The Art of Chinese Architecture: An Illustrated History
This is something I wrote last year. I thought I’d share it.
The Art of Chinese Architecture: An Illustrated History (Yitao Xu, 2002) presents the development of the Chinese architectural system, as well as the social and technological conditions that have sustained Chinese architecture over the last 4,000 years. Among colorful illustrations of both photographs and architectural renderings are the text that covers palaces, ceremonial and religious temples and structures and landscape and vernacular architecture. It also contains sections on the works and lives of influential Chinese architects, both ancient and modern.
Xu’s illustrations – especially of dougong, the traditional interlocking support that ties the upper horizontal members to the columns and thus directs the weight of the rooftops down to the foundation – were detailed and accurate (as taken from my own firsthand experience from visiting structures built in this fashion). Through my travels to many of
Additionally, Xu proposes that Chinese architecture did not decline in the later dynasties of the Ming and Qing. According to Xu, “Architectural historians have overlooked the value of architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, Ming and Qing architecture did not only represent breakthroughs in creating artful collective space, it was also an innovative time for building techniques.” Xu’s assertion of the importance of later Chinese architecture (most texts consider the Tang Dynasty to be the artistic height) led me to reexamine the current literature available. I hope to explore and expand the literature of these later periods, specifically on vernacular structures.
