The Anji (or Zhaozhou) Bridge, brick and stone segmental arch bridge, engineered by Li Chun, construction began in 595 AD, and was completed in 605 AD under the Sui Dynasty of China
The Forbidden City of Beijing, 720,000 square meters of area, 800 buildings with over 8,600 rooms, construction completed by 1420 AD, under the reign of the Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle.
The Terracotta Army of Qin, created and assembled by the year 210 BC by the First Qin Emperor (Qin Shihuangdi), located near modern-day Xian. A total of 8,099 terracotta figures were found in the outlying tombs to his main pyramid mausoleum, the figures including horses, soldiers, generals, and complete with bronze chariots and actual wielded weapons.
HOLY CRAP! The greatest of all these paintings below, click on the link below the description to scan across the entire length of this old 11-meter-long painted handscroll:
Spring Festival (Qing Ming) on the River, this is an 18th century remake of an 11th century classic by Zhang Zerui
Ancient Eastern Jin Dynasty Landscape Painting original, by the master Luo Shen Fu (lived circa 317-420); this is another long handscroll, so when you click the link directly below, make sure to scan through the whole picture using the scroll bar, it's worth the look!
Massive Leshan Buddha Stone Sculpture, 71 meters tall (233 feet), completed in 803 AD, Tang Dynasty; it is the largest stone-carved Buddha in the world
Here's a long gallery of pics from the Charles Lang Freer Gallery, as well as other assorted pics from other galleries and places in China.
SIMPLE DIRECTIONS: Don't bother clicking on the thumbnails themselves, just click on the web links below the written description of each thumbnail pic, and it will bring you to a pop-up window where the large-size image of that pic is! Enjoy!
This painting entitled Guan-Yin and the Fish Basket, 15th century AD, Ming Dynasty painting, anonymous painter.
Bronze Mirror, gold and silver inlay design of horse-riding chariots, Buddhist figures, and flying animals, dated from 220 - 589 AD, during the divisionary period
I hope the revial of traditional architecture continues in China. A global "mono architectural style" would be horrible.
I agree. But this retro style is neither particularly cost- nor space effective and certainly not very functional.
Yes, I can see your points. I will not be surprised if full "retro style" is limited to religous structures and the custom designed mansions of the wealthy. You can imagine how much the property for the "retro" nunnery cost in Hong Kong.
Chinese civilization and culture may seem very different in the outside, but looking at it with care we find the same internal similaties of all mankind.
Of course there are obstacles in the way. First, one must know the codes of the culture, and to get certain knowledge of its values, its language and history. But art is beauty and harmony, and that is universal. If something is pretty, any human being has the hability to capture it.
Don't get me wrong, it's a shame that mainland China is lacking in a lot of its original artwork, now located in places like Taiwan, Japan, Europe, USA, South America, etc. However, being a Westerner, I think you're wrong about the notion of Westerners being unable to appreciate Eastern Art, its significance, and where it is derived from.
Take a look at the Charles Lang Freer Gallery, part of the Washington D.C. Smithsonian Museum in the States.
This is an enormous collection of Chinese art, ranging from the Neolithic period (pre-2100 BCE) all the way up to the end of the Qing Dynasty in the beginning of the 20th century. Paintings, calligraphy, stoneware, porcelain, earthenware vases, bronzeware, iron work, silver-smithing and gold treasure, lacquerware works and furniture, wooden tapestries, you name it, the gallery's got it.
All of this was originally purchased by one Charles Lang Freer of Detroit, when it made its way to the States via Japan, where most of these items were kept reserved in Japan for centuries before making it to the U.S.
I hope the revial of traditional architecture continues in China. A global "mono architectural style" would be horrible.
I agree. But this retro style is neither particularly cost- nor space effective and certainly not very functional. And as soon as you wanna build higher rising buildings you have make compromises which take you quite far from the original Tang style: left side traditional style, right side appartment buildings: http://www.nwsh.com.hk/eng/home/images/photo-services-full08.jpg
Below are the pictures of the newly built Chi Lin Nunnery in Hong Kong.
