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V. Find out if the following statements are true or false:

1. Ancient Chinese architecture is mainly timberwork.
2. The layout of a courtyard complex is not unique to China.

3. The most significant characteristic is the use of timber framework.
4. Paintings and carvings were added to the architectural work to
make it more beautiful and attractive.

5. Likewise from the interior of the buildings the view from no two
windows is not the same.

VI. It is interesting to know…

Most people in ancient China could not afford to live in fancy houses.
They lived in small houses made of mudbrick, with only one room and a dirt

floor, just the way most people in the Roman Empire or West Asia or
Africa lived, and the way most people in the world still live today. In North-
ern China, the doors of these houses usually faced south, to keep out the

cold north wind.
Rich people had fancier houses, and people also built fancy temples and
palaces. All ancient Chinese architecture was built according to strict rules of

design that made Chinese buildings follow the ideas of Taoismor
other Chinese philosophies. The first design idea was that buildings should be
long and low rather than tall - they should seem almost to be hugging you.
The roof would be held up by columns, and not by the walls. The roof should

seem to be floating over the ground. The second design idea was symmetry:
both sides of the building should be the same, balanced, just as Taoism em-
phasized balance. Even as early as the Shang Dynasty, about 1500 BC, Chi-

nese buildings looked pretty much like this, with curved tile roofs and long
rows of pillars. The palaces of the Chou Dynasty, and then the Chin Dynasty,
continued in this same style.

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