Bulletin of Catholic University of Peking

38 BULLETIN NUMBER FOUR

upturn the gable-ends in graceful curves, giving thereby to the whole a tent-like aspect, which is especially pronounced in the Chinese pavilion. Torelieve the monotony of its unbroken expanse, they multiply its surfaces by _ means of segmentation. Another means which they employ to accomplish this result is the expedient of raising the central portion of the roof like a saddle above the rest. The various divisions of the roof surface are separated by conductive frame-lines more or less richly ornamented. The roof is enlivened, too, with an abundance of other ornamental detail-work in ceramics and gilded bronze. Some of the roof-crests are, infact, veritable masterpieces of decorative craft and workmanship. For the Chinese, we repeat, it is the roof and not the wall which shelters. The wall is comparatively insignificant. Such a statement, made as it is in relation to the builders of the Great Wall, of many a stately city-wall, and of innumerable smaller walls, appears to savor of the paradoxical, but we speak here of the function of walls in a bualding. Generally speaking, the rdle which the Chinese assign to the wall is the twofold function of protection and segregation. They do not regard it as a factor in the matter of shelter. Hence the function which the wall fulfills in Chinese temples and houses is of minor importance. In Western dwellings, where the function of shelter is united with those of protection and segregation, the walls are emphasized at the expense of the roof. In Chinese dwellings, on the contrary, only the function of shelter is insisted on; the functions of protection and segregation devolve upon the wall of the compound. For

this reason, the compound comes to resemble a walled encampment in which the single dwellings correspond to the tents of the different families composing the clan.

The importance of Chinese architecture resides in the indubitable fact that it embodies, to a very considerable extent, the history and traditions of China. In common with all other cultured peoples, the Chinese have expressed in their arts the ideals and qualities of their race. Their architecture, no less than their literature, reflects the peculiar genius and aspirations of China’s spirit. It is the silent language of the Chinese soul. And taking it all in all, this architecture is largely a religious conception inspired by Nature and the reverential instincts of the human heart.

The Altar and Temple of Heaven at Peking constitute one of the most impressive symbols conceivable for expressing the worship of the One and Only Being, immense, silent, immovable, yet incessantly active, that sublime conception of God which Laotze is said to have formulated in the Tao 7é@ King. It represents the extreme limit of grandeur to which human reason, unaided by revelation, can attain in its endeavor to penetrate the mystery which lies ‘‘beyond the flaming ramparts of the universe.”’

When he desires to practice contemplation and to cultivate the union of the soul with the Creator, man instinctively seeks retirement, silence, and recollection. The impulse which led a St. Benedict to seek the solitude of the mountains, and a St. Bernard to seek the seclusion of the valleys, has

_inspired the Chinese people to build

temples and sanctuaries in the fairest