Movement
Chinese Classical Architecture
Explore in the Atlas →The enduring timber-frame building tradition of China, characterised by the interlocking dougong bracket system, mortise-and-tenon joinery, modular proportion codified in the Song dynasty manual Yingzao Fashi (1103), tiled overhanging roofs, axial courtyard planning and the asymmetric scholar's garden. Its standardised cai-fen module produced striking continuity of form across the Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Dwelling Ritual Power
Details
- Origin
- China
Classifications
- Holder
- Communal intergenerational
- Source of authority
- AncestryRevelation cosmology
- Subject
- More than human
- Cosmological orientation
- Cardinal axesAxis mundi
- Degree of codification
- Highly codified
- Mode of transmission
- ApprenticeshipText drawing
- Knowledge type
- Relational embodied
- Epistemic cluster
- East asianCross cultural cosmological
Referenced by
- Forbidden City exemplifies
Sources
- Li Jie. Yingzao Fashi (Treatise on Architectural Methods). Northern Song imperial commission, 1103.
- Various. Ancient Chinese wooden architecture. Wikipedia, 2024.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Chinese Classical Architecture." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/movement/chinese-classical-architecture/. Accessed July 17, 2026.