Book ID: CBB159495956

The Borders of Chinese Architecture (2022)

unapi

Steinhardt, Nancy Shatzman (Author)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 320
Language: English

An internationally acclaimed expert explains why Chinese-style architecture has remained so consistent for two thousand years, no matter where it is built.For the last two millennia, an overwhelming number of Chinese buildings have been elevated on platforms, supported by pillars, and covered by ceramic-tile roofs. Less obvious features, like the brackets connecting the pillars to roof frames, also have been remarkably constant. What makes the shared features more significant, however, is that they are present in Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, and Islamic milieus; residential, funerary, and garden structures; in Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and elsewhere. How did Chinese-style architecture maintain such standardization for so long, even beyond China’s borders?Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt examines the essential features of Chinese architecture and its global transmission and translation from the predynastic age to the eighteenth century. Across myriad political, social, and cultural contexts within China and throughout East Asia, certain design and construction principles endured. Builders never abandoned perishable wood in favor of more permanent building materials, even though Chinese engineers knew how to make brick and stone structures in the last millennium BCE. Chinese architecture the world over is also distinctive in that it was invariably accomplished by anonymous craftsmen. And Chinese buildings held consistently to the plan of the four-sided enclosure, which both afforded privacy and differentiated sacred interior space from an exterior understood as the sphere of profane activity. Finally, Chinese-style buildings have always and everywhere been organized along straight lines.Taking note of these and other fascinating uniformities, The Borders of Chinese Architecture offers an accessible and authoritative overview of a tradition studiously preserved across time and space.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB159495956/

Similar Citations

Book Michael Tutton; (2021)
Construction as Depicted in Western Art: From Antiquity to the Photograph (/isis/citation/CBB423825577/)

Chapter Derui Tan; Xiaoyuan Jiang; (2021)
Craft in Bronze Kingdom: The Ancient Chinese Casting (/isis/citation/CBB905386055/)

Book Jueming Hua; Lisheng Feng; (2020)
Thirty Great Inventions of China: From Millet Agriculture to Artemisinin (/isis/citation/CBB834340105/)

Chapter Xinian Fu; Xiaoyuan Jiang; (2021)
The Architecture in Ancient China (/isis/citation/CBB092592655/)

Chapter Michio Yano; (2016)
Eastern Perspective of the Conference (/isis/citation/CBB840295299/)

Article Martin Hofmann; (2020)
The Research Agenda of Zhu Qiqian: A Reframing of Traditional Chinese Craftsmanship (/isis/citation/CBB815211704/)

Article Satofuka, Fumihiko; (2006)
Science, War, and Colonization in East Asia: An Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB000670115/)

Article Eyferth, Jacob; (2010)
Craft Knowledge at the Interface of Written and Oral Cultures (/isis/citation/CBB001034995/)

Book Yung-ti Li; (2021)
Kingly Crafts: The Archaeology of Craft Production in Late Shang China (/isis/citation/CBB797678613/)

Book Hui Zou; (2011)
A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture (/isis/citation/CBB337173118/)

Book Musgrove, Charles D.; (2013)
China's Contested Capital: Architecture, Ritual, and Response in Nanjing (/isis/citation/CBB001451922/)

Book Schäfer, Dagmar; (2012)
Cultures of Knowledge: Technology in Chinese History (/isis/citation/CBB001213369/)

Book Bork, Robert Odell; (2011)
The Geometry of Creation: Architectural Drawing and the Dynamics of Gothic Design (/isis/citation/CBB001252995/)

Thesis Useche, Oscar Ivan; (2014)
Beyond the Material: Energy, Work and Movement in the Cultural Imagination of Restoration Spain (/isis/citation/CBB001567646/)

Book Slaton, Amy; (2001)
Reinforced Concrete and the Modernization of American Building, 1900--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB000650211/)

Authors & Contributors
Jiang, Xiaoyuan
Yadav, Rajendra
Hui Zou
Singh, M. R.
Xinian Fu
Tutton, Michael
Concepts
Architecture
Technology and culture
Crafts and craftspeople
Building engineering
Building construction
Transmission of ideas
Time Periods
19th century
Medieval
Ancient
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
20th century, early
20th century
Places
China
Japan
East Asia
South Korea
United States
Spain
Institutions
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment