Confucius' Courtyard - Architecture, Philosophy and the Good Life in China

For more than three thousand years, Chinese life - from the city and the imperial palace, to the temple, the market and the family home - was configured around the courtyard. So too were the accomplishments of China's artistic, philosophical and institutional classes. Confucius' Courtyard tells the story of how the courtyard - that most singular and persistent architectural form - holds the key to understanding, even today, much of Chinese society and culture.

Part architectural history, and part introduction to the cultural and philosophical history of China, the book explores the Chinese view of the world, and reveals the extent to which this is inextricably intertwined with the ancient concept of the courtyard, a place and a way of life which, it appears, has been almost entirely overlooked in China since the middle of the 20th century, and in the West for centuries. Along the way, it provides an accessible introduction to the Confucian idea of zhongyong ('the Middle Way'), the Chinese moral universe and the virtuous good life in the absence of an awesome God, and shows how these can only be fully understood through the humble courtyard - a space which is grounded in the earth, yet open to the heavens.

Erudite, elegant and illustrated throughout by the author's own architectural drawings and sketches, Confucius' Courtyard weaves together architecture, philosophy and cultural history to explore what lies at the very heart of Chinese civilization.

List of contents

Prologue

Part One: Heaven
A Panacea from the Courtyard

1. What Makes the Chinese House
I. The Conceptual Parti
II. Confucius’ Courtyard
III. From Object to Void

2. Heaven and What is Below
I. The Chinese Tian
II. The King’s City
III. The Built World and the Literary World

Part Two: Heaven and Earth
Equilibrium in the Courtyard

3. The Divergent Tower
I. The Emergence of the Individual and Metaphysics
II. Immortality and Freedom Imagined

4. Secluded World and Floating Life
I. The Middling Hermit
II. The Artful Transition

5. A Deceiving Symbol
I. The Travelling Merchant and the Oddity of their Courtyard
II. Women in Chinese Marriage and Household
III. Behind Good Taste and Refinement

6. Literary Enchantment and the Garden House
I. Li Yü’s World
II. Internalized Garden and the “Horizon” beyond
III. Courtyard and Decorum

7. The Golden Mean Finely Tuned
I. The Anatomy of a Beijing Quadrangle
II. Life and Ambience in the Hutong
III. The City as a Large Quadrangle
IV. Distinctive Character versus Uniformity

8. Living like the Chinese
I. The “Guest” Chinese and their Chinese Courtyards
II. Chinese Form and Exotic Meaning

Part Three: Earth
The Emancipation of Desire and the Loss of Courtyard

9. The Irresistible Metropolis
I. Modern City Born of Refugee Crisis
II. From Diminishing Courtyard to Porous House

10. The Assault of Modernity
I. Quadrangle without the Confucian World
II. The Lingering Courtyard
III. Nothingness, Horizon and Discreet Pleasure

Epilogue
The Four or the Five

Bibliography
Index

About the author

Xing RUAN was born in Kunming, China in 1965. He studied architecture, and currently is Guangqi Chair Professor and Dean at the School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He was Professor of Architecture at Sydney’s University of New South Wales (2004-20). His books include: Fusheng Jianzhu (Floating Life and Architecture), 2020; Allegorical Architecture, 2006; New China Architecture, 2006; Hand and Mind, 2018; Topophilia and Topophobia, 2007. He is co-editor, with Ronald Knapp, of the book series Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Architecture.

Summary

For more than three thousand years, Chinese life – from the city and the imperial palace, to the temple, the market and the family home – was configured around the courtyard. So too were the accomplishments of China’s artistic, philosophical and institutional classes. Confucius’ Courtyard tells the story of how the courtyard – that most singular and persistent architectural form – holds the key to understanding, even today, much of Chinese society and culture.

Part architectural history, and part introduction to the cultural and philosophical history of China, the book explores the Chinese view of the world, and reveals the extent to which this is inextricably intertwined with the ancient concept of the courtyard, a place and a way of life which, it appears, has been almost entirely overlooked in China since the middle of the 20th century, and in the West for centuries. Along the way, it provides an accessible introduction to the Confucian idea of zhongyong (‘the Middle Way’), the Chinese moral universe and the virtuous good life in the absence of an awesome God, and shows how these can only be fully understood through the humble courtyard – a space which is grounded in the earth, yet open to the heavens.

Erudite, elegant and illustrated throughout by the author’s own architectural drawings and sketches, Confucius’ Courtyard weaves together architecture, philosophy and cultural history to explore what lies at the very heart of Chinese civilization.

Foreword

An accessible and highly-original introduction to Chinese architecture, philosophy and cultural history.

Additional text

This humane and intelligent study compares courtyard buildings of widely different ages and geographies. Deep insight into architectural world-building is the result. Apparently empty, the courtyard is full of potential, actualized historically in ways that still make sense, even today.

Product details

• Authors: Xing Ruan, Ruan Xing
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.11.2021
• EAN: 9781350217621
• ISBN: 978-1-350-21762-1
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; ARCHITECTURE / General, ARCHITECTURE / History / General, HISTORY / Asia / China, History of Architecture, Asian History