What are the elements of ancient Chinese architecture

Ancient Chinese architecture of the base composition

(a) the base

a called pedestal. Department of the base of the building above the ground. Used to support the building, and make it moisture-proof, anti-corrosion, at the same time can make up for the lack of ancient Chinese monolithic architecture is not very tall and majestic. There are four kinds.

1, ordinary foundation

With plain or gray soil or broken bricks and earth rammed, about a foot high, often used in small buildings.

2,higher pedestal

higher than the ordinary pedestal, often built on the top of the pedestal white jade railing, used for large buildings or palace buildings in the secondary buildings.

3,Higher Pedestal

The Sumeru seat, also known as the Vajra seat. "Sumeru" is the name of the mountain in ancient Indian mythology, is said to be located in the center of the world, is the highest mountain in the universe, the sun, the moon and the stars in its midst, the three worlds of the heavens also rely on it layer by layer to establish. Sumeru used as a statue of Buddha or shrine base, to show the Buddha's lofty greatness. Ancient Chinese architecture using the Sumeru seat to indicate the level of the building. Generally made of brick or stone, with concave and convex lines and decorations, built on the stage with white jade railing, often used in palaces and famous temples in the main hall building.

4, the highest pedestal

By several Sumeru seat stacked, so that the building appears more grand and tall, often used in the highest level of construction, such as the Forbidden City, three halls and Shandong Qufu Confucian Temple Dacheng Hall, that is, the highest pedestal on the towering.

(ii) wood column

Commonly used pine or barrel wood made of cylindrical wood. Placed on a stone (sometimes copper) based pedestal. Multiple wooden columns, used to support roof purlins, forming a beam frame.

(3) Room

The space surrounded by four wooden columns is called "room". The number of spaces facing the building is called the "open space", or the "width of the face". The depth of the building between the number called "into the depth". Ancient China to odd numbers for auspicious figures, so the majority of the plan combination of openings for the single number; and the more openings, the higher the grade. The Imperial Palace in Beijing, Beijing, Taihe Temple Hall for eleven openings.

(D) beam, that is, the beam

erected on the wooden columns of one of the main wood to form the ridge. Often made of pine, elm or cedar. It is one of the main parts of the skeleton in traditional Chinese wooden buildings.

(E) arch

is a unique component of ancient Chinese architecture. Square wood block called bucket, bow-shaped short wood called arch, oblique long wood called Ang, always called the arch. Generally placed in the column head and forehead visit (also known as appendage, commonly known as look visit, located between the two gable columns, used to support the arch), between the roof, used to support the load beams and frames, picking out the eaves, as well as decorative role. By the bucket-shaped wood blocks, bow-shaped short wood, diagonally placed long wood composed of criss-crossed layers, layer by layer to the outside, forming a large under the small bracket.

(F) color painting

Originally for the wooden structure of moisture-proof, anti-corrosion, moth-proof, and later to highlight its decorative, after the Song Dynasty color painting has become an indispensable decorative art of the palace. Can be divided into three levels.

1, and seal color painting

is the highest grade of color painting. Its main feature is: the middle of the picture by a variety of different patterns of dragons or phoenixes, complemented by floral patterns; picture on both sides of the " " frame, and leaching powder paste gold, gold and blue, very magnificent.

2,Spinning color painting

Second in rank to Hexi color painting. Picture with a simplified form of scrolling petals flowers, and sometimes can also be painted dragons and phoenixes, the sides with " " frame up, can be pasted with gold dust, can also not be pasted with gold dust. Generally used in secondary palaces or temples.

3, Su-style color painting

Grade lower than the first two. Pictures of landscapes, stories, birds, flowers, fish and insects, etc., framed on both sides with " " or ( ). "( )" is called "baggage" by architects, and the Su-style color painting evolved from the Jiangnan baggage color painting.

(7) roof (ancient name of the roof)

Traditional Chinese roofs have the following seven kinds, including the heavy eaves hipped roof, heavy eaves hipped roof for the highest level, followed by a single-eaved hipped roof, single eaves hipped roof.

1,Hipped roof

Sloping on all sides, with one ridge and four sloping ridges, the roof is slightly curved, also known as the four roofs.

2,Hipped roof

It is a combination of hipped roof and hard roof, i.e., the upper part of the roof with four slopes is turned into a vertical triangular wall. There is a ridge, four ridges, four ridges, so also known as the nine ridge roof.

3,Hanging roof

The roof is double-sloped, with both sides extending beyond the wall. There are one ridge and four hanging ridges on the roof, also known as the picket roof.

4,Hard Peak

Double-sloped roof, the two sides of the wall are flush with the roof, or slightly higher than the roof.

5, save pointed roof

Plane is round or polygonal, on the conical roof, no ridge, there are a number of ridges intersecting the upper end. General pavilions, pavilions, towers commonly used in this type of roof.

6, roll roof

Roof double slope, there is no obvious ridge, that is, the front and back of the slope is not the ridge and built into a curved surface.

