钤识 | 朱启钤：INAUGURAL ADDRESS （February 16，1930）

INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

THE SOCIETY FOR THE RESEARCH IN CHINESE ARCHITECTURE

February 16，1930

This is the first meeting of the Society for the Research in Chinese Architecture. We are thankful that you have been able to come and we consider your presence as indication of your desire to help and as an expression of interest in our work. Although this is on formal meeting, it may be of interest to you to hear how the Society came into existence and what are the things it intends to accomplish at least in the near future.

The serious study of so immense a subject as Chinese architecture is beyond my ability, for various reasons, of which not the least is my age and the incompleteness of my general knowledge. However, most of my life has been spent in architectural pursuits and this gives me hope that I may be employed by my younger contemporaries as the old horse—known in the proverbs of the East and the West—who can find its way home when its master is lost.

Any study of Chinese building leads quickly to fascinating problems in the history of Chinese culture. A house is a living symbol; it is the focus of the aspirations-social and spiritual—of the people who made it. It shelters the family and it is here in courts of prescribed proportions, shaded by walls of prescribed heights, in its chambers for social intercourse in its chambers for religious meditation and ceremony and in its private chambers that occurs the slow elaboration of thought and ritual-social as well as religious—which constitutes the lore of the folk and gives a race the stability which is necessary if it is to maintain itself in competition with others. It was by a wise instinct that our forefathers deified the five parts of the house and called them sacred and offered to them daily worship. It is at these five places, the gate, the well, the central court, for example, that the struggle between the old and the new reaches intensity. Not only are house symbols of the stability of a race, but they also record the struggles of a race. The procession of architectural styles, the fashions of ornaments which preserving the general design yet change with changing ages are records of the cultural ebb and flow. Thus it may be seen why the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture is led into the study of Chinese culture. Buildings are physical symbols; folklore is the spiritual foundation. The two must combine if either is to progress.

Some years ago, at a time when students of the history of Peking were still forced to draw their conclusions from literary sources, it was my duty—and at the same time my opportunity—to inspect the palaces, temples, walls, and other national buildings which were still not open to the public. I also came into contact with old residents and native artisans from whose lips I gained precious information unavailable from other sources. These with official records and technical instructions whetted my appetite for more information.

While minister of the Interior and Director of the first Metropolitan Municipal Bureau, I formulated several schemes which looked toward reconstructing the old buildings and displaying the ancient relics. Some of these were not successful, but a few, fortunately are being carried out to the present day. I have been constantly engaged in the work of opening the Three Palaces, Central Park, the Museum of Wu Yin, the reconstruction of Chen Yang Men, and the public roads. This work las increased my interest in our present project which is the careful investigation of the whole problem of Chinese technique, particularly in its historical development.

In 1918 I happened to read a Sung book, the “Ying Tsao Fa Shih (Methods of Architecture)” of which rare copy was in the Nanking Provincial Library. It was written on Imperial order by Li Chieh. The author was an officer of the Imperial Board of Works but his biography is not recorded by the official historians. The book, though included in the “Ssu Ku Chuan Shu," has been almost forgotten by the reading public for a thousand years. It is substantial and laborious an erudite book, and a great contribution to knowledge. At the same time that I recognized this, I was placed in difficulties by the numerous technical names, the frequent misprintings of characters and the confused order of the sentences. Several colleagues helped me to study it, checked it up with the Ssu Ku edition and enabled me to prepare a text which could be reprinted in better order and with colored illustrations of great precision. This work occupied several years, and even then ten to twenty percent of the technical terms remain undecipherable; but apart from these passages, the work is now in fairly good shape and offers frequent suggestions on many problems of Chinese architecture.

