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340:) bordered by a round, square, or polygon frame with its brackets projecting inward and upward from its base were used around the 7th century. Deeply recessed panels shaped like a well (square at the base with a rounded top) were fitted into the ceiling's wooden framework. The center panel of the ceiling was decorated with
78:) and Qing Architecture Standards were widely available, in fact strictly mandated, and passed down. The recording of architectural practice and details facilitated a transmission throughout the subsequent generations of the unique system of construction that became a body of unique architectural characteristics.
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as early as the first millennium AD, and explain the strong tendency for the shared architectural features in
Chinese architecture, that evolved through a complicated but unified evolutionary process over the millennia. Generations of builders and craftsmen recorded their work and the collectors who
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Three components make up the foundation of ancient
Chinese architecture: the foundation platform, the timber frame, and the decorative roof. In addition, the most fundamental feature is a four-sided rectangular enclosure, that is, structures with walls that are formed at right angles and oriented
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Ancient
Chinese architecture has numerous similar elements in part, because of the early Chinese method of standardizing and prescribing uniform features of structures. The standards are recorded in bureaucratic manuals and drawings that were passed down through generations and dynasties. These
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with little else explored by the West. Although common features of
Chinese architecture have been unified into a vocabulary illustrating uniquely Chinese forms and methods, until recently data has not been available. Because of the lack of knowledge of the roots of Chinese architecture, the
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Unlike western architecture, in ancient
Chinese wooden architecture, the wall only defined an enclosure, and did not form a load-bearing element. Buildings in China have been supported by wooden frames for as long as seven millennia. The emergence of the characteristic
179:, a network of interlocking wooden supports forming the skeleton of the building. This is considered China's major contribution to worldwide architectural technology. However, it is not known how the builders got the huge wooden support columns into position.
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account for the similar architectural features persisting over thousands of years, starting with the earliest evidence of
Chinese imperial urbanism, now available through excavations starting in the early 1980s. The plans include, for example, two-dimensional
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descriptions of its elements are often translated into
Western terms and architectural theory, losing their unique Chinese meanings. A cause of this deficiency is that the two most important Chinese government architecture manuals, the Song dynasty
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In traditional
Chinese architecture, every facet of a building was decorated using various materials and techniques. Simple ceiling ornamentations in ordinary buildings were made of wooden strips and covered with paper. More decorative was the
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times to the more recent centuries. For example, the excavation of tombs has provided evidence to produce facsimiles of wooden building parts and yielded site plans several thousand years old. The recent excavation of the
222:. Wooden beams or earth supported the roofs which were most likely thatched. As the villages and towns grew they adhered to symmetrical shapes. Symmetry was also important in the layout of homes, altars, and villages.
145:, built of Hangtu, was erected beginning in the first millennium BC. Sundried mud bricks and rammed mud walls were typically constructed within wood frames. Hard pounded earth floors were strengthened by heating.
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or other water plants. The relationship of the name to water has been linked to an ancient fear that wooden buildings would be destroyed by fire and that water from the
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and altars, although it is not clear what the spiritual beliefs of the early
Chinese were, as altars appear to have served as burial sites. In traditional
241:. It first appeared in buildings of the last centuries BC and evolved into a structural network that joined pillars and columns to the frame of the roof.
141:), the pounding of layers of earth to make walls, altars, and foundations remained an element of Chinese construction for the next several millennia. The
43:. In the West it has been studied less than other architectural styles. Although Chinese architectural history reaches far back in time, descriptions of
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More recently, the dependence on text for archaeological descriptions has yielded to the realization that archaeological excavations by the
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Chinese
Architecture ā The Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties
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Chinese ArchitectureāThe Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties.
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Sliding dovetail, lap dovetail and stepped bevel splice joints of tie beams and cross beams from the
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has been a major focus and craftsmen cut the wooden pieces to fit so perfectly that no
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stems fastened to the beams. Because of the intricacy of its ornamentation, elaborate
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and Qing Architecture Standards have never been translated into any Western language.
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periods. Since ancient times when the Chinese first began to use wood for building,
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has three cupolas in the ceiling, making it unique among surviving examples of
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A fundamental achievement of Chinese wooden architecture is the load-bearing
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in the flat-topped, vaulted ceiling in the back chamber of her tomb. The
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were reserved for the ceilings of the most important structures, such as
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provides better evidence of Chinese daily life and ceremonies from the
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456:. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. pp. IXāXI, 1ā6, 36.
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Diagram of bracket and cantilever arms from the building manual
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Chinese Imperial Planning. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
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Chinese Architecture ā The Lia, Song, Xi Xia, and Jin Dynasties
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collated the information into building standards (for example
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Chinese ArchitectureāThe Lia, Song, Xi Xia, and Jin Dynasties
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Chinese Architecture ā The Origins of Chinese Architecture
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was used to build wood-framed houses. (The oldest are at
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Sanqing Hall (Hall of the Three Purities) is the only
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is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden
545:(English ed.). Yale University Press. pp.
514:(English ed.). Yale University Press. pp.
483:(English ed.). Yale University Press. pp.
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574:Chinese ArchitectureāThe Origins of Chinese
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133:and unbaked mud bricks was prevalent.
47:are often confined to the well known
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452:Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman (1999).
416:Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman (2016).
37:Ancient Chinese wooden architecture
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353:tomb of Empress Dowager Wenming
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611:Chinese architectural history
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16:Style of Chinese architecture
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191:. Seven thousand years ago
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29:(published in 1103) of the
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83:People's Republic of China
591:Arts of China to A.D. 900
454:Chinese Imperial Planning
247:Spring and Autumn period
92:Prehistoric Beifudi site
245:was widely used in the
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606:Architecture in China
539:Daiheng, Gao (2002).
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568:Chinese Architecture
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357:Northern Wei dynasty
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280:wood bracket sets ("
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508:Xinian, Fu (2002).
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171:Li Jie (1065ā1110).
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355:of the
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326:dĒugĒng
321:bracket
309:cupolas
305:sorghum
301:lattice
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243:Dougong
236:Chinese
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135:Hangtu
394:Notes
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313:tombs
216:beams
139:loess
551:ISBN
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485:5ā15
458:ISBN
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384:Yuan
351:The
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