岭南名胜中英文导游(2)

陈家祠

The Chen Family Temple

    位于广州中山七路的陈家祠建成于1894年，是从前陈姓人家供奉祖先用的祠堂。中国有句俗话：“同姓一家亲，五百年前是一家”；所以，广东省72个县姓陈的人家集体捐资兴建了这座祠堂，以供奉他们的共同祖先，并作为他们在喜庆或其他场合进行宗族活动的地方。陈家祠又名陈氏书院，又是陈氏子弟读书求学的学堂，在建筑装饰艺术上，陈家祠集广东民间工艺之大成，被誉为“岭南艺术建筑明珠”，1959年辟为广东民间艺术博物馆。

    The Chen Family Temple was an ancestral temple of the Chen families in Guangdong Province. As a Chinese saying goes, “people of the same surname were in the same family 500 hundred years ago.” This adage is known to all in China and is certainly true as applied to the fact that people of the Chen families in the 72 countries of Guangdong Province jointly built this temple, in 1894 in the present-day Zhongshan Qi Road, as a place of their clannish activities on special occasions as well as a shrine for offering sacrifices to their common ancestors. Otherwise called Chen Clan Academy, it was also a school for children of the Chen families. In 1959, it was converted into the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, for the temple structure itself is a comprehensive expression of the exquisite Guangdong folk arts and crafts.

    陈家祠是广东省现存的宗祠中最宏伟的建筑群，占地15000平方米，主体建筑面积6400平方米；其建筑风格为中国传统的廊院建筑，采用中轴对称的布局，即在中轴线上间主要殿堂，两侧配以相互对称的厢房；各殿堂之间有庭院相隔，用回廊相连。除实体砖墙外，各厅房采用大型落地屏风或格构板墙与庭院分隔，在艺术上收到大小、高低、明暗、虚实的对比效果。

    Covering a ground space of 15,000 square meters, with a floor space meters, with a floor space of 6,400 square meters, the temple is built in the traditional Chinese architectural style. It is laid out in a symmetrical way, with the longitudinal central line as the axis and the structures on one side corresponding exactly with those on the other. Its wide-open main halls and the lattice-walled wing-rooms are interspaced by courtyards and connected with corridors, and huge suspended or floor screens as well as solid brick walls are used as partitions between halls and courtyards and between rooms; thus creating an artistic effect of bring structurally compact but appearing spacious and magnificent, and producing a contrasting effect of the big with the small, the high with the low, the open with hidden and the true with the false.

    陈家祠的另一建筑特点是硬山墙结构，屋顶“双檐滴水”。这是过去民房及此类庙堂的传统建筑形式。旧中国封建等级制度森严，房屋建筑的大小、高度、颜色甚至屋顶的式样都必须与主人的社会地位的相称；这就是为什么过去皇宫内两侧供卫兵和奴婢使用的房子均为矮小灰暗的平房，而中间的则为红墙瓦高大雄伟的庑殿式建筑（“四檐滴水”）。

    Another feature of the temple structure is that all the houses are gable-roofed, with two slopes to drain away the rainwater, which is the traditional style of roof structure corresponding to house for the common people in old China and to temple buildings of this kind. In the feudal society of old China, a strict hierarchy was formed. Under this social estate system, everything was rigidly stratified. The size, height and color of a house and even the style of its roof must match the social status of its owner or user. That’s why, in the former imperial palaces, all the back houses for servants and soldiers are low and gable-roofed with gray tiles, but the main buildings in the middle have yellow roofs with slopes in four sides.

    陈家祠在建筑装饰艺术上具有浓厚的广东地方色彩。该祠从上至下，从里到外，无论是柱、檐、脊、台阶、门窗等都饰以木雕、砖雕、石雕、陶塑、灰塑或铁铸构件等工艺品。这些工艺品不仅起到艺术装饰的作用，而且广罗各种历史、神话故事，一些花鸟虫兽、鱼、飞禽走兽雕塑及其构成的图案害隐寓各种意义：如牡丹代表富贵，莲花（并蒂莲）代表夫妻恩爱，狮子代表权力与尊严等等。

    While being constructed in the national style of architecture, the temple structure is unique in the way it is decorated, the way that is characteristic of this province. Stone-carvings, brick-carving, lime sculptures, ceramic figurines, wood-carvings or artistic objects of iron-casting can be found everywhere. They are made into flowers and trees, insects and birds, animals and human figures and even architectural complex. These works of art are used not only for the purpose of decoration but are also symbols or implications of one thing or another, or depictions of various scenes from stories of Chinese history and legends. For example, the peony flower is a symbol of richness and wealth, the twin lotus flowers on one stalk stand for an affectionate couple of husband and wife and the lion sculpture, power and dignity.

《导游实训教材》（Timwu 等编）