Chinese Architecture under Mongolian Rule

FAIN: FA-53005-07

Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA 19104-6205)

This project investigates buildings and the purposes of architecture in China and at her borders during the period of Mongolian rule. Data is drawn from literary sources and my own research at sites in China and Mongolia. The use of the Chinese building system by the Mongols is shown to have been intentional and selective: Chinese architecture served Mongolian political goals; and architectural choices of the Mongols identify what was most fundamental and symbolic in Chinese architecture. The book is organized in four sections: cities and imperial or urban building projects; religious and other ceremonial architecture; architecture in China that bears distinctive signs of its Mongolian heritage; and aesthetics of Yuan architecture.