Characteristics of Sui Dynasty architecture
The architectural characteristics of a single building are that the roof slope of a single building is gentle, the eaves are far-reaching, the brackets are large in proportion, the pillars are thick, and panel doors and panels are often used. The straight casket window is solemn and simple in style.
The Sui Dynasty was the mature period of China’s ancient architectural system. The Sui Dynasty built the well-planned Daxing City, dug the North-South Grand Canal, and built the Anji Bridge, the world's earliest open-shoulder stone bridge. The urban layout and architectural style are grand in scale and powerful. Its Chang'an City continued to operate on the basis of Daxing City in the Sui Dynasty and became the largest city in the world at that time. In terms of building materials, the application of bricks gradually increased, and the number of brick tombs and brick towers increased; the firing of colored glaze was more advanced than in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and its use was wider. In terms of construction technology, great progress has also been made. The wooden frame method has used material properties quite correctly, and "timber" has emerged as the standard for the design of wooden frames, so that the proportions of the components have gradually become stereotyped, and there has been We have a craftsman who specializes in rope ink drawing and construction. The architectural and sculptural decorations are further melted and enhanced to create a unified and harmonious style. Residences, according to the different levels of the owners, have strict regulations on the size, number of rooms, number of shelves, decoration, colors, etc. in the foyer, which reflects the strict hierarchy of Chinese feudal society. The remains of palaces, mausoleums, grottoes, towers, bridges and city palaces from this period have a high level of art and technology in terms of layout and shape. The sculptures and murals are particularly exquisite. They are the pinnacle of architecture in the early feudal society of China.
The main characteristics of the architecture of the Second Tang Dynasty:
First, it is grand in scale and rigorous in planning.
Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, was originally planned and built in the Sui Dynasty. It covers an area of ??83 square kilometers, eight times the size of today's Xi'an city (Ming Xi'an City). It became the largest and most prosperous city in the world at that time. The planning of Chang'an City is the most rigorous among ancient Chinese capitals. The grandeur and breadth of other buildings such as the city and government offices are also unmatched by any feudal dynasty.
Second, the handling of building groups has become increasingly mature:
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, not only the overall planning of the city was strengthened. Palaces, mausoleums and other buildings also strengthen the spatial combination that highlights the main building, emphasizing the foil technique in the vertical axis direction. This technique is the origin of the layout of palaces and mausoleums in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The imperial mausoleums of the Tang Dynasty mostly made use of the natural terrain. Because the mountains served as tombs, they were more imposing than the man-made tombs of the Qin and Han dynasties. The tombs had extremely long sacred passages, strong and majestic stone carvings, and were more numerous than before. The murals inside the tombs were particularly vivid.
Third, wooden buildings have solved the technical problems of large areas and large volumes, and have been finalized:
By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, large-scale buildings no longer relied on ramming as they did in the Han Dynasty. The solution is to use a high earth platform to outsource a small-space wooden building. Each component, especially the component form and materials of the bucket arch, has been standardized. The standardization reflects the progress of construction management level, accelerates the construction speed, and also promotes architectural design.
Fourth, the improvement of design and construction level:
Technical personnel who master design and construction are "all materials", professional and technical, specializing in public and private housing design and on-site command, and Live by this. Generally, houses are constructed according to the drawings on the walls. After the house is completed, his name must be recorded on the beam (see Liu Zongyuan's "Zi Ren Biography"). The name "Du Liao" was still used until the Yuan Dynasty.
Fifth, masonry construction has further developed:
Mainly due to the increase in the number of pagodas using masonry. At present, all Tang pagodas preserved in our country are masonry pagodas. In the Tang Dynasty, there were three types of masonry towers: pavilion type, dense eaves type and single-story tower.
Sixth, the authenticity and maturity of architectural art processing:
The architectural style of the Tang Dynasty is characterized by grandeur, strictness and cheerfulness. The existing wooden building materials reflect the unity of architectural art processing and structure in the Tang Dynasty. The structure of the brackets, the image of the pillars, and the processing of the beams all make people feel the inherent connection between the stress state and the image of the component itself, achieving the balance of strength and beauty. unified. The color tone is simple and bright, the roof is stretched and flat, and the doors and windows are unpretentious, giving people a solemn and generous impression. This is a feature that is not easy to find in the architecture of the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Characteristics of the architectural style of the Three Song Dynasties
The level of masonry construction in the Song Dynasty continued to improve. The masonry buildings at this time were mainly pagodas and bridges. Lingyin Temple Tower in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Fan Tower in Kaifeng, Henan Province, and Yongtong Bridge in Zhao County, Hebei Province are all examples of masonry architecture in the Song Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, China's economy and society developed to a certain extent, and gardens that focused on artistic conception began to rise during this period. Chinese classical gardens focus on freehand brushwork, integrating natural beauty and artificial beauty, and expressing a certain artistic realm through architectural and artificial domestic landscapes, rocks, ravines, flowers and trees, etc. The more representative gardens of the Song Dynasty include Su Shunqin's Canglang Pavilion and Sima Guang's Duyuan Garden. The Song Dynasty promulgated the "Building Methods", a standard book on architectural design and construction, which is a complete monograph on architectural technology. The issuance of this book reflects that during this period, Chinese architecture has reached a new level in terms of engineering technology and construction management.
The architecture of the Song Dynasty can be considered as a softened version of the architecture of the Tang Dynasty. The structure is smaller and tends to be beautiful, straight, soft and elegant. It influenced the development of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties and has the status of connecting the past and the future. The Liao Dynasty was built by the Khitan and preserved the vigorous and vigorous style of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, the oblique burden first appeared, and the internal space of the wooden structure and its refined form showed a high degree of creativity. Dougong technology has been quite mature during this period, with various types, but its load-bearing role has been greatly weakened, and the ratio of arch height to column height is getting smaller and smaller. Some of the angs that originally played an important role in the structure have been replaced by oblique bundles, and the number of tweeds has increased. In addition, the roof slopes of buildings in the Song Dynasty increased, and the column reduction method was boldly used, resulting in a very rich combination of houses. Tile decorations varied during this period, and the technology for making glazed tiles improved. High-end buildings often used glazed tiles and blue tiles to form sheared roofs, giving people a soft and brilliant impression. There are many styles of ceilings, including round wells, octagonal wells, diamond-shaped covered bucket wells, etc. The decorative patterns of the Song Dynasty are generally inherited from the Tang Dynasty, and are exquisite and elegant, but their style is far inferior to those of the Tang Dynasty. Depending on the level of the building, the color paintings can be divided into three types: multi-color decoration, green-green color painting and earth-red brush decoration. For details, see "Building Style". During this period, aconite doors appeared, and the doors and windows of houses included panel doors, floor-to-ceiling windows, lattice doors, lattice doors, sill hook windows, etc. The column foundations are mostly of the raspberry type, which are short and flat, with many patterns. The railings are slimmer than those of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and retain the image of wooden railings. During this period, the artistic treatment of the platform base was also very detailed. For example, the Xumizuo method specified in the "Building Method" has as many as 12 floors. During this period, the output of bricks further increased, and it can be seen from the structure that the brick structure technology at that time also made great progress. However, the city walls are still mostly made of rammed earth, with only a few city gates covered with bricks, and the brick arches have not yet appeared, and are still supported by trapezoidal wooden piles. This is fully demonstrated in "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". Many people in the Ming Dynasty forged Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", but they could not escape the influence of the style of the time. They painted the city gates in an arched shape, exposing flaws and becoming a target for authenticity.