The architecture of the Song Dynasty (960–1279) was noted for its towering Buddhist pagodas, enormous stone and wooden bridges, lavish tombs, and palaces. Although literary works on architecture existed beforehand, architectural writing blossomed during the Song Dynasty, maturing into a more professional form that described dimensions and working materials in a concise, organized manner. In addition to the examples still standing, depictions in Song artwork, architectural drawings, and illustrations in published books all aid modern historians in understanding the architecture of the period.
The professions of architect, master craftsman, carpenter, and structural engineer did not have the high status of the Confucian scholar-officials during the dynastic era. Architectural knowledge had been passed down orally for thousands of years, usually from craftsman fathers to their sons. However, there were also government agencies and schools for construction, building, and engineering. The Song Dynasty's building manuals aided not only the various private workshops, but also the craftsmen employed by the central government.
Read more about Architecture Of The Song Dynasty: City and Palace, Buddhist Pagodas, Temples, Bridges, Tombs of The Northern Song Emperors, Literature, Architecture in Song Artwork
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“And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Andrew Holleran (b. 1943)