Confucius’ Courtyard : Architecture, Philosophy and the Good Life in China (Paperback)

Prologue Part One: Heaven A Panacea from the Courtyard 1. What Makes the Chinese House I. The Conceptual Parti II. Confucius' Courtyard III. From Object to Void 2. Heaven and What is Below I. The Chinese Tian II. The King's City III. The Built World and the Literary World Part Two: Heaven and Earth Equilibrium in the Courtyard 3. The Divergent Tower I. The Emergence of the Individual and Metaphysics II. Immortality and Freedom Imagined 4. Secluded World and Floating Life I. The Middling Hermit II. The Artful Transition 5. A Deceiving Symbol I. The Travelling Merchant and the Oddity of their Courtyard II. Women in Chinese Marriage and Household III. Behind Good Taste and Refinement 6. Literary Enchantment and the Garden House I. Li Yu's World II. Internalized Garden and the "Horizon" beyond III. Courtyard and Decorum 7. The Golden Mean Finely Tuned I. The Anatomy of a Beijing Quadrangle II. Life and Ambience in the Hutong III. The City as a Large Quadrangle IV. Distinctive Character versus Uniformity 8. Living like the Chinese I. The "Guest" Chinese and their Chinese Courtyards II. Chinese Form and Exotic Meaning Part Three: Earth The Emancipation of Desire and the Loss of Courtyard 9. The Irresistible Metropolis I. Modern City Born of Refugee Crisis II. From Diminishing Courtyard to Porous House 10. The Assault of Modernity I. Quadrangle without the Confucian World II. The Lingering Courtyard III. Nothingness, Horizon and Discreet Pleasure Epilogue The Four or the Five Bibliography Index