The Research On The Wooden Structure Of The Hall Of Mental Cultivation

The Hall of Mental Cultivation built in 1537 in the reign of Jiajing of Ming Dynasty,is located to the west of the Palace of Heavenly Purity which sits in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City.Being a living place for Emperor Wanli and Emperor Kangxi,the Hall has replaced the Palace of Heavenly Purity and became the main department of Qing government Since Emperor Yongzheng enthroned,It also served as the main imperial office and living area for the longest period in Qing dynasty.This paper has a summary of the historical changes of the wooden structure of The Hall of Mental Cultivation by the research of the history archives.Based on field surveys achievements,this paper discusses the current situation of the Hall such as its wooden structure,node structures and so on.With the comparison of the Imperial style long-span buildings and other cases using great architrave in Beijing,this paper emphasizes the inheritance relationship between the application of great architrave of the Hall and that of Yuan Dynasty.This paper also discusses the characteristics of the ant-room and the construction time by comparing the ant-room of the Hall with other buildings within the Beijing area,especially in the Forbidden City.At last,by comparing the Hall on site with historical records,this peper analyzes the different material’s usage between the main body and the ant-room.This paper draws four main conclusions as following.At first,the structural wooden frame system remained the initial state for 480 years until now.Secondly,the main hall has the characteristics of the Song-style hall structure,its great architrave is the key to achieve the long-span for 11 meters or more.Thirdly,the ant-room has special connection with the main body,and it was built later than the main body.At last,there are two different tactics on wood usage which is to make the best use of the wood for the main body,and to breake up the whole into parts for the ant-room.