Harmony And Beyond

In essence, a building is a man-made entity condensing material and spiritual content created by human beings. The entity is a social production rather than a natural outcome, and it is the culture created by human wisdom rather than the substance bestowed by the nature. On account of the differences in historic origin, social customs, psychological structure, ethical ideas and value systems between Chinese and the western people, their architectural cultures are widely divergent. The article shows the differences between the aesthetic culture of Chinese traditional buildings and that of western ones by means of comparative analysis mainly from four core aspects.Chapter I mainly interprets the different laws of Chinese traditional buildings and that of western ones in the perspective of psychological and physical harmony. Chinese traditional buildings are mostly influenced by Confucius and Taos thought. The former and its Ritual-Musical spirit, whose purpose is to deal with the relation between the human beings and their society, and between people and people, render the buildings paying great regard to not only hierarchy but harmony as well, while the latter influences Chinese gardening buildings, which pursues an artistic conception, an aesthetical feeling from heart to substance and a harmonious relationship between the human beings and nature. No matter the Confucius' unification between emotion and rationale, or the Taos' unification between heart and substance is generally a kind of psychological, rather than physical harmony. Western traditional buildings, mostly influenced by formalist aesthetics, pay great regard to the beauty of their shapes, ratios, measurements, balance, etc. Thus the quantitative architecture shows the harmony of numbers, i.e. physical harmony.Chapter II explains the different nature outlooks of Chinese and the western people and their influences on Chinese traditional buildings and western ones. Because of the Chinese nature outlook, whose key is the harmonious relation between the human beings and nature, Chinese traditional buildings, obedient to nature everywhere, fuse...