Abstract
This essay is composed with a desire as to develop a local Chinese architectural design model based on our traditional culture, through comparisons among Chinese characters and architectural, the formation of the “form” of interior design, aesthetic rules and application of architectural decorations, from the view of Chinese characters.

Key words: Chinese characters, pictograph, geometrical characters, decorative characters and identification space.

What does a genuinely oriental building or an interior space look like? This is a question that designers have been studying for a long time. What’s the essential difference between the Eastern culture and the Western culture then? In my opinion, the character is always the principal element of the culture while the culture is a something very macroscopical. Every nation has its own character; for example, most of Chinese characters are hieroglyphs while western words are comprised of letters in syllables. As an art of eastern characters, the calligraphy has been one of the major means for cultural exchange between Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Enlightened by the eastern character, which is different from the western counterpart, I’d attempt to find out what the relation is between the native culture and the architecture and interior design from the view of the Chinese character, so as to initiate an ideological structure with oriental style for the architecture and interior design.

Reviewing carefully the Chinese characters, we can see that the Chinese character has been closely related with the architecture and interior design. They share the same foundation of hieroglyph and the same rule of aesthetics, and have been practiced in our life for a long time. The calligraphy in particular has exerted even more profound influences on it.

Resemblance in “Figure” between “Chinese Characters” and “Architecture and Interior Design”, which are likely to be transformed into each other.

The Chinese character is a symbol originating from “resemblance in figure”. It is even said that “writing is drawing”. The Chinese character is usually called “squared character” or “hieroglyph”, just because the “square” resembles a figure in some way. It bears some hieroglyphic features and some elements of modeling aesthetics while it stands as a record and communication. How does the Chinese character demonstrate the images of a building with its own “image”? Let’s trace back to the primitive era. Our ancestors employed 2 types of constructing a shelter: “nest-like shelter” constructed with wood and “cave-like shelter” based on a cave. Let’s take the “nest-like shelter” as an example. A bronze article called “Dun Yu”, unearthed in Sichuan Province, bears a ______, a hieroglyph which suggests a hung shanty. According to Mr. Xu Zhongshu, it suggests a hut supported by two trees. Mr. Yang Hongxun interprets it into the hieroglyph for “nest-like shelter” --- a shelter constructed in 4 branches (Aesthetics in China’s Architecture); and this single character is quite enough to re-present the image of a building constructed in the primitive era. The ancient inscription ______ on bones and tortoise’s shell for the current character “京”, which means “capital city”, suggests a building erected highly on poles and can be taken as the hieroglyph of “干阑”. Some other hieroglyphic characters also suggest rather clearly an image of a building or a room, including “穴” (which means “cave”) and “宫”(which means “palace”). Reviewing these characters, we may see that, with our ancestors’ replacing the natural trunks with manly erected poles, the “nest-like shelter” was developed into a pole-supported building, which was internally structured with wooden beams and wooden pillars. This is the foundation of the wooden structure system, which is the theme of China’s architecture and interior design.

Since a single Chinese character can demonstrate the image of a building or an indoor space, is it possible to construct a building or an indoor space by imitating a character? Let’s try to integrate a design with Chinese characters. Therefore we simplify the outline of the “squared Chinese characters” into some pure, simple geometric figures. These characters are called “geometric characters” hereinafter. For example, the character “日”, which means “sun”, is simplified into a “O”, the character “金”, which means “gold”, into a “△”; and the character “四”, which means “four”, into a “□”. Such simple “geometric characters” are exactly the “basic languages” often employed in Chinese architecture or interior design. “Courtyard with buildings on the four sides in Beijing” and “Four Golden Points in Guangdong” are the two traditional configurations in China’s architecture. The reason why they contain a “four” in their names is that the Chinese character “四”, which means “four”, is a rectangle in outline while the strokes inside actually symbolize the layout of the rooms inside. The layout of an ancient architecture was constructed on the basis of the character. May a modern design has been based on the character, too? Mr. I. M Pei, a well-known American designer of Chinese origin designed the glass “Pyramid” for the Louvre; did he have his design based on the Chinese character “金”? If not, is it just a similarity by chance that he offered for the vertical face cover of Singapore’s Overseas Chinese Central Bank a design which definitely suggests another Chinese character “贝”(Mr. I. M Pei)? It may not be denied that the geometric character may exert some exclusive effects on the modern design. It does not only create many masterpieces with exclusive features, but also endows these buildings with rich cultural connotations.

