Introduction à la Chine moderne - relation entre l'architecture chinoise et la culture urbaine : Beijing

beijing has not always been the capital of China. Actually the city was not even called beijing - "Northern Capital" in chinese - before the third Ming emperor, Yongle, made it the capital of the Middle Kingdom in the 15th century. So from the early 15th century beijing has become one of the most important cities of China, because the "Sons of Heaven" (the chinese emperors) used to rule the country from the Forbidden City (Morgenstern, 1989, 23-25). As a result many stunning temples and palaces were built in beijing and I shall analyze some of them as architectural achievements.

This essay will be divided into four parts. I shall firstly focus on a description of the history of the city. Afterwards I shall dwell on chinese traditional principles of architecture and some of beijing's major architectural achievements (including the Forbidden City for instance) in relation to chinese society, philosophy or, more broadly speaking, its urban culture. Lastly I shall describe the modernization of the city and its architecture, as well as that of its urban culture and political organization in the second part of the 20th century.