Internal Characteristics of Chinese Architecture

Deeply rooted in traditional Chinese culture, ancient Chinese architecture boasts the following national cultural characteristics:

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Readability

Ancient Chinese architecture, like a silent cultural language, bears rich cultural symbols that reveal Chinese beliefs in life and society. For instance, houses belonging to people of higher social status will definitely have different types of roofs, steles, and couplets, compared with those of lower-status people.

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Introversion

Unlike many foreign buildings, which attach much importance to external appearance, some Chinese ancient buildings are simple externality but enjoy internal richness. Two typical examples are the Chinese Quadrangle (Siheyuan) and Gardens in Suzhou of East China's Jiangsu Province.

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Super-Stability

Ancient Chinese architecture has remained almost unchanged over thousands of years due to a long history of feudal society in which people embraced similar values and lifestyles.



When appraising ancient Chinese architecture, instead of jumping into mere favorable or unfavorable comments, one should never neglect the fact that the architecture have weathered the storms of time and survived till today. Therefore, critics should be objective by taking historical situations into consideration when making comments.

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Interdependence

The most influential idea in Book of Changes is that everything in the world is interdependent and one can never learn anything without placing it into a more general environment; Ancient Chinese architecture is no exception.

For instance, the reason why ancient Chinese buildings are made of wood rather than stones lies in the Chinese belief that wood symbolizes spring, green, and new life and therefore is used to build houses for the living. Stones, however, are usually used for mausoleums and graves.

What's more, the Eight Diagrams (Bagua, relating to divination), the Yin-Yang Principle (concerning opposing elements), and Feng Shui (dealing with attracting positive energy) all have exerted great influences on ancient Chinese architecture.