Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1922-05-26
Unexpected In Architecture.

unexpected IN Architecture.
Indeed, the unexpected is the es-
| sence Of Chinese architecture. One
| can never get complete view of a
| 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, 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 the beholder with u
fresh surprise.
This is especially true of the i'm
perial palace, which is perhaps the
most effectively arranged group of
buildings lin 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
cient trees around it's edges into SEEM
ing shrubs.
Each court is a unit of grandeur
! and magnificence in itself, and at the
same time an integral member of Sc
ries leading up ITO 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, 1.-THE
Happy Year Hail." where the en-
peror used to offer annual supplica-
| ton to Heaven for a prosperous new
| year, that we find a single building
in which the simple dignity of Chi
nese architecture is at it's 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 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 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
! great peace.
| There it stands on 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, faring 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 it Is just In this, Its chief mas
terpiece, that Chinese architecture, In
/ it's insistence on the unexpected, has
| gone farthest estray. 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 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 it 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. It Is hidden behind a
hillock in the winter palace grounds,
and nine-tenths Of the visitors to Pc
king walk within a hundred yards of
1t and never dream Of its existence.
| 1t is a wall perhaps 20 feet high
and a hundred long, faced complete
ly 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 a pale-blue sky
Doubtless, one should not speak
of slife-size" dragons; but these
creatures Of the screen are the alivest
dragons one may ever hope to see
they give rise to the feeling that II
dragon lived he would be exactly
like one of these.