“Context” Thinking of Contemporary Urban History Space under the Basis of Enlightenment of Chinese Traditional Cultural Philology - Taking West Expansion Plan of Tianyi Pavilion as an Example

Facing the understanding problem of update and preservation of urban history space under background of rapid Chinese urbanization, so at first there is a need to dig the philosophic principles of “antithesis” and “unification” which are contained in the traditional Chinese literature known as “antithesis” and do the job of planning translation by personal understanding in order to form understanding and value systems of dialectical urban history space under the foundation of “antithesis”. Then we could put forward a “context” concept for urban history space under the foregoing basis. After that, we will take the update and preservation of Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion’s historical district as an example to discuss problems related to understanding of urban history area under the basis of Chinese tradition culture, improvement of value system, construction of urban trait space and Chinese “localization” of planning theory. Keywords—Antithesis, traditional values, City renewal and conservation, the “context” of city history space. I. THINKING ABOUT PRESENT PLANNING PROBLEMS URING the China’s reform and opening up, and with the rapid urbanization process of China many Chinese urban history space has showed great downward trend on the aspects of materiality and functionality which used to be full of traditional cultural characteristics and local history features. The structures and forms of traditional space were continuously blended into the construction and transformation of cities which means the previous history information of cities will disappear entirely during their development process. Under the lead of urban planning system based on western cultural and value systems, more and more cities just looked like as the “same one”, so their “identities” have been wiped out during the process of construction and demolition [1]. But at the same time during the urban development process, the update and preservation of urban history space under the guidance of concepts of “authenticity” and “facticity” presented in western “Venice Chapter” which has led to the debate between “preservation” and “demolition”. Under the present times background of the transformation from the old to the new and clashes between tradition and modernity, with social development, human’s thoughts and Wei Yan, PhD is with the Department of Urban Planning, School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing, P. R. (phone: 0086-13851537837; e-mail: [email protected]). Dr. Wei Dong is with the Department of Urban Planning, School of Architecture, Southeast University (e-mail: [email protected]). lifestyles has changed continuously. The “unsuitability” for Chinese cities’ further development would appear, if we were still simply apply the urban planning theory under the foundation of the so-called “imported goods” of western social and cultural values to our urban development. Certainly, with the improvement of living standard and returning of traditional culture, it is necessary to provide a framework under the basis of planning theories, methods and traditional Chinese philosophies and cultural concepts for the purpose of providing explanations for problems and phenomena encountered in present planning. Besides it will help Chinese planners to carry out creative planning practice for traditional cultural roots and provided as a good reference for research of “Chinization” of western planning theory. II. POINT OF PENETRATION: PHILOSOPHIC PRINCIPLES OF TRADITIONAL CULTURE’ DESIGNING TRANSLATION At present designing practice process, the countless problems encountered in the planning could be simply classified as the wrestle between planning force and social force. The essence of clash is the conflict between two different kinds of value systems, namely, eastern culture and western counterpart or the clash between different cultural systems [2]. If this conflict could not be solved then there will be some problems in the actual practice of planning, so it is realistic and practicable to make a planning translation for the philosophic concepts contained in the traditional Chinese culture. To begin with, it is realistic to form the planning theory and practice of chinization under the foundation of tradition Chinese culture and its philosophic thinking. For the ancient period to present, whether the officials and scholar-bureaucrats of dominators of urban planning or the designing practice of Chinese ancient city and its designing theory are all breed from the environment of traditional Chinese culture. So in other words traditional culture and its philosophic concepts are not only a combination of literature and art, rather it is the Chinese people’s thousands years of intelligent experience which has a profound influence in every aspect of social life including urban planning. There is no doubt that under the background of continuous changes of human’s thoughts and lifestyles and calling for returning of traditional culture, outstanding traditional culture and its meanings are vital for the formation of Chinese characteristic planning theory and practice. “Context” Thinking of Contemporary Urban History Space under the Basis of Enlightenment of Chinese Traditional Cultural Philology Taking West Expansion Plan of Tianyi Pavilion as an Example