Ancient Chinese wooden architecture

For example, the excavation of tombs has provided evidence to produce facsimiles of wooden building parts and yielded site plans several thousand years old.

In addition, the most fundamental feature is a four-sided rectangular enclosure, that is, structures with walls that are formed at right angles and oriented cardinally.

Hangtu (loess), the pounding of layers of earth to make walls, altars, and foundations remained an element of Chinese construction for the next several millennia.

During the Yangshao culture in the Middle Neolithic, circular and rectangular semisubterranean structures are found with wooden beams and columns.

It first appeared in buildings of the last centuries BC and evolved into a structural network that joined pillars and columns to the frame of the roof.

Since ancient times when the Chinese first began to use wood for building, joinery has been a major focus and craftsmen cut the wooden pieces to fit so perfectly that no glue or fasteners were necessary.

[1][page needed] In traditional Chinese architecture, the layered pieces of the ceiling are held together by interlocking bracket sets (斗拱 dǒugǒng).

Elaborate wooden coffers (藻井 zǎojǐng) bordered by a round, square, or polygon frame with its brackets projecting inward and upward from its base were used around the 7th century.

Deeply recessed panels shaped like a well (square at the base with a rounded top) were fitted into the ceiling's wooden framework.

[4] The Baoguo Temple in Yuyao in Zhejiang has three cupolas in the ceiling, making it unique among surviving examples of Song architecture.