Fan-Shaped Bracket Sets and Their Application in Religious Timber Architecture of Shanxi Province

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Degree type
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate group
East Asian Languages & Civilizations
Discipline
Subject
Traditional Chinese architecture
Shanxi regional building style
unorthodox bracketing
shanshi dougong 扇式斗栱
xiegong 斜栱
mojiaogong 抹角栱
xiaxugong 虾须栱
Jindongnan local culture
secularization in late imperial China
Arts and Humanities
East Asian Languages and Societies
History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Contributor
Abstract

The dissertation challenges one of the most distinctive features in traditional Chinese architecture, the bracket set known as dougong 斗栱, and discusses diverging stylistic variations that actually existed in Shanxi province 山西省 between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries against the background of official-style building. The key challenge was to see beyond the long lasting stereotypes in China that did not allow full acknowledgement of the wide range of corbelled clusters with bracket-arms projecting at acute or obtuse angles to the wall plane i.e. xiegong 斜栱, and the importance of such non-conformity. The scope of research was limited to the extant pool of timber structures in Shanxi officially designated as key national heritage conservation units between 1961 and 2006. Through visual and textual study and especially through on-site field work the author collected quantitative and qualitative data with regard to the possible containment of fan-shaped bracket sets, hereafter named shanshi dougong 扇式斗栱, and the tightly spaced, grid-like scepter bracketing known as ruyi dougong 如意斗栱. As a result, the thesis formulates the necessary nomenclature and appropriate methodology along with proper guidelines for discussing the rich pool of xiegong-architecture in the future. With special emphasis on the Jindongnan area in southeast Shanxi, it proves the highly flexible, underlying concept of yielding to different regional and local construction methods, and to environmental and economical conditions.

Advisor
Dr. Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt
Dr. Victor H. Mair
Dr. Tracy Miller
Date of degree
2010-12-22
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation