The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-05-26

Indeed, the unexpected is he es-
sence of Chinese architecture. One
can never get a complete view Of Il
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, it may be
sever cOurtyards, each complete in
Itself, each with a central building,
through which n passes to the court
beyond, each building larger, higher,
or more decorative than the last, each
breaking upon the beholder with IL
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 a palace in
itself, pillared, rooted and buttressed,
leads into a wide-lying courtyard,
whose placid eXpanse dwarfs an
ing shrubs.
Each court is a unit Of grandeur
and magnificence in itself, and at the
same time an integral member Of q 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, ii is in the Temple of Heaven,
or, as the Chinese call il, "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
1t in his window; every vender OF
postcards features it; every book on
China reproduces 1t; II is probably
the one view of things Chinese which
every westerner who knows anything
ut all about China has seen. Yet there
are few buildings which most pictures
fail so p~itifully to portray.
In the usual print or photograph 1t
is squat, plump and heavy, like a
German wedding cake. In reality it Is
strong and gracious and mighty, and
ence he comes Into the presence of
a great peace.
There it stands on q vast platform
Its base above the tree-tOps. Above
the platform is Il 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-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
zone farthest astray. The temple is
In the midst Of a 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 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
I'm others. 1t 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
it and never dream Of its existence.
1t is a wall perhaps 20 feet high
and q hundred long, faced complete.
~ 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 'life-siZe" dragons; but these
creatures Of the screen are the aliyest
dragons one may ver hope to see (;
they give rise TO the feeling that If
II dragon lived he would be exactly
like one of these.