The student of Chinese architecture, however, may not confine himself solely to the study of the texts. Man aspects of this art can be studied only from the old artisan. The distance between written sources and practical knowledge is so great that the extremities can hardly touch. Those who know the technique probably do not know its origins, those who know the words, probably do not recognize the thing described. Since Li's book has been made readable we are beginning to see that there is a middle road which links the extremes, that the information given by artisans supplements and is supplemented by written sources. Our great task today is to make a record of the various kinds of information handed from master to apprentice from generation to generation and we must do it before the company of aged, poverty-stricken workmen dies out entirely. We shall be fortunate if we capture snatches of information from these men and record them for the use of future students who will be able to use them.

Li lived in the Northern Sung dynasty, he died at 1110. At this time the traditions of the Tang dynasty—the Golden Age of Chinese culture were still alive. The architectural art which Li discusses may be considered as having been drawn from a period only a little earlier than his. This may be taken as a starting point and from Chinese architecture may be traced backwards to the Han dynasty and forwards to our own times. With eyes fixed on this book we may see which art has been progressive and which has been reprogressive; which is ours and which has come from outside. History is made by forces which come from all directions. Li's book may be made to serve as a key which opens a part of the secret of history, and particularly the history of Chinese architecture; and as that history discloses itself, we feel the need, even more than before, of getting a view of the history of Chinese culture in general.

But the beauty of Chinese architecture is not our only reason for studying it. Architecture manifests the cultural evolution of the people. The late Professor Wang Kuo Wei’s important thesis on the “Chung Liu" in which he proves that the “Chung Liu” is a central court rather than an opening in the roof of a mud hut, no only offers a new interpretation to a passage in the Li Chi (i.e. the sovereign of the country is the She and Chi while the sovereign of the house is the “Chung Liu”)but it also throws important light on the early history and culture of the Chinese people, and the traditions and beliefs behind this culture, and from the earliest times of the present we feel the need of examining the customs, traditions, institutions—political and social—as they can be traced and explained in our buildings. The study of these problems is being carried on splendidly but I wish to emphasize here the importance of research into our material culture.

When we speak of the study of cultural evolution there is no place for nationalistic distinctions. The Chinese people has absorbed richly the achievements of other races, and one can see various foreign influences in all of our artistic genres. The influence of the Huns and the Western countries since Han of Buddhism since Wei and Tsin, of Persia and Arabia since Tang, of the Southern Seas since Ming and of the Far West since Chin is too obvious to need comment. But the work has just begun and there are still many sources of influence which the historians have overlooked.

When I visited many countries during my trip to Europe and America, though I did not understand western languages, I saw many things which suggested passages from our classical literature read in childhood; but the secret was so deeply hidden that it needed the combined efforts of the scholars of all nations if it is to be discovered. Then I felt more strongly than ever before the need of the classification and systematization of vagrant data in the study of Chinese Architecture as the first step in any investigation.

The materials I have collected and arranged with the help of my colleagues during the last years fall generally under four chief groups:(1)Lacquer, (2)Silk, (3)Women's Work, (4)The Lives of Famous Workmen.

Rough notes on some of these have been published; some are still in process of being collected. In addition there are various incomplete collections of paintings, photographs, models, and the like. A private exhibition was held in 1927 in the Central Park of Peking. Recently the China Foundation for the Promotion of Culture and Education has been very kind in lending financial assistance for further research.

At present we are beginning to work on an Encyclopedia of Chinese Architecture. We shall collect and explain architectural terms by literary and pictorial illustration and we hope to publish in Chinese and English. The encyclopedia will not be confined strictly to architecture but will contain also the names and description of costumes, vehicles, instruments, snort biographies of famous workmen and bibliographies of books touching on these subjects.

There are many difficulties in this work. First, many Chinese names have been the subjects of discussion for thousands of years and we can not hope at this date to reach in these cases satisfactory solutions to the problems. Second, we will probably not find exact interpretation in literature of the more technical terms. Third, Chinese literary men have used words loosely and it is frequently difficult to distinguish technical term from a literary metaphor. Finally, names of institution and beliefs, particularly religious names and phrases may be very important in architectural studies. To include those which are necessary and reject those which are useless is difficult.

