25 replies to this topic

[naruwan]

Tang dynasty buildings actually are very distinctive. You can tell a Tang dynasty building away from a Song dynasty building.

During Song dynasty, the building material preparations to style and design were pretty much standardized. Therefore official buildings, such as temples, palaces and government buildings stayed pretty much the same until Qing dynasty. Since the style was restricted, the builders turned to decoration for creativity. That was why buildings moved towards more and more elaborate decorations.

Tang dynasty houses have a sort of "German" building feeling to me. The beams are shown outside and is a different color from the wall's coloring. The top corner decorative set stones of Tang style building were pointing to each other, while later buildings points away.

A lot of Japanese historic buildings are Tang styled.

[hunghey]

http://www.chinese-f...read.php?t=1468
a small thread on tang architecture..with pictures!

[sylvester]

as i know, there are only 2 wooden buliding reamins from Tang, that's 南禪寺 & 佛光寺.
scholar could study Tang's building also by studying Tang's drawing, and Tang's ceramics, and also from poem's describe.
compare to the days after Tang, Tang's style is grand but plain, most of decoarteive parts is still in primitive form,
for e.g. 鴟尾 is still a promitive "meat tail" shape, it evolve to 鴟吻, then 螭吻 and 龍吻 later.
the most noticeable part of Tang's style wooden building is surely it's BIG in size 斗拱, which got the best mechanics functions, and begins evolve to the decroative side. 斗拱 become smaller and smaller in size, more and more in number, and richer and richer in color afterward.
after Ming, 斗拱 become a decorative part more than mechanic, in Qing, 斗拱 is a fully decorative parts.
Tang's 斗拱 colud get totally 1/3 or even 1/2 in size of whole building height, for both mechanic function and decorative function.

[gbonny]

Though there is little in the way of extant Tang architecture, there are images of Tang-style buildings in Dunhuang murals of the period. Architectural archaeologist Yang Hongxun 楊鴻勛 refers to these in reconstructing the Da Ming Gong (the source drawing for many of the images posted above). My wife Jia Lu created a design for a 700 square meter mural of Tang architecture partly based on the cave mural shown in the picture below, with his contributions. Of course it is all palatial architecture, not quite suitable for a residence, unless you live like a prince! I'll try to find images of her design if you're interested.



Another source is the Byōdō-in outside Nara, which is regarded as a typically Tang-styled structure on a more residential scale. Still, no place for a kitchen or shower!

[In4ser]

General_Zhaoyun could you please re-post the files on imageshack as I'm unable to view the files in original resolution?

[General_Zhaoyun]

General_Zhaoyun could you please re-post the files on imageshack as I'm unable to view the files in original resolution?

The original link was no longer available. Simply click to view the picture. However, they have been shrunk.

[General_Zhaoyun]

Here are some more photos of Tang architecture.

[hunghey]

beautiful! do you have the locations for these buildings? and am i correct in assuming these are mostly replicas?

[General_Zhaoyun]

beautiful! do you have the locations for these buildings? and am i correct in assuming these are mostly replicas?

I believe the 1st and 5th picture show Tang architecture in Japan (Japanese architecture are highly influenced by Tang architecture).

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th picture was a replica of Tang Imperial Palace in Chang'an (today's Xi'an). I think you can visit this replica in Xi'an city today.

[hunghey]

thanks for the clarification.

here are some photos of tang architecture replicas in hong kong;
nan lian garden
http://www.globalpho.../hk-nanlian.htm

chi lin nunnery
http://www.globalpho...g/hk-chilin.htm

[hunghey]

http://www.flickr.co...710597/sizes/l/

im not sure if this is tang-dynasty architecture or not, but it looks like it to me!