Ancient Design Principles and Influences:
Beijing, as a city that is hundreds of years old, has design principles that have been around for longer. Beijing is bound to the north and west by mountain ranges, at the very edge of the North China Plain. The layout of the city is a square placed just north of a rectangle. The Second Ring Road lays on top of where the old city walls used to be (the first ring would be the wall around the Forbidden City). There are five design elements that exemplify what Beijing is about as a Chinese city, and each element is rooted in a deep ideology that has direct influence on the structure of Beijing. These five elements are the grid, walls, axes, placement, and symmetry.
Furthermore, Chinese culture does not treat cities in the same way that Western culture does. In fact, cities in China were never seen as a stepping-stone to empire expansion, but rather, an important facet of Chinese feudalism and agriculture. Instead, cities were seen as administrative centers to promote and improve agriculture [1]. Cities were meant to hold emperors, governors, magistrates, and the people who served them. Secondly, Chinese culture was impacted by a variety of cults and religions, each which provided a contribution to the layout of the city. Such cults were ancestor and agricultural worship, Confucianism, and Buddhism[1][2].
All these elements are the most unique facets of Chinese culture that contribute something to the design of Beijing. It is impossible to study the singular impact of a variable. Rather, each design aspect is influenced by a variety of cultural causes, which work together coherently.
The Grid and Axes:
Beijing was the home to the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty [3]. This is why the Forbidden City, the symbolic and ritualistic home of the Emperor is directly in the middle of Beijing. This imbues Beijing with a ritualistic purpose, and provides power to its axes, especially the north-south axis [4]. In fact, in modern Beijing, this axis has much more weight since the Olympic Park was built in the north of the city.
In ancient times, agriculture and ancestral worship had great value. Traditionally, the Temple of Grain and Soils and Temple of Ancestors were placed at the south edge of the city [5]. The Temple of Heaven in modern Beijing is the ancestral temple of the emperor’s family. This serves to emphasize the Confucian belief that the emperor was the Son of Heaven, and that the capital city, or where the emperor resided, was the place where Heaven and Earth met [6]. If we see the north-south axis as a proto-timeline, the Temple of Heaven symbolizes the past, Forbidden City symbolizes the emperor’s era and life, and the Olympic Park to the north symbolizes a modern, forward looking city.
The grid layout of the city is not unique to Beijing. The grid can be seen in many other Chinese cities, especially former capitals like Xi’an. However, Beijing exemplifies the logical use of the grid due to ritualistic meaning. In Feng Shui, the eternal lifeforce, Qi, is believed to flow from the south. The goal was to accumulate as much qi as possible in order to stimulate prosperity. Therefore, city planners searched for a site that was surrounded by mountains, and then followed the north-south axis as closely as possible in order to have the buildings of the city face south [9]. We see even now that the Forbidden City faces south, with Tianan Gate (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) as the main collector of qi.
The Wall in the City:
While the wall is not unique to China, it has shaped Beijing. In old times, walls had protective and administrative meaning. Walls had watchtowers on top of the gates with weaponry capabilities, such as holes for archers to shoot arrows from. Additionally, walls could be used to control populations and prevent damage to the city from flooding [7]. However, walls also had symbolic purpose. The walls in Chinese capital cities throughout history had different heights based on the hierarchy of government officials. This suggests the idea that the wall retained symbolic meaning even after floods and populations were controlled. This symbolic meaning is held in Confucianism and the belief in balance as the marker of a good ruler. If an emperor was able to maintain the walls of his city, he therefore respected the sacred area where Heaven met earth, and also preserved the balance of nature as prescribed in Confucianism [8].
In modern times, the wall has taken on a more deeply personal meaning for Chinese families. On a familial level, the wall is the ultimate distinction between public and private. Each wall of a siheyuan separates a specific function with a clear hierarchical structure [10]. After the siheyuan were subdivided, the density of the inner city increased and so did the importance of the wall. As newer residents in encroached upon the courtyards order to build “temporary” kitchens, bathrooms, and secondary external rooms, the wall began to divide what used to be a common area for a family into maze-like pathways. Furthermore, the wall is what residents used to share information. Government and neighborhood notices were placed on walls outside of siheyuan for everyone to read. Plumbers, air conditioner repairmen, and recyclers paste stickers onto walls in order to advertise their services. And most striking of all, residents are informed of impending destruction with a huge character painted on their wall – “raze”.
Sources:
[1] Victor F.S. Sit, Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City (Hong Kong: John Wiley & Sons, 1995), 19.
[2] Gideon S. Golany, Urban Design Ethics in Ancient China (United Kingdom: The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd., 2001), 9.
[3] Edmund N. Bacon, The Design of Cities (need publisher info), 244.
[4] Bacon, The Design of Cities, 249.
[5] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 60.
[6] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 65.
[7] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 92.
[8] Sit, Beijing, 20.
[9] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 54-55.
[10] Chiu-Shui Chan and Ying Xiong. “The Features and Forces that Define, Maintain, and Endanger Beijing Courtyard Housing.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, Vol. 24 (Spring, 2007) 42-64.
