Studies On The Development Of The Bracket-Structures Of Ancient Chinese Architecture

The origin and development of the eave-bearing structures of traditional Chinese architecture in the early stage have long been a focus of architectural history study in China. The studies on this issue are inevitably hard to carry out in today due to the scarcity in related material and the long duration of time it has experienced. In the recent research, some similarities are found between the eave-bearing components in Zhongyuan (central area of ancient China) region and some areas in the Himalayas. Since the cultural origin of the Himalayas region and that of Zhongyuan region had certain articulations in the history, those similarities might be considered as the influence of diversified cultures rather than a simple coincidence.This dissertation is an elaboration of the process of the eave-bearing structures' development. During the elaborating, a method of comparison is employed to decipher the threads of the relationship between the features of eave-bearing structures in both these two regions. By introducing the architectural culture in the Himalayas regions, namely some joint areas of India, Nepal and Tibet of China as an external reference, such comparison can eventually leads to a better understanding of the origin and development of the same structures in Zhongyuan region in the early stage.In general, the similarity of features of eave-bearing structures in these regions is a manifestation of many similarities of culture in the same range. This may also apply to many other occasions in many other parts of Asia between which cultural exchange has in the past time occurred. The conclusion draws that the convergence of ancient timber architecture traditions in different regions in Asia rises from some certain cultural genes these regions share in common in antiquity.