The Temple is entirely based upon Tang era style. Japanese consultants were hired to provide information as to building Tang era architecture since it has been long gone in China but preserved in Japan.
I hope the revial of traditional architecture continues in China. A global "mono architectural style" would be horrible. Is the nunnery for Buddhist, Taoist / Confucian or Christian nuns?
Recently, there are movement of revivalization of Tang period architecture as most people agree that they are the true beauty of Chinese culture.
Below are the pictures of the newly built Chi Lin Nunnery in Hong Kong.
The Temple is entirely based upon Tang era style. Japanese consultants were hired to provide information as to building Tang era architecture since it has been long gone in China but preserved in Japan.
They were mostly composed of two color only: red and white or brown and white. Plain and simple.
The modern post-Ming architecture are strongly influenced from the
Northern nomadic tribes. Notably the Forbidden City, although it
was initally built by the second Ming Emperor, Chu Ti. When the Manchus
usurped Beijing, they made tremendous changes in the Palace to
accommodate to their liking.
However, you can rarely find any Tang and Song period Architecture in
China now in these days. Most of them are destroyed due to long
period of warfare.
The only place you find them is not in China but in Japan. The Imperial
Palace and Temple in Nara and Kyoto are exactly modeled after the Tang
Dynasty period. Ironically, they were nearly destroyed by the US
bombers during the World Word II if it wasn't the Chinese architect
(forgot his name) who petitioned to US government for sparing them.
to flyingzone, as to Chinese traditional music, I'm afraid I cannot give you any specific ideas of my own, for I'm a layman in that area.
I've tried your link and saw your statements, they are already very profesional, as i see it. What I know about, you already have mentioned.
But your question of "Did Confucianism limit the potential of Chinese music?" according to my knowledge, cannot have a definite yes or no answer. Because when you said "limit", that was compared with seven agents of the western music. If there were a kind of music that contained more than seven agents, would you say that it would be more harmonic because of it's philosophy?
As for partly yes, because Confuciansim as a major philosophy did have great influence on Chinese culture, and of course on traditional Chinese music, and that leads to the pentagonic nature of it. I've listened to many, though as you perceive lack of harmonic density, I feel quite natural and smooth with them. Maybe I was born to accept this harmonic because I'm a Chinese. But that doesn't matter with my fond of modern music whether east or west with seven agents. In other words, when I listen to traditional Chinese music, I love the way it is. And perhaps, harmonic or perfect music is not that absolute.
Parthenon, you seem to be quite knowledgeable in traditional Chinese art. Are you equally knowledgeable in traditional Chinese music? Long time ago, I started a thread entitled "Did Confucianism limit the potential of Chinese music?" on the East Asian forum but did not get any response from anyone.
I was wondering if you have any opinion on this subject. Perhaps when talking about Chinese music, I could have asked the same question you're asking here: "Can Westerners really appreciate Chinese music?" My answer to this question, as implied in the post that I made on that thread, is a tentative "no" due to the intrinsic difference in the nature of Chinese and Western (for Western I mean "European") music.
What you said is a point, but as a matter of fact, stamps are used as a part of calligraphy artwork, for they themselves are types of Chinese characters, most of which are more ancient types of calligraphy than that of the brush written ones.
Also, it depends on in which respect you perceive a piece of calligraphy work. As a calligraphy-lover, one's eyes will first focus on the majority of a piece------that is the brush written characters, and then move on to the stamps, their shapes, their contents, and their artistic tastes.
As you said that too many stamps may made calligraphy itself obscure to us, I think that might happen when a beginner uses too many stamps of his or her own and impresses them everywhere. However in most cases, this will not happen, as stamps have their regular places in a piece of work.
If you see some recent or contemporary works, you will find the rules of how to use stamps, like on the top left(where an article begins) between the first and second Chinese characters, on the right side below the writer's name,etc.
