建筑哲学第 9 课

Two thousand years later, people in Hong Kong and Singapore still orient their homes and businesses using the rules of feng shui. 2千年后，香港和新加坡人仍按风水调整住家或公司方位
Tall buildings have taken the place of mountains and hills, 高楼取代山
and streets flowing with traffic now function as rivers. 车水马龙的街道取代河

A famous example of the continuing use of feng shui in the modern world is at the Hyatt hotel in Singapore. 现代仍运用风水的一个知名例子是新加坡凯悦饭店
Soon after the hotel opened business was not so good. 饭店刚开张时生意惨淡
A feng shui master was called in. 于是找来风水师端详
He advised angling the doors toward the fast moving flow of cars in front of the hotel, 风水师建议把大门改开在车辆川流不息的正前方
so as to catch the chi forces better, 以便吸纳更多的气

and to build a gurgling fountain in front to bring in auspicious chi. 并建议在门前造喷泉以带来吉气
Sure enough, soon thereafter business boomed. 此后生意果然蒸蒸日上

A traditional Chinese city, busy and thriving as it may well have been, 传统的中国城市虽然繁忙
was a carefully designed symbol of the Chinese view of the universe. 其都市规划则象征了中国人的宇宙观

There is a key to understanding the Chinese concept of a city, 想了解中国人的城市观 有个关键
and it can be found on this 12th century scroll depicting the bustling capital city of Kaifeng. 从这幅绘于12世纪，描写开封 繁华街景的画中便能看出

Going back to the yellow river valley, Archaeologists have found ancient wells shaped like a square. 考古学家回到黄河流域 发现呈四方形的古井
These wells are quite literally the roots of Chinese civilization. 这些井堪称是华夏文化的根源

Ancient officials concluded that eight families should settle around these wells, 古代官吏规定 8户人家围井而居
with the land surrounding the well being common ground. 井边土地为公田
The distance along the edge of one settlement became one 'li' - 每户1侧的长度为1里
the Chinese unit of distance. 里为距离单位

From the records of the Zhou dynasty - about 2,000 BC - 公元前2千年的周朝文献显示
we find a city was meant to be nine 'li' square, 城市皆为9平方里大小
with the central well being occupied by the emperor's palace - 井字中央为皇帝宫殿
the spiritual well, of the people. 象征人民的精神之井

And if we look at a traditional courtyard house, we can find the courtyard, the 'heavenly well' as it's called, at the heart of the complex. 传统四合院建筑的中庭称为天井，位于建物中心
The city was a symbol of the cosmos, 城市是具体而微的宇宙
the residence a symbol of the city. 房宅则是城市的象征

In this traditional Chinese city, there was no public square for people to gather - public gatherings in fact were strongly discouraged during the period of the imperial system. 传统的中国城市没有公共广场, 帝制时代的人民不许任意集会