(East-West Question) Zhao Juan: Why has China's "magic beasts" continued to attract the West for centuries?
China News Agency, Beijing, April 27th: Zhao Juan: Why has the attraction of China's "magic beasts" to the West continued for a century?
Author Sun Mengyu
On March 26, a batch of Chinese-style classical glazed building materials arrived in Duisburg, Germany by China-Europe train from Wuhan to support the roof repair of the local "China Garden".
As early as a hundred years ago, the sheltering "little beasts" on the roofs of traditional Chinese buildings attracted the interest of the West. In 1924, the world's first "pioneering work" to systematically study the roof beasts came from the German collector Edward By Eduard Fuchs.
What is so unique about this architectural decoration, known as the ridge beast?
Why are these Chinese "magic beasts" so attractive to the West for centuries?
Zhao Juan, an associate professor at the School of Humanities of Beijing Sport University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions" to interpret this.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: What are the typical representatives of China's "roof beasts", and what are their unique features? Are there similar roof ridges in traditional western buildings?
Zhao Juan:
The "roof beast" is an important part of traditional Chinese architectural decoration, mainly used to decorate the roof and roof parts.
Different from architectural painting, it is a kind of "three-dimensional decoration". From the perspective of the construction of traditional Chinese buildings, it belongs to the category of "tile and stone construction".
The traditional "roof" decoration often uses the image of "divine beasts", these small beasts are also called "small run", and there are also various "immortal" images.
This kind of decoration has a strong ritual and cultural function, and the number, size and image of the placement and placement have specific regulations.
In addition to the 10 "trots" used in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City in Beijing, other places use a maximum of 9.
The order is: dragon, phoenix, lion, pegasus, seahorse, scorpion (pitou), yayu (fish), Xiezhi (xie), bullfighting (bull), and Xingshi (monkey); It can be interchanged with the fish betting position.
When the number is less than 9, the order will be followed.
Capital Museum Exhibition.
Photo by Du Jianpo issued by China News Agency
Western traditional buildings also have roofs and roof decorations, but due to different construction materials, construction methods and cultural concepts, they have different shapes from traditional Chinese buildings.
The eaves of ancient Greek temples were decorated with animal shapes and plant patterns, and sculptures of human figures were often placed on the roof of the temple.
There is a word "Dachreiter" in German, "Dach" is a roof, and "Reiter" is a "knight". Together, it is a building component that rides on the roof or ridge, which can be translated as "roof turret" and "roof small tower". (Building)", "Ridge Knight", etc., that is, the building components with prominent roof.
Because of their independent spatial location and height, they have strong visual appeal, especially in Gothic architecture, the spiritual connotation of roof decoration pointing to the sky is more abundant.
There is a very interesting phenomenon in cross-cultural viewing and understanding. There are differences in the form of roof decoration between China and the West, and it is this difference that attracts people from different cultural backgrounds to be interested in foreign cultures.
Although the manifestations of architectural art are different, people of different cultures have the same spiritual aspiration for living peacefully in the universe and the desire for beauty.
A foreign photographer showcases his photographs of Beijing's architecture.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Jia Tianyong
China News Agency reporter: In addition to writing books, German collector and historian Edward Fox also collected a large number of roof beasts. What is the progress of the collection and research of Roof beasts from the western perspective?
Zhao Juan:
Western collections with the theme of "roof beasts" are not very common, but there are many scattered such collections.
For example, German architect Ernst Boerschmann mentioned in the book "Chinese Architecture" that part of the pottery collection of Marienburg in Germany is made of glazed roofs.
In the "Sculpture" or "Ceramic" collections such as the Museum of East Asian Art in Germany, the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, and the Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, there are also some collections of "roof beasts".
With "The Beast of the Roof" as a dedicated collection theme, Edward Fox is a maverick.
He also published a book in 1924, the pioneering work "Dachreiter" mentioned above, with the subtitle "Related Chinese Pottery Sculptures of the 15th-18th Century".
In the same year, there was also a book "Sculpture of the Tang Dynasty" published in the same series.
Putting the two books together, you can see the historical span, subject matter and purpose of his collection of Chinese sculptures.
The German thinker Benjamin once said that Fox saw in the grotesqueness of "Sculpture of the Tang Dynasty" "the highest form of the imaginary", "the expression of a certain age of abundance and health" and a kind of "interesting and high-spirited energy".
Fox's collection of "Chinese Roof Decorations" is incompatible with the spirit of museums in the period of William II. They were not the masterpieces that the museum expected at that time, but Fox just wanted to show Europe through these collections that only through those "European masterpieces", people's understanding of history. The understanding of culture is incomplete, except for the "festive costumes" of museums, there are "simple weekday clothes", and he prefers "grand works" that are good at "showing beauty in the simplest way".
