Yuan Architecture


Retrieved from: https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/556537513


The Yuan Dynasty was the first ethnic minority government to settle in the Central Plains. Its architectural style was unique, but the economic and cultural development of this period was slow (because of the huge damage caused by the war, the production was sluggish, and the building of houses was only for the sake of speed and economy. The aesthetic problems of foreign rulers) architectural development is also basically in a state of depression(Watt, 2010). The regime of the Yuan Dynasty lasted less than a hundred years, and the development of various industries was slow, as was the construction industry. Therefore, most of the buildings in the Yuan Dynasty inherited the style characteristics of the Song and Jin Dynasties.


The official architecture of the Yuan Dynasty continued to develop and progress on the basis of inheriting the architecture of the Song and Jin Dynasties(Qu,2018), and became more rigorous and standardized, and the shape was more dignified. These developments also had an important impact on the official architecture of the Ming Dynasty.


The architecture of the Yuan Dynasty was characterized by unrestrained and uninhibited, and the wooden structures in the Yuan Dynasty mostly used logs as beams(Farris,2020).

The architecture of the Yuan Dynasty tended to be simplified and loved the spaciousness and freedom. At the same time, the Yuan Dynasty also made a lot of innovative attempts on the beam frame, and the technique appeared more bold. Among them, the most obvious change in architectural components is the bucket arch. The bucket arch in Yuan Dynasty buildings was gradually simplified, the number of jumps was reduced, and the span and section of the beam in the structure continued to increase. As a result, the structural function of the bucket arch is gradually weakened, and the decoration is gradually strengthened. It is worth mentioning that at the technical level, masonry began to appear(Zuo, 2015).

References:

[1]Watt, J. C. (2010). The World of Khubilai Khan: Chinese Art in the Yuan Dynasty. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[2]Qu, L. (2018). Antiquity Or Innovation? Architecture, Sculptures And Murals In Southern Shanxi Under The Yuan Dynasty.

[3] Farris, J. (2020). Chinese Architecture: A History by Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 80(2), 567-571.

[4]Zuo, L. (2015). Build for the living: stone buildings of the yuan dynasty. Frontiers of History in China, 10(2), 264-288.



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