關于空間，關于死亡

張利/ZHANG Li

關于空間，關于死亡

張利/ZHANG Li

文明史上惟一不變的規律是，每一個個體的注定的歸宿都是死亡。生命的時鐘分秒不停地催促我們走向這一結局，而人類最有效的抗爭方式是建構死亡之后的故事。事實上，建構死亡之后的來世是人類區別于其他物種的主要原因之一。

死亡可能是一個被忌諱的話題，然而面對死亡的態度卻是不同文明的本質的分野。這一分野非常重要的表現在于與死亡相關的人造空間，在這里，關于今生與來世的敘事得以赤裸祼地昭示，在這里，人性的尊嚴得以最為多樣化地詮釋。

讓我們以最孟浪的方式概括建成空間對死亡的態度：敬畏、忽視與拒絕。

毫無疑問，敬畏是人類面對死亡的最初方式。我們在此不必悉數原始部族文化對劇毒爬行動物的圖騰崇拜——它們象征著最迅速的死亡——我們只需觀察跨越東西方的陵墓建筑的紀念性。在從宋陵的石像生至布雷的牛頓紀念堂的超大尺度的空間敘事中，我們得到的是一種超自然的、超物理生命極限的精神頌歌。在這種故事里，生者對逝者的膜拜以一種一邊倒的形式得以呈現：逝者不僅是經驗與知識的象征，更是一種居高臨下的“我正在看著你”的威嚴的表達。即使在21世紀的今天，這種出于對死亡未知感的惶恐仍然存在于多數以殯葬為主題的建筑中。被小心意意地經營著的空間序列、被預置情感的物理環境先入為主式地限定了生者在這類空間中的行為。無論是文藝復興佛羅倫薩的美第奇家族教堂，還是清東陵的3km軸線，都無一例外地傳遞了這種勿庸質疑的敬畏心理。

然而對死亡的有意忽視也是近代文明史上的一種不可否認的存在。來世即是今世，生命的無休止循環，死亡與出生的連貫是充滿自嘲式的幽默感的表達。世俗式的來世描繪、神祇的慣常生活將死亡轉變為一種新的開始。市場、煙花柳巷、熟悉的家居為生者營造了一個充滿親切感的來世空間，幾乎形成了對死亡的焦慮的一種行之有效的安慰。在20世紀至21世紀的建成空間里，我們不停地目睹以色彩、尺度和光影營造的樂觀主義的死亡空間，它們至少在情感上溫暖了作為生者的每一個人的心田。

與上述兩種情況不同的是，對死亡的拒絕是一個相對當代的概念。在不朽的著作《對死亡的拒絕》中，20世紀的文化人類學者厄內斯特·貝克爾以異乎尋常的洞察力敘述了一個樸素的真理——對死亡的拒絕、對長于物理生命的永恒的追求是藝術與詩學的根源——然而這一切都不能改變一個諷刺性的事實，即貝克爾自己在其著作獲得普利策獎兩個月之前與世長辭。貝克爾當以欣慰的是，無論是在視覺藝術，還是在建成空間領域，他的論點都得以一而再、再而三地被證實。斯卡帕的布里昂墓園以融匯東西方精神的方式，將對死亡的拒絕推向了極致——死亡不過是一系列精神演化的進程中的一個驛站——這一態度在無數20世紀至21世紀的有關死亡的空間中得到弘揚。

1860年代，尚在青年的勃拉姆斯在譜寫《德意志安魂曲》（Ein Deutsches Requiem）時，將自己珍視多年的為其交響曲行板樂章準備的素材寫成了第二樂章《靈肉如草木》（Denn alles Fleisch，es ist wie Gras）。在這一借助德語新約的詩篇中，人的肉體存在的稍縱即逝與精神存在的長久令人驚嘆地融為一體。而在建成的空間中，這種無盡的光榮又何嘗不是一種永恒。

為了人性的尊嚴，讓我們關注涉及死亡的空間，這也是本期《世界建筑》的主題。□

One law that is consistent throughout human civilisation is，everyone will face death as the end. The ticking clock of life never stops urging us to this final moment. The only way of human resistance to it is the construction of the stories of afterlives. Actually， it is this capability of construction that differentiates humans from other creatures.

Death might be a forbidden topic. Yet the attitude towards death forms the principal distinction among civilisations. One representation of this distinction is the built space related to death. It is here that narratives about life and death presents themselves. It is here that human dignity manifests in all kinds of interpretations.

Let's paint it with a broad brush here. Attitudes towards death may well be categorised as the following： fear， disinterest and denial.

Without doubt， feat is the prime attitude towards death from prehistoric times. Needless to mention the totem of venomous reptiles in tribal believes-which represents the most instant deathwe just need to look at the monumentality of tombs across Eastern and Western civilisation. From the mystic sculptures in Song Tombs to Boullee's Newton Cenotagh， the super-natural， grand narrative of death is something that goes beyond beings. In this narrative，the alive pays an unmistakable tribute to the deceased， in a fashion not unfamiliar to the "I'm being watched by those passed away" mentality. Even in the 21st century， the anxiety of the unknown word of death still prevails in funeral buildings. Meticulously choreographed spatial sequence， deliberated prescribed feelings in the built space strictly constraints the behaviours of the alive. Either in the symmetry of Medici Chapel or in the three-kilometre axis of Qing Eastern Tombs， the fear and respect of the deceased is accurately conveyed.

The deliberate disinterest to death is another commonality in all modern history. That there is no difference between here and hereafter， that the transition between life and death is nothing more than a self-mocking cycle is everywhere. The secularisation of the gods turns the termination of lives into cheerful beginnings. The markets， streets and domestic lives of the afterlives creates an intimate sense of death to everyone. It is almost a soothing argument of modern life. In the built spaces of the 20th and 21st century， we constantly witness the optimism of death from the colours， scales and day-lightings.

Perhaps different from the two situations aforementioned， the denial of death is a relative contemporary thing. In his master piece，The Denial of Death， twentieth century cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker states a simple argument that is hard to attack-it is the denial of death that makes art and philosophy of mankindyet it is almost ironic that Becker himself passed away two months before his work was acknowledged by the Pulitzer Prize. Becker may feel reassured that from visual art to architecture， his argument has been proven time and again. As one obvious example， Carlo Scarpa's Brion Cemetery push the Eastern-Western spiritual belief to its extreme， well beyond the imagination of the mortals. Death is just one stop in the ever-evolving cycles of life. This point is frequently repeated in architecture of the 20th and the 21st century.

In the 1860s， the still young Johannes Brahms composed A German Requiem， in which he turns his much cherished material for a symphonic andante to the 2nd movement Denn alles Fleisch， es ist wie Gras. In this movement built upon the German Gospel， the temporality of human flesh and the eternity of human spirit merged into a seamless whole. In the recent built spaces， this seamless whole carries on.

For human dignity， let's pay some attention to the spaces related to death. That is the glorious topic of this edition of World Architecture.□

On Space， On Death

清華大學建筑學院/《世界建筑》

2015-08-10