Here, we can see that Chinese art and culture have played a special value and function in participating in and promoting the self-reflection and self-construction of other cultures.
On January 6, 2019, a partial solar eclipse came out, rising from the corner of the roof of the Forbidden City.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sun Zifa
China News Agency reporter: German architect Bauchmann came to China three times to study architecture. His book "Chinese Architecture" also has a chapter on "roof decoration". What is his core concern for Chinese architecture research?
Zhao Juan:
Bauchmann came to China three times in the first half of the 20th century.
The first time was in Beijing in 1902-1904 as a German garrison architect.
During his vacation in Xishan, he conducted a meticulous inspection and surveying of Biyun Temple in Xiangshan, and later published a research report on "Beijing Biyun Temple" in the "Berlin Architect Journal".
He was touched by the beauty of Chinese architecture and developed a strong interest in the spiritual and cultural world behind Chinese architecture.
After returning to Germany, he submitted an application to the government to study Chinese architectural art.
The second time was in China from 1906 to 1909 to engage in architectural inspection and research, trying to understand the spiritual world of Chinese culture more deeply through Chinese architecture.
His investigations expanded from the Ming Tombs, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace in Beijing to 14 of the 18 provinces inhabited by the Han nationality at that time.
In his research, the buildings in the Beijing area can represent the highest standard and level of construction technology in China, but it is more important to collect more samples from different regions and conduct scientific surveying, recording and academic research on this basis.
Bauchmann's "Chinese Architecture" is a two-volume work published in 1925, the "Golden Twenties of the Weimar Republic", "Roof Decoration" is one of the chapters, which is obtained as the basic formal language of Chinese architecture. Explore.
In Bauchman's view, curvilinear roofs, high flying eaves and rich ornamentation breathe life into rigorous buildings, making them symbols of Chinese natural philosophy and spiritual beliefs.
This is also the common pursuit of all Chinese art forms, and clarifying this point has become the core concern of Bauchmann's research on Chinese architecture.
Renovation of Beijing Tuancheng Scenic Spot started, and scaffolding was erected next to the roof of the building.
Photo by China News Agency Fa Yuanzhou
China News Agency reporter: From a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, what influence have Westerners such as Bauchman and Fox brought to the study of Chinese architectural art such as the Chinese Roofbeast? What is the practical significance of contemporary Chinese (traditional) architecture research? What kind of mutual learning do China and the West have in roof decoration architecture?
Zhao Juan:
Westerners' special interest in "Chinese roof decoration" may imply the collective unconscious cultural psychology of Europe's "exotic cultural imagination" of China in history.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the "Chinese style" prevailed in Europe, and the visual elements representing "China" - high flying eaves, curved roofs and the "porcelain" sought after by the upper classes - were still popular among Westerners who came to China in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Make an impact deep inside.
The difference is that they no longer stay in imaginary constructions, but re-establish reliable knowledge and establish new cultural understanding through field investigation and research on Chinese architectural art.
At that time, a large number of Western scholars carried out investigation and research on Chinese architecture from different disciplines, including missionaries, art historians, sinologists, orientalists, ethnographers, and of course architectural engineers. Present an open and diverse situation.
These researches formed a kind of academic interaction with the traditional architectural investigation and research carried out by Chinese scholars of the China Construction Society, which included reference and criticism, as well as dialogue and confrontation.
Today, we want to trace the formation process of the discipline paradigm of architectural research in modern China, and the excavation, reflection and discussion of the academic history of traditional Chinese architectural research in the early Western China has become an indispensable and important link.
The greatest significance of these overseas studies is to remind us that we should view and understand history from the perspective of cultural exchange and interaction, and we should also pursue a better future through cultural exchanges and interactions.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Zhao Juan, Ph.D. in Literary and Art Aesthetics from Fudan University, post-doctorate in Art Theory and Art History at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is currently an associate professor at the School of Humanities of Beijing Sport University.
The main research areas are literary theory, aesthetics, and cross-cultural art history research.
He presided over the National Social Science Fund Art Project "Collection, Exhibition and Research of Chinese Art in the German-speaking World from 1860 to 1949", and completed a special funded project of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and a first-class funded project.
Published academic papers and translations in publications such as Literature and Art Research, Fine Arts Research, Fine Arts, Art Design Research, Zhouyi Research, etc.; published academic translations of Definitions of Art (2014), Boschmann and Temple Architecture in Chengde Area” (2019), etc.