perfectly joined and exposed to view, are, so to speak, like a frame that may be taken to pieces, and transported from place to place at pleasure. When there is a scarcity of wood, the walls are constructed of bricks, mud, or stone, and the roof of gutter tiles or thatch. In the province of Kwangtung, the houses are almost all of bricks, having scarcely anything but a ground floor. In cities, many have an upper storey, or more properly a garret. They must not equal the temples in height, a thing which would expose him, who might be so daring as to attempt it, to a lawsuit, and his house to demolition. As to the interior, the apartments are badly distributed, and badly ventilated. Instead of glass there are latticed windows prettily carved and covered with silk paper. The first apartment entered is the hall for the reception of strangers, which is likewise the dining-room, and extends through the house, or the main building, if there are several edifices united. From this hall we pass on to the other apartments, which no person, not even a kinsman, can enter, unless he be a very near relative. There is no floor except in the houses of the wealthy, and no ceiling unless there be an upper storey. Seen at a distance, the better Chinese houses present a pretty appearance but the interior by no means corresponds to the outside. As they are generally of only one storey, an individual sometimes occupies as many as three contiguous buildings, and hence it is not surprising that their towns should occupy a great space. In front of the house there is always a pretty yard or court, which serves for drying rice, threshing, and divers other purposes; the rear and sides are environed with trees or bamboos, and if there are several main buildings, they are separated by inner courts.
“The temples, much higher than dwelling houses, have usually a beautiful front, supporting a stage for actors. The corners of the roof, which is sharper than that of a private edifice, are turned up in the manner of a cornice, and on the right and left of the entrance, are placed huge lions in stone, of inferior sculpture. After passing the portal, we enter a spacious court surrounded by long galleries resting upon columns. At the further extremity of this is the proper temple, where are figures in wood or stone of various colours, which, though varnished and gilded, are for the most part very hideous. Before these are set open dishes, and large vases, bearing lights and incense burnt in honour of the gods. At the side are one or two iron bells and a large drum. Besides the principal edifice, which is properly the sanctuary, there are lateral apartments where the priests lodge. A temple built against a rock, upon a hill, or in the midst of a grove, presents to the eye a very picturesque view. The Chinese erect upon certain eminences towers of many stories in height. These are of a hexagonal or octagonal shape, and much overtop the temples. Each storey supports a jutting roof, which does not so much serve to shade the gallery under it, as to contribute to the beauty of the structure. Such towers are built in the neighbourhood of cities, not at all for their defence, but to secure prosperity to the inhabitants, and to avert calamities.”10
Superstition accounts for the prejudice against two-storied buildings, or of any building dwarfing its immediate neighbours, as this deprives the humbler dwelling of Heaven’s guardianship. Height is also limited by the belief that good spirits soar through the air at a height of 100 feet, a restriction of moment only in gate temples and other buildings on city walls. Climate and the belief that good spirits blow from the south have decided the orientation of buildings with a southern aspect and windowless north walls. The abhorrence of a tortuous path, which is a characteristic of evil spirits, has given us the spirit walls which defend so many gateways. For the same reason we have the upcurved roof ridge with its dragon finials.
The most striking features in the best native buildings are the roofs and gables, with their ridges and fantastic gargoyles (龍頭), of plaster or porcelain. These gargoyles represent various creatures perched in single file on the angles of the roof, each one cast in a single piece with the tile on which it is resting. The origin of the figures is as follows:
“In the year 283 B.C. the cruel tyrant, Prince Mín, of the State of Qí, after being defeated by a combination of other states, was strung up to the end of a roof ridge and left hanging there without food or water, exposed to the burning rays of the sun until he died. In order to stigmatize his evil deeds the people of the State of Qí placed his effigy, riding a hen, on the roof of their houses. With the weight of the prince on its back, the hen could not fly down to the ground, and in order to prevent it escaping over the roof, a qíwén, a kind of dragon, was placed at the other end of the ridge. This is the fierce beast you see, with horns and bushy tail and its mouth wide open, as if to swallow Prince Mín and the hen, if they venture near him. It was not until the time of the Míng Emperor Yônglè that the other figures were added. A correct set was put together in the following order: hen, dragon, phoenix, lion, unicorn, celestial horse, qíwén. If more were required, any of the figures could be repeated, with the exception of the hen and the qíwén, but always so as to form an odd number up to eleven. The reason for this was that odd numbers come under the influence of yáng or Male Principle. However, in later times both the principle of odd numbers and the conventional arrangement of the set were departed from. In most cases the only figures that were used, between the hen and the qíwén, were those that foreigners call dogs, but which are really lions. Moreover, since the latter days of the Republic, even the hen with Prince Mín was removed from the roofs of public buildings, so as to prevent, it is said, any possible unpleasant political comparisons.”11 It is a custom of the Chinese builders, on fixing the upper beam of the roof of a building, to let off fireworks and worship it, or the spirits that preside over the ground on which the house stands. To suspend a piece of red cloth, and a corn-sieve, from the upper beam, is supposed to promote felicity—the latter to cause an abundant harvest of grain during the year. Placing money beneath the base of a wall or below the threshold of a door is also done for the promotion of happiness and felicity on the building. Pine branches are affixed at the top of the scaffolding poles on which the builders stand, so that wandering spirits of the air will be deceived into the belief that they are passing over a forest, and will not adversely affect the success of the construction work, or bring bad luck on the house.
“Engraved rocks are seen in China, though the practice is not carried to the same extent as in Persia, India, and other eastern countries, to commemorate remarkable events, for the literature of the people obviates the necessity. The smoothed surface of rocks in situ are, however, engraved with characters under the direction of geomancers, when they lie in spots esteemed lucky; such characters are supposed to have some cabalistic influence upon the fortunes of the surrounding country. The pillars and door-posts of temples, and the entablatures of honorary portals are often inscribed with sentences and names; sometimes to commemorate distinguished or worthy individuals, and sometimes merely for ornament’s sake; the skill displayed in cutting these inscriptions is at times almost inimitable. The government also employs this mode of publishing their laws and regulations, just as the Romans anciently published their Twelve Tables, which are, as the officers say, to be kept in everlasting remembrance; the characters are plainly and deeply engraved upon marble, and the slab is afterwards set up in a conspicuous spot in such a manner as to preserve it from the effects of the weather.”12
“Memorial arches (牌樓), are scattered in great numbers over the provinces, and are erected in honour of distinguished persons, or by officers to commemorate their parents (formerly), by special favour from the Emperor. Some are put up in honour of women who have distinguished themselves for their chasity and filial duty. Permission to erect them is considered a high honour. They are placed in conspicuous places in the outskirts of towns, and in the streets before temples or near government edifices. Some of these arches are elaborately ornamented with carved work and inscriptions. Those built of stone are fastened by mortises and tenons in the same manner as the wooden ones; they seldom exceed twenty or twenty-five feet in height. The skill and taste displayed in the symmetry and carving upon some of them are very creditable.”13
The architecture of old Peking is full of symbolism (vide NEZHA). It has a beautiful appearance as viewed from the surrounding wall, from which can be seen an entrancing vista of temples and palaces, their curving roofs glittering with blue, green and yellow tiles, among the groves of trees with which the city abounds. The
