Abstract
This paper is a study on the urban landscape of the ancient capitals of Eastern Asia (China, Korea and Japan), focusing specifically on three Chinese references: the ritual of Zhou (Zhouli), geomancy (fengshui) and Changan. Zhouli is regarded as the cosmic symbology of the emperor (tianzi)—concerning particularly the plan of the principal palace, while fengshui is considered to be the positioning and citing of the ideal localization of energy (qi), and Changan of Tang is regarded as the representative model of the space organization of a metropolis. This study questions whether a given prototype of Asian capitals is characteristically representative as a combination of these particular references.
Keywords: Asian capital, urban landscape, ritual of Zhou, geomancy, Changan
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