Media:
[1] Stickers on a Hutong Wall [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-elderly-chinese-woman-with-bound-feet-walks-through-the-news-photo/2417212
Beijing, as a city that is hundreds of years old, has design principles that have been around for longer. Beijing is bound to the north and west by mountain ranges, at the very edge of the North China Plain. The layout of the city is a square placed just north of a rectangle. The Second Ring Road lays on top of where the old city walls used to be (the first ring would be the wall around the Forbidden City). There are five design elements that exemplify what Beijing is about as a Chinese city, and each element is rooted in a deep ideology that has direct influence on the structure of Beijing. These five elements are the grid, walls, axes, placement, and symmetry.
Furthermore, Chinese culture does not treat cities in the same way that Western culture does. In fact, cities in China were never seen as a stepping-stone to empire expansion, but rather, an important facet of Chinese feudalism and agriculture. Instead, cities were seen as administrative centers to promote and improve agriculture [1]. Cities were meant to hold emperors, governors, magistrates, and the people who served them. Secondly, Chinese culture was impacted by a variety of cults and religions, each which provided a contribution to the layout of the city. Such cults were ancestor and agricultural worship, Confucianism, and Buddhism[1][2].
All these elements are the most unique facets of Chinese culture that contribute something to the design of Beijing. It is impossible to study the singular impact of a variable. Rather, each design aspect is influenced by a variety of cultural causes, which work together coherently.
The Grid and Axes:
Beijing was the home to the emperors of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty [3]. This is why the Forbidden City, the symbolic and ritualistic home of the Emperor is directly in the middle of Beijing. This imbues Beijing with a ritualistic purpose, and provides power to its axes, especially the north-south axis [4]. In fact, in modern Beijing, this axis has much more weight since the Olympic Park was built in the north of the city.
In ancient times, agriculture and ancestral worship had great value. Traditionally, the Temple of Grain and Soils and Temple of Ancestors were placed at the south edge of the city [5]. The Temple of Heaven in modern Beijing is the ancestral temple of the emperor’s family. This serves to emphasize the Confucian belief that the emperor was the Son of Heaven, and that the capital city, or where the emperor resided, was the place where Heaven and Earth met [6]. If we see the north-south axis as a proto-timeline, the Temple of Heaven symbolizes the past, Forbidden City symbolizes the emperor’s era and life, and the Olympic Park to the north symbolizes a modern, forward looking city.
The grid layout of the city is not unique to Beijing. The grid can be seen in many other Chinese cities, especially former capitals like Xi’an. However, Beijing exemplifies the logical use of the grid due to ritualistic meaning. In Feng Shui, the eternal lifeforce, Qi, is believed to flow from the south. The goal was to accumulate as much qi as possible in order to stimulate prosperity. Therefore, city planners searched for a site that was surrounded by mountains, and then followed the north-south axis as closely as possible in order to have the buildings of the city face south [9]. We see even now that the Forbidden City faces south, with Tianan Gate (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) as the main collector of qi.
The Wall in the City:
While the wall is not unique to China, it has shaped Beijing. In old times, walls had protective and administrative meaning. Walls had watchtowers on top of the gates with weaponry capabilities, such as holes for archers to shoot arrows from. Additionally, walls could be used to control populations and prevent damage to the city from flooding [7]. However, walls also had symbolic purpose. The walls in Chinese capital cities throughout history had different heights based on the hierarchy of government officials. This suggests the idea that the wall retained symbolic meaning even after floods and populations were controlled. This symbolic meaning is held in Confucianism and the belief in balance as the marker of a good ruler. If an emperor was able to maintain the walls of his city, he therefore respected the sacred area where Heaven met earth, and also preserved the balance of nature as prescribed in Confucianism [8].
In modern times, the wall has taken on a more deeply personal meaning for Chinese families. On a familial level, the wall is the ultimate distinction between public and private. Each wall of a siheyuan separates a specific function with a clear hierarchical structure [10]. After the siheyuan were subdivided, the density of the inner city increased and so did the importance of the wall. As newer residents in encroached upon the courtyards order to build “temporary” kitchens, bathrooms, and secondary external rooms, the wall began to divide what used to be a common area for a family into maze-like pathways. Furthermore, the wall is what residents used to share information. Government and neighborhood notices were placed on walls outside of siheyuan for everyone to read. Plumbers, air conditioner repairmen, and recyclers paste stickers onto walls in order to advertise their services. And most striking of all, residents are informed of impending destruction with a huge character painted on their wall – “raze”.
Sources:
[1] Victor F.S. Sit, Beijing: The Nature and Planning of a Chinese Capital City (Hong Kong: John Wiley & Sons, 1995), 19.
[2] Gideon S. Golany, Urban Design Ethics in Ancient China (United Kingdom: The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd., 2001), 9.
[3] Edmund N. Bacon, The Design of Cities (need publisher info), 244.
[4] Bacon, The Design of Cities, 249.
[5] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 60.
[6] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 65.
[7] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 92.
[8] Sit, Beijing, 20.
[9] Golany, Urban Design Ethics, 54-55.
[10] Chiu-Shui Chan and Ying Xiong. “The Features and Forces that Define, Maintain, and Endanger Beijing Courtyard Housing.” Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, Vol. 24 (Spring, 2007) 42-64.
Media:
[1] Stickers on a Hutong Wall [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-elderly-chinese-woman-with-bound-feet-walks-through-the-news-photo/2417212