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Although the Islamic buildings in China have their origins in the Arabic world, they have taken on an architectural form incorporating also Chinese features. Islam was first introduced to China by land in the western territories and to the coastal cities by sea during the Tang dynasty. Mosques were subsequently built throughout China. Along the coast these magnificent buildings were constructed in traditional Arabic style, of brick and stone with flat roofs, while further inland elaborate timber constructions arose. The sheer quantity and variety of mosques and Islamic tombs illustrated provides a considerable insight into this very Chinese architectural form.

Innumerable sacrificial altars and ancestral temples bear witness to the role of Confucianism, which was the dominant ideology in China for over 2000 years. Many of these elegant ritual and ceremonial buildings are devoted exclusively to the remains of illustrious forebears, emperors and kings. The scale and form adopted by the various buildings was dictated by the strict codes of Confucian rites which were often also dedicated to the moon, the sun, the universe and the rivers. Among the most elegant examples are the Temple of Heaven, The Temple of Confucius, The Ancestral Temple, The Temple of State and the Dai Temple.

The Taoist buildings and gardens and their relationship to natural elements, history and legends provide a rare insight into the ethereal world of Taoism. Taoist buildings have basically evolved from the traditional square Chinese courtyards. The main halls built on the central axis serve as places of enshrinement and worship for statues of Taoist gods, as well as for conducting ritual ceremonies. Many Taoist temples have a small garden. In hilly areas, these gardens have been built to gracefully echo the surrounding landscape. These temples abound with sculpture, calligraphy and stone inscriptions.

One of the most impressive military defence works in the history of humanity is the Great Wall of China, 6,350 kilometres in length. The last volume in the series is dedicated to an exhaustive study of the history and building techniques of the Great Wall. Together with the nine fortified border towns it served to defend every inch of the massive land from invasion. Other fortified cities are also included with their watch-towers, moats, city walls and city gates: Changan (Xian), Luonyang, Jianye (Nanjing), Kaifeng und Beijing.

Indian temple styles combined with traditional Chinese architectural forms in the Buddhist buildings of China to provide an impressive symbiosis of cultures. With the spread and integration of Buddhism with Confucianism, devotional buildings underwent an evolution. Numerous pagodas, temples and grottos with statues of Buddha and other gods have survived. The Chinese Buddhist temples were organized around courtyards and verandas with a central pagoda surrounded by smaller houses for the monks. There are also two main categories of grotto temples cut into hillsides: Phil, based on a square plan, and the horseshoe-shaped Shiite temples.

The garden as total art work: in contrast to western-inspired garden design with its emphasis on trees and shrubs, lawns and flower-beds, it is the overall topographical effect that is considered paramount in the private garden of China. Artificial hills and carefully laid-out ponds and lakes transform the mostly flat terrain into a magical miniature landscape. It is the sheer subtlety of the layout of these gardens, inspired as they were by Confucianism, landscape painting and poetry, that give the onlooker the impression on occasion that he has before him an intricate water colour. Splendid photographs convey the magic of these gardens, which will be a source of inspiration for every garden lover. The historian, architects and all those interested in China and Chinese culture will, however, also find much that is valuable. Of all the volumes in the series Ancient Chinese Architecture”, Private Gardens” is the one that will appear to the widest circle of readers, and will thus be an invaluable addition to the gardening section of every well-stocked bookstore.

The underground mausoleums and tombs developed out of China’s longstanding practice of sacrificial rites and burial. Prior to the Zhou dynasty, simple enclosures were the rule, mounds followed in the Qin dynasty and by the Han dynasty, brick and stone structures had been widely adopted. These were in turn superseded by the magnificent palace-like imperial tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties. All of the various architectural and ceremonial developments and styles are examined and illustrated in detail.

The imperial gardens were elegant resorts for all forms of entertainment. Rapid developments in Chinese society, the economy and the arts lent great impetus to the construction of elaborate and elegant imperial parks. The technical virtuosity of the waterways and a preference for exotically formed rockeries produced enchanting and constantly changing man-made worlds. The genre reached its zenith with the Yuanmingyuan garden, generally accepted as one of the finest of its kind ever created in China.

The palaces are the embodiment of the feudal systems of patriarchal clans and tithes, and symbolise supreme imperial power. The most outstanding and prominent examples of this architectural type are the Forbidden City in Beijing and Shenyang Imperial Palace. The former is also the largest and best-preserved timber construction in the world. The principles underlying the planning and design of ancient Chinese palaces are elaborated in detail using these two fine examples as a source of reference.