Preface

The rich and venerable urban and architectural tradition of China has been the subject of numerous texts from both Western and Chinese scholars．In relatively recent times there is Nancy Steinhardt's classic，Chinese Imperial Planning，as well as Fu Xi'nian's Chinese Architecture．Less comprehensive in overall coverage，although highly detailed in scope is Zhu Jianfei's Chinese Spatial Strategies：Imperial Beijing 1420 – 1911，taking up with aspects of Beijing's spatial tradition．Other case studies also abound as do well-focused journal articles on particular architectural features of China's settlement tradition．In fact，much has been accomplished in the contemporary period．Then too there are searches for the origins of this tradition，like Paul Wheatley's monumental The Pivot of the Four Quarters，as well as Ding Shan's portrayal of astronomical archaeology and cultural geography， Ancient Mythology and the Nation．More squarely in architecture the work of the Institute for Research in Chinese Architecture in the 1930s and Liang Sicheng's subsequent Chinese Architecture，A Pictorial History also touched on the question of origins in its more general treatment of antiquity．Indeed，this present account by Zhang Jie certainly fits under the broad rubric of examining China's more distant past in what we now call architecture and urban form，although it is less of a history and more of an intellectual inquiry into sources，principles and logics which can be seen to have both generated and shaped ancient constructed space in China．In this regard it is novel in orientation and，in its treatment，ground breaking in many of the insights it has to offer.

I first encountered Zhang Jie's interest in this material during a visit with him to the Western Tombs outside of Beijing in the middle 1990s．Accompanied by my wife — also an architect and an artist – along with my son，we all gleefully joined in a speculative game of discovering instances in which precise compositions and alignments of buildings，artifact and natural scenery would come into view as we traversed axes within the site，before disappearing as we moved on．Later on during the same trip Jie showed me how the same principles，based on 30 and 60 degree cones of vision，or so we supposed at the time，also applied in the Imperial Library complex in central Beijing．As he mentions in the preface to this volume，he presented a more complete，well-illustrated and documented account of these perspectival phenomena in the Chinese Journal of Architecture．Moreover，it was an account that was characterized by a style of both research and expression that carries over into this present volume，distinguished in particular by its generosity and precision in graphic and numerical presentation.

In defining and describing “the cultural gene of ancient Chinese space”，as he puts it，Zhang Jie combines readings and interpretations from several sources．A crux of his argument is that the Chinese spatial topology can be obtained from sun shadow observations，which in turn can be linked to the “Equal Temperament” at play in both the Chinese calendar and the doctrine of Li dealing with rites and rituals．Equal Temperament，of course，emanates from music and defines a system of tuning in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identify frequency ratio，also described by an octave split into twelve exactly equal portions，with each note's frequency 1.059463094 and so on，times the frequency of the note below．“Tempering” in turn is the process of slightly altering the tuning of notes to effect a better harmony between them and the practice of Equal Temperament is one of several，including Mean-Tone Temperaments that were popular in the Renaissance．Although the idea of Equal Temperament appears to be very old，its precise specification dates from the latter half of the sixteenth century at the hands of the Ming Prince Zhu Zaiyu，who also observed strong interrelationships among the ancient Chinese astrology，calenderical science and tonal systems in The Concordance Between the Ritual Tone System and the Calendar of 1581．More than half a century later Simon Stevin and Marin Mensenne published similar accounts of the musical Equal Temperament，with Matteo Ricci probably playing a role in making Zhu's work known in the West and with Johann Sebastian Bach promoting it in The Well-Tempered Clavier．The twelve-part division，along with the traditional three pillars of the Equal Temperament，also coincides with the tripartite division of the months of spring，summer，autumn and winter，embraced in the Li Ji（Book of Rites）and the Yue Ling（Proceedings of the Government in Different Months）.

Also at work in Zhang Jie's excursus is a principled and knowledgeable plumbing of fengshui rules and practices，often rescuing the art of the geomancer from the murkiness and potential disrepute of fantasy and superstition．In this Zhang Jie returns to the Luban Jing（The Book of the Master Carpenter Luban）among other sources．Lu Ban（507 — 440 BC）whose real name apparently was Gongshu Ban，also known as Gongshu Zi，was born in the state of Lu during the tumultuous Spring and Autumn period of ancient China．He was an inventor，engineer and carpenter who gave rise to the Chinese saw，plane，chalk line and ruler，as well as being generally regarded as the founder of building in China in any systematic manner．In his treatise he also incorporated extensive instructions covering fengshui and its applications．Zhang Jie also engages Chinese painting，particularly with regard to compositional principles of scenic presentation，which，as might be expected，are not inconsistent with building and scenic composition or fitting in with the larger landscape．The virtual presence of regulating lines and other forms of design controls are also taken up，both extending points Zhang Jie made in his earlier work on the subject，and relating this geometry to his fundamental framework with regard to ratios，angles and perceptual systems.

Although moving back in time in terms of its research and speculation，Zhang Jie's intellectual quest also makes good use of contemporary materials and resources．Google Earth and modern systems of geo-referencing，for instance， are pressed into service in applying and testing ancient perceptions and procedures that covered quite vast areas．Searches using the 1999 digital version of The Complete Library and Four Branches of Literature，for example，first compiled by the Qing in the seventeenth century，as well as reliable access to editions of basic reference works，like Peking University Press' The Thirteen Classics of 1999，also facilitated Zhang Jie's work．Nevertheless，the real enterprise here belongs entirely to him．It is an enthralling book and replete with numerous illustrations，fittingly like the construction manuals of old．It will become and remain a central text in any discussion of China's urban and architectural spatial tradition.

Peter G．Rowe，

Raymond Garbe Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and University Distinguished Service Professor，Harvard University

February，2011