Re-exploration Of The Occurrence Of Concave Curved Roof Of Chinese Traditional Architecture

The occurance of concave curved roof in China is a problem be in suspense in the field of architectural history. This paper through the reasearch on written materials, graphic materials and physical remains in Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, to study the problem of roof concave curve in the perspective of ancients’cognition.Through the analysis of words related to "’’" in Oracle, and the statements of roof in The Book of Songs, Songs of Chu, Fu-poetry in Han Dynasty, we could find that the ancients didn’t distinct the wall and roof in the beginning, but then came to realize the difference between these two. Then they gradually focused on the roof structure, and finally they were in pursuit of the shape of the roof. Through the analysis of statements of roof in Fu-poetry, we could find that the people in Han Dynasty had the "fairy ideal" of roof. From the graphic and physical materials,we could also speculate that it may be a way to form the concave curved roof, that is from fairy ideal to upturned roof-ridge, then to upturned roof-corner, and then to concave curved roof.