There are two representative periods of architectural style: Han and Tang styles and Ming and Qing styles.
However, due to the long-term education of Confucianism in China for thousands of years, the abstract Confucian theory has been unconsciously formed, and the established moral norms have always dominated the architectural concept of China people. Many outstanding personality characteristics can't be brought into full play, and more national innovations can't be really publicized and displayed, thus forming a relatively single architectural pattern dominated by royal gardens and mosque buildings. At this point, European architecture is much richer than ours.
From Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Gothic architecture, Rococo architecture to Baroque architecture, it is another embodiment of the political, economic, cultural, religious and humanistic development of Europe as a whole. Gothic architecture, in particular, embodies Europeans' enthusiasm for seeking religious pets and transforms this enthusiasm into a real visual image. Baroque architecture shows people the national characteristics of European freedom and outstanding personality, and constitutes a beautiful landscape in the European Renaissance with strong rendering power.
The differences between Chinese and western architecture are mainly due to the differences in cultural background, humanistic environment and natural environment, and can also reflect the differences between orientals and westerners in meaning form, way of thinking and aesthetic realm.
The main feature of China architecture is the closed group space pattern of brick and wood structure, which embodies the profound cultural heritage of this nation with the aesthetic feeling of the group and dignified and peaceful patriarchal ideology. Judging from the development of architecture, China's architecture is conservative. It can be said that it has not changed much for thousands of years. It is rooted in profound traditional culture, without ups and downs, strangeness and other incomprehensible images. From the perspective of architectural values, China's architecture pays more attention to the harmony and unity with political ethics, economic value and Confucianism at that time, which embodies the other side of a nation under the influence of conventional concepts.
The main materials of western architecture are mainly brick and stone, and the overall framework is mainly column structure system, such as pyramids in Egypt, temples in ancient Greece, Colosseum in ancient Rome, churches in medieval Europe, etc. Therefore, compared with the brick-wood architecture in China; Its life will be longer. From the design of architectural space, they are very different from China's design concept, mainly in the form of open single space. For example, the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Louvre in France were built in similar times. The Forbidden City is a magnificent building complex, which consists of thousands of single buildings and revolves around a main axis. The Louvre, on the other hand, expands vertically upward, forming a huge and changeable spatial image, which is enough to form a magnificent whole. There are also the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in the Middle Ages and St Peter's Cathedral in the Renaissance, all of which embody the open personality of Europeans and the spirit of science and democracy, and have influenced the whole of Europe and even the whole world.
Due to the different materials used in eastern and western buildings, as well as the differences in architectural theory and value, China's ancient and excellent architectural works, with the passage of time; When the buildings of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome were still well preserved, they interpreted their own culture with physical images.
From the simple comparison between Chinese and western architecture, it is not difficult to see that the differences in concept culture, system culture and material culture will have a great impact on the future and development of this nation.