The Chinese timber hall
A hall on a platform after the Yingzao fashi: bays widest at the centre, rising and leaning corner columns, bracket sets, and a curved roof raised by the jǔzhé method.
The rules it illustrates
Let the eaves grow out at the corners. From the intermediate bracket set of the second bay the rafter ends advance progressively outward, so that at the corner the eave projects further (by 4 cun for a hall of one bay, 5 for three bays, 7 for five bays) and rises with the corner beam.
The roof declares the rank. Give the hipped roof (wudian) to the highest halls, the hip-and-gable (xieshan) to the next, and the gabled roofs, overhanging (xuanshan) and flush (yingshan), to lesser buildings and houses; double the eaves for the very highest.
The central bay is the widest; columns no taller than a bay is wide. Make the central bay (mingjian) the widest and let the bays diminish toward the ends; keep the eave columns no taller than the width of their bay.
An odd number of bays. Give a hall an odd number of bays across the front (three, five, seven, nine or eleven) so that the central axis passes through a bay and a doorway, never through a column.
Shengqi: raise the corner columns. Make each column a little taller than the one nearer the centre, so that the corner columns stand highest: by 2 cun per column outward from the central bay, giving 6 cun at the corners of a seven-bay hall and 1 chi 2 cun for thirteen bays.
Cejiao: lean the columns inward. Set the heads of the outer columns inward: on the front and back by 1 fen for every chi of height (1/100), on the ends by 8 li per chi (8/1000); the corner columns lean both ways.
Eaves in proportion to the rafters. Project the eaves from the centre of the eave purlin by 3½ chi for rafters of 3 cun diameter and 4 to 4½ chi for rafters of 5 cun; beyond them add flying rafters projecting six-tenths as far again.
Where it appears in the book
In the styles Chinese, Korean.
In the chapters What Is Architecture?, The Roof, China, Japan and Korea.