Chinese Art
Teacher's Resource
Lesson Plan: Daily Life in Ancient China
Lessons submitted by: Patti Burkhardt

Pottery Model of a Manor Compound
Grades PreK-2
Sunshine State Standards: VAB111, VAB112, VAB113, VAC111, VAC112, VAE111

Goal:
These various activities will ready Grades PreK-12 students for their visit to the Naples Art Museum where the Gow Collection will be explored. Three other lessons are included: one each for Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12.

Additional Background Information

The Han Dynasty was a 400-year period of stability that allowed for increased expansion, trade, prosperity, and cultural creativity. The emperor, followed by the aristocracy who ruled the land in his name, held the greatest wealth, but the gentry, who aided the aristocracy, and the merchants, traditionally at the bottom of the social scale, were better off than they had ever been before. Some of these "commoners" rode in chariots pulled by horses and lived in fine mansions with beautiful gardens. These splendid houses were enhanced with such things as gilded pillars, window frames with bits of mica and colored glass, and marble stairs.

Even the most elegant manors had a layout similar to farmhouses - a courtyard with a gate in the south wall (the direction of holiness), several buildings within the yard, a main dwelling in the center, a garden area behind. The basic framework of the houses was also the same for people of all classes: a roof supported by rows of wood pillars and lintels set on stone slabs on a foundation of rammed earth. By the time of the Han Dynasty, most roofs were tiled instead of thatched. (http://www.ucf.edu)

This impressive gray pottery manor compound is a form of siheyuan, a single-enclosure courtyard with buildings on four sides, which could also be seen in stone and brick tomb carvings of the same period. This type of structure was very popular in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, especially in Northern China. The compound is comprised of twenty-eight pieces, which make up a walled yard with a two-story building, a central gazebo, four pagoda-like towers, and an elaborate roofed gateway. Each tower is a two-storied structure with first-story eaves and a gently sloping hexagonal cuanjian (pyramidal roof); the base of each story is surrounded by a short railing. A roofed corridor with columns and railings connects the two towers on the right of the central axis, and a similar corridor connects the two towers on the left.

The main building, at the rear of the compound, has an open corridor on the ground floor. Several posts topped by dougong, or bracket sets, firmly support the three rooms on the second floor. Set back under separate si'a ding, or hip roof, each of the three symmetrically placed rooms has a separate entrance and a balcony with a railing overlooking the courtyard.

Pottery houses and towers were very popular tomb objects from the late Western Han through the Eastern Han dynasties, reflecting the prosperity of the farm economy and depicting life on and the operation of individual farms. This compound, however, with its gazebo and pagoda-like towers, is rare. Its configuration suggests some special function, possibly as a temple. (Chang, 2000)

Objective:
Students will be able to distinguish similarities and differences between housing found in different cultures and during different time periods.

Materials:
photos of houses found in various cultures and times in history

Teacher Preparation:
Study Chinese architecture and other housing found around the world throughout time using various books and/or videos on the subject.

Vocabulary found in the paragraphs above:

• Courtyard
• Enclosed
• Tiled roofs
• Thatched roofs
• Railings
• Cultures
• Ancient

Activity Description:

1. Have students study examples of houses from a variety of cultures and times. Have students identify commonalities - what are some things all housing shares?
2. On the board make an idea map showing the various features that can be found in all housing.

Suggestions For Looking at the Model During the Museum Visit:

• How many buildings form the courtyard house?
• Look for and identify different shapes.
• List the various kinds of lines. How are they repeated? What kinds of patterns are formed?
• How was this house made?
• What does the house tell us about the lives of people who lived in it?
• Compare/contrast this house with the one you live in. What is the purpose of the courtyard?

Three other lessons on ancient Chinese daily life are included: one each for Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12.