Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/556

 456 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. BOOK IX. No. 494) is of the I'rimoya type, similar to that shown in Woodcut No. 490. Timber and brick are the chief materials employed in nearly all Chinese buildings, stone being employed only for the founda- tion piers on which the columns rest. Brick walls are built in between the wooden columns being carried up only to the first beams ; in other words they are employed only as a filling- in, and not as a support for the roof. Chinese pagodas, on the other hand, are built entirely in brick with occasionally, as in the porcelain pagoda at Nanking (now destroyed), a covering of porcelain tiles ; there are also two halls of Buddha, lofty two- storey buildings, which are built in brick with terra-cotta glazed plaques outside. The p'ailus, p^ai-fangs, or memorial gateways the analogues of the Indian Toranas when built in stone are sometimes copies of wooden structures the beams of which are tenoned into the columns or piers ; in those of a more monu- mental character which form the chief entrance gateways to some of their temples as in that erected to Confucius in Pekin (Woodcut No. 502), they are sometimes in marble with arched openings, showing that the Chinese were well acquainted with the principles of the arch and the vault. There are also some examples known as beamless temples attributed to the nth century, 1 which were roofed with barrel vaults, and probably served to store archives and relics on account of their incom- bustible nature. The walls which enclose their cities are built in brick, and their bridges in stone with marble casing and balustrades. The raised platforms for altars, some of their temples, and generally the Imperial Halls, are all built in marble ; otherwise all Chinese constructions are in timber, the roofs being covered with glazed tiles, yellow, if Imperial structures, and green, blue or purple for others ; the ridge and hip rolls with the dragons and fishes which surmount their roofs are all in glazed terra- cotta. Great importance is attached to the orientation of temples, which as a rule face the south. This, however, is determined by geomancers who have to take into account the configuration of the ground, magnetic currents, the proximity of springs, and rising vapours in their vicinity : to these influences is given the title of Fong-shuie- meaning literally " wind and water " and no structure of any kind, whether temple, palace, or house, is ever built unless in accordance with fong-shuie. In order to give more importance to the imperial structures, whether temples or reception halls, they are raised on platforms with triple terraces and balustrades round, and three flights of R.I.B.A. Journal,' 1894-95, 3 r( * series, vol. ii. p. 45.