俞孔坚：天堂的遗憾

　　“时间景观"看起来是一个伪命题，因为景观本身就是时间的。正如已故文化景观学者约翰•布林克霍夫•杰克逊所定义：“景观是一种空间，在这里，自然过程被刻意地加速或减慢……它体现了人在取代时间而做工”。从这个意义上来说，哀牢山上的梯田是哈尼人民通过在山坡上的填挖方劳作，刻意使水流减慢的景观；华北平原上的农田林网是将风的过程减慢的景观；而整齐的果园和鱼塘、被裁弯取直的大江大河都是人们将自然的过程加速而产生的景观。时间——作为大地景观的雕刻师，无处不在。

　　而人类活动能否在大地上留下痕迹，最终取决于残酷无情的、不可逆转的时间。无论其权势有多强大、业绩有多辉煌、其力图减缓或加速自然过程的力量有多巨大、其景观或纪念碑有多恢弘，或早或晚，都会因时间而湮灭。于是便有了陈子昂“前不见古人，后不见来者”的悲鸣、孔夫子“逝者如斯夫”的无奈。这似乎是人类哭诉不完的悲哀。然而我则为之庆幸，因为这世上只有时间是公平的，否则，我们的地球上早已堆满了帝王和贵族的纪念碑和金字塔。

　　因此，景观的时间性的另一种表达，即所谓的“景观的可持续性”。时间是一把尺子，它衡量着人类活动的意义之深浅：我们需从人类和其唯一的星球的整体可持续性上，来评价人类的一切景观行为的意义。在这一点上，我们必须回到进化论的奠基人查尔斯•罗伯特•达尔文，而离我们更近的是生态规划之父伊恩•麦克哈格所给出的标准——适应！正如生物适应自然而繁衍，人类适应自然而昌盛、而美丽。麦克哈格以时间为轴线，将气候、地质、地貌、土壤、水文、植被、生物和人类活动过程进行分层叠加，来定义景观的空间分布，阐述了生物对自然过程的适应过程，以及人类活动对自然和生物过程的适应过程；提出了“设计遵从自然”的景观设计基本原理——只有懂得适应自然过程，人类如同其他生物一样才能够得以进化和繁荣。适应自然，不是被动于自然，而是人取代时间的作用，按照自然过程和格局的规律，来减缓或加快自然的过程。而创造人与自然和谐共荣的境地，所呈现的形态是一种如约翰•莱尔所说的“深邃的形”，而非“肤浅的形”，更非“虚假的形”。

　　然而，我所看到的城乡景观，无论古今中外，大多是“肤浅的形”和“虚假的形”。实际上，作为景观设计目标的“天堂”，也因为对时间的罔顾，而成为了虚假的天堂。景观设计师们所接触到的甲方，尤其是财大气粗的开发商和权势可畏的城市决策者，大多是在追求罔顾时间规律的“肤浅的形”和“虚假的形”。君不见北京街头冬季保温障中的常绿树和黄杨篱！君不见小区里满眼的娟花和塑料棕榈！那是领导们为了留住时间和在“四季常青，三季有花”的口号下产生的“肤浅的形”和“虚假的形”。人间的权贵们总想营造出"冬无严寒、夏无酷暑、树木常青、百花常开"的天堂，甚至渴望营造出能使自己不死的天堂。殊不知，帝王和贵族们都在违背自然过程的路径上，投入无限的人力和资金，在与时间做斗争的过程中，创造和维护着“肤浅的形”和“虚假的形”。最终，无情的时间使那些"天堂"一旦成为“没有了我们人类的世界”，便会很快回归“杂草丛生”、野兽出没的自然“荒野”。倒是那高山上的层层梯田，因为其采用最节约的人工和最少的投入，适应自然的过程和格局，顺应自然节律而播种、灌溉和收获，使投入与收获达到平衡，从而创造出了“深邃的形”。这代表了人类的欲望与自然力之间的平衡，虽历经数千年的时间，依旧持续存在至今。

　　因此，“时间景观"并非伪命题。因为，即使是人类祈求和刻意营造的“天堂”，也罔顾了时间的存在。

　　"Temporal Landscape" is a seemingly false proposition, since landscape is per se related to time. Landscape, as defined by the late cultural landscape scholar John Brinckerhoff Jackson, is "a space deliberately created to speed up or slow down the process of nature…represents man taking upon himself the role of time". In this sense, the terraced fields of Mount Ailao are a landscape created through the filling and excavation of hillsides by the Hani ethnic group to deliberately slow down the affects of time. The tree-networked farmlands of the North China Plain are a landscape slowed down by the wind. In contrast, the orderly-arranged orchards and fishponds, as well as the channelized rivers, are landscapes of accelerated natural processes. Time, as the sculptor of landscape, is ubiquitous.

