Zhu Chinese Spatial Strategies

Imperial Beijing, 1420-1911
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-1-134-36621-7
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 296 Seiten

Chinese Spatial Strategies presents a study of social spaces of the capital of Ming Qing China (1420-1911). Focusing on early Ming and early and middle Qing, it explores architectural, urban and geographical space of Beijing, in relation to issues of history, geopolitics, urban social structure, imperial rule and authority, symbolism, and aesthetic and existential experience. At once historical and theoretical, the work argues that there is a Chinese approach to spatial disposition which is strategic and holistic.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zhu, Jianfei

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Beijing as a Critical Problem

In Search of a Chinese Space

Outline of the Research and the Argument

A Note on Method

1. A Geo-Political Project

2. City Plan as Ideology

A Classical Tradition

Neo-Confucianism

3. Social Space of the City

A City of Cities

Space of the State

Space of Society

Concluding Notes 1: Architecture of the City and the Land

4. A Sea of Walls: The Purple Forbidden Palace

5. The Palace: Framing a Political Landscape

The Inner Court as a Corporeal Space

The Outer Court as an Institutional Space

A Composition of Forces

6. The Palace: a Battlefield

Flows of Reports and Directives

Defence

Recurring Crises

7. Constructs of Authority

Legalism and The Art of War

Vis-a-vis the Panopticon: Two Ages of Reason

Concluding Notes 2: Architecture as a Machine of the State

8. A Religious Discourse

Composing and Building the Discourse

Performing an Ideology

9. Formal Compositions: Visual and Existential

Beijing as a Scroll

Vis-a-vis 'Cartesian Perspectivalism': Two Ways of Seeing

Concluding Notes 3: Architecture of Horizon

Appendix: dynasties, reigns and emperors

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jianfei Zhu teaches Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has published on imperial Beijing and modern Chinese architecture. His work explores conditions of space in late imperial and modern China, and searches a possible dialogue between Western social theory and Asian architectural experience.