Yