Another beautiful structure which well exhibits the pavilion is shown in the adjoining cut. It is the Pih-yung Kung, or ‘Classic Hall,’ built by Kienlung adjacent to the Confucian Temple at Peking (page [74]), and devoted to expounding the classics. This lofty building, which may be here seen through an ornamental arch across the court, is perfectly square, covered with a four-sided double roof, whose bright yellow tiles and gilded ball at the apex produce a most brilliant effect in the sunlight. The deep veranda, completely encircling the structure and supported by a score of colored wooden pillars, very ably relieves the dead mass and heavy upper roof of the pavilion proper. Around flow the waters of a circular tank, edged with marble balustrades and spanned by four bridges which form the approaches to each of the sides.
PIH-YUNG KUNG, OR ‘CLASSIC HALL,’ PEKING.
The general disposition of a Chinese dwelling of the better sort is that of a series of rooms separated and lighted by intervening courts, and accessible along a covered corridor communicating with each, or by side passages leading through the courts. In cities, where the houses are cramped and the lots irregular in shape, there is more diversity in the arrangement and size of rooms; and in the country establishments of wealthy families, where the gradual increase of the members calls for additional space, the succession of courts and buildings, interspersed with gardens and pools, sometimes renders the whole not a little complicated. The great expense of timber for floors, posts, and sleepers has been the chief reason for retaining the single story, rather than the awkwardness caused by cramping women’s feet. No contrivance for warming the rooms by means of chimneys or flues exists, except that found in the kang, or brick bed, on which the inmates lie and sit.
The entrance into large mansions in the country is by a triple gate leading through a lawn or garden up to the hall; in towns, a single door, usually elevated a step or two above the street, introduces the visitor into a porch or court. A wall or movable screen is placed inside of the doorway, and the intervening space is occupied by the porter; upon the wall on the left is often seen a shrine dedicated to the gods of the threshold. In the houses of officials, upon this wall is inscribed a list of dignities and offices which the master has held during his life. The door is solidly constructed, and moves upon pivots turning in sockets. Under the projecting eaves hang paper lanterns informing the passer-by of the name and title of the householder, and when lighted at night serving to illumine the street and designate his habitation; for door-plates and numbers are unknown. The roughness of the gate is somewhat concealed by the names or grotesque representations of two tutelar gods, Shintu and Yuhlui, to whom the guardianship of the house is entrusted; while the sides and lintel are embellished with felicitous quotations written upon red paper, or with sign-boards of official rank. The doorkeeper and other servants lodge in small rooms within the gateway, and above the porch is an attic containing one or two apartments, to be reached by a rude stairway.
On passing behind the screen a court, occasionally adorned with flowers or a fancy fish-pool, is crossed before reaching the principal hall. The upper end of the hall is furnished with a high table, on which incense vases, idolatrous utensils, and offerings are placed in honor of the divinities and lares worshipped there, whose tablets and names are on the wall. Sometimes the table merely contains flowers in jars, fancy pieces of white quartz, limestone or jade, or ornaments of various kinds. Before the table is a large couch, with a low stand in its centre, and a pillow for reclining upon. In front of it the chairs are arranged down the room in two rows facing each other, each pair having a small table between them. The floors are made of thick, large tiles of brick or marble, or of hard cement. Even in a bright day the room is dim, and the absence of carpets and fireplaces, and of windows to afford a prospect abroad, renders it cheerless to a foreigner accustomed to his own glazed and loftier houses.
A rear door near the side wall opens either into a kitchen or court, across which are the female apartments, or directly into the latter and the rooms for domestics. Instead of being always rectangular the doors are sometimes made round, leaf-shaped, or semi-circular, and it is thought desirable that they should not open opposite each other, lest evil spirits find their way in from the street. The rear rooms are lighted by skylights when other modes are unavailable, and along the southern sea-coasts the thin laminæ of a species of oyster (Placuna) cut into small squares supply the place of window-glass. Commerce is gradually bringing this material into greater use all over the land, though the fear of thieves still limits it. Corean paper is the chief substitute for glass in the north. The kitchen is a small affair, for the universal use of portable furnaces enables the inmates to cook wherever the smoke will be least troublesome. Warming the house, even as far north as Ningpo, is not frequent, as the inmates rely on their quilted and fur garments for protection. The flue of the tiled-brick divan, or kang, is connected with a pit lined with brick dug in the floor in front; when the pot of coal is well lighted and placed near the opening, the draft carries the heat into the passages running under the surface, and soon warms the room without much smoke. The pot of burning coal furnishes all the cooking-fire the poor have, and at night the inmates sleep on the warm bricks.
ARRANGEMENT OF COUNTRY HOUSES.
The country establishments of wealthy men furnish the best expression of Chinese ideas of elegance and comfort. In these enclosures the hall of ancestors, library, school-room, and summer-houses are detached and erected upon low plinths, surrounded by a veranda, and frequently decorated with tracery and ornamental carving. Near the rear court are the female apartments and offices, many of the former and the sleeping apartments being in attics. Considerable space is occupied by the quadrangles, which are paved and embellished by fish-pools, flowering shrubs, and other plants. Mr. Fortune describes[351] the house and garden of a gentleman at Ningpo as being connected by rude-looking caverns of rock-work, “and what at first sight appears to be a subterranean passage leading from room to room, through which the visitor passes to the garden. The small courts, of which a glimpse is caught in passing along, are fitted up with rock-work; dwarf trees are planted here and there in various places, and graceful creepers hang down into the pools in front. These being passed, another cavernous passage leads into the garden, with its dwarf trees, vases, ornamented lattices, and beautiful shrubs suddenly opening to the view. By windings and glimpses along the rocky passages into other courts, and hiding the real boundary by masses of shrubs and trees, the grounds are made to appear much larger than they really are.”