「中心-四方」空間形式及其宇宙論結構

Abstract

聚落具有「中心-四方」的空間形式，是人的居住文明的悠久空間傳統。在地表上，人創造適合自己在居住時主體上認定的「安居性空間」，如此形成的空間，稱為「存在空間」(existential space)。在此形式之中，人之存有意義獲得開顯，而也因此，遂帶有神聖性質。以中國而言，聚落的「中心-四方」空間形式，由來已久，已然成為一種長久穩定的文化歷史脈絡; 其內在蘊涵著一套宇宙論結構，此即「五行」思想體系。「五行」哲學，為中國歷史社會或文化結構中的一種重要觀念、規範、行為、表現系統，在大小傳統兩層中，均深具力量。於此哲學中，含具、展顯著古老的「中心-四方」(五方)的空間形式，而使「五行」以其自身的特性涵容以「五方」，使「五方」的空間框架撐舉了「五行」的內容，遂成為中國人二千年來的生活世界的空界性指導原則。

That human settlements possess a "center--four directions" spatial form is a age-old spatial convention of man's residential civilization. On the ground, man creates a subjecyively identified "residential space" wich fits comfortably around himself during the time he is living there, and space formed in this way is called "existential space" within this form, the significance of man's existence gains manifestation, and because of this it also at the same time possesses a sacred nature. In China, the "center--four directions" spatial form of settlement goes back a long way and has become an enduring element in Chinese cultural history. Implied within it is a cosmological structure, the "five elements" system of thought. In the Chinese social or cultural framework throughout history, the "five elements" philosophy forms an important conceptual, normative, behavioral and expressional system which possesses profound power on the levels of both the great tradition and the small tradition. This philosophy includes and expresses the ancient "center--four directions" (five directions) spatial form, so that the "five elements" with their own special features embody the "five directions"in such a way that the "five directions" spatial framework upholds the content of the "five elements," and this has made it into the spatial guidance principle for Chinese people's life and world for 2,000 years. The aim of this paper, in terms of mainstream cultural history, is firstly to explain that Chinese settlements in high antiquity already possessed a basic "five directions" spatial form, and to discuss the " five directions" spatial thought contained in ancient classics; and secondly, to expound the cosmological structure within this "five directions" spatial form in terms of the evolution of the "five elements" philosophy.