Liang Sicheng on Architecture

Author: Liang Sicheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Mr. Liang Sicheng systematically investigated, organized, and researched the history and theory of ancient Chinese architecture, becoming a pioneer and founder of this discipline. He led and participated in surveys of over 2,000 ancient architectural sites, accumulating a wealth of valuable materials on ancient Chinese architecture. He conducted systematic and in-depth research on the development, characteristics, and achievements of ancient Chinese architecture, ancient art, and urban planning in Beijing, the capital city. He actively explored the creative path of Chinese architecture and proposed theories and methods for the preservation of cultural heritage buildings. His contributions to architecture were outstanding. Architecture is a record of culture and history, reflecting the pace of the times. Those who study architectural history must be able to keenly distinguish the artistic characteristics of different eras and feel the rhythm of history. Beyond its material functions, architecture is more importantly an art. Architects do not merely pile up materials and draw them. Architects must have ideas, concepts, creativity, passion, and enthusiasm to work with full dedication. The architectural creative thoughts and theoretical writings of Mr. Liang Sicheng represent the culmination of Chinese architects' exploration of the integration of tradition and modernity in theory and practice. His guiding principles have demonstrated depth and breadth as the times evolve. The paths he pointed out have been validated and developed further through the collision and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures. The experience he accumulated and the insights he articulated are treasures of Chinese architectural theory, shining even brighter after being cleared of historical dust. In today's era of reform and opening-up, where architectural creativity is more active than ever, Mr. Liang's architectural creative thoughts and theoretical writings remain of great practical significance and profound historical importance. They will undoubtedly play an increasingly guiding role in our creative journey that combines tradition with modernity.
What is Architecture? Before discussing why we should preserve some buildings from past eras, we must first understand: What is architecture? Simply put, architecture is the houses humans build to solve their "housing" needs in life. That is: providing safe places for shelter, production, and recreation. "Clothing, food, and shelter" have always been mentioned together, as they are all fundamental human needs. To meet these needs, humans have continuously struggled against nature. Since ancient times, to achieve stable living and convenient production, people have created houses through their labor. In highly developed cultural eras, to carry out large-scale economic and cultural construction or strengthen national defense, we still need to build many houses first for these purposes before proceeding with other work. Today, we call this "basic construction," a term that appropriately reflects the fundamental nature of houses as the foundation of all construction.
In the process of labor, humans continuously create new experiences and achievements. Since the dawn of civilization, efforts in architecture have always paralleled and influenced the development of other production technologies. Over thousands of years, people have accumulated experience in construction, continuously improving architectural skills and art through practice. For example: understanding the properties of wood, the chemical changes in soil, sand, and stone, enriching their thoughts, and mastering shaping techniques, thereby forming a highly comprehensive creative process. Ancient texts record: "In ancient times, people lived in caves and open-air dwellings, but later sages replaced them with houses and palaces, with roofs and walls to shelter from wind and rain." From cave dwellings to wooden-structured buildings, this transformation came about through long-term efforts, accumulating experience and knowledge. Therefore:
(1) Architecture is a record of humanity's struggle to overcome and transform nature in production activities. This architectural activity necessarily includes the process of humanity mastering natural laws and developing natural sciences. Through the practice of building various types of houses, humans have come to understand the properties of different materials like wood, stone, soil, and sand—these being the physical laws of these materials under certain structural conditions. Thus, they mastered primitive material mechanics. They learned where and how to use materials of varying sizes and how to handle their interconnections, mastering simple civil engineering. Later, people discovered the chemical laws of certain natural materials—especially soil and sand—under specific conditions, such as through water mixing and firing, leading to the early invention of basic artificial building materials like bricks, lime, and mortar. By the modern era, this included glass, metal, cement, steel, and synthetic wood, developing the chemical building materials industry. Therefore, architectural engineering is also a branch of natural science.
(2) Architecture is also an act of artistic creation. From the artifacts of the Stone Age, we can see that beyond their practical requirements, human production tools, clothing, utensils, and weapons always involved some processing to meet aesthetic needs—i.e., cultural needs—and this was true even for housing. Throughout history, humans have always devoted some effort to making their dwellings aesthetically pleasing. For example: since the dawn of history, countless nations in different places and eras have continuously strived in architectural art without ever stopping.
(3) Architectural activity also reflects the social life and political-economic systems of the time. For example: palaces, temples, ordinary houses, warehouses, city walls, fortresses, workshops, and farmhouses served various purposes—some directly supported production, others were used by ruling classes to consolidate power, and some were reserved for their exclusive enjoyment. For instance, ancient slave owners could enslave tens of thousands of people to build grand structures to display their authority and construct strong defensive buildings to protect their property. Ancient high platforms, large terraces, and mausoleums all fell into this category. In early feudal societies, such as when the King of Wu built high towers and pavilions to express his satisfaction, or when Prince Ping of Jin constructed a palace stretching for miles, or when Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty had Xiang He build the Weiyang Palace, he clearly stated: "An emperor considers the entire empire his home; without magnificence, his authority cannot be emphasized." These examples reflect how feudal lords exploited the wealth of the people and enslaved their labor to increase their prestige. During the feudal era, the essence of architecture was concentrated in palace and religious buildings, which were used by the ruling class as tools to oppress the people. In the era of new democracy and socialist people's governance, architecture serves to uphold the interests and better lives of the vast majority of the people.
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