Xing Ruan (China Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Confucius' Courtyard

Architecture, Philosophy and the Good Life in China

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Seitenzahl: 368
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. November 2021
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 146mm x 34mm
• Gewicht: 582g
• ISBN-13: 9781350217621
• ISBN-10: 135021762X
• Artikelnr.: 61477068

Autorenporträt

Xing Ruan is Dean and Guangqi Chair Professor of Architecture at the School of Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Inhaltsangabe

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