Chapter 58 right and wrong

one When traveling between cities and towns in Europe, what you see most is the architecture.Over time, it is inevitable that it will be compared with Chinese architecture. The strongest contrast is age. Starting from Athens and Rome, Europe has preserved a large number of classical buildings, and the age of the search is staggering.For example, the Parthenon is still regarded as the supreme example of classical architectural structure, but it has been built for more than 2,400 years, which is equivalent to the age of Confucius in China, and it is still standing on the top of the mountain so vigorously.

The Pantheon in Rome is perhaps even more incredible.At least two thousand years ago, the entire dome is still so beautiful and strong that almost all visitors will judge it to be one of the most outstanding buildings they have ever seen in their life.However, if we compare it with the age, we Chinese tourists will all feel depressed, and cannot imagine that a ground building in the Han Dynasty can be so well preserved to this day. As for the classical architectural complexes that make up the scale of cities like Florence and Paris, they also have a history of six to seven hundred years. Of course, we also preserve some Ming Dynasty buildings in China, but they cannot form the backbone of today’s urban landscape like these European buildings. , but also put it into practical use, let the crowded people flow in and out every day.

This scene shocked many Chinese travelers who had just arrived.I always thought that we have history and others have modernity, but it seems that this is not the case.If we lose the modernity simply because the history is too thick, this is not difficult to understand the reason, but where is the thick history preserved?Walking on the streets of Europe, looking around and comparing secretly, we know that we are largely lost at both ends. Some people say that China cannot preserve many classical buildings because there are too many dynasties and too many wars.However, one only needs to look up the history of Europe to understand that the frequency of their dynasty changes and the intensity of their wars are all higher than those of China.

One of the differences is that China has been used to destroying the whole of the target of attack since ancient times, burning or demolishing it, cutting the weeds and rooting them out, so as not to let its ghost haunt and revive; Europe is different, and cares more about the transfer of ownership, that is, occupation and plunder. There is a reason for this.European culture has a kind of stability beyond political changes. The power of religion and the existence of nobility make countless exquisite churches and elegant mansions become unmovable aesthetic and ecological images in the hearts of the people; while China's more decent ecology, Always seen as a direct extension of the power structure, it often lives and dies with the power structure.

Following this line of thought, contemporary Chinese cultural people will have a lot of emotion and write a lot of articles.However, as I have grown older, I have discovered the one-sidedness of this line of thinking. Now I am willing to treat such problems with a more plain attitude.Because in addition to social and political trends, which can be judged as good or bad, each self-contained ecological civilization also has sufficient reasons for its formation, and should be treated equally with a pluralistic mentality. If we use a plain attitude to explain why Chinese classical architecture is less preserved than in Europe, at least the following two factors should not be ignored: First, Chinese architecture is mainly made of wood; European architecture is mainly made of stone.The difference between the two main materials determines the length of the duration; second, the choice of different materials reflects different cultural concepts.Europe pursues eternity in the sense of religion, while China pursues endless life and renewal from generation to generation.

In the Chinese cultural tradition, solidified eternity is not valued.The life process of trees closely echoes the life process of human beings. Twenty years is a generation in the world, and wooden frame houses also need to be overhauled every 20 years.The obedience and filial piety of the next generation in China to the previous generation far exceeds that in Europe, but their greatest filial piety is to revive the family business and bring forth the new. Therefore, the dream of demolishing old houses and building new ones has almost become a kind of behavioral ethics that controls Kyushu.

This kind of comparison is very interesting, so walking in Europe, I am not deeply ashamed or filled with righteous indignation at the choice of the ancient Chinese. two Another contrast is color. It's a subject that makes me sad. Many Europeans we talked to, including some senior architects, believed that a major feature of Chinese architecture is the gorgeous colors, gold and red, and flying dragons.They based them on some palace-style buildings seen in Beijing and Taipei, as well as Chinese restaurants all over Europe. This kind of conversation has a kind of tacit common sense background, that is, each other knows that in the high and low levels of human aesthetics, nature, harmony, neutrality, and restraint are generally elegant, and conversely, artificial, extreme, gorgeous, and stimulating are vulgar .Modernist artists will break through this common sense, but that obviously does not belong to Chinese palace-style buildings and restaurants.

If this feature is regarded as an oriental sentiment, it is not appropriate. European friends politely say: Japan respects nature in color. Our gorgeous preferences have intensified in recent years.The pursuit of class in the big cities was led to restore the national characteristics, which is nothing more than that, but the national characteristics were interpreted as those carved palace symbols. As a result, the big yellow roof deviated from the overall pattern and covered everywhere, which was almost a disaster.Although some emerging cities have escaped this kind of disaster, there are countless signboards painted with fluorescent powder, which are all coquettish.The rural areas are even more extreme, as if color is the only sign of wealth, and so many dirty artificial colors cover up the natural colors that are close at hand, it can be said to be a shameful flower.

