Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/692

 CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHI- TECTURE. " See what a love shell, Small and pure as a pearl. Frail, but a work divine, Made so fairly well, With delicate spire and wall, How exquisitely minute A miracle of design." I. INFLUENCES. i. Geographical. The Chinese Empire — comprising China proper, Thibet, Mongoha, and Corea — is larger than the whole of Europe. It is for the most part mountainous, but possesses four great trading rivers by which merchandise is carried, facilitating internal commerce. In addition a network of canals for irrigation and navigation is spread over the low-lying provinces, and these, with the navigable rivers, form the principal highways of China. The " Grand Canal," extending from Tientsin to Hangchow, is 600 miles in length. The coast has excellent harbours, which must have assisted the intercourse with India and Assyria, and the consequent influence of their architectural forms. The Chinese pagoda was a direct imitation of an Indian prototype (page 632), or may have been derived from the pyramidal many-storied buildings found in lower Chaldaea. Japan presents many points of resemblance to Great Britain : both have highly indented coast lines with good harbours ; both are insular empires well situated for commerce and lying opposite populous continents ; both are at the head of great oceanic waterways, the one of the Pacific, the other of the Atlantic ; and both are warmed by ocean currents producing equable temperatures.