Great pagodas and rotten beams

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In everything one should look for reasons and common sense. It turns out that there is it in the ridiculous Chinese architecture, only very unusual.

1. Exclusively Chinese

It just so happens, no matter what we are interested in, we constantly come across traces of the culture left by our ancestors. The "great ancient" Chinese did not escape this either. This "original and unique" civilization.

The inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom are proud of their architecture. I hasten to quote enthusiastic exclamations from the pages of one of the Chinese sites:

“The elegant profile and varied and intricate structure are symbols of Chinese architecture, such as overhanging cornices, lifting roof corners, as well as different roof shapes … These unique features are not only practicalbut also look great. It is a good design that combines practicalitywith beauty.

Chinese architecture can indeed be unmistakably distinguished precisely by its peculiar roofs with upward curved corners. So they themselves confirm this. Only I have well-founded doubts about the practicality (usefulness) of such a building solution.

Judge for yourself - it's not easy to build it. There is also a special support device (the so-called dougong)

and the tiles are laid with an offset. At the same time, I did not manage to find the benefits of such roofs. But there must be a reason to torment your builders in this way.

Let me give you an example from our native Russian culture.

1. The Russian reason for impractical roofs and domes

We also have no less intricate and unique Russian roofs. Just look at the ancient temple style.

Not at all easier than the Chinese. And also very beautiful. Only, unlike them, we do not make it up that it is practical. Perhaps, only such a Lutheran church is really practical. She is straight, no frills and shed-like.

So yes, we have a very impractical temple architecture. But we know what exactly this shape of the roof means. According to Grigory Sidorov (with whom I agree), this is done in memory of the resettlement of our ancestors from the sinking continent of Daaria.

Lack of time, cold weather and a lack of suitable building materials on the north coast forced them to use their own ships as cover.

In an inverted state, they were reliable dwellings. In memory of these events, of the endurance and resourcefulness of our ancestors, who are able to survive in the most difficult conditions, our people build such roofs.

No benefit, very difficult but justified … After all, this memory is sacred, and the connection with ancestors does not allow modern generations to go astray. Poppies are also performed for a reason. This is the same sectional shape of the hull of a wooden ship, only formed by rotation around its axis.

Modern Russian architects, of course, no longer know about this. But, fulfilling the orders of the ROC for the construction of new churches, very often they use elements of the Russian style.

Here is the Mikhailovsky Cathedral in Izhevsk. On the middle and upper levels, it is abundantly decorated with symbols of the great exodus from Daariya. Well, of course, the poppies.

And below you see the temple of the Iberian icon (also located in Izhevsk).

Despite the multiple borrowing of styles, the building of the central limit is again equipped with ship vaults, and all the domes are correct. How else to attract parishioners? It's so Russian.

In this way, architectural styles are created and maintained. If you know the legend, then everything is clear and justified. If not, then it seems beautiful, but difficult and very expensive. Maybe the Chinese have their own history of roofs? Indeed, there is one legend.

2. The official cover for ignorance

Chinese roofs are angled upwards in order to so that babies don't walk on them at night … Don't believe me? In vain. Here is the most common (it's also the official) version, which is outlined on the site for learning Chinese:

“Roofs in Chinese architecture have not only a purely practical meaning (they don’t have any at all, author), but also a mystical meaning. It is considered that Chinese roofs are folded towards the top to protect against evil spirits “Buddhists believed that bends ward off evil spirits in an attack on a house, usually taking the form of a straight line.”

It is unlikely that Chinese perfumes are very different from ours, or European ones. They are the same everywhere, unlike roofs. And in general, in this world nothing moves in a straight line. It's just some kind of misunderstanding of the Feng style. And for interacting with spirits or protecting against them, there are much less costly and effective means. That is, all this is unconvincing.

Such children's stories are designed to instill in the souls of superstitious and dark bearers of the tradition mystical awe, nothing more. They do not clarify anything at all. In the same way, mothers scare the kids with a "gray top" so that they do not lie on the edge and do not accidentally fall from the bed in their sleep.

We have to admit that today's guardians of Chinese culture do not know the real purpose of the curved roofs … Nobody wants to admit it. How can you consider your ancestors to be the creators of a great culture, if even today you do not understand its meaning?

But to me personally, this meaning is extremely clear. It can be expressed in three words - BLIND IMITATION OF IDOLS.

3. Not only in Russia are they imitated abroad

Where to look for these idols? You don't have to go far. The source of the Chinese style is the usual Russian wooden huts. One and all of them acquire a pretentious Chinese style, having stood for a hundred years. Here is a painting by Mikhail Ivanchenko "Old House". It shows well the shape of a dilapidated roof with a ridge bent over time and snow load.

You can see this "traditional Chinese architecture" in any abandoned village. Fortunately, we have a lot of them.

So in the next picture, you can see that domestic architects, when arranging "elegant and practical" stingrays, did without dougongs.

First of all, it is the ridge that is destroyed from decay. But this is on a gable roof. And on a four-slope (hipped) roof, just the rafters on the ribs bend. Here it is quite similar, like two drops of water.

Moreover, our people involuntarily get such roofs even on a newly covered building with corrugated board.

