Yíngzào Fǎshì 營造法式
Building Standards by 李誡 (奉敕撰)
About the work
The single most important pre-modern Chinese architectural treatise. Compiled by Lǐ Jiè 李誡 (?–1110), Tōngzhí láng 通直郎 and Acting Junior Director of the Imperial Workshops (Jiāngzuò shǎojiàn 將作少監) under Sòng Huīzōng. Originally 36 juǎn (the surviving WYG manuscript reduces this to 34 juǎn by combining), comprising a zǒngshì (general explanations) and zǒnglì (general principles) section in 2 juǎn; zhìdù (regulations) in 15 juǎn; gōngxiàn (labour quotas) in 10 juǎn; liàolì and gōngzuò (materials and operations) in 3 juǎn; túyàng (illustrations) in 6 juǎn; and a 1-juǎn mùlù. The work systematically codifies, on the modular cáifèn 材分 system, the building methods of stone, large-and-small carpentry (dàmùzuò 大木作, xiǎomùzuò 小木作), tiling, plastering, painting, lattice-work, and turning, with extensive labour-and-material schedules for each operation. As Joseph Needham put it (SCC 4.3, 107), the illustrations in the last five juǎn are such that “we can at last almost speak of working drawings in a modern sense.”
Tiyao
By Lǐ Jiè 李誡, Tōngzhí láng and Acting Junior Director of the Imperial Workshops of the Sòng, by imperial command. Yíngzào fǎshì, 34 juǎn. In the Xīníng era (1068–1077) the Imperial Workshops were ordered to compile Yíngzào fǎshì; the work was completed in Yuányòu 6 (1091). In Shàoshèng 4 (1097), since the version then redacted contained only schedules of materials with no separate transformations of regulation and was hard to put to use, Jiè was ordered separately to compose and edit it. Jiè investigated the various books and consulted with the master craftsmen, classified the data into types and examples, and submitted it on imperial order in Yuánfú 3 (1100). In Chóngníng 2 (1103) he again petitioned to use small-character carved blocks and have it published.
In Jiè’s own Zǒng kànxiáng (general inspection-summary) he writes: “I have now edited and compiled the Hǎixíng fǎshì (current building standards). General explanations and general principles together fill 2 juǎn; regulations 15 juǎn; labour quotas 10 juǎn; materials, examples, and operations together 3 juǎn; illustrations 6 juǎn; index 1 juǎn. Total 36 juǎn, 357 piān. Of these 49 piān are drawn from the classics, histories, and other books; 308 piān are from the long-handed-down workable methods of the various trades, drawn from extensive consultation with the master craftsmen.”
The book speaks only of craft matters, but it can verify the classics and biographies and combine the various accounts to fit with the ancient principles of “trimming materials and ordering work.” Hence Chén Zhènsūn 陳振孫 in his Shūlù jiětí 書錄解題 holds it to be far above Yù Hào’s 喻皓 Mùjīng 木經. Lù Yǒurén’s 陸友仁 Yánběi zázhì 硯北雜誌 records that Jiè wrote also a Xù Shānhǎi jīng 續山海經 in 10 juǎn, Gǔzhuàn shuōwén 古篆說文 in 10 juǎn, Xù tóngxìngmíng lù 續同姓名錄 in 2 juǎn, Pípá lù 琵琶錄 in 3 juǎn, Mǎjīng 馬經 in 3 juǎn, and Liùbó jīng 六博經 in 3 juǎn — so Jiè was a man of broad learning, and his compilations are accordingly all well organised.
Yǒurén alone gives Jiè’s courtesy name as Míngzhòng 明仲 but writes his given name as 誠 (“sincere”). However, Fànshì Tiānyī gé 范氏天一閣 photo-copy of the Sòng edition, and the Sòngshǐ Yìwén zhì 宋史藝文志 and Wénxiàn tōngkǎo 文獻通考, all give 誡 (“admonish”); Yǒurén’s form is presumably a slip.
The present recension prefixes Jiè’s zházǐ 劄子 (memorial) and jìnshū xù 進書序 (preface presenting the book). Its juǎn 31 ought to be the upper part of the Mùzuò zhìdù túyàng 木作制度圖樣 (Carpentry Regulations Illustrations); the original being already missing, the kànxiáng (inspection-summary) juǎn has been mistakenly inserted in its place. We have checked the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn 永樂大典 and find this book preserved there too, with the missing twenty-odd illustrations all present; we have used it to fill the gap, while reattaching the kànxiáng at the end of the juǎn. Furthermore, the kànxiáng states that the book in total is 36 juǎn, but the present recension shows the zhìdù section to be 2 juǎn short of the original index — only 34 juǎn. The Yǒnglè dàdiǎn version is undivided into juǎn, so cannot be used to verify; and inspection of the section headings before and after shows no other lacunae. We suspect later collators combined the juǎn; for now we leave the present arrangement.
Submitted respectfully on collation, eleventh month of Qiánlóng 46 (1781), by Chief Compilers Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì; Editor-in-Chief Lù Fèichí.
