In ancient Chinese architecture (temples and whatnot) the eaves of the house are raised, why?

This is the flying eaves, there is drainage, beautiful role.

Flying eaves is a traditional Chinese architectural eave form, more than the eaves, especially the eaves of the corner of the roof up, if the flying trend, often used in pavilions, platforms, buildings, attics, palaces, temples and other buildings at the corner of the roof, the four corners of the warping stretching out, the shape of a bird like wings, light and lively, so it is also often referred to as the flying eave warping corner.

Flying eaves for the Chinese architectural national style is one of the important performance, through the eaves on this special treatment and creation, not only to expand the light surface, is conducive to the drainage of rainwater, but also adds a sense of momentum upward building, as if a gas will be the eaves of the upward lifting, the architectural complex is a cascade of flying eaves to create a spectacular momentum and the Chinese ancient architecture is unique to the flying and lighthearted flavor.

Expanded Information:

Traditional Chinese architecture has an ingenious and scientific frame structure:

This is the ancient Chinese architecture of the frame. p>

This is one of the most important features of ancient Chinese architecture in terms of building structure. Because ancient Chinese buildings were mainly wooden frame structures, i.e., wooden pillars and beams were used to form the frame of the house, the weight of the roof and eaves was transferred to the pillars through the beams, and the walls only played the role of partition rather than the structural part of bearing the weight of the house.

The old proverb, "The house will not collapse if the walls fall down," summarizes the most important feature of this frame structure of Chinese architecture. This type of structure allows the house to meet the ever-changing functional requirements imposed by life and production under different climatic conditions. At the same time, since the walls of the house are not loaded with weight, there is great flexibility in the setting of doors and windows.

In addition, by this frame type wooden structure formed in the past palaces, temples and other high-level buildings only have a unique component, that is, the eaves of a bunch of "arch". It is composed of bucket-shaped wooden blocks and arch-shaped cross-wood, criss-crossed, layer by layer to the outside, forming a large under the small bracket.

This kind of component has the role of supporting load beams and frames, but also has a decorative role. Only after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the simplification of the structure, the beam is placed directly on the column, resulting in the structural role of the arch almost completely disappeared, becoming almost purely decorative.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Flying Eaves