Author's Preface A few years ago, when the author of this book visited—or rather searched—Notre Dame, in a dark corner of a steeple bell tower, he found a hand-carved word on the wall: 'AN'ARKH, these capital Greek The letters, which have been eroded by the years, are dark and deeply sunken in the stone. Looking at the shape and gestures of the characters, they present the characteristics of Gothic fonts, as if to show that these letters are from the handwriting of someone in the Middle Ages. These indescribable symbols, In particular, the meaning of fate and tragedy contained in the book deeply shocked the author's heart.

The author thinks about who this suffering soul is, and he must leave the mark of sin, or the mark of disaster, on the forehead of this ancient church, otherwise he will not leave this world. Since the author's visit, the wall has been painted and scraped (I don't know which of the two caused it), and the writing has disappeared.In the past two hundred years, the exquisite medieval churches have been ruined in this way, inside and out, and damaged from all directions.Priests painted casually, architects scratched randomly, and then the people suddenly came and razed the entire church to the ground.

In this way, apart from the author of this book expressing his remembrance here, the mysterious handwriting engraved on the dark bell tower of Notre Dame is now gone, and the unknown fate summarized by its tear-jerking has also disappeared.The person who wrote this word on this wall disappeared from the world centuries ago. This word also disappeared from the church wall, and perhaps it will disappear from the ground soon. This book is written according to this word. March 1831 1832 approved edition Author's note It has been said that several new chapters will be added to the current edition of this book, but that is a lie.In other words, it should be to add a few chapters that were not originally published.The so-called "new" means newly written, but in fact, the chapters added to the current edition are not new.These chapters, like the rest of the work, were all written at the same time, from the same period, from the same thought, and have always been part of the original manuscript.Furthermore, the author finds it difficult to understand how such a work can be further developed after it is completed!It's not okay to do whatever you want.The author believes that a novel must be born with all its chapters to a certain extent, and a play must be born with all its scenes.This is called the whole of a play or a novel, that is, this mysterious microcosm. The number of its components should not be considered as arbitrary.Grafting or welding destroys such works, which are supposed to be completed in one go and retain their original appearance forever.Once the book is written, don't change your mind, don't change it.Once the book is published, whether it is male or female, the gender of the work is determined, and it will be confirmed and made public, just like a child once it falls to the ground and makes its first cry, it is born, that is him, what appearance has been formed, what to do None of the parents can do anything.

From then on, the child belongs to the air and the sun, so let him live and die as he was born.What if your book is badly written?That deserves it, don't add chapters to a failed book.What if your book is incomplete?That should be written completely when creating.What if your tree is crooked?Then don't fix it.What if your novel suffers from consumption?What if your novel doesn't live?It has lost its breath, and there is nothing you can do to bring it back to life.What if your play was born lame?Please listen to me, don't put a wooden leg on it. Therefore, it is especially important to the author that readers understand that the chapters added to the current edition were not written specifically for this reprint.These chapters were not included in previous editions for a simple reason.When it was first published, the volume in which the manuscripts of the three chapters were originally placed was lost.For this, either rewrite or discard.The author thought at the time that only two of these three chapters were of any value in terms of length, and were devoted to art and history, and had nothing to do with drama and storyline.If it is discarded, readers will not notice it, and only the author knows the secret of this loophole.So I decided to discard these three chapters and ignore them.Moreover, if you want to tell the whole story, it is because the author is lazy, and he retreated when he wanted to rewrite the three missing chapters.Instead of supplementing it, I would rather write another novel.

Now that the manuscripts of the three chapters have been found, the author has seized this rare opportunity to put the three chapters in their respective places. Therefore, what I see now is the whole picture of this work, the appearance that the author originally dreamed of, and the appearance that he personally created, whether it is good or bad, whether it lasts forever or perishes, anyway, it is what the author expects appearance. For those who are well-informed, but looking for only dramatic conflicts and plots in the book, the chapters they have rediscovered may not make much sense in their eyes.However, some other readers may feel that it is not useless to study the aesthetic and philosophical thoughts contained in this book. They would rather seek the implication of the novel through the novel when reading, and would rather seek the historian's insight through the poet's creation. The system, the purpose of the artist—allow us to use such somewhat grandiose formulas.

It is mainly for this latter class of readers that these three chapters have been added to the present edition of the book in order to complete it, if it really deserves it. Among these three chapters, one chapter is about the current decline of architectural art, and according to the author, the king of art cannot escape the disaster of extinction today.What the author said is not just indiscretion, but unfortunately, this view is deeply rooted in the author's mind and has been carefully considered.However, he feels compelled to state here that if one day in the future it proves that he is fortunate enough not to be right, that is what he is eagerly looking forward to.He knew that art, in all its forms, can pin all its hopes on posterity, whose budding geniuses we have heard flourish in our studios.The seed is sown in the furrow, and a bountiful harvest is expected.For thousands of years, the construction industry has always been the best field for cultivating art. The author's only worry is that this ancient land has lost its vitality. Readers can see the reason for this worry in the second volume of the current edition.