Therefore, almost all Chinese travelers admit that the most comfortable and quiet thing in Europe, whether it is urban or rural, is the completely restrained color.They seem to be competing not for excitement but for plainness. Some European friends who are acquainted with us sometimes want to give us Chinese people a little enlightenment on color science. They often say one or two sentences in a pretentious way: In fact, silver can be seen in gray, and there is no need to make it shine. On the contrary, monochrome is the most free and therefore the richest There is no artificial beauty in the world that has ever reached greatness

When I heard these words, I was indeed a little breathless, because the Chinese understood these principles much earlier than them, so why should they be enlightened instead? The bright and clear words that the five colors make people blind were said by Chinese philosophers 2,400 to 500 years ago, and all Chinese literati in the subsequent dynasties knew all about them.Looking up the last words of the sages of other ancient civilizations, no one speaks more clearly than this. More sufficient evidence is that ancient Chinese paintings are skilled in monochromatic ink and wash, but sparse in the application of color; calligraphy, which can be the most unique symbol of Chinese art, is the same color for thousands of years, and it is the most calm black.

I think that Chinese people also like gorgeousness, as evidenced by many rhetoric, but the canonical position of Chinese aesthetics is not like this.The simple and majestic atmosphere is like an ancient tripod and old pottery, which is the top-grade architectural color in ancient China.It's just that the later palaces and temples increasingly pursued superficial symbols of singing praises, praying for blessings and avoiding disasters, so they lost control and became viciously rampant. For this reason, I once joked with a French architect: It’s really a coincidence, I don’t know what magic, the ancient Chinese philosopher’s aesthetic proposition of restraining color is actually blossoming and bearing fruit here.Just watch, sooner or later we have to take back that incomparably beautiful simplicity and naturalness so that our ancestors can rest in peace. three Another contrast is sentiment. As I said earlier, most ancient Chinese literati understood the principle of restraining color, so they cultivated their feelings in ink painting and calligraphy on a daily basis, which is their elegance.But this kind of elegance sometimes goes crazy, incorporating some literary imagination into architectural design, especially exaggerating the role of borrowing scenery, comparison, and symbolism in garden construction, forming a sentimental fashion. To this day, many people still regard this practice as an excellent tradition in traditional Chinese architecture, and even as a basic feature of Chinese aesthetics. I myself have had this misunderstanding before.Until one year, when I read the introduction of Mr. Han Baode, a Taiwanese architect, in Beijing's "Shushu" magazine, I was suddenly suspicious, and immediately asked a foreign doctoral student I supervised to search for his works all over the world, and found three books to read. , suddenly realized. Later, I went to Taiwan and met Mr. Han. He accompanied me to eat at Din Tai Fung, visit the Hongxi Museum, and talk to his parents. Only then did I begin to understand some of the principles of architecture.Even some of the viewpoints I mentioned above come from him, and I think many Taiwanese readers can see clearly at a glance.At this moment, I happen to have a volume of "The Second Theory of Ming and Qing Architecture" written by him, and when I flipped to a page, I saw an ancient architect's argument on garden layout that he quoted: stones make people ancient, water makes people far away, Garden water stones are the most indispensable.It is necessary to have a steep loop and a proper insertion.One peak is a thousand miles of Taihua, and one spoon is thousands of miles away. Bamboos and old trees, strange vines and ugly trees need to be repaired. Mr. Han Baode's evaluation of this passage is: the vastness of China and the thousands of miles of rivers and lakes are facts in China's geographical situation. Its grandeur is originally possessed by a great country, and it is inevitable for writers to feel it.But if you use a stone to create the feeling of a thousand-year-old flower, use a ladle of water to create the momentum of thousands of miles in the rivers and lakes, and even rush to the spring, deep rocks and ravines, if you are not mentally ill, you must be daydreaming.However, most of the garden designs of the Ming and Qing dynasties were conceived in this way. This is really very happy to say, not only pointing out the morbidity brought by Chinese literati to architecture, but also pointing out some divergent paths in the study of Chinese aesthetics, dispelling a kind of fantasy about sentimentality. In fact, the wise men in ancient China also knew this truth.When a stone is a stone, and a ladle of water is a ladle of water, this is the first level; when a stone symbolizes a mountain, and a ladle of water symbolizes a river and lake, this is the second level, where little cleverness lies. In the world of sour literati, many people linger and forget to return, and look down on the first level of stupidity; there is no doubt that a third level must appear, that is, a stone becomes a stone, a ladle of water becomes a ladle of water. There is no longer any symbol, and it no longer bears any meaning. It only provides natural forms and washes away the literati atmosphere.This kind of perception has existed in ancient China. This is also like a dance. When the dancer's body no longer represents seagulls, galloping horses, heroes, wars, dead trees, and ghosts, but returns to his own true life, he rises from the second level to the third level. In my opinion, before the Tang and Song Dynasties, China paid more attention to authenticity, including architecture and garden