神明之所的尺度问题:中国古代的小建筑

Divine Domicile’s Scalar Issues: Small Architecture in Ancient China

中国古代建筑史中不乏微型建筑的例子,尺度上小于它们对应的实际建筑,其种类不一而足,建造目的亦不相同,但学者多将微缩建筑的“小”作为既定的事实,未将尺度作为研究它们的前提。“小建筑”概念的出现与早期神圣空间的建构相关,标识神明之所,高远而不可及。但随着建筑技术的进展与制度的完善,小建筑越加变成其所对应的大建筑的微缩版,同时,也如大建筑一般受到建筑法式的规范,尺度成为大小建筑之间的区别,但也是大小建筑之间缩放与想象的依据。中国古代小建筑从未超越实际建筑的结构限制与法式的约制,但它的“小”以及与大建筑的尺度关系却让观者得以从小入大、以大观小地想象实际建筑物无以表达的神圣空间。

In the building history of premodern China,miniature architecture,smaller scale than regular architecture,was not uncommon.They were built in diverse forms to serve different purposes.Most scholars take its miniaturization as fact rather than a priori of their research.In this essay,I argue that the scale of architecture should be taken seriously by proposing considering the term“small architecture”(xiao jianzhu)and its relevant concepts as the analytical framework for our investigation of Chinese miniature architecture.Small architecture in different forms first appeared to structure sacred space for the otherwise obscured divine domicile.Later,as technology advanced and the building trade was more systematic and regulated,small architecture increasingly became a scaled-down version of the large architecture it resembled,regulated by the same norms and conventions.“Scale”became the only difference separating large and small architectures but also tied them together in a scalar relationship.Chinese small architecture never goes beyond structural constraints and building norms,but its small scale enables the viewer to imagine the experience of sacred space,otherwise ineffable architecturally.