Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/555

 CHAP. II. MATERIALS EMPLOYED. 455 walls were constructed in the same way as at the present day, and that more than twenty centuries have passed without any material change in general design beyond that of the increased size given to their structures and to the elaboration of the tiled roof with its ridges and hips. The consequent result was the demand for beams and columns of far greater dimensions and strength ; so that at a very early period cedar - wood was imported from the southern provinces ; the framing of the roof still remained, however, of a most elementary character, in which there was no attempt at trussing, and balks of timber of immense scantling were piled one on the other to an extent unknown in any other country; this necessitated first, their support by columns of great size, those in the Palace of Heaven being 4 ft. in diameter, and from 60 to 70 ft. high, secondly, the employ- ment of brackets to lessen the bearing of the great beams, and thirdly in order to carry the widely projecting eaves the assemblage of a series of bracket corbellings, to which attention has been already drawn. In their treatment of columns and beams the Chinese method is different from that of any other style ; there are no capitals to the columns, and the beams they carry at. various heights are tenoned into the column, which is always carried up to the roof plate, and constitutes externally a visible part of the wall rising above the verandah roof. This singular arrangement arises from their system of building ; the main roof is always designed and framed first, and is then hoisted on to the columns, the position of which and of their stone foundations can only be determined after the framing of the roof is completed ; subsequently the verandah roof is framed and then raised on the smaller columns which constitute its enclosure. In order to light the interior of the temple or hall, the intervals between the columns rising above the verandah roof might have been filled with pierced screen work con- stituting a clerestory, but this is not in accordance with Chinese custom ; for although such screens would have received ample protection from the sun by the widely projecting eaves carried on brackets, this interval is always filled in with beams also tenoned into the columns, and generally brought out so as to be flush with the column face. A description has already been given of the roof in which the upper part of the gallery at each end rises above the lower part of the roof of less pitch, and which is known to the Chinese as frimoya. This, however, is not universal, sometimes the roof is hipped in the usual way at each end, the section through the front and side being the same. The roof of the superstructure shown in Woodcut No. 501 is thus hipped, whilst on the other hand that of the Buddha hall in the Summer Palace, near Pekin (Woodcut