CHINESE ARCHITECTURE AND ART. The fine arts in China are as varied in character and as rich and tasteful in design as those of the peoples most successful in art; but they are known to Europeans in a very unequal fashion. Thus the architecture of the vast country, contained in the old provinces of China, as large as the United States west of the 100th parallel, and as diversified in soil and climate, is so little known that the essays on the art written even by former residents in China deal obviously with certain very limited places only — the neighborhood of a certain city, the borders of a certain river and the like —and are, moreover, the studies of men not conversant with the construction or with the decorative buildings of any part of the world. The history of this architecture is yet to be written. The photographs now obtainable, hav ing been made during the years since 1890, open up a new world of architectural art. It is enough to say here that there exist two systems of building; the one being a framed construc tion, usually of wood and capable of great elaboration, the other a solid masonry con struction carried out in brick or stone accord ing to the resources of the neighborhood aqd the cost of the building. The framed system of building is closely akin to that used in Japan; and it is there that we can best study the wooden temple-tower and the wood-framed hall of reception. As for the masonry buildings, they are often large and massive, as is well known to all who have observed the walls and gateways of the great fortified cities and the famous 'Great Wall' which protected Pekin and its neighborhood from northern invasion. In the way of more decorative buildings less is known of the system of design, but several peculiarities may be mentioned. Thus there is a marked preference for the octagonal form in towers, and everywhere throughout the central provinces these buildings, called by the Euro peans pagodas, rise above the hills and show over the groups of houses. The often cited use of the polygonal arch, that is, one with the in trados at least many-sided instead of curved, is to be noted as indicating how much that is attractive we have still to discover. The decorative gate-ways (pailoo) corresponding nearly to the torn of Japan and to those edifices called loran in the peninsula of India, are often i admirable designs the way of purely decora tive architecture, monumental architecture hav no direct utility. The dwellings of the Chinese, even the palaces of the princes, do not seem to include many-storied and ponderous structures, but cover immense tracts of ground with gardens, among which stand buildings of no great height, but of a singular beauty of construction, especially in the roofs, and very richly decorated within. The dwelling-houses of the people are generally, walled with brick and are not striking in their external appear ance. The roof is an especial feature in Chinese art. It is commonly built with a hollow upward curve, the result of avery interesting system of construction, with light wood-work. This slightly concave surface covered with glazed ridge-and-furrow tiles richly colored is an important feature in Chinese architectural composition. Painting in strong pure colors is a recognized element of external design; and it has been truly said that the special and dis tinguishing feature of Chinese exteriors is gaiety. Even the slightly-built one-story shops
of the great towns are bright with vermillion and green ; and the signs, painted with the very ornamental Chinese ideographs, help in this effect.
Chinese painting reached a great develop ment as early as the 8th century A.D. ; and there is every probability that it had then been a great school for several centuries. Landscape was one of its especially favored branches. While in Europe no one dreamed of landscape art for its own sake, the Chinese impressionist de signers were producing admirable studies, both in color and in monochrome. Some few of these are in European museums, their authors and dates having been fixed by careful com parison, but the much more modern Japanese landscapes, in painting, monochrome and wood cut, are the best material from which to gain a general idea of that ancient landscape art. A highly religious art was developed in the 12th century A.D. At that time Buddhist religious feeling was strongly expressed in the art of some painters, while others affected rather a kind of decorative realism, that is to say, a close observation of natural objects used to inspire and to influence a highly decorative system of design. These paintings have been little known to Europe, because they are preserved in tem ples and almost inaccessible palaces; and again it is Japan which has opened to us, through her own art, a knowledge of the older arts of China. A few ancient paintings known to Europeans are of surprising interest; and they open up to us a whole system of design in form and color on the flat surface, which the West is now studying, much to its own advan tage. The paintings best known to us are of some purely decorative character, those on por celain having attracted the attention of Europe ever since the 16th century. These paintings are closely connected with the system of inlay which in the form of cloisonné enamel (see ENAMEL) is another of the great art industries of China. The porcelains affect a more close and careful study of the natural forms in flow ers, trees, costume of figures and the like, whereas the enamels are more severe and are confined more closely to the making of ad mirable patterns; but the two systems differ only as one and the same artist might change his style according to the material and demands upon him. A similar method of decoration by the free use of natural forms, conventionalized but still retaining much of their character, is seen in the splendid embroideries which have been little known to the West until within a few years. The textile fabrics of China — silks, brocades and velvets — have been known to collectors for many years, but very few national museums have provided themselves with any number of them : they present an inexhaustible treasure of beautiful design in strong and posi tive colors. It may be stated here that brilliant color is a specialty of the Chinese artist. Where, as in a fine cloisonné enamel, a Jap anese artist works in dark and sombre colors, the Chinese will use a sky-blue ground, upon which an elaborate pattern is carried out in deep ultra-marine blue, violet, reddish-gray, dark green, apple green, vermillion, bright yel low and white, with dividing lines of gilded metal, and many passages of gradation from one color to another. No people have equaled the Chinese in the decorative use of bright, pure colors.