The art of Chinese character and the art of Architecture and interior design share the same artistic configuration and the same rule of aesthetics.

Calligraphy is the No. 1 artistic configuration of Chinese character. It shares the same aesthetic requirements with fine art and the art of design; they pursue an artistic configuration of balance, symmetry, harmony between host and guest, harmonious contrast and appropriate density.

First of all, they all highlight the balance and symmetry, which are the major forms for presenting the beauty and are included in the structure of an object. A man’s four limbs and a bird’s wings all present a relation of precise balance and symmetry. The case is the same with calligraphy. According to the rules of calligraphy, “a character shall look stable, upright and plump as an entirety, with its strokes of appropriate length well arranged; the thickness and length of the strokes shall be arranged in such a way that the character as an entirety looks balanced and symmetric” (Ten Rules of Calligraphy). As a matter of fact, this rule of beauty has been practiced since the ancient era either in the art of calligraphy or in the art of architecture and interior design. Oriented by this rule, an axial symmetry has been highlighted in the ancient architecture. According to “Lu’s Spring and Autumn”, “Found a nation at the center of a land and erect a place at the center of the country.” The layout of a palace was usually symmetrized to a virtual central axis. For example, the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum in Beijing all employs such layout. However, a balance consists of a symmetric balance and a non-symmetric balance, just as a balance is reached when the total weight of the weights on the scale is balanced with the sliding weight of a steelyard. This is also the basic rule for regulating the balance in size and weight in the art of architecture and interior design.

Secondly, they pursue a harmony between the “host” and the “guest” (i.e the primary and the secondary). This has been an order of aesthetics that everything includes something primary and something secondary, which shall be fulfilled in an appropriate sequence. The configuration of a group of buildings implies an affiliation between the main building and the auxiliary buildings; so does that of an indoor space comprised of the main hall and the rooms. There is a “theme” in a melody while there is also a “host-guest” rule in the calligraphy. This is a means of art to distinguish the primary from the secondary and make an emphasis highlighted in contemplation. Mr. 布颜图gives a vivid metaphor as below, describing the relationship between the host and the guest: “the main hill stands among other hills just as a grandfather sits among his children; the main hill need look noble and kind while the other hills need look prudent, obedient and respectful. The art of design is the twin sister of the calligraphy, because they generate mutual influences upon each other in the field of structural layout while they deliver the same tastes and intentions. Hence, as a designer, it needs to be highlighted to study and handle correctly the host-guest relationship in an entirety, so as to have both the host and guests properly seated.

Thirdly, They pursue a harmony of contrast. Contrastive buildings look much more interesting and meaningful. An object can not have only one side; no contrast means no contradiction; and no complete object can be constituted without contradictions. Everything in this world is in a permanent movement and must have differences of contradictions. The calligraphy attempts to achieve a harmony based on changes by comparison among characters. The architecture and interior design attempt to achieve a harmonious effect based on changes, too, by contrast between shapes, colors and quality. Goethe said that “a subject and the approach to describe it must be related with a distinct law of art.” Contrast and harmony make up the foundation of everything enjoyable; the calligraphy can not be an artwork without harmonious contrast. A building or an interior design will be as dull as a pool of backwater without harmonious contrast. In Mr. Kuro Kisho’s design for Japan Modern Art Gallery and for the Museum of Utayama County, simple geometric patterns were widely employed: the lobby at the entrance is a plane shaped like a new moon; to make the two buildings more distinct and more contrastive the exterior surface of the Art Gallery is veneered with black tiles while the Museum is veneered with white tiles (Kuro Kisho), so as to achieve a harmonious effect.

Fourthly, they highlight a moderate density. A density is the contrast between concentration and deconcentration, i.e between the large and the small. Some empty white walls are conserved in purpose in the interior design, only to present a big plane, against which other small artificial figures stand in contrast. Just like writing a calligraphic piece, the calligrapher takes the openings left out by strokes into account for the modeling of the character. The openings among strokes and characters are equivalent to the planes in an interior design while the compactly arranged strokes are equivalent to the artistic modeling in the interior design; and a complete artistic image must be composed of point, lines and planes. The sense of space implied in the specific structure and images of a character may be different from calligraphic style of calligraphic style, from era to era and from calligrapher to calligrapher, just as a palace, a garden and a house may suggest different sense of space on the basic of their differences in nature and structure. So, the art of calligraphy and the art of architecture and interior design share the same rule as far as the density is concerned.

