Террасные сооружения в китайской архитектуре и их отражение на картинах художников X–XIII веков

Abstract

The terraces are a characteristic type of buildings in Chinese architecture, widespread until the end of the Song dynasty, namely until the 13th century. The presence of a terrace under a building or in front of it indicated its high status. The ancient texts of the 5th century BC — 8th century AD convey a lot of evidence of the erection of terraces of grandiose height and complex shapes. From these descriptions, some conclusions can be drawn regarding the structure of terraced buildings. However, it is impossible to judge about the appearance of such buildings, use of construction materials and features of the decoration only by the content of the texts. To this day, not a single structure of this kind has survived in its original form; there is evidence of archaeological excavations, but all these buildings have been badly destroyed, which does not allow the reconstruction of their original appearance. However, some paintings of the Song dynasty show many terraced buildings with a high degree of detail, which is invaluable material for understanding their structure. The analysis of the depictions in the paintings by Chinese artists of the 10th –13th centuries allow us to classify terraced structures, highlight their main types, identify the features of constructions, and study the elements of decoration. This study is based on the research, supported by the Program of Fundamental Research of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences and of the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation – 2021, research project 1.1.1.5.