The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1922-08-09
Unexpected in Architecture.

Indeed, thu unexpected Is the es-
senCe Of Chinese architecture. One
can never get complete view Of
temple or yamen unless there be
some adjacent hill or tower or city
wall from which to view it.
On level ground only the outer wall
and the entrance are seen, and when
these are passed one sees only the
first court, with its more elaborate
entrance to the second; and so on
through three, faur, five. six, it may be
seven courtyard& each complete in
itself, each with a central building,
through which one passes to the court
beyond, each builcing larger, higher,
or more decorative than the last, each
breaking upon the beholder with
fresh surprise.
This is especially true of the i'm
perial palace, which is perhaps the
most effectively arranged group of
buildings in all China. Gateway
after gateway, each gate palace in
itself, pillared, rooted and buttressed
leads into wide-lying courtyard,
whose placid expanse dwarfs an
cient trees around its edges into SEEM
ing shrubs.
Each court is unit Of grandeur
and magnificence in itself, and at the
same time an integral member Of Sc
ries leading up to the marble-ter-
raced courtyard Of the great throne
hail.
Although the imperial palace Is the
finest architectural ensemble in the
capital. it is in the Temple of Heaven.
or, as the Chinese call it, "The
Happy Year Hail." where the en-
peror used to offer annual supplica-
ton to Heaven for prosperous new
year, that we find single building
in which the simple dignity of Chi.
nese architecture is ut its best.
The Happy Year Hall.
This Is perhaps the most frequently
pictured of all Chinese buildings
Every Chinese photographer displays
1t In his window; every vender OF
postcards features 1t; every book on
China reproduces it; 1t Is probably
the one view Of things Chinese which
every westerner who knows anything
at all about China has seen. Yet there
are few buildings which most pictures
fail so pitifully to portray.
In the usual print or photograph 1t.
Is squat, plump and heavy, like
German wedding cake. In reality it ID
strong and gracious and mighty, and
when the visitor comes into its pres.
ence he comes into the presence Of
! great peace.
There 1t stands on vast platform,
Its base above the tree-tOps. Above
the platform Is threefold marble ter
race, white and circular; then red
columns. green-gOld friezes, and three
fine, flaring circular roofs, with
shadows and mystery under the caves,
and the roof tiles not crying-yellow,
like those of the imperial palace. but
deep, deep blue.
But 1t Is just In this Its chief mas
terpiece, that Chinese architecture, In
Its insistence on the unexpected, has
gone farthest astray. The temple Is
In the midst of huge park acres Of
lawn and dense groves of ancient
evergreen surround 1t; there Is every
| condition conducive to the most ef
| fective use of distance and vista: We,
the temple approaches are so clouded
and cluttered with cheap, tawtry. de.
cadent gateways that nothing of the
empie is seen until one actually
stumbles upon it through the last
| cute
| Another of the unexpected trers.
ures Of Picking is the dragon screen
IL is barely mentioned IN some Of the
guiGeboo'Is, and not mentioned at nil
In others. 1t Is hidden behind n
hfllock In the winter palace grounds
and nine-tenths Of the visitors tn pa.
king walk within hundred wards az
1t and never dream of It's existence
1t Is wall perhaps 20 feet high
ana a hundred long, faced complete
ly with tile cast to represent nino
life-siEe dragons in bas-rclIef. Of va.
rious colors-yelIow. purple, maroon
ornng,@dancing gnyly above emerald
hiilows' against pale-blue sky.
Doubtless, one should not sneat
OF life size" dragons: but these
creatures of the screen are the a,Ives,
dragons one may ever hope to see
they give rise to the feeling thar n
dragon lived he would bs ,xnr,,
ukN Que of thesa