Three Kingdoms Architecture
Mogao Caves (366 AD and later)
Beginning in 366 AD, people in China began to build the earliest Buddhist temples in China. These first Buddhist temples at Mogao were carved into caves in the side of cliffs, like the earlier Buddhist temples at Ajanta in India. Buddhist monks and nuns used the caves as places to get away from the world and concentrate on achieving enlightenment, just as Christian monks and nuns did in caves in the Egyptian desert at just the same time.
Buddhist monks and nuns also used the caves as places to keep sacred books and art. Because the caves were right on the Silk Road, many people passed by them every day. In addition to being religious temples, these caves also served as hotels for people traveling on the Silk Road, just as the caves at Ellora served as hotels there. The monks and nuns were able to make money by charging travelers for rooms and for food.
Yungang cave temples (460-524 AD)
About 460 AD, the Wei emperors started another set of Buddhist cave temples not far away at Yungang. The Wei emperors had persecuted Buddhists at first, and now these temples were their way of saying they were sorry. The monks and nuns carved at least forty-five different temples into the cliff, each one full of paintings, carvings, and stone statues.
Inside a Yungang cave
The carvings in the Yungang caves are mainly of the Buddha and various bodhisatvas. The style shows that artists were traveling all across Asia at this time: there are artistic influences from Persia and the Roman Empire, as well as from Buddhist India.
Three Kingdoms History
Three Kingdoms Art
Sui Dynasty Architecture
Main Chinese Architecture page
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To find out more about ancient Chinese architecture, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, by Jessica Rawson and others (1996). Rawson is a curator at the British Museum, and she uses the collection of the British Museum to illustrate this book. Library Journal calls it "easily the best introductory overview of Chinese art to appear in years".
Art in China (Oxford History of Art Series), by Craig Clunas (1997). Not specifically for kids, but a good introduction to the spirit of Chinese art. Warning: this one is not arranged in chronological order. Instead, it has chapters on sculpture, calligraphy, and so on.
