Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/693

 CHINESE AND JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. 635 ii. Geological. China. — The abundance of metals, coal, salt, iron, and copper, have always made China one of the richest of countries. China, as primitive India, employed wood for building ; such was rendered possible by the vast forests of bamboo and pine which existed in ancient C^ina. Pekin, which was first made the Imperial capital about a.d. 1260, suffered severely from earthquakes in 1662 and 1 73 1, when important buildings were wrecked. Brick- making is considered by many to have been introduced from the West, in imitation of those found in the ruins of Mesopotamia. Large beds of porcelain clay are found in the province of Che-kiang and elsewhere. In city walls the brick is usually about 18 inches long, and in buildings a small grey-colored brick is often used. Tiles, plain, glazed, and colored, are ahnost exclusively used for the roofs, yellow being the Imperial color. Stone is used for bridges, gateways and public works, and marble for balustrading around tombs and important buildings. Japan. — The prevalence of earthquakes has favoured wooden construction, in which the Japanese exhibit scientific ingenuity in the framing together of the various parts. Stone in Japan is unstratified, hence it is frequently used in polygonal blocks, particularly for the lower part of walls, on which is erected the upper wooden construction. Forests occupy four times the area of the tilled land, with a greater diversity of trees than any other country in the world ; bamboo is largely used in house construction. iii. Climate. China. — ^The geological formation of the mountains, which run east and west, direct the sea winds which moderate the tempera- ture. North China has a short but frosty winter and warm and rainy summer. During the monsoons very heavy rains occur, which influenced such features as the widely projecting roof with steep surfaces admitting of the easy discharge of rain-water. Roofs are turned up at the eaves to admit light without the heat of the sun (Nos. 281 and 283). Fires being principally used for domestic purposes and not for comfort, chimneys are unimportant features and seldom provided, the charcoal or wood fire being allowed to eject its fumes into the cooking apartments. Japan. — Houses, where possible, face the south, as a protection against cold. The deeply projecting eaves protect from the summer sun and the high inclosing walls of courtyard against the winter wind. In summer the moveable casement windows and partitions forming the fronts of the houses, and offering little resistance to the penetration of heat, are removed, leaving them entirely open to the breezes.