As early as 500,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age, primitive people in China already knew how to use natural caves as their shelter. Cliff caves inhabited by primitive people have been discovered in Beijing, Liaoning, Guizhou, Guangdong, Hubei and Zhejiang. In the Neolithic Age, clans and tribes in the middle reaches of the Yellow River used loess as the wall, built semi-caves with wooden frames and grass mud, and then developed into above-ground buildings, forming settlements. Because of the wet and rainy weather, the Yangtze River basin is often flooded and hurt by animals, so it has developed into a pole-column building. In this regard, there are many records in ancient literature that "building trees as nests to avoid group harm" and "the upper ones are nests and the lower ones are holes". According to archaeological excavations, about 6000 or 7000 years ago, it was known that ancient Chinese people used tenons and mortises to build wooden houses (such as Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province), and many primitive settlements (such as Xi 'an Banpo site and Lintong Jiangzhai site) were also found in the Yellow River basin. These settlements, such as residential areas, burial areas, pottery fields, etc., have clear zoning and good layout. The shape of wooden frame has appeared, and the plane form of the house also has round, square and land shape because of the different production and function. This is the primary stage of ancient architecture in China.
The establishment of Xia Dynasty in 2 1 century BC marked the end of primitive society. After Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, many cities were built in China during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and rammed earth technology has been widely used to build city walls and platforms. For example, in Erlitou, Yanshi, Henan, there is a rammed earth platform with a length of 100 meter, on which there are eight-bay halls and cloisters around it. At this time, the wood structure technology has been greatly improved compared with the primitive society, and special tools for processing wood components such as axe, knife, saw, chisel, drill and shovel have appeared. Both wood frame and rammed earth technology have been formed, and some progress has been made. Fengjing, Haojing and Luoyang were built in the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the vassal states established their own capitals centering on palaces. These capitals are all built of rammed earth, surrounded by huge cities and tall gates. The palace is arranged in the city and built on a rammed earth platform. Wood structure has become the main structural form. Pottery tiles have been used on the roof, and the wooden frame is decorated with colorful paintings. This marks the formation of ancient architecture in China. Whether it is rammed earth technology, wood structure technology, facade modeling and plane layout of buildings, manufacturing and application of building materials, and application of color and decoration, it has reached the embryonic stage. This is the foundation of the development of ancient architecture in China.
(2) The first climax in the development history of ancient architecture in China.
In 22 1 BC, after Qin Shihuang annexed Korea, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan and Qi, he established a centralized empire and used the manpower and material resources of the whole country to build the capital, palaces and tombs in Xianyang. Today, from the Epang Palace site and the large terracotta warriors and horses on the east side of Qin Shihuang's mausoleum, we can imagine the grandeur of the building at that time. In addition, in order to prevent the Huns from going south, the equator leading to the whole country was built, and a lingqu was dug for water transportation. These huge projects easily use the resources of hundreds of thousands of people, and almost all of them go hand in hand. In the end, the Qin empire was extravagant and exhausted the people's strength, and it died the next year.
After more than half a century's rest, the Han Dynasty entered a period of large-scale construction after the Qin Dynasty. Liu Che, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, built the Great Wall on a large scale five times, opening up the Silk Road to West Asia. Gui Palace, Guangming Palace in Chang 'an City and Zhangjian Palace and Shanglin Garden in the southwest suburb have also been built. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Tang Ming and Bi Yong were built in the southern suburbs of Chang 'an. Liu Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty built Luoyang City and its palace on the former site of the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
During the five hundred years of Qin and Han Dynasties, due to the national unity and strong national strength, the ancient buildings in China experienced the first development climax in its own history. The wooden frame of its main structure has matured, and buckets are widely used in important buildings. There are various forms of roofs, such as Diandian, Xieshan, Hangshan, Jianjian and Ding Dian, and some of them are widely used. New progress has been made in brick making, masonry structure and arch coupon structure.
(3) The sustainable development of traditional architecture and the introduction of Buddhist architecture.
The Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were a period of great ethnic integration in China's history. During this period, traditional architecture continued to develop and Buddhist architecture was introduced. Shortly after the unification of China in the Western Jin Dynasty, the "Eight Kings Rebellion" broke out. Several ethnic minority leaders in the northwest frontier led troops into the Central Plains, and successively established more than a dozen regimes, known as the Sixteen-State Period. In 460 AD, the Northern Wei Dynasty unified the northern part of China and then split it. In the south, the Jin Dynasty moved south to establish the Eastern Jin regime, and then there appeared four dynasties: Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. This is the historical period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Since then, the social economy in the north and south of China has gradually recovered. Luoyang, the capital, was built in the Northern Dynasties, and Jiankang was built in the Southern Dynasties. These capitals and palaces are constantly built on the basis of the previous generation, and their scale and momentum are far less than those of Qin and Han Dynasties.
Buddhism introduced into China in the Eastern Han Dynasty developed at this time. Buddhist temples were widely built by the northern and southern regimes, and stupas prevailed for a while. According to records, there were more than 30,000 Buddhist temples in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and only 1367 were built in Luoyang. There are also more than 500 Buddhist temples in Jiankang, the capital of the Southern Dynasties. In many areas, cave temples have been dug and Buddha statues carved. Important grottoes include Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui, Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Tianlongshan Grottoes in Taiyuan, Xiangtangshan Grottoes in Fengfeng South and Xiangtangshan Grottoes in North. This made the architecture of China in this period incorporate many architectural forms and styles from India (Tianzhu) and West Asia.
