The Chinese City in Space and Time: The Development of Urban Form in Suzhou by Yingnong Xu (review)

The Chinese City in Space and Time: The Development of Urban Form in Suzhou Yingnong Xu Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press Reviewed by Y if e i S u n California State University, Northridge Xu's b o o k , "The Chinese City in Space and Time: The Development of Urban Form in Suzhou," is an interesting and important book on the evolution of urban morphology in Chinese cities in general, and the city of Suzhou in particular. It is among the pioneering works looking into the morphological development of non-capital cities in China, and clearly presents the evolution of Suzhou's urban mor­ phology within the contexts of Chinese cultural, social, and economic history. The author convincingly makes the argument that "space has a certain social logic" (p. 4), which is demonstrated by investi­ gating the relationships between the sites, city walls, city gates, canals, and the urban structure in Suzhou (among others) on the one hand; and the city's cultural, social, and economic conventions on the other hand. The book consists of seven chapters in addition to the introduc­ tion and conclusions. Chapter one gives a brief description to the origin of Suzhou and its social and economic history. The chapter is divided into two sections. The first section summarizes the history from 514 B.C. when Suzhou was the capital of the state of Wu, up to 473 B.C when Wu was destroyed by the neighboring state of Yue. The second section introduces Suzhou's history during the imperial era, which started with the Qin unification of China in 221 B.C., af­ ter which Suzhou became the seat of a prefecture and lasted until the early 20thcentury. This chapter serves as the background for the subsequent analyses and presentation. 163 164 APCG YEARBOOK • Volume 64 • 2002 The subsequent six chapters compose the core part of this book. Chapter 2, "The City in Its Beginning," gives a very interesting in­ troduction to the construction of early Chinese cities in general and Suzhou in particular, and the symbolic meaning of their forms. The author begins by examining the general characteristics of urban planning and construction in China's early history, followed by the investigation of issues related to the construction of Suzhou. Exam­ ined issues include choice of the site, cardinal orientation, city layout and walls, and locations of principal social and political structures. For example, the author argues that the squared shape of early Chi­ nese cities was related to the belief that the earth was perceived to be a square checker board, and that the nine divisions of the city layout were connected to the administrative subdivision of the royal territory into nine sections or provinces (jiuzhou). At the end of this chapter, the author looks at the symbolic meaning of the city gates, and convincingly argued that the construction of city gates was a very serious business, which "far exceeded the necessity for the per­ formance of their mundane function of granting access and affording defense" (p. 30). For example, the northwest gate of Suzhou (The capital of Wu) was named as Chang Gate, or the Gate of Heaven, while the gate in the southeast section of the city wall was named as Snake Gate to symbolize the Gate of Earth. As such, the city "could be interpreted as a replica of the cosmos at the very axis of the uni­ verse" (p. 32). Chapter 3, "Cities in the Imperial Era," examines a few aspects of general urban development in imperial China, including the im­ pacts of the political hierarchy on urban morphology, the general principles and practices of urban planning and their changes, and the urban-rural relationships and their effects on city walls. Finally, the author explores the possible reasons for the stable form of the walled city in China. Many interesting issues are discussed in this chapter. For instance, the author acutely points out that one key dif­ ference between regional and local centers and the imperial capital is the absence of the Altar of Heaven in the former type of cities. It is argued that such a difference was because the Altar of Heaven sym­ bolized the...