礼用之间——中国建筑、文献与图像中的顶棚

Between Ritual and Utility:The Ceilings in Chinese Architecture,Literature,and Images

本文通过文字史料、图像史料、考古遗存和建筑实例,简要回顾了中国从穴居时代到晚清时期的顶棚发展史。数千年前,顶棚不仅作为一种重要的功能性部件,更重要的是,它成为礼制系统的一部分,被赋予了尊崇和中心的意义。此后的顶棚吸收了诸多富有象征性的形式要素,并由结构策略和几何法则构筑其基本语汇体系,这些基本语汇的巧妙排列和丰富变化,是中国建筑体系采用简约统一的构架形式塑造千变万化的场所特性的关键所在。

This article reviews the history of ceilings from the cave-dwelling era to the late-Qing period in China by studying the documentary,iconographic,archaeological,and architectural materials.The ceiling,from thousands of years ago,was not only used as one of the most elementary functional components of architecture,but also,more importantly,as a part of the ritual system in China,endowed with the significance of worship and centrality.Since then,the construction of ceilings has absorbed extensive symbolic formal elements to build its own vocabulary system with structural strategies and geometric rules.The basic vocabulary of ceilings,with various combinations and sequences,is the key to realising the manifold possibilities of the site characteristics through the general,unified wood-frame system of Chinese architecture.