Han Dynasty Architecture
Eastern Han watchtower (an ancient Chinese
model, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
By the time of the Han Dynasty, about 200 BC, architects were building all kinds of different buildings including watchtowers, palaces, temples, and store-houses. Architects began to experiment with more complicated roofs, using gables and overhanging eaves. They also began to experiment with building in baked brick during the Han Dynasty - just about the same time as Roman architects were beginning to build in brick at the other end of Eurasia.
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(a project)
In the 200s BC, people in China learned about the new religion from India, Buddhism, and so they began to build Buddhist temples for the first time. These early Han Dynasty Buddhist temples look like Indian temples or stupas from the same time. They are wooden towers.
Three Kingdoms architecture
Main Chinese Architecture page
Main China page
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.
