ROOF PLASTIC ART IN THE MICROCOSM OF A TRADITIONAL CHINESE HOUSE AND THE MACROCOSM OF A CITY
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Abstract
The article deals with the general role and place of roofing plastic in the microcosm of a traditional Chinese house. The tiled roof was the most original, noticeable and recognizable element of the Chinese architecture. In the late Middle Ages, the rank of buildings in the administrative hierarchy was shown by the design of the roof. The history of tile production in China is going back to the ancient times. Art critics have long noted that the most striking features in Chinese buildings are the roofs and gables, with their fantastic clay creatures sitting in a line on the ridges and hips of the roof. Only the roof could act as a protection between the threatening forces of nature and a man. Because the role of the roof was so important, the Chinese did not limit themselves to its technical design, but also strengthened it with spiritual amulets, exposing the main contingent of his animistically formed “defense army” in the form of clay figurines built along the gables and ridges of a roof. They had to stand there as constantly ready, never tired guards. Only then does the Chinese feel protected from the attacks of evil demons. Thus arose the widespread use of roofing figurines, and, thanks to the constancy of the Chinese worldview, this application has taken place over the centuries until our time. Chinese builders tried to use favorable spiritual forces and scare away evil influences with means of everyday decoration, which had a symbolic meaning. Therefore, tiles were the most common apotropaic agents on roofs. According to ethnographic data, roofing clay sculptures in traditional Chinese society were entrusted with very specific functions of manifesting the social status of the building, protecting it from evil and constructing a happy existence in it, based on ancient cosmological ideas. The aesthetic component was, in fact, secondary. Instead, the location of ceramic figures, which were attached to the most vulnerable in terms of mythological consciousness of the roof, their color, number, order and character composition were important first of all.
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roof, tile, roofing ceramics, clay figurines, mascots, Forbidden City, China
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