(H) mountain wall

that is, the upper part of the two sides of the house into a mountain tip-shaped wall. Commonly, there are also wind volcano wall, which is characterized by the two sides of the wall above the roof, along with the slope of the roof in the shape of a ladder.

(IX) Zaojing

Traditional Chinese architecture on the ceiling of a decoration. The name "algal well", containing the five elements of water to overcome the fire, the meaning of fire prevention. Generally in the temple on the throne or the throne of the palace above. Is the concave part of the flat roof, square, hexagonal, octagonal or round, carved or painted, common "double dragons playing pearls.

Characteristics of Ancient Chinese Architecture

1,Ancient Chinese buildings were made of wood, brick and tile as the main building materials, and wooden frame structure as the main structural method

This structural method was constructed by the pillars, beams, purlins and other main components, and the junctions of the various components coincided with mortise and tenon joints to form an elastic frame. In ancient China, there are three different types of wooden frames: the raised beam, the pierced bucket, and the well stem. The lifted beam style is called "lifted beam style" because the beams are lifted on the columns and the beams are lifted on top of the beams. Palace, altar temple, temple and other large buildings often use this structure. Through the bucket is to use through the square to rows of columns through even up to become rows of frame, and then with square, purlin bucket and become, so called through the bucket. Mostly used for residential and smaller buildings. Well dry type is made of wood cross-stacked, because of its enclosed space like a well and named. This structure is relatively primitive and simple, and is now rarely used except in a few forested areas. Wooden frame structure has many advantages, first of all, load-bearing and enclosure structure is clearly divided, the weight of the roof by the wooden frame to bear, the outer walls play a role in blocking the sun, heat insulation and cold, the inner walls play a role in dividing the indoor space. Since the walls are not load-bearing, this structure gives the building great flexibility. Secondly, conducive to earthquake prevention, seismic, wood frame structure is very similar to today's frame structure, due to the characteristics of the wood, and the structure of the frame used arch and mortise and tenon and have a number of expansion and contraction margin, so within certain limits can be reduced by the earthquake on the harm caused by the frame. "Walls fall down, the house does not collapse" is a graphic expression of the characteristics of this structure.

2, the layout of ancient Chinese architecture has a concise organization

is the "room" as a unit to form a single building, and then a single building to form a courtyard, and then the courtyard as a unit to form a variety of forms of groups. In terms of single buildings, rectangular planes are the most common. In addition, there are also geometric planes such as circles, squares, and crosses. As a whole, most of the important buildings adopt a balanced and symmetrical approach, taking the courtyard as a unit and designing along the longitudinal and transverse axes, which, with the help of the organic combination of the building groups and the accentuation, makes the main building appear particularly grand and magnificent. Residential and landscape gardens, on the other hand, adopt the flexible layout of "due to the timing, on the location".

3, ancient Chinese architecture beautiful shape

Especially in the roof modeling is the most prominent, mainly hipped, hiatus, overhanging mountain, hard mountain, save the tip, rolled shed and other forms.

Whether hipped or hipped roof, or hipped roof, is a large roof, looks stable and coordinated. The roof of the straight line and curve clever combination, the formation of upward slightly warped eaves, not only expanding the light surface, conducive to the drainage of rainwater, but also added to the building of the beauty of the flying light.

4, ancient Chinese architecture is rich and colorful decorations

Including painting and carving. Painting has the function of decoration, sign, protection, symbol and so on. Paint pigment contains copper, which not only can prevent moisture, weathering and peeling, but also can prevent insects and ants. The use of colors is limited, and the Ming and Qing dynasties stipulated that Zhu and yellow are the most noble and precious colors. Painting more in the internal and external eaves of the beam square, arch and indoor ceiling, algal wells and column head, composition and the shape of the components closely combined with the drawing of exquisite, colorful. Ming and qing dynasty beam square color painting is the most notable. Qing Dynasty color painting can be divided into three categories, namely, and seal color painting, spinning color painting and Su-style color painting.

Carving is an important part of the ancient Chinese architectural art, including brick carvings on the walls, stone carvings on the pedestal stone railings, gold, silver, copper and iron and other architectural ornaments. The carving of the subject is very rich in content, there are animal and plant patterns, figures, theater scenes and historical legends and stories. The Forbidden City, Beijing, on the foundation of the Hall of Baohe ah stone, carved with exquisite dragon and phoenix pattern, weighing 200 tons. There are also many carved works of art both indoors and outdoors of ancient buildings, including statues of Buddha in temples and stone figures and beasts in front of tombs.

5, ancient Chinese architecture pay special attention to the coordination of the surrounding natural environment

The building itself is an environment for people to live, work, recreation, socializing and other activities, so not only the internal components should be considered to work with the coordination, but also pay special attention to the coordination of the surrounding natural environment. Ancient Chinese designers in the design of the surrounding environment, the surrounding mountains and rivers, geographical features, climatic conditions, forest vegetation, etc., are to be carefully investigated and studied to make sure that the building layout, form, color and so on with the surrounding environment, thus constituting a large environmental space.