TY - GEN AU - Ruan, Xing TI - Confucius courtyard : architecture, philosophy and the good life in China SN - 9781350217614 U1 - 720.103 PY - 2022/// CY - New Delhi PB - Bloomsburry Publishing KW - Architecture and society -- China KW - History of architecture,Asian history KW - Architecture -- General KW - Architecture -- History -- General KW - Courtyard houses -- China KW - China -- Civilization -- Philosophy KW - Buildings KW - Building--Tropical conditions KW - Building KW - Building--Design and construction N1 - Contents List of Illustrations x Acknowledgements xxii Prologue xxv Part One: Heaven A Panacea from the Courtyard 1 1. What Makes the Chinese House 3 I. The Conceptual Parti 5 II. Confucius' Courtyard 10 III. From Object to Void 21 2. Heaven and What is Below 27 I. The Chinese Tian 37 II. The King's City 43 III. The Built World and the Literary World Part Two: Heaven and Earth Equilibrium in the Courtyard 51 3. The Divergent Tower 53 I. The Emergence of the Individual and Metaphysics 56 II. Immortality and Freedom Imagined 62 4. Secluded World and Floating Life 75 I. The Middling Hermit 77 II. The Artful Transition 91 5. A Deceiving Symbol 101 I. The Travelling Merchant and the Oddity of their Courtyard 104 II. Women in Chinese Marriage and Household 113 III. Behind Good Taste and Refinement 116 6. Literary Enchantment and the Garden House 129 I. Li YĆ¼'s World 131 II. Internalized Garden and the ?Horizon? beyond 138 III. Courtyard and Decorum 153 7. The Golden Mean Finely Tuned 157 I. The Anatomy of a Beijing Quadrangle 159 II. Life and Ambience in the Hutong 164 III. The City as a Large Quadrangle 175 IV. Distinctive Character versus Uniformity 179 8. Living like the Chinese 193 I. The ?Guest? Chinese and their Chinese Courtyards 194 II. Chinese Form and Exotic Meaning 204 Part Three: Earth The Emancipation of Desire and the Loss of Courtyard 217 9. The Irresistible Metropolis 219 I. Modern City Born of Refugee Crisis 223 II. From Diminishing Courtyard to Porous House 232 10. The Assault of Modernity 245 I. Quadrangle without the Confucian World 249 II. The Lingering Courtyard III. Nothingness, Horizon and Discreet Pleasure 257 Epilogue The Four or the Five 279 Notes 283 Index 307 ER -