仪典与景观：上古中国陶寺观象祭祀台复原及营造思维研究

Rite and Landscape: Restoration of Taosi Observatory and Altar in Ancient China and Its DesignThinking

关键词:  风景园林  陶寺观象祭祀台  景观考古学  仪典  复原  营造思维

Key words:  landscape architecture  Taosi Observatory and Altar  landscape archaeology  rite  restoration  design thinking

摘要:

现有的中国风景园林史对于史前至有史文明之间的研究相对不足，而考古发掘出的上古中国尧舜时期的陶寺观象祭祀台具有重要价值，但目前研究多 集中在其观象功能，缺乏对其祭祀功能及相应景观组织的研究。采用景观考古学方法，对这一景观建筑遗存展开了考古成果的整理，并结合早期祭天仪典流程的 梳理，两相对应，还原遗迹中各部分在仪典中的具体功能并复原出整体的景观组织结构，通过再现其营造思维过程，探讨了其中反映出的“因借自然，选址定 位”“大数为体，小数为用”“景观区隔，中介转化”“景观图示，文化象征”思维。这一案例弥补了夏朝之前景观建筑具体实例缺失的遗憾。

Abstract:

While the overall historiographical framework of Chinese landscape architecture has become increasingly comprehensive, research on the transitional period between prehistory and literate civilization remains comparatively underdeveloped. The principal challenge lies in the scarcity of materially extant cases of landscape architecture. Between 2003 and 2005, excavations in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province, unearthed the Taosi Observatory and Altar (hereinafter referred to as TSOA), a structure dating to approximately 2100-2000 BC during the legendary era of Yao and Shun. This discovery holds profound significance for the history of Chinese landscape architecture. However, existing scholarship has concentrated predominantly on verifying TSOA's astronomical observational function, thereby neglecting the built environment constituted by its internal pathways, architectural features, and landscape elements, as well as the ritual-liturgical activities these material spaces once accommodated. Accordingly, this paper adopts a landscape archaeology approach, correlating the excavated archaeological features with early Chinese protocols for Heavenworship ceremonies, so as to reconstruct the specific ritual functions of individual remains and to restore the overarching spatial and organizational logic of the landscape. First, relevant archaeological findings concerning the site’s features are systematically collated to present a fundamental picture of the physical vestiges. Second, through exegesis of canonical texts such as the Zhou Li (Rites of Zhou) and Li Ji (Book of Rites), the procedural unfolding of Heaven-worship ceremonies during this period is reconstructed, encompassing the correspondences among ritual actors, events, and spatial settings. Finally, the material spaces evinced by the archaeological record are mapped onto the ceremonial sequences and spatial requirements documented in textual sources. This analysis yields the following key conclusions, i.e., 1) The passageway at the southwest, linking the outer circular pathway to the inner altar, likely served as the principal ritual entrance. 2) The trapezoidal structure situated at the trapezoidal projection on the southern side of the altar was probably the sacrificial chamber (Jishi), accommodating the pronouncement of invocations at the commencement of the rite and the veneration with the heads of sacrificial victims during its later phases. 3) The crescent-shaped platform on the east of the altar, adjoining the outer circular path, constituted the zone for the slaughtering and offering of victims. The rammed-earth steps on its eastern flank provided the working surface for immolation, while the post-hole structures on its southern side represent points where sacrificial animals were tethered. On this basis, the landscape-spatial configuration and ritual-liturgical organization of TSOA are systematically restored. Drawing upon this reconstructed spatialliturgical order, it becomes possible to deduce the conceptual principles underlying the design thinking of high-status landscape architecture in early China. These principles manifest in four principal aspects, i.e., 1) Borrowing from Nature and Siting through Alignment. On the one hand, the precise geometric knowledge reflected in TSOA demonstrates that the ancient builders were fully capable of achieving astronomical observation solely through apertures within the built structure. Yet, despite the increased constructional complexity, they deliberately integrated their sacred mountain into the observational apparatus. On the other hand, the siting of the platform itself was determined by the heliacal phenomenon of sunrise occurring directly behind the sacred mountain's principal peak on specific ritually significant dates. Together, these factors attest to an abiding reverence for landscape (Shan-Shui) and a design ethos predicated on "Yinjie Ziran" (borrowing from nature). 2) The Great Numbers as Ontological Matrix, while the Small Numbers as Technical Means. The "Great Numbers" embody natural regularities and symbolic resonances, whereas the "Small Numbers" pertain to geometric-technical operations. Under the influence of the gaitian cosmology of "round heaven and square earth", TSOA adopted the circle as its foundational form, subsequently subjecting it to geometric transformations dictated by the requirements of the ritual sequence, while simultaneously respecting the symbolic significance of the number "three" in Chinese culture. This constitutes a synthesis of numerical essentialism and technical application. 3) Spatial Demarcation and Mediated Transition. The structure employed an annular zone to differentiate the inner ceremonial altar from the outer circumambulatory viewing area. By implanting specific ritual functions within this interstitial belt, the design both linked the two zones and facilitated a seamless ritual progression, which is an ingenious spatial strategy of liminal mediation and transformation. 4) Landscape Schemata and Cultural Symbolism. The ground surface of the observatory precinct, where consistes of raw earth and rammed earth enwrap one another, gives rise to a pattern evocative of a "Panlong" (coiling loong) or the "Yin-Yang" dyad, thereby concretizing a culturally symbolic mode of spatial figuration. In conclusion, the restoration of the ritual-spatial configuration of TSOA not only remedies the longstanding lacuna in extant cases of landscape architecture antedating the Xia dynasty but also affords a glimpse into certain conceptual frameworks and design logics that informed landscape-making in high antiquity China.