Page:Peking the Beautiful.pdf/13

 Introduction IN THE preface to her valuable work on Peking, Juliet Bredon makes the very modest remark that "a proper appreciation of Peking is not in the power of a Westerer to give, ... since it presupposes a thorough Z knowledge of China's past, an infinite sympathy with Chinese character and religions, an intimate familiarity with the proverbs and household phrases of the poor, the songs of the streets, the speech of the workshop, no less than the mentality of the literati and the motives of the rulers." While fully agreeing with these sagacious words, I wish to supplement Miss Bredon's observation by pointing out that the Western, visitor to Peking is often far more apprecia tive of its artistic and architectural beauty than are the native residents themselves. It is doubtless true that the Chinese resident loves Peking no less than does the Desterner, but search his heart and we shall find that he clings to Peking because of its fine climate and clear skies, or because of its spaciousness, or intellectual atmosphere. Few place its artistic beauty and architectural grandeur above these considerations. There are superficial reasons for this lack of appreciation on the part of the Chinese. The Imperial palaces and parks were for centuries forbidden places to the people, even to the high officials. Everywhere there were walls, and walls so annoyingly inconvenient that the people had to go out the norther gate in order to gain the southern gatel What the people could see every day were the decaying exteriors and red walls and yellow roofs which no longer had fascination for them. And the poets and the ment of letters of those Imperial days had no place for excursion and rendezvous in the city except the Tao-jan Ting, a deserted lonely arbor in the southern extremity of the city 1 Little wonder, then, that the people of Peking should be blind to architectural beauties that were never realities to them. But the real explanation lies deeper and touches the philosophical and artistic background of the nation The Chinese are a practical people, too much obsessed with utilitarian considerations to maintain a proper sense of appreciation for things beautiful in themselves but of little practical value Confucius was severely criticized by the Mo School for his emphasis on the importance of music and the dance, yet even Confucius was not free from shortsighted utilitarianism. In his eulogy on the great legendary King Yü, he paid a special tribute to his virtuous act of "living in shabby palaces but devoting all resources to drainage and flood prevention" Natural enough, there grew up legends which pictured the great kings Yao and Shun as reigning in houses with thatched roofs and earthen doorsteps. And these examples of virtuous simplicity were frequently cited by scholar-ministers who fought against the architectural extravagances of the tyrants.