Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1922-05-26
Unexpected In Architecture.

OneNpecteu IN ArcnitcCture.
Indeed, the unexpected Is the es-
sence Of Chinese architecture. One
can never get complete view of a
temple or a 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, four, five, six, 1t may be
seven courtyards, each complete in
itself, each with a central building,
through which one passes to the court
beyond, each building larger, higher.
or more decorative than the last, each
breaking upon tine beholder with
fresh surprise.
This Is especially true Of the Inn
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 a wide-lying courtyard,
whose placid expanse dwarfs an
Client trees around It's 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
hall.
Although the imperial palace is the
finest architectural ensemble In the
capital 1t is In the Temple Of Heaven,
or, as the Chinese call 1t, 'sThe
Happy Year Hail." where the en-
peror used to offer annual supplica-
ton to Heaven for prosperous new
year, that we find a single building
In which the simple dignity of Chi
nese architecture Is at Its best.
The Happy Year Hall.
This Is perhaps the most frequently
pictured Of all Chinese buildings.
Every Chinese photographer displays
It In his window; every vender Of
| postcards features It.; every book on
China reproduces 1t; 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 a
German wedding cake. In reality 1t is
strong and gracious and mighty, and
when the visitor comes into its pres
ence he comes into the presence Of
a great peace.
There it stands on q vast platform,
it's 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, fiaring circular roofs, with
shadows and mystery under the caves,
and the roof tiles not crying-yeIlow.
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 IL; there Is every
| condition conducive to the most eff
fective use Of distance and vista; yet
the temple approaches are so clouded
and cluttered with cheap. tawdry, de
cadent gateways that nothing Of the
temple is seen until one actually
stumbles upon 1t through the last
gate.
Another OF the unexpected treas
ures Of Picking is the dragon screen
1t is barely mentioned In some of the
guidebooks. and not mentioned at all
In others. 1t is hidden behind q
hillock in the winter palace grounds
and nine-tenths Of the visitors to Pc
/ king walk within hundred yards Of
It and never dream Of its existence
| 1t is a wall perhaps 20 feet high
and a hundred long, faced complete
Fly with tile cast to represent nine
life-size dragons In bas-relief, Of va
rious colors yellow, purple, maroon
| orange-dancing gayly above emerald
pillows, against pale-blue sky.
II Doubtless. one should not speak
Of .slife-size" dragons: but these
creatures Of the screen are the alives
4 DRAGONS one may ever hope to see
] they give rise to the feeling that 4
i - dragon. lived be would be exacti,
like one Of thea