Reasons for the emergence and development of wood construction in ancient China

Primitive society to the Han Dynasty is the formation of China's ancient building system. Primitive society to build cave dwellings, ground and dry bar type wooden buildings. Shang dynasty rammed earth technology has matured, built a large-scale palace and mausoleum. The Western Zhou Dynasty saw the emergence of cities centered on palaces and large halls built on high platforms of rammed earth, and wooden frames had become the main structural method of construction. In the Warring States period, the scale of the city expanded, the high platform buildings were more developed, and the use of bricks and tiles also reflected the improvement of building technology. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the lifting beams and through the bucket type wooden frame building, as a unique system, has been basically formed, the construction of an unprecedented scale of the city, palace, mausoleum, the Great Wall and so on. East Han Dynasty appeared all stone buildings, such as stone shrines and stone tombs.

Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties is the development of China's ancient building system period. Northern Wei Luoyang city in the Han Wei capital on the basis of reconstruction, the layout of the rectangular, constituting the palace as the center of the north-south axis, and the establishment of the east and west of the two cities. Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties Buddhist architecture flourished, there are many temples, pagodas, grottoes and beautiful sculptures, murals, and many natural landscape gardens were built, showing the great progress of wood and masonry construction technology.

Sui and Tang dynasties is the maturity of China's ancient architectural system. The Sui dynasty built the world's earliest coupon arch bridge Anji Bridge, Tang Chang'an City in the Sui Daxing City on the basis of continued construction, was then the world's largest city, the remaining buildings and city palace ruins, layout and modeling have a high level of art and technology. China's earliest surviving wooden buildings, is built in the Tang Dynasty, Wutai Mountain Nanchan Temple and Buddha Temple part of the building.

The Song Dynasty is a period of great transformation of China's ancient architecture. The Northern Song Dynasty changed the closed market system adopted by successive capitals since the Han Dynasty, and became a way to set up stores along the streets of the street. Standardization of building components developed on the basis of the Tang Dynasty, will be made to supervise Li Commandment's "construction method style" is the Northern Song Dynasty management of various building design, structure, materials specification. Song Dynasty building scale is generally smaller than the Tang Dynasty, but the building shape is more beautiful, fine, and the emergence of a variety of complex styles of halls and pavilions, popular imitation of wooden form of masonry towers and tombs. The two Song dynasty garden architecture more prevalent. Existing famous buildings in the Song Dynasty are the Hall of the Holy Mother of God at the Jin Temple in Taiyuan, the Qingjing Temple in Quanzhou, the Longxing Temple in Zhengding and the Baoguo Temple in Ningbo.

The Yuan Dynasty was a period of further development of China's ancient architectural system. In addition to inheriting the traditions of the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty architecture was also influenced by other ethnic groups and even extra-territorial influences. The Yuan capital was built according to the traditional layout of the capital of the Han Chinese, with a huge scale, complete planning, and full functionality. Tibetan Buddhist and Islamic buildings were commonly constructed throughout the country. The Yuan Dynasty generally adopted the "column reduction method" created by the Liao Dynasty, which led to innovations in the beam structure. Famous surviving buildings of the Yuan Dynasty include the Yongle Palace in Ruicheng, Shanxi, the Guangsheng Temple in Hongdong, and the White Pagoda of the Miaoying Temple in Beijing.

The Ming and Qing dynasties are the peak period of China's ancient architectural development. Ming Dynasty city walls and the Great Wall with masonry cladding, local buildings using a large number of bricks and tiles, glazed brick and tile quantity and quality are more than successive generations. At the same time, the development of national architecture, local architectural features. Simplified by the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty formed a new, stereotypical wooden frame, the Qing Dynasty "Ministry of Works Engineering Practice Rules" unified the official building model and material standards, simplified construction methods. Ming and qing dynasty royal and private gardens have great development, the end of the ming dynasty into the "garden metallurgy" is specialized in summarizing the gardening skills of the classic works. Qing Dynasty, in addition to the garden architecture is extremely prosperous, also built a large number of Tibetan Buddhist architecture. There are more than 80,000 ancient buildings in existence, most of which were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The Forbidden City in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, and the Summer Resort in Chengde are the jewels of ancient Chinese architecture.

After the Opium War in 1840, the imperialist powers invaded China and set up leases, gradually introducing Western architectural forms; some Chinese architects studying in Europe and the United States brought back the popular styles of European and American architecture; and the traditional Chinese architectural forms that have been carried over for thousands of years are still y rooted in the influence of modern architecture. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to the fusion and exchange of traditional and modern, Chinese and Western architectural styles, complex and diverse styles of modern architecture appeared in the design of urban planning, architectural monoliths and clusters.