Architectural History of China: Development Characteristics of Ancient Masonry Buildings in China

Generally speaking, the ancient buildings in China are mainly wood structures, supplemented by bricks, tiles and stones. From the architectural appearance, each building has three parts: upper, middle and lower. There is a roof above, a pedestal below, and columns, doors, windows and walls in the middle. Under the eaves above the pillars, there is also a component called a bucket arch, which is composed of wood blocks that are interspersed vertically and horizontally and stacked layer by layer. This is a unique part of oriental architecture represented by China. It can not only support the eaves, beams and ceilings in the house, but also has a strong decorative effect. Speaking of ancient buildings in China, we can't ignore the word "Dougong". Because of the various practices of past dynasties, it has become the most important basis for identifying ancient buildings.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the ancients in the Central Plains thought that masonry buildings were not for strangers, but for the dead. Many graves use masonry structures. If you want to see the real ancient city wall of China, Nanjing Ming City Wall is one of them.

Masonry arch coupon is a kind of building structure based on masonry and built along a predetermined arc. It appeared in tomb buildings in the early Western Han Dynasty, and has been used in drainage culverts, pagodas, bridges, gates and northwest dwellings since then.

China did not embark on the road of masonry in ancient times, but developed brilliant civil buildings, which is inseparable from the climate and ecological environment in the Central Plains of China. There is little rain in the Central Plains, and rammed earth buildings can be preserved for a long time. Today, we can see the rammed earth relics in Xia and Shang Dynasties, such as Zhengzhou City in Shang Dynasty. Moreover, the wood structure is relatively light and can be used as a large cantilever to protect the wall from being wet by rain. The foundation of Yingxian wooden tower preserved for thousands of years is rammed earth, which is convenient for wood processing. China has solved the problem of large-scale construction with high-rise buildings in the Spring and Autumn Period, so there is no need to develop ancient expensive and time-consuming masonry buildings.

The emergence of a large number of masonry buildings in China in the Ming Dynasty was due to the change of thinking and the long-term adoption of the wood structure system (the ecological damage in the Yuan Dynasty was serious, for example, Shanxi changed from a dense forest to a barren mountain in this era), which greatly reduced the huge wood scarcity. When the Forbidden City was built in the Ming Dynasty, the golden nanmu was transported from Yunnan to Guizhou. Greece, Rome, Egypt and the ancient two river basins all faced the problems of wood shortage, climate and so on, and finally they had to adopt expensive stone building technology, which was adopted by those high-rise buildings that were forced to live, and the life of civilians was much worse than that of China. This is a recognized conclusion in the field of ancient architecture history.