Lectures

Viewed as a means to give order to one’s surroundings and to make sense of one’s position in the world and cosmos, “architecture” has usually been considered in relation to space. The locus of living, however, takes place both in space and in time, and it is time and timeliness that early on were prioritized in the architectural process of building in China. By way of illustration, it is now more common to think spatially and divide the circumference of a circle geometrically into 360 degrees, yet for most of China’s imperial era spanning over two millennia, the circle was temporally graduated into 365.25 degrees, the approximate time in days for ‘the sun to circle the earth.’ Likewise, presently the practice of what is now generally termed fengshui 風水 is closely linked to auspicious positioning in space, yet early on it was more strongly tied to time and timeliness rather than siting in space. So, what does an architecture prioritizing time look like? 

My ongoing research explores how since antiquity, time was manifested as position through the use of a gnomon to determine the central locality of both the royal dominion and time itself. This centrality also located correlations between regions in the heavens with those on earth. In this allocation into corresponding regions (fenye 分野), timely phenomena and untimely anomalies in one region were believed to find mutual reciprocity in its counterpart, thereby affecting human society and establishing a spatiotemporal identity for each region that persisted until the end of the imperial era. It was the role of architectural builders and fengshui specialists—both sometimes dubbed “time masters” (shishi 時師)—to determine the most timely or appropriate moment to build in order to foster the best opportunity for benefit and success. For similar reasons, in ritual texts, imperial calendars, and popular almanacs, particular building activities were prescribed or proscribed according to time and season. In fact, the entire process of building—from the selection of a propitious starting date, through key stages of construction, to the ceremonial raising of the ridge beam—was regulated by the choice of auspicious times for action (coupled with favorable directions, measurements, and timely rites). The timing of each step individually, as well as all steps collectively, augured future potentiality. This fused process of (1) Sequence (step by step) and (2) Simultaneity (all together) likens the building and its process of making to the stamping of a seal or sigil, a device held to have special auspicious, protective, and salutary potencies that can impart identity and authority, transmit lineage, and influence forces beyond the physical world. A Chinese seal (yin 印) comprises separate components that can each be read sequentially, yet when stamped, its whole meaning or power can also be understood simultaneously. In this way, it may be said that the pattern of an imperial seal on paper is analogous to the design of an imperial capital on the ground. As it happens, this seal metaphor also serves as a conceivable model for the very shape of time.