I understand that such hints of a reasonable person will not convince. Let's get down to the evidence.

4. Neighborhood affairs

It is worth noting that the Russian people have long been the northern neighbor of today's ethnic Chinese. This does not require special evidence. But nevertheless it is interesting that in the Celestial Empire the so-called "tulou" are still preserved under the guise of their own architecture.

Literally from Chinese it is translated as "high earthen building". In Russian it is simply "Tula". Namely "shelter". For the root "tul" in our language means to cover. Look at our primordial words TUL-up, which they get away with, TUL-lya hats behind which they constantly stick something, attach, that is, hide, and many other derivatives from this root. Such as in-TOUL-ka into which something is also inserted. And the buildings themselves, as if by chance, resemble such a large earthen plug.

According to legend, they were built by the northern people "Hakka". These, in fact, were the fortresses, since the southern neighbors were hostile to the northern people. It is clear that the mysterious Hakka (God knows how it sounded in our normal pronunciation, maybe the Khakases, and maybe otherwise) spoke quite Russian.

That is, our traditional buildings were known to the Chinese. Both serfs and economic, and most importantly, and cult. They certainly respected our ancestors. Because they were not internationalists. They treated everyone not according to international law, but according to what he deserves. Dignity is understandable for everyone, which means that they did not communicate on equal terms with everyone.

The northern neighbors of the Chinese were very strong, and as the testimonies that have come down to us say, they did not forgive offenses. In turn, poorly developed peoples have always respected strength, and the highest human qualities inaccessible to them were taken for weakness. Well, they received it regularly on request.

Such thrashing should have caused the ancestors of modern Chinese to want to be like "tough" neighbors. It was only later that they drew up the ideology of the great celestial empire, with a painful sense of their own exclusiveness.

And then, looking at the ancient wooden religious buildings of the northern neighbors, the inhabitants of the future celestial Empire built for themselves the image of their future architecture - the older the temple, the more crooked the roof and the steeper the holiness.

5. Fashionable rags

By the way, such a tendency to follow external signs, without understanding the internal essence, is observed quite often. It seems to me a convincing example from the past of "enlightened" Europe.

It is known that knights during the Crusades, being in hot countries, covered their armor with cloaks made of light fabric. In the hardships of war, the hem of these cloaks tore, turning into a kind of fringe. The tattered cloak of the knight served for the inhabitants as a testimony to the difficulties he experienced, his experience, in general, his coolness.

This attribute quickly became fashionable. Soon the court gentlemen were already sporting robes decorated with fringe, which, by the way, also has no useful use.

And nowadays such behavior is not at all uncommon, it is enough to look with what pleasure modern young people wear torn trousers. Young people always wanted to look older, more experienced (shabby), cooler, etc.

People of age are also not lagging behind, and they gladly buy for the patina of copper and bronze things, somehow forgetting that this is, in fact, oxides, dirt, the gradual destruction of metal.

Decorative cracks on ceramics and plaster, of course, give things antiquity, although I strongly doubt that such a state of walls and utensils would have pleased the ancient Hellene.

So human weakness every second generates a lie, the desire to APPEAR, AND NOT TO BE. Right, this is not new, and not surprising. Why shouldn't the Chinese also sin once?

6. The best witness is a dead witness

Obviously, the point of view presented in the article dispels the aura of the original antiquity of Chinese culture. It can hurt the pride of many. Therefore, I do not want to indignantly indignate the whole people and their admirers. That is, I want, of course, to sober up many, but only reasonably. Therefore, I call dead witnesses.

Witness # 1. This is an image of a building at the bottom of a Chinese bronze bowl, 5th-3rd century BC. e. Pay attention to the ends of the roofs.

They were not afraid of any nocturnal reels then. The roofs are straight and practical. A very large overhang indicates an abundance of precipitation and significant winds. Only such overhangs will protect the walls from slanting rain.

And here is the relief depicting the city gates. It is dated back to the 2nd century BC. (Chang'an). All the same.

In the next picture, we see a relief image of a pavilion from a family burial (2nd century AD, Shandong province). And again, no crooked roofs.

And here is a model of the tower, 1st … 2nd century BC. Hebei province. Burial near Wandu.

We see beams on the corners of the roofs that look very much like chicken rafters.

They were so called because of the shape of the butt of the tree, very similar to a chicken paw. Such a rafter keeps the slope of the roof slope from slipping, and this makes a construction sense.

We see something similar here. There are curly beams, no curved roof ends. So there are plenty of witnesses. They all say that the Chinese have made really practical, straight roofs from time immemorial. Everything suited them, and nothing foreshadowed future perversions.

Conclusions:

1. The style of Chinese architecture is largely IMITATIVE, or fabricated (which is even worse). This is confirmed by its impracticality and the lack of intelligible explanations regarding the meaning of such complex roofs.
2. Finds from ancient Chinese burials confirm that there was no hint of such a style before. Plain straight roofs.
3. Obviously, the curved roof ends mimic the dilapidated roof beams of a conventional timber structure. Imitation is characteristic of people who do not feel whole and self-sufficient. Probably, this can be attributed to the peoples in general.

Izhevsk.

Alexey Artemiev.