The Forbidden City Essay

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Wood has been used and adapted by human science primitive society. From early Paleolithic time to present, wood is our important and primary material for building and construction. The Forbidden City is great architecture masterpiece of ancient China, and is also the largest and the most complete existing wooden structure ancient building in the world. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace where include 980 buildings located in the center of Beijing, China. In order to incarnate the supremacy of imperial power, Chinese imperial architecture often adopt the layout of an axial symmetry, with the buildings on the central axis tall and splendid while the rest rather small and simple. It was as ancient Chinese government for 500 years …show more content…

It uses different structural materials which include civil construction, brick work, timber construction and bamboo construction. The most significant characteristic of Ancient Chinese architecture is timber framework, Hall of Supreme Harmony is not an exception. The Hall of Supreme Harmony is a complete artwork of ancient Chinese architecture, because it contains timberwork combining stone carving, rammed earth construction, bucket arch buildings and many other techniques. Moreover, wooden posts, beams, lintels and joists make up the framework of a house. Walls serve as the separation of rooms without bearing the weight of the whole house, which is unique to China. (Ancient Chinese Architecture, …show more content…

Although this method has been development in different versions, the basic Mortise and Tenon comprises two components: the Mortise hole and the Tenon tongue. In traditional Chinese architecture, wood components, such as beams, brackets, roof frames and struts were made to interlock with perfect fit, without using fasteners or glues, enabling the wood to expand and contract according to humidity. (Xujie, Liu, 2002) The fact proved that in several hundred years, the Hall of Supreme Harmony has experienced natural disasters and wars, and it still stands in the Forbidden City, so Mortise-and-Tenon is very reliable. In addition, inside of the Hall of Supreme Harmony were usually covered by gold and hand paint, Mortise-and-Tenon will not affect the murals of complete and

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