　　Whether human activity leaves a trace on the land ultimately depends on the ruthless and irreversible time. Significant as the influence might be, splendid the accomplishment, enormous the power to either decelerate or accelerate natural processes, magnificent the landscapes or monuments, they will sooner or later perish with the time. Therefore, "the ancestors cannot be seen, nor can the future generations," cried out Chen Zi’ang, a poet of China’s Tang Dynasty. Confucius could not help but sigh, "time passes away like the flow of water." It seems that such doleful exclamations are never ending. But, I take these proverbs to be a blessing because in this world, only time can be deemed as fair. Otherwise, our planet would be piled with monuments and pyramids left behind by kings and nobles.

　　The other expression of landscape as a time-related process is the so-called "the Sustainability of Landscape". With time as a ruler, the meaning of human activities can be measured. We need to evaluate the meaning of all landscape behaviors of human according to the overall sustainability of human beings as well as the only planet they live on. In this case, we need to go back to the standard given by Charles Robert Darwin, the founder of evolution theory, and later by Ian McHarg, the farther of ecological planning — Adaption! As living things adapt to the nature to propagate, so do human to prosper and become beautiful. With time as a base, McHarg superimposed layers of climatic, geologic, topographic, earth, hydrologic, vegetation, organic and processes of human activities to define the spatial distribution of landscapes, elaborating the process of living things adaptation towards nature, as well as that of human beings towards natural and organic processes, and proposes a basic principle of "Design with Nature" for landscape architecture, where human beings will evolve and prosper like other living things only when they know how to adapt to natural processes. To adapt to nature does not mean to be passive, but instead to control the role of time by decelerating or accelerating natural processes according to the patterns of natural processes and layouts. In doing so a harmonious state can be created between humans and nature—a display of "deep form", as described by John Lyle, opposed to "shallow form" or the "fake form".

　　Unfortunately, a significant portion of the landscapes I have seen in both rural and urban areas, ancient to modern, home and abroad, are "shallow form" and "fake form". In fact, "heaven", as the goal of landscape design has become a fake goal with disregard to time. Most of the wealthy property developers and influential urban decision-makers that landscape architects have come into contact with seek shallow and fake forms, without considering the patterns of time. For example, take a look at the evergreen trees and box hedgerows that are protected with heat preservation during the winter on the streets of Beijing. Or the silk flowers and plastic palms that are seen throughout residential areas. These shallow and fake forms are created because top officials wish to stop time, and are governed by slogans demanding that "trees be green in four seasons, and flowers seen in three seasons". It is often the dream of influential officials to build a paradise of "winter without coldness, summer without intense heat, and a whole year with green trees and flowers in blossom" — a heaven that can make them immortal. What the emperors and the nobles did not know is that while investing bottomless labor and resources into the fight against time, they were creating and maintaining the "shallow form" and "fake form". In the end, once these"paradises" become "the world without human beings" under the unrelenting force of time, they would eventually transform into a natural wilderness where weeds thrive and animals hunt. In contrast, the terraced fields in the high mountains have adapted to the process and pattern of nature with the most economical labor and low input. Seed-sowing, irrigation, and harvest are all carried out according to the rhythms of nature, a balance achieved between input and harvest, creating a deep form. It represents a balance between human desires and natural forces and has endured for thousands of years.

　　So "Temporal Landscape" is not a false proposition, because even in "heaven" dreamed of and created by human beings, the existence of time also is often ignored. (Translated by Jindong CAI)
 

　　时间景观：慢下来——六盘水生态治理工程，从源头治理城市洪涝和水体污染。项目结合地形，设计了一系列湿地陂塘，用于截留和滞蓄雨水、净化受面源污染的水体，在解决河水污染、下游城市洪涝问题的同时，营造出一个慢生活空间（俞孔坚摄于2013年7月21日）。

　　Temporal Landscape: Slowed Down—the Liupanshui Water Ecology Conservation Project. Urban floods and water pollution are controlled at the sources. Small reservoirs and ponds have been designed according with the local terrain to retain and store rainwater while purifying water polluted by non-point pollution. River pollution and urban flooding in the lower reach is solved while creating a space of slower life. (Taken by Kongjian Yu, july 21th, 2013).


原文出处：俞孔坚.(2014).时间景观.景观设计学,2(1):5-7.
Source: Yu, K. (2014).Temporal Landscape as . Landscape Architecture Frontiers, 2 (1):5-7.