A parallel work is the recompilation of official regulations, prescriptions, and reports left by former dynasties. In their present form those records seen to be nothing but figures and names. When recompiled they will appear as graphs and tables and will be of value in the explanation not only of terms. but also of instructions for work, prices and wages, and sources of building materials.

A vertical and a cross section study of our entire cultural history seems to me essential. The Ming Tang is an example. We all know that the Ming Tang is the crystallization of the political and philosophical ideas of the Chou dynasty. Is it created by the Chou peoples, or did it, as some believe, exist long before the Chou’s came into existence? The book of Mencious makes incidental mention of a proposal to destroy the Ming Tang. When did complete destruction take place? Is the Ming Tang of later ages still the same as the Ming Tang of the Chou dynasty?

Another good example is the Oh Fang palace of the Tsin period of which we are able to show a reproduction this afternoon. Was it the creation of a Tsin Emperor? It is the most magnificent building of history. When did the complete destruction take place? How did it influence other buildings? These are very big problems which await careful investigation. Therefore I intend to compile a chronological table of the constructions and destructions of various kinds of buildings.

Moreover, we must collect facts to show why certain works should have developed in certain regions at certain periods. For instance, the silk industry of Chi began at a very early date, Sze-ma Chien. says that Chi furnished the Empire with clothes. Thus Chi of the Chou dynasty is like the Manchester of today. The silk embroidery of the Han period was made in Shiang-Yi(Honan). In the later Han the brocade and lacquer ware of Szechuan were highly desired. These facts are found in the official histories and the last is interestingly confirmed by inscriptions recently taken from a Han tomb in Korea. Chronological and geographical tables of the distributions of different works are therefore earnestly desired.

In the past, the Chinese workmen were trained like an army and were kept stationed at given places for generations. The Chitai and Mongolian dynasties summoned expert workmen from all parts of the Empire and stationed then in the vicinity of Tin Chow (Hopei). During the first part of the Ming dynasty, workmen employed in public works came chiefly from Soochow and during the latter part of the dynasty, the emperors employed northern workmen who are even now to be found at Chi Chow in Hopei. Tables and graphs of the distribution of workmen are needed.

If we pass from the vertical to the horizontal, we observe that the culture of a people does not rise abruptly but is formed by many overlapping and complicated influences. Recent folklorists have proved this. We must join hands with them. Excluding the most ancient periods, we must note the influence of other peoples roughly in the periods of 1. the Mo Tien Tze Chuan, 2.Chang Chien 3.Fa Hsien, 4.Huen Tsang, 5. The Mongolian Empire, 6. Cheng Ho, 7. The Jesuits. These have been studied and are still being studied. The folklorists, geologists, geographers and historians have opened for us a vast field of investigation.

In conclusion a few words must be said about the name of our society. The Chinese name is中国营造学社and does not contain the term “architecture”. The reason for this, is though Chinese architecture is our chief interest, we feared that if we called ourselves a Society for the study of Architecture we would too strictly limit the scope of our work and thus be unable to carry on the investigations we plan into related fields. Moreover, the name we have chosen will keep before us the work of our venerable predecessor and master Li Chien whose book is entitled “Methods of Yin Tsao”. Thus we include within our range material arts: painting, sculpture—as used in decoration—, silk, lacquer, metal work, earthen wares; and when necessary in order to find explanations for our central problems, we will include the non-material culture: traditions, beliefs, rituals, music and dance.

The further we proceed, the more we feel that the study of Chinese architecture is not the private property of our own people. Our eastern neighbors have helped us in the preservation of old genres and in a strenuous research along the same lines; our western friends have helped us by offering the scientific method and discoveries in our own field.

To the scholars of all nationalities and all aims we express our sincere thanks and look forward in earnest hope for future contributions.