However, today's generation of young artists is full of vigor and energy, and it can be said that the future is bound to be boundless.And so, especially in architecture schools nowadays, the teachers, though repulsive, have unconsciously, and even counterproductively, produced some outstanding students.The potter, as Houlas says, had in mind an ampoule, but made a cauldron.As soon as the roulette turns, the big basin comes out. But, all in all, no matter what the future of architecture is, and no matter how we young architects may one day solve the problems of architecture, let us protect the existing monuments before expecting new magnificent buildings to appear!

① Auras (65 BC-8 BC), Latin poet. If possible, let us arouse the enthusiasm of the whole nation to protect the art of national architecture!This, the author declares, is one of the chief purposes of this book, and one of the chief aims of his life. With regard to the architecture of the Middle Ages, this book may open up some real prospects for the art of architecture, which is still unknown to some and, what is worse, dismissed by others. .But the author is far from considering that the task he has voluntarily undertaken has been accomplished.He has stood up more than once to defend our ancient architectural art, loudly exposing all kinds of desecration, destruction, and humiliation of this art.He will never tire of it, and has promised to talk about it often, and will talk about it.He will persevere in protecting our monuments with as much determination as the iconoclasts in our schools and colleges attack our historic relics.It is painful to see into whose hands the art of medieval architecture has fallen, and to see what is being done to the remains of this great art by the mediocre plasterers of today!It would even be a shame for all of us in our senses to watch them do what they do, just stand by and boo.What is being said here happened not only in the provinces, but in Paris, right on our doorstep, right under our windows, in this great city, in this capital of men of letters, in this place where publications, speeches, ideas Capital!These acts of vandalism, in spite of the condemnation of the critics who are overwhelmed by such audacity, are constantly planned, debated, initiated, successively under our noses, under the eyes of the vast number of artists in Paris. , Enron's nonsense, we can't help pointing out a few examples here to end this "note".Recently the Archbishop's Palace in Paris was demolished. This building was so mediocre that it would be fine to demolish it. However, the architects who specialize in demolition did not care about red and white, and made the Bishop's Palace, a rare monument left over from the fourteenth century It was also demolished together with the Archbishop's Palace.They don't distinguish between good and bad, and they all pull out things.Now there is talk of tearing down the wonderful chapel of the Château Vincennes, and using the demolished bricks to build some inexplicable fortification, which Daumesnil did not even need in his lifetime.On the one hand, he spared no expense to repair and restore the dilapidated house of the Bourbon Palace, on the other hand, he let the autumnal equinox winds shatter the gorgeous stained glass of St. Chapel ③.The tower of St. James' Church in the Abattoir has been scaffolded for a few days, and will be ready to swing a pickaxe one morning.Between the two impressive towers of the Palace of Justice a plasterer was already about to build a white cottage there.Another plasterer was about to emasculate the three-towered feudal abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.Certainly some plasterer must be there to tear down the little church of Saint-Germain-Auxerroy.This group of plasterers all call themselves architects and are paid by the provincial government or the miscellaneous treasury of the state treasury, and they are also dressed in green Chinese clothes⑤.They can do anything that can use fake elegance to damage real elegance.At the very moment when we write this "Introduction", one of the plasterers is at the mercy of the Tuileries, another is hacking in the middle of the facade of Philippe de Lorme, and this clumsy building of Mr. Plasterer has the audacity to What a shocking scene to lie on the front of the elegant palaces of the Renaissance era!Indeed, compared with all the vulgarities of our time

It's nothing if it's a shameful scandal. Paris, October 20, 1832 ①Vincent Castle was built in the fourteenth century and is located in the east of Paris, and it still exists today.Its chapel was built in the thirteenth century for Louis IX. ② Pierre Daumesnil (1777-1832), General "Wooden Legs", Commander of Vincent Castle Fortress, famous for defending the castle and resisting the anti-Napoleonic allies. ③The Holy Chapel is located in the former Palace of Justice and still exists today. ④ Germanic-Oxerua (approximately 378-448), bishop of Oxerua, was sent to England by Pope Celestine I to fight paganism.

⑤ The green dress is the dress of the academicians of the French Academy. ⑥ Philippe Delorme (about 1510 or 1515-about 1570), a famous French architect, was appointed as the director of royal architecture by Henry II in 1547. He designed and built many famous buildings, such as Maple Danbalu Palace and Duleil Palace are lovers of classical architectural art.