construction.Later, the so-called landscape in the chest was the self-consolation of the literati who could not directly face the era of great mountains and rivers.It is conceivable that if Qu Yuan, Sima Qian, and Li Bai were allowed to see the art of bonsai, what kind of demeanor they would have. Knowing this truth, I can confidently state a long-standing feeling: Ming and Qing gardens, which have always been regarded as the wonders of Chinese architecture, do not represent the high-level realm of ancient Chinese architecture. In contrast, the French gardens constructed with geometric figures frankly present a completely artificial atmosphere. Because of their grandeur and meticulous carvings, they are enough to lift people's spirits and clear their eyes and ears.But in any case, the cutting of natural objects is too much, and the arrogance hidden in people's delicacy is revealed everywhere.Nature is nature. From today's point of view, it is not suitable as a symbol of seeing the big from the small as pursued by the Chinese literati in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, nor is it suitable for being arbitrarily distorted and organized like the French royal family did in the Palace of Versailles and other places. It seems that the natural gardens in England are more desirable. Four As I write here, I understand that experiencing Chinese architecture in Europe is like experiencing other Chinese cultural issues, with many perspectives and complex lines, which cannot be summed up in a single word.If you talk casually, even a layman like me can drag on for a long time, and it is hard to say. I would like a French female architect who is familiar with China to summarize this topic. I visited her home with two directors that day, and she said frankly at the beginning: Don't trust Americans too much, what they see in China is the market.Unlike us French, it is culture that takes a fancy to China. Asking her to talk about her feelings about China's construction industry, she said: China has indeed demolished many houses that should not be demolished, and built many buildings that should not have been built.If it is disassembled wrong, it will never be built again; if it is built wrong, it will be difficult to blow up.The previous problem in China's construction industry was that it underestimated history, but the problem in recent years is that it is eager for quick success.Those who despise history will dismantle it randomly, and those who are eager for quick success will make random construction. Her sharpness drew dissent from her husband.Her husband, an economist, is sitting next to her. The economist said to his wife: Our ideas are more realistic than yours.With such a large population and such a large place in China, the living conditions were generally bad in the past, but now they are finally getting better. Of course, the housing problem of ordinary people must be solved as soon as possible. A level architect, when will we wait?I believe that quick success and quick success should be at the point of quickly changing people's unbearable lives. His words reminded me of a past incident.Five years ago, a group of Taiwanese artists came to Shanghai for the first time. Sitting in a taxi and seeing few old Shikumen houses on both sides of the street, they spoke fiercely. Unexpectedly, the taxi driver stopped the car and must Debate with them.His main argument is: you force Shanghainese to live in houses without sanitation and gas pipes for the sake of cultural visits, how can you bear it!But in any case, the basic meaning of women architects is correct.Later, she reached some consensus with us, including her husband, such as: economical civil housing with modern functions and historical style should not be designed individually, but should provide a series of templates for free selection and mass production The biggest problem China's construction industry is currently facing is the overall layout of the city. It should be transferred from the non-professional executive's will to the judgment of the expert committee; the overall prosperity of China's construction industry must be based on sufficient After the new international architectural talents, because only they can capture the signal of national tradition from a macro perspective, and graft it with modern needs. These consensuses are mainly considered from the perspective of architects, but architecture concerns the whole people, so legal assistance must be obtained, just like many European countries.In those countries, demolition of houses that should not be demolished and construction of unsuitable buildings will be punished by law. Of course, a more general need than law is education.In Europe, even in the mountains and villages, we will marvel at their overall aesthetic level, which is the result of hundreds of years of education, and most of this education does not take place in the classroom.A person does not need to enter an art gallery if he does not like a certain painting, and does not need to enter a concert hall if he does not like a certain kind of music, but architecture is a mandatory aesthetic.For many citizens, this constitutes a positive or negative aesthetic adaptation, and for young students, it constitutes a forward or reverse aesthetic education.As a result, the aesthetic standards of an era and a nation gradually rise, or gradually get out of control. It can be seen from this that the matter of construction really cannot be as quick and quick as the economist advocated.Eagerness for quick success is the easiest way to hinder people's aesthetic awareness, and it is always too late to make up for it after awareness.The strange thing is that every time we are regretting, we are always doing things that we will regret tomorrow, forming a vicious circle repeatedly. For many people around us, what is architecture?Architecture is regret cast in cement. This definition of architecture may be included in the Devil's Dictionary.Then let it stay there, we have to pull out our hands to stop that cycle, to break that cycle.