The Technology of the Vault Structure in Chinese Architecture: Links between the Gongcheng zuofa and the Contemporary Building Methods of yaodong Houses in Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces

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In Chinese architecture, vaults are very scarce. Apart from tombs, bridges and city gates, the brick and stone barrel vault can be found in two types of buildings: the wuliang dian (“beamless hall”) built during the Ming dynasty and the yaodong houses of the Yellow earth tableland. Using the same plan as cave-dwellings, the oldest brick and stone yaodong of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces were built during the eighteenth century. Their techniques have been maintained until nowadays; in some parts of the two provinces almost 80% of the new yaodong have a vault with abutments. The wuliang dian and the yaodong present some similar technics of construction: front bricks layout and architectural calculations of the span and the rise of the vault. Those technical characteristics of the Chinese vault are mentioned in a short chapter of the Gongcheng zuofa, a publication of the Qing Board of Work in 1734. Some of the calculations can be compared with the contemporary building sites of Shaanxi province. This leads to an hypothesis of transmission from public and written architecture to popular architecture