What is being concealed by these habits of idealisation? Simply, the class advantage that produces and supports this underlying remission of hard work in the enjoyment of daily life. The leisure is produced by ensuring that the supportive work required to produce lunch is done by others, who lack the refinement to cultivate these ideals of harmony because they are excluded by class barriers: they are not gentry, not literati, not educated, not rich. At root, the division between man and nature is indicated by a stratified money economy, and harmony is reserved for those who can afford it. Harmony is not a principle of nature, it is a function of money, and all further discussion should begin here.
J.H. PRYNNE : A BRIEF COMMENT ON 'HARMONY' IN ARCHITECTURE
XI'AN, P.R. CHINA, 23RD SEPTEMBER 2006 (pdf)
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