Although Lan Ting Xu does have many stamps, we don't consider it is being obscured by them, because those collectors followed the rules of stamping. You can see most of the stamps are on the margins of both left and right sides, where there is no Chinese characters, these places are allow to stamp. Secondly, you will find a few stamps are impressed at the beginning lines (left 2 to3) and ending lines (right 3 to 4), that's also reasonable for a long piece. Thirdly, you may find in the middle of the piece there are five stamps impressed on the linkage of two pieces of paper(for in ancient times there were no such long piece of paper to write such a long article, so they pasted two pieces of paper together), that's also necessary to convince us of the integrity of it, sometimes the writer him or herself will stamp there instead of the collectors.
The Japanese adopted this device also, each owner of the piece adding his stamp, in that culture added to the value as it was a running provenance [history] I have seen several works, [can't remember Chinese or Japanese] where the artwork has become secondary to the history preserved in the stampings, the original work being almost obscured by the stamps.
"Arguing with someone who hates you or your ideas, is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter what move you make, your opponent will walk all over the board and scramble the pieces".
Unknown.
This Chinese painting was done by Wen Zhengming in Ming Dynasty, one of the four most renowed artists and intellectuals at that time. It describle the gathering of the intellectuals in Lan Ting(Gloriette) in Jin Dynasty(353 A.D.).
The painter read Lan Ting Xu and also other poems and essays of the writers in Lan Ting Gathering, and used his imagination to recreate a picture of that scene for us.
There are other paintings about Lan Ting Gathering, but this one is more popular and more specificly done. It is also a representative piece of Wen Zhenming.
You may find there is a creek in this picture, and people were sitting around it, doing a ritual. Yes, it is a traditional custom of China. When in March of Chinese rural calendar, peple will play with the water to make wishes and get rid of bad fortunes. However, when this ritual came to those intellectuals, they made it even nobler, like putting a cup of drink into the water and let it flow from high to low level, and it passed by one person, that man should make a poem or essay, otherwise he must drink up.
So now you can see, in what kind of situation that essay of Lan Ting Xu was written. It was full of spirit and of high mood, when people sitting in the mountains and rivers , and enjoying gathering with friends, one must be very delighted.
(明)文征明 《兰亭修禊图》
Gathering In Lan Gloriette, by Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), Ming Dynasty
To red clay, I am glad that you have noticed the red stamps on this piece, yes, they are important in the appreciation of Chinese calligraphy.
The following photo may show the stamps much clearer.
Those stamps were pressed by its collectors of various dynasties, and through centuries, the stamps have become an integral part of the calligraphy.
For example, you can see from this photo clearly the stamps of Emperor Qian Long of Qing Dynasty, he was very fond of it and pressed several stamps of collection of him, like The Treasure Of Qian Long (see the oval stamp on the top left between verticle line 2 and 3), The Precious Piece Of San Xi Tan (see the squared one below), Qin Long Favoured (see the circle stamp on the top right between the last verticle line 3 and 4), etc.
This piece has also been collected by officials and nobles in history, and they all left their stamps on it. To name a few, those collectors are including Emperor Tang Tai Zong of Tang Dynasty, Shaoxin government in Zhejiang Province when in Song Dynasty, Guo Tianxi in Yuan Dynasty, Yang Shiqi, Wang Ji and Xiang Yuanbian in Ming Dynasty,Cao Rong in Qing Dynasty, and then went to the Palace Museum since Qing Dynasty, and it is still there.
So, with these stamps, you may have the clue of how this great piece being passed on through the history. Those stamps are telling you stories of their own.
However, I should mention Emperor Tang Tai Zong of Tang Dynasty. He was a calligraphy-lover, and especially fond of Wang Xizi's writings. He tried all sorts of ways to find the real piece of Lan Ting Xu, and then got it from a folk collector. He loved this piece so much that he burried it with him, and left us with three editions of immitation of it, all were done by famous writer and officials at that time. So, what we see here is the most renowed edition written by Feng Chensu of Tang Dynasty. Although we lost the real one, this piece is considered highly throughout the history, and is still ranked No. 1 in the history of Chinese Calligraphy.
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