Chinese character has been widely applied in the architecture and the interior design. It’s an integration of literature, philosophy, calligraphy, carving, craft, fine art and architecture.

The Chinese character has been widely applied in the architectural decoration. It extends a philosophy to a further depth and breaks through the limits in the time and space of a building; it leads the appreciators into a philosophic illumination about life, history and the cosmos, from the angle of psychology. We can find in the treasury of Chinese literature numerous poems and prose describing buildings. These literary works are usually reproduced implicitly in the architecture and the indoor environment on stone tablets, cliffs, screens and paintings on hardened gauze. We have 2 types of tablets: tablet inscribed with a poem and tablet inscribed with an essay. A Tablet may either be vertical or horizontal. A tablet is usually embellished in the forehead and the body with patterns of dragons, phoenixes, deer, cranes, flowers, trees and figures of various derivations. Such patterns, figures and characters inscribed on the tablet decorate the tablet and turn it into an artwork of architecture (Aesthetics in China’s Architecture). Characters inscribed on steep cliffs cast some mysterious, cultural light on hills and peaks. We might as well classify the “screen inscription” and “paintings on hardened gauze” under indoor design if tablet inscription and cliff inscription are classified under external landscaping architecture. In the Hall of Swallows in the Forest of Lions in Suzhou City, just at the midmost of partition fan in the Hall of Mandarin Ducks, stands a screen-wall, which consists of eight screens inscribed with an essay titled “Record about Mr. Bei’s Restoring the Forest of Lions”. This large inscribed screen, together with the plaque and couplet, enriches greatly the implied cultural connotation in the indoor space inside the hall. Many halls and rooms in the Palace Museum in Beijing are furnished with elaborate partition fans and hardened gauze-screens, which are mounted with small-sized calligraphic works and paintings. This is another high-tasted way in which the character is merged into an indoor environment.

Simple, short and meaningful epigraphs have been introduced into the architecture and indoor spaces since the ancient era. It’s widely known that a plaque endows an architectural space with a sharp theme while a couplet is another exclusive form of art, both literally and literarily. Featured with monosyllable and one meaning, the Chinese characters can be organized flexibly into couplets, either long or short, which are widely applicable to the indoor space or outdoor space of various sizes. There are 3 types of couplets: next-to-doorframe couplet, post-on-column couplet and wall-embellishing couplet. Couplets can be integrated with the door, the pillars and the wall into an entirety, which turns to be an architectural carrier; the couplet then is developed into a school of architectural decoration. The post-on-column couplet, for example, which is generally called “column couplet”, is the most popular among the three. Many well-known historic buildings are usually furnished with several couplets, both inside and outside. Left over as comments through different historical times by famous historical people or scholars, they are an embodiment of the cultural deposition in the architecture. The plaques and couplets are transformed into architectural components, achieving a natural welding of an approach of literature and an approach of architecture.

In addition, characters used to be reproduced as a decoration in the eave tile, ridge tile, bricks and figured characters. As an architectural carrier, they introduced vitality into a motionless building and enriched the architectural space with personality and exclusive manner.

With the rapid development of this information era, the world is being increasingly integrated towards an entirety; people have less and less barriers when communicating in language or in words. With the development in technology and craft, the art of architecture and interior design is being developed towards an internationalized simplicity; and different traditional cultures are more likely to be replaced. To conserve and inherit the essence of the magnificent traditional cultures, the ideas about the traditional cultures must be taken into consideration while handling the modern design, so as to achieve attractive and competitive works of architecture and interior design and to create a space of with identifiability sharp personality in the world.

List of Reference Books
1. Hou Youbin, “Aesthetics in China’s Architecture”, published by Heilongjiang Science & Technology Press, 1997
2. Wang Tianxi, “I.M. Pei”, China Construction Industry Press, 1998
3. Ru Gui, “Ten Rules of Calligraphy”, published by Shaanxi People’s Press, 1999
4. “Kuro Kisho”, translated by Zheng Shiling and Xue Mi, published China Construction Industry Press, 1997