A Study Of Vitruvius And The Ten Books On Architecture

Vitruvius was an ancient roman architect. His masterpiece - The Ten Books on Architecture, was the first systematic theoretical work on architecture in the western history. In the architectural field, scholars made a general study on a series of works related to architectural history, which also included the macroscopic research on The Ten Books on Architecture. In the field of history, there were few relevant researches on the architectural history, the earliest Chinese edition of The Ten Books on Architecture was translated by Gao Lvtai from the Japanese version. The author consulted the relevant original material and early versions, making comparisons and then tried to make it more close to the source document. Because of the limited level and ability, the author couldn't make a systematic, further research on the history and present situation of Vitruvius and his The Ten Books on Architecture. Besides some preliminary observation and understanding of myself, the article mainly benefited from some studies on the history of western architecture .There are only some introductions and recommendations here, and the contents I mentioned, are very shallow, I will be glad if the article can be of any referential value.The Ten Books on Architecture has a history of more than 2,000 years, and it is still popular and provides architects of each generation with the building standards of good architecture. The book covers urban planning, architectural design principle, construction composition principle, western classical architectural style, architectural environment control, building materials, municipal infrastructure, architect training, etc. Considering the historical conditions and environment at that time, it was rare to describe the basic framework of architecture so systematically. In contrast, the development of architectural theories in Chinese history is much later, and the historical and academic value of the related literature also can't be compared with this book. As a theoretical work, The Ten Books on Architecture needs to be analyzed as a whole, and also requires to be studied from its concept and philosophy, in order to learn the advantage of the western architectural theory. Such a study will have an important practical significance for the research and development of the architectural theory in our country.According to the research topic, the author obtains the first-hand Chinese and foreign materials through a thorough research of literature. Thus the author is able to comprehensively understand the study. At the same time, the author made a comprehensive research on research papers from an overall view by using the related theories, methods and achievements of History, Architecture, Archaeology, especially the research achievements on architectural theory.This paper will absorb the academic points of view and research results extensively from the scholars both at home and abroad on the basis of mastering the relevant materials as much as possible. And then it will analyze Vitruvius and his The Ten Books, which has a profound influence on the later architectural history, from multiple level and multiaspect points of view. As for the study method, the author will use the related theories of History, Architecture, and Sociology comprehensively, and use specific methods such as comparison, induction and deduction etc. The author will have an overall analysis on the basis of these scholars'research achievements, and give a more comprehensive, more systematical and deeper exposition on this paper.This paper is divided into four parts. Sequentially, it exposits Vitruvius'life experience, the background of the book;, editions, value, contents and characteristics of The Ten Books on Architecture. In addition, this paper will also focus on the Greek and Roman architectural column in The Ten Books on Architecture, as well as the similarities and differences between them, evaluate the influence of The Ten Books on Architecture. The author's attitude towards this paper is to evaluate Vitruvius and his The Ten Books on Architecture objectively, to seek truth from facts, and avoid any unnecessary overstatements.