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From a generic village home to grand imperial
palaces and temples, Chinese architecture has one underlying principle
- a north-south oriented walled compound with the main entrance to the
south called the siheyuan.
Courtyards were built with traditional
concepts of the five elements that were believed to constitute the universe
and the eight diagrams of divination in mind. The gate is placed at the
southeast corner, which is the ‘wind’ corner, while the main building
is placed to the north, which is associated with the ‘water’ element,
an element that opposes fire. As always the underlying concepts of Yin
and Yang, harmony and balance, and the feng shui principles
of geomancy dominates all architectural activity hence the preference
for concentric or symmetrical construction.
An interesting feature of Chinese architecture,
particularly buildings of imperial nature, is the significance of the
number nine. The ancient Chinese considered odd numbers masculine. As
nine is the largest single digit number, it is considered categorically
masculine. An excellent example of the architectural principles stated
thus far can be seen in the city of Beijing itself.
The entire city of Beijing was designed
with the north-south axis centered on the Imperial Palace, neatly dividing
the city in half. Important structures and features were planned as mirror
images of one another. The Ritan (Altar of the Sun) has a counterpart
in Yuetan (Altar of the Moon). Xidan and Dongdan,
the eastern and western commercial quarters that are still the capital’s
main shopping streets, are also good examples of these principles. More
specifically, the four towers at the corners of the palace compound in
the Forbidden City have 9 beams and 18 columns each while the three famous
screen walls each have nine dragons. An almost extreme example of this
passion for nine is the Huanqintan (Circular Mound Altar) in the
Temple of Heaven, which was a site for Ming and Qing emperors to worship
Heaven. The altar is constructed in three tiers. The upper terrace is
made up of nine concentric rings with the innermost ring consisting of
nine fan-shaped slabs and each outer ring consisting of slabs in an increasing
multiple of nine.
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