ARCHITECTURE. Architecture in the usual sense is not known to have been carried to important results in China before the appearance there of the Buddhist influence in the course of the First Century A.D. Then Indian types were introduced and the Taa or pagoda of Chinese form appeared; although none of such early date has been identi fied. These towers, as they now exist, are usually constructed of brick, which material is con cealed in ninny cases by an elaborate facing of what are spoken of as 'tiles,' but which are frequently very massive and of elaborate form, embossed with sculptured designs very richly painted. Others exist, which are built chiefly of stone. Some reach the height of thirteen stories; but this seems to be unusual.
The roof is far more prominent in Chinese ar chitecture than in that of Europe: and the roofs must have been always of wood, as they are to this dav: round Ins of no great size, or lengths of bamboo. The curious and often noted tent-like form of these roofs with curves, the steep pitch of the upper part, growing less and less until the broad eaves are almost hori zontal. are not to he ascribed to any attempted imitation of the actual tent of canvas or tex tile material. They are miquestinnably the re sult of the peculiar framing of the roof, which, whether built of hollow bamboos or of light solid pieces, whether, squared or preserving the natural form of the log, is constructed in a way altogether different from that used in the roof building of Europe. The artistic importance of these roofs, their value. individunlly or in groups, and their novelty to Europeans, have led to a hasty assumption that Chinese architecture takes its Corms and its design mainly from original timber building. Of this, however, there is no eNidenee; bricks are known to have been used in great abundance in China at an epoch long before the commencement of our era, and skill iu han dling granite and stratified stone is traditional. Wood must have been common, from an antiquity comparable to that of the buildings of Chaldea. As to the general plan of buildings, it is evi dent. that from the beginning until the present time the Chinese idea of a residence has been nearly that which the peoples of the Mediter ranean hell during the years of classical an tiquity; and that the Chinese palace and temple jiave been those of the Mediterranean wortd were until the time came for competition between towns and States in the way of more striking and more permanent structures. A China man's house, if he is a rich man, is a group of small one story buildings interspersed with gardens, all within a bounding WO 11 . Precisely the same tendency is visible in the temples of China, the 'pagodas' or tower-like structures of whatever tour being decorative and symbolical accessories, like the church-steeple in a village of low wooden houses in America. In such low buildings the
roof is, of course. the most visible and striking feature, and the fact that the forms of this roof interested the builders and became the dominat ing element iu their design, even in the towers, is in no way surprising. We see this in full glory in Japan down to an epoch now scarcely closed. (see JAPANESE ) The construction is unlike that of Europe, inasmuch as it ignores diagonal bracing and substitutes for it a step like series of vertical struts and horizontal ties. thus, if we have to carry a pair of sloping rafters. these rafters are. in Europe, secured at the top of the wall and again where the two rafters meet at the ridge; but the Chinaman sup ports each rafter at four, five, or six points in its length, and thus prevents it from having any tendency to push sidewise. The purlins, or long horizontal pieces which carry the light outer rafters and the roof-covering, are supported in Europe by the main rafters of the truss (see Root.), but in the East on the successive steps resulting from the Fluare-framed structure. The scientific construction of Europe is so entirely identified with the triangle (see Ro': Muss) that we can hardly imagine wooden architecture which ignores it and yet such buildings in China and Japan have been found to last a thousand years in perfect condition.
The monumental gateways of China have al ways been admired by Europeans. TI•e term pa is applied to these, although sonic writers use that term for such a gateway when having several divisions. and pai-lony when there is but one opening or passage. The pa idoo on the road leading to the tomb of the Ming emperors is of inn tile and has five openings: another, at the cot ranee of the Chun-Tsiang-Cha, has three round arches, and the one called the Porcelain Gate has three pointed arches—all these being in Peking. There is a great paidoo of granite in the city of Ning-mi, and several in the southern provinces are elaborately worked in marble. These gate ways are frequently set up as memorials. ap proved by the sovereign as deserved by one of his subjects.
Although public buildings are very commonly devoid of great massiveness and of that kind of dignity which conies of ponderous and enduring structure, this is replaced very largely by elab orate surface decoration. For this purpose the skill of the Chinese in all forms of ceramic art, their great power as decorative sculptors in wood and stone, and the knowledge and taste they show in painting in permanent colors by a method which we call roughly 'lac quering,'—tInnigh in reality lac does not enter into it—give their permanent decoration great value. Wooden screens and partitions, Veran das and garden houses, receive exquisite adorn ment in modeled and colored patterns, the use of textile fabrics and enameled tiles.