(4) The second climax in the development history of ancient architecture in China.
The architecture in Sui and Tang Dynasties not only inherited the achievements of the previous generation, but also blended with foreign influences, forming an independent and complete architectural system, which pushed the ancient architecture in China to a mature stage and spread to North Korea and Japan.
Although the Sui Dynasty was a short-lived dynasty of less than forty years, it made great achievements in architecture. Daxing, with its capital, and Luoyang, with its east, manages Jiangdu (Yangzhou) in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The Grand Canal starts from Yuhang in the south, Zhuo Jun in the north, Jiangdu in the east and Chang 'an in the west, with a total length of about 2,500 kilometers. It also used millions of people to build the Great Wall of Wan Li. During the reign of Yang Di the Great (605 ~ 6 18), Li Chun, a famous craftsman, built the world's earliest open-shouldered Anji Bridge in Zhao County, Hebei Province.
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, after more than 100 years of stable development, the economy was prosperous, the national strength was strong, and the territory was far expanded, reaching its peak in Kaiyuan (7 14 ~ 74 1). We will continue to build huge palaces, courtyards and government offices in the capital Chang 'an and the eastern capital Luoyang. There are many famous local cities, commercial and handicraft cities in China, such as Guangling (Yangzhou), Quanzhou, Hongzhou (Nanchang), Mingzhou (Ningbo), Yizhou (Chengdu), Youzhou (Beijing), Jingzhou (Jiangling) and Guangzhou. With the development of industry and commerce, many new changes have taken place in the layout of these cities.
In the Tang Dynasty, a large number of pagodas and Taoist temples were built in capitals and local towns, which inherited the carved grottoes and Buddhist temples of the previous generation. The famous Wutai Mountain North Monk Hall, nanzenji Buddha Hall, Xi 'an Ci 'en Temple Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Jianfu Temple Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Xingjiao Temple Xuanzang Pagoda, Dali Chihiro Pagoda, and some cave temples have all been left to this day. During this period, the building technology has made new progress, and the wood frame has been able to correctly use the material properties. In architectural design, it is known that "wood" is the design standard of wooden frames. The imperial court has formulated a decree on building repair, and set up officials who master rope ink, draw drawings and manage construction.
(5) The development of architecture in Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties and the promulgation of "Building French Style"
Since the late Tang Dynasty, China has entered a period of division and war for more than 300 years. First, the dynasties of Liang, Tang, Jin, Han and Friday were replaced and divided into ten dynasties, and then the Song Dynasty confronted the Liao and Jin Dynasties. As a result, China's social economy was greatly damaged, and buildings fell from the peak of the Tang Dynasty. Chang 'an no longer has large-scale capitals and palaces. Due to the development of commerce and handicrafts, there have been many improvements and breakthroughs in urban layout, building technology and art, such as the city gradually evolved from the Li Fang system of the previous generation to the layout of opening shops along the street and forming streets by lines. In terms of architectural technology, the early Liao Dynasty inherited the characteristics of the Tang Dynasty, and the later Jin Dynasty inherited and developed the characteristics of the Liao and Song Dynasties in architecture. In terms of architectural art, since the Northern Song Dynasty, the magnificent momentum of the Tang Dynasty has been changed, and the architectural decoration has become more exquisite.
In the second year of Chongning in the Northern Song Dynasty (1 103), the court promulgated and published "Building French Style". This is a standard book about architectural design and construction, and a perfect book about architectural technology. The purpose of the announcement is to strengthen the management of official buildings such as palaces, temples, yamen and mansions. The book summarizes the experience of architectural technology since ancient times and formulates a modular system of architecture with "materials as the ancestor". The working limit and material examples of buildings are strictly defined as the standards of budget and construction organization. The publication of this book reflects that the ancient architecture in China in Song Dynasty reached a new historical level in engineering technology and construction management.
(6) The last development climax in the history of ancient architecture in China.
The Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties ruled China for more than 600 years, during which China was generally unified except for a short separatist war in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. Because the development of ancient China society has come to an end, and the social, economic and cultural development is slow, the history of architecture can only be the last climax of development. Metropolis and palaces were built in the Yuan Dynasty, while Beijing and North and South palaces were built in the Ming Dynasty. In terms of architectural layout, it is more mature and reasonable than in the Song Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the construction of royal gardens and private gardens was a climax in the history of China. The construction of Lamaism architecture is entirely out of the political needs of the Qing court. Lamaism temples were once widely built in Mongolia, Tibet, Gansu, Qinghai and other places, with eleven in Chengde alone. These temples are large in scale and exquisitely made, which is a deformity in the development history of ancient architecture in China. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many outstanding architectural works have been preserved to this day. The palaces, temples, gardens in the suburbs of Beijing, tombs of the two Dynasties, gardens in the south of the Yangtze River, pagodas and Taoist temples, houses and city walls all over the country constitute a glorious chapter in the history of ancient architecture in China.