Abstract
The Yíngzào fǎshì is the canonical Sòng-state architectural manual, the first complete Chinese building handbook to survive, and the single most important pre-modern source on East Asian wooden architecture. Its compilation history is exceptionally well documented from the work itself: the Imperial Workshops were ordered to compile a Yíngzào fǎshì in the Xīníng era (1068–77, under Wáng Ānshí’s reform programme); a first redaction was completed in Yuányòu 6 (1091). Sòng Zhézōng in Shàoshèng 4 (1097), finding that text inadequate (a mere materials-schedule with no transformation rules), commissioned Lǐ Jiè to revise it. Jiè was at this point Acting Junior Director of the Imperial Workshops and the responsible architect for the imperial-clan secondary residences and the various banner-troop barracks. He carried out a fundamental reorganisation, compiling a fully systematic treatise based on consultation with master craftsmen and supplementing it with citations from the classics. He submitted the new redaction in Yuánfú 3 (1100). Sòng Huīzōng in Chóngníng 2 (1103) authorised printing in small-character carved blocks for empire-wide promulgation. Reprinted in 1145.
The treatise is built on the cáifèn 材分 modular system: structural members, components, and decorative elements are dimensioned not in absolute units but as proportional fractions of a “standard timber” (cái 材), itself graded into eight ranks. This system, combined with the meticulous specification of labour-quotas (gōngxiàn 功限) for each operation, gave the Sòng state a uniform language for letting and pricing public-construction contracts and serves the modern reader as the primary key to interpreting Sòng (and indirectly Liáo–Jīn) extant timber buildings. The illustrations in the last juǎn are the earliest surviving systematic East Asian architectural drawings.
The text was lost in the early sixteenth century; it survived only in a Yǒnglè dàdiǎn extract and in a Fànshì Tiānyī gé photo-copy of the Sòng edition. The Sìkù compilers used the Yǒnglè dàdiǎn extract to repair juǎn 31. A further important manuscript was discovered in 1919 (the Dùnhuáng / Tiānyī gé recension), upon which all twentieth-century critical editions are based. The standard modern critical edition is Liáng Sīchéng 梁思成, Yíngzào fǎshì zhùshì 營造法式註釋 (vol. 7 of Liáng Sīchéng quán jí 梁思成全集, Zhōngguó jiànzhù gōngyè, 2001), the foundational document of modern Chinese architectural history.
The catalog meta gives Lǐ Jiè’s life-dates as 1035–1110. CBDB (id 420) gives no birth-year and a 1110 death-year with index 1047; Wilkinson gives “?–1110”. The catalog birth-year 1035 is unsupported by CBDB and rests on later Chinese-architecture literature; the notBefore / notAfter range here for the work (1097–1103) follows the documentary record of the imperial commission and printing.
Translations and research
No complete English translation has yet appeared. The standard critical edition (with full modern Chinese annotation) is Liáng Sī-chéng 梁思成, Yíng-zào fǎ-shì zhù-shì 營造法式註釋, 2 vols., reprinted in vol. 7 of Liáng Sī-chéng quán jí (Zhōngguó jiànzhù gōngyè, 2001). A new annotated edition on CD-ROM is in Pān Gǔxī 潘谷西 (ed.), Yíng-zào fǎ-shì xīn-zhù 營造法式新注 (2003), accompanying Zhōngguó gǔdài jiànzhú shǐ 中國古代建築史. The principal modern Western treatment is Jiren Feng, Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao fashi Building Manual (University of Hawaii Press, 2012). Foundational secondary studies: Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China vol. 4 part 3 (CUP, 1971), pp. 65–141, on the modular system; Else Glahn, “Some Chou and Han Architectural Terms,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 50 (1978); Else Glahn, “On the Transmission of the Ying-tsao fa-shih,” T’oung Pao 61 (1975), 232–265; Liú Dùnzhèn 劉敦楨, Zhōngguó gǔdài jiànzhú shǐ 中國古代建築史 (1980). For the lexicon: Robin Yates and Jiren Feng, “Yingzao fashi: A Glossary,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie (forthcoming series). For Liáng Sī-chéng’s foundational research more broadly: Wilma Fairbank, Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China’s Architectural Past (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994).
Other points of interest
The Sìkù tíyào notes a textual variant: Lù Yǒurén’s Yánběi zázhì 硯北雜誌 writes Lǐ Jiè’s name as 李誠 (Lǐ Chéng) rather than 李誡 (Lǐ Jiè) — the tíyào dismisses this as a slip on the basis of the Tiānyī gé photo-copy and the Sòngshǐ yìwén zhì. The same source records six other works by Lǐ Jiè — a Xù Shānhǎi jīng in 10 juǎn, a Gǔzhuàn shuōwén in 10 juǎn, a Xù tóngxìngmíng lù in 2 juǎn, a Pípá lù in 3 juǎn, a Mǎjīng in 3 juǎn, and a Liùbó jīng in 3 juǎn — none of which survive. Lǐ Jiè was, on this evidence, a polymath whose Yíngzào fǎshì is only the surviving fragment of a much wider technical-literary project.