Architecture of the Song dynasty

The architecture of the Song dynasty (960–1279) was noted for its towering Buddhist pagodas, enormous stone and wooden bridges, lavish tombs, and extravagant palaces.

The professions of architect, master craftsman, carpenter, and structural engineer did not have the high status of the Confucian scholar-officials during the dynastic era.

This method of using bracket assemblies to support superstructure was specified in the 12th-century building manual Yingzao Fashi as pingzuo (literally "flat base").

[8] About 400 m (1,300 ft) south from Xuande Gate, the Bian River intercepted the Imperial Boulevard, which crossed it over the stone Zhou Bridge, balustraded and flat-decked.

During spring and summer, mingled peach, plum, pear and apricot trees adorned the banks of the Bian with a variety of flowers.

[9] Following the reign of the Han dynasty, (202 BC–220 AD), the idea of the Buddhist stupa entered Chinese culture as a means to house and protect scriptural sutras.

[10][11] During the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) periods, Chinese pagodas were developed from purely wooden structures to use articulated stone and brick, which could more easily survive fires caused by lightning or arson and were less susceptible to decay.

The Iron Pagoda of Youguo Temple in Kaifeng earned its name from the iron-grey color of the glazed bricks forming the tower.

Originally built of wood by the architect Yu Hao, it was struck by lightning and burned down in 1044, during the Northern Song period.

[13] Its glazed tile bricks feature carved artwork of dancing figures, solemn ministers, and Buddhist themes (see gallery below).

It is located in the Southern Song capital of Hangzhou, in Zhejiang Province, at the foot of Yuelun Hill facing the Qiantang River.

Because of its size, the pagoda served as a permanent lighthouse to aid sailors at night (as described in Hangzhou Fu Zhi).

The eaves of the Temple of the Saintly Mother curve upward slightly at each end, a characteristic of Song architecture.

[22] The columns of the façade, decorated with dragons that coil around the shafts, become progressively taller with increasing distance to either side of the central pair.

The building has a porch around it, the sole example of such a structure; another unique feature of the site is a cross-shaped bridge that leads to the Goddess Temple.

The Trinity Hall of Xuan Miao Temple (玄妙观), situated in the heart of Suzhou city, is another example of Song architecture.

[23] A large pyramid constructed of rounded stone blocks, the symbolic tomb of the Yellow Emperor's son Shaohao, is located outside the Shou Qiu complex.

While serving as an administrator for Hangzhou, the poet Su Shi (1037–1101) had a large pedestrian causeway built across the West Lake, which still bears his name: Sudi (蘇堤).

In 1221, the Taoist traveler Qiu Changchun visited Genghis Khan in Samarkand, describing various Chinese bridges encountered on the way there through the Tian Shan Mountains, east of Yining.

Lining the spirit ways of the tomb complex are hundreds of Song sculptures and statues of tigers, rams, lions, horses with grooms, horned beasts and mythical creatures, government officials, military generals, foreign ambassadors, and others featured in an enormous display of Song-era artwork.

[31] About 100 km (62 mi) from Gongxian is the Baisha Tomb, which contains "elaborate facsimiles in brick of Chinese timber frame construction, from door lintels to pillars and pedestals to bracket sets, that adorn interior walls.

[32] During the Song dynasty, previous works on architecture were brought to more sophisticated levels of description, as in Yili Shigong written in 1193 AD.

In his time, books on architecture were still considered a low scholarly achievement due to the craft's status, so Mu Jing was not even recorded in the official court bibliography.

[35] Shen Kuo singled out, among other passages, a scene in which Yu Hao gives advice to another artisan-architect about slanting struts in order to brace a pagoda against the wind, and a passage in which Yu Hao describes the three sections of a building, the area above the crossbeams, the area above ground, and the foundation, and then proceeds to provide proportional ratios and construction techniques for each section.

[35][38] Although similar books came before it, such as Yingshan Ling ("National Building Law") of the early Tang dynasty (618–907),[39] this is a manual on Chinese architecture to have survived in full.

[35][40] His successor, Emperor Huizong of Song, had the treatise officially published three years later, in 1103, for the benefit of foremen, architects, and literate craftsmen.

Yingzao Fashi included building codes and regulations, accounting information, descriptions of construction materials, and classification of crafts.

[43] It also provided specifications for wood carving, drilling, sawing, bamboo work, tiling, wall building, and decoration.

[44] He also estimated the monetary costs of hiring laborers of different skill levels from various crafts on the basis of a day's work, in addition to the price of the materials they would need and according to the season in which they were to be employed.