Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/582

 CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. BOOK IX. to which reference has been made of a double-eaved roof. The north bay of the hall is roofed at the same level as the verandah, and in the section (Woodcut No. 505) it will be seen that the filling-in of the main walls of the whole hall, and against which the verandah roof rests, consists of a series of beams one above the other, tenoned into the great columns, the spaces between them being treated as friezes and decorated with various designs. With the exception of the ancestral temple of Yung-lo, the Tai-ho Hall is perhaps the largest in China, but in its design 505- The Tai-ho Hall, Pekin. it contains the elementary construction of all the temples and halls ; sometimes the verandah is carried along the east and west ends, but on the north side it is included in the hall, being covered over with a roof at a lower level. The east and west bays are used for various purposes connected with the structure, whether temple, hall, or palace, and in the latter sometimes utilised as bedrooms or boudoirs. As a rule the halls are ceiled above the tie-beam ; the ceiling being divided into coffers ; more importance is given to the central bay, which is sunk into deep coffers with bracket friezes round them. Some of the halls are covered with an open timber roof, in which the unwrought rafters covering the roof contrast with the elaborate painting and gilding of the columns and the heavy superposed beams of the roof. There does not seem to be any rule regulating the east and west ends of the main roof; sometimes these are hipped, as in the Tai-ho Hall and the Hall of the Classics, sometimes the I'rimoya prevails,