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 Yü'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