paying attention to the coordinated development of various structural parts of the building, making it unified and smooth. Therefore, no matter which part of the building is damaged, as small as a wood or a wall, it will give people a feeling of incompleteness. In comparison, Western architecture pursues a structural form that is opposed to nature. Western architecture with exaggerated scales and precise geometric proportions embodies Westerners' conquering spirit of transforming nature. This kind of "number structure" architecture emphasizes the power of man-made power rather than the harmony between man and nature in artistic spaces. For example, the facade, plan and section of the Parthenon in ancient Greece have mutually appropriate geometric proportions in the internal and external spaces, thus creating a kind of "numerical structure" beauty. Just as the roofs of Chinese buildings are important to Chinese architectural culture, Western sculpture art is also an important cultural force to Western architecture. After going through Baroque culture and Rococo culture, Western architecture began to create a sculptural beauty. It focuses on the sculpture of the building facade rather than the structure. This kind of sculpture is closely related to the structure. It can be said that the beauty of the structure is created through sculpture. The structure is internal and the sculpture is external. Therefore, from the appearance , Western architecture
has a strong sense of sculpture. This sculptural sense is a tenacious beauty full of weight and strength, which is great, sublime and shocking. For example, Le Corbusier's passionate architectural work "Ronchamp Church" is actually an imaginative sculpture. This classic creation not only embodies the architectural cultural concept of pursuing sculpture in Western architecture, but also Modern architectural culture reflects the inheritance and development of traditional architectural culture by Western architecture.
Three Differences in Architectural Spatial Layout Chinese society has used blood relationship as the basic unit of social structure since ancient times. This blood family relationship has a profound impact on the group layout of Chinese architecture. The group space layout that we often see in Chinese architecture mostly appears in the form of "siheyuan". In China, where harmony is valued, the architecture embodies the beauty of a family-like collective. Wang Guowei once said:
"The system of our family is ancient. In a family, there are fathers and sons, and brothers, and fathers, sons, and brothers each have their own partners. That is to say, as far as a man is concerned, the noble one How many concubines can there be? The whole family cannot be accommodated in one room, and the hall and the house are not suitable places to live in. However, if the houses are to be connected, it must be a house of four ahs, four ahs. It is a house with four buildings, with its halls separated from east to west and south to north. There are four halls outside. The four rooms at the back are also connected to the atrium from north to south?" Wang Guowei's paragraph The words illustrate the influence of ancient Chinese family system on the layout of Chinese architectural groups and the mutual correspondence between family structure and architectural layout. The most common courtyards are Siheyuan, Sanheyuan and Second Heyuan.
The general feature is that it is composed of several individual buildings enclosed by walls, corridors, etc., one courtyard after another, forming a progressive building group. Multiple courtyards are organized into a group layout, showing a clear master and slave and neat axes. The process of assembling courtyard buildings reflects the orderliness of Chinese architectural layout, as well as a deep-rooted social order and a sober secular rational spirit. Different from Chinese architecture, European architecture is not affected by blood relationships and family concepts, and no longer pursues the Chinese-style closed architectural cultural form. In the West, squares are part of citizen life, growing and maturing together with the city. It is the central area for urban political, economic and cultural exchanges. Government buildings, churches, theaters, shopping malls, temples, etc. are often built around the square. The square is an architectural culture rich in national characteristics. For example, Piazza San Marco in Italy during the Renaissance was a central square in Venice, surrounded by the city government building, St. Siminian Church, the Doge's Palace and St. Mark's Library, etc. Famous buildings. St. Mark's Square provides citizens with an open place for entertainment and leisure. It is an open-air living room where people play. The openness of the square reflects the lively and active personality of Westerners. In addition, the spatial layout of Western buildings presents a high-altitude, vertical, and upward form. At the same time, the social and cultural mentality of attaching importance to the consciousness of the subject and emphasizing individual concepts determines that Western architecture attaches great importance to the publicity of individual characteristics, and strives to highlight its individual characteristics in spatial layout, and build buildings as tall and straight as possible. For example, the Cathedral of Strasbourg on the Rhine in France is 142 meters high; the church in Ulm, Germany is 161 meters high; the Pantheon in ancient Rome has a dome diameter and top height of 43.3 meters, and the walls are made of concrete. With a thickness of 6.2 meters, it is really a huge thing. A large arena with an oval shape in ancient Rome.
It is 188 meters long, 156 meters short axis, and 48.5 meters high. It is divided into four floors and can accommodate 80,000 spectators. The sheer size and height of these majestic and majestic individual buildings highlight the individual image of Western architecture. This kind of architectural space layout is a favorable reflection of the open and democratic social and cultural atmosphere of the Western world. It reflects Westerners' enthusiasm for worshiping gods and uses technology to give people a kind of spiritual support for advancement.
The difference between the four spiritual levels
Bruno Sevi explained the conflict between man and God in European architectural culture in his book "Architectural Space":
"Egypt = an era of awe, when people devoted themselves to preserving corpses, otherwise they would not be able to seek resurrection; Greece = a beautiful era, symbolizing deep rest in the excitement of passion; Romanesque = force and luxury Era; Early Christian = the age of piety and love; Gothic = the age of longing; Renaissance = the age of elegance; various revival styles = the age of memory. He pointed out that this theme is constantly changing in the history of architecture. From a spiritual level, architecture, like other cultures, also takes the cultural conflict between man and God as its cultural theme. When mentioning the relationship between man and God in Chinese architectural culture, of course, we must start from the most basic point. Let’s start with the primitive cosmology of heaven and earth. Chinese architecture in ancient times is actually the universe in people’s minds. The world draws out an artificial space-time
field from the universe of heaven and earth, and the building architecture imitates the universe of heaven and earth in people’s imagination. It can be said that in ancient China, the relationship between man and architecture was actually the relationship between man and the universe. The Chinese heaven, earth and universe originated from the origin of architectural culture, and they were originally integrated into one. “In the beginning, mankind could only take what was natural. Things just support themselves. With a little progress, you can engage in farming and animal husbandry. In matters of agriculture and animal husbandry, the resources for survival come from the ground, and their abundance and abundance are tied to the fields. Therefore, the knowledge of astronomy was greatly advanced at this time, and the worship of celestial phenomena also flourished." As early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the concept of kingship on earth was projected onto "heaven", which formed people's minds about "the sky". The concept of "Emperor of Heaven". Then "Emperor of Heaven" and "Emperor of Heaven" were regarded as gods in the late Yin Dynasty and early Zhou Dynasty. People often asked "Emperor of Heaven" before acting.
In ancient times, the emperor was the substitute of the "Emperor of Heaven". The emperor's title governed the world, which in turn caused people's worship of the heaven, earth and universe to evolve into a worship of architectural construction activities. In comparison, when it comes to embodying the conflicting and harmonious relationship between man and God, Western architecture has more obvious characteristics than Chinese architecture. For example, its religious buildings have left traces of "god" in the construction of space. As Hegel said: "Freely flying straight up makes its purpose disappear even though it exists, giving people an impression of independence and self-sufficiency."
"It has and shows a definite purpose, but in its majesty and sublime silence, it raises itself beyond the simple purpose and shows its own infinity." The conflict between man and God in the Western Church is basically The above is characterized by the overwhelming power of God’s aura over human nature, but it does not mean the complete destruction of human nature. In front of God, people become insignificant on the one hand, and on the other hand they place their ideals on God. In China, due to the strength and tenacity of Confucian traditional culture, China has been a nation indifferent to religion since ancient times, which makes Chinese religious buildings try their best to converge the aura of God and stretch the posture of people