The Book Review of Chinese Arc
Chinese Architecture Art and Artifacts is written by Liang Sicheng, a famous architect in China. The book is a collection of the English article written by Liang. He did a great contribution to Chinese architecture. He did the planning of Beijing at the time of new China. At that time, he tried to protect the old planning and old buildings when planning a new Beijing. Liang, his wife and his colleague did a great job in the planning of Beijing. Liang is a specialist in architecture. He did so many researches on the old buildings of ancient China and the book is about his research on ancient Chinese buildings.
In the book, Liang introduced many ancient buildings. He introduced the characteristic of the traditional Chinese buildings in different time. He also talked about some elements that are used in Chinese architecture frequently, including dou-kou and so on. Some architecture in northern China was also talked in the book such as some Buddhist Cave, old pagodas and the oldest wooden structure in China. Liang also talked about his trip on finding some actual specimen of ancient buildings. It was a hard trip according to his words. He found many old buildings during his trip. At the end of his book was two letters to his friends. He talked about the change in Beijing in the letter. And his also told his friend about his condition in recent time. He mentioned his wife, a famous female architecture, in the letter.
The book, Chinese Architecture Art and Artifacts, is a professional book about architecture but it is also an easy book for those want to get some easy knowledge about Chinese architecture.
For its profession, the book made a clear classification of different elements in the buildings. And even every element itself had its own classification. To make this classification, a large number of professional knowledge is needed. In fact, most of the classification is based on the chronological order, especially the classification on the architectural style. The architectural style is always different in different dynasty, so it must be acquainted with the architectural style of each time and each place when making the classification. Beside, many professional terms are used in the book to describe the traditional buildings of China. Some of the words are translated with its pinyin directly. For example, the old name of those temples in China called shen-men, it is because most of the temples in ancient China stood in deep mountains, so they got the name. In fact, this kinds of words that used by the ancient Chinese were difficult to write in English, so Liang write them with pinyin. It is more accurate to write in this way. Another factor that illustrated the profession of the book is the use of pictures and figure. There are many pictures in the book, including some photos of the buildings and some structure charts of the buildings. It is obvious that the photos showed the reader how the buildings really looked like. The charts is very professional, it contained the size of the buildings, the mainly structure of the buildings and so on. In fact, this kind of charts is so professional that not everyone understood them. When the book introduced a new building, it mentioned many figure. Most of the figure was the height, the length and the width of the buildings or some object in the buildings. It gave the reader a concreteness impression of the object.
Though the book is professional, it is still easy to understand.
In fact, Liang wrote this book in a lively style. There are many vivid simile in the book. When it came to some obscure term, Liang would try to use some vivid words to illustrate it. Besides, there are many vivid descriptions about the appearance of the buildings. When describing the Forbidden City in Beijing, he used many lively words. It seems that the buildings was just in front of the reader’s eyes. And the pictures in the book also helped the readers to understand the buildings better. Because there are so many professional terms in the book, not all the readers could get the meaning of the writer. But the pictures could do it. When the readers had difficulties in understanding the terms, the pictures could tell what the terms really mean directly. Because the book was written to introduce Chinese architecture to the foreign, the English that Liang used was just like a native speaker of English. But it is not difficult for Chinese readers to understand it too. The pinyin he used in the book also helped readers to understand the book better. In fact, the book did not like the professional dissertation at all. It used many interesting example instead of those insipid terms. And this preference also gained the readability of the book.
The book is of high value, not only because it was written by a famous professor but also because it was a good choice for those who want to know more about Chinese architecture.
In today’s society, many people prefer to learn about the church in foreign countries but a few people focus on the traditional Chinese architecture. And more and more people prefer to fit up their house with European style, the traditional Chinese style seem to be forgotten. One of the reasons of this preference is that the traditional Chinese style was difficult to achieve. But the most important reason is that people do not know much of the Chinese style. And some of this style seems to be strange when people use it in a wrong way. So the book was a simple guidance for the architect who major in Chinese buildings. And the book also tells people the artistic value of the Chinese architecture. And it also promotes the awareness of protecting the Chinese architecture. The book also conveys an idea that there are still many old buildings are not discovered and protected by the government. Our Chinese culture still has many unknown relics in China. There is a fact that some foreign people are more familiar with Chinese culture than our Chinese people. And many famous relics in China are discovered by the foreign. The more unbelievable thing is that while some foreign people are trying to protect Chinese architecture, our Chinese people are trying to destroy them. So it is necessary to read this book to know more about our Chinese architecture. The traditional Chinese architecture is the heritage from our ancestor. It is our responsibility to learn about this heritage. So the book is a good choice for the readers who are of great interest in Chinese culture.
The book Chinese Architecture Art and Artifacts is worth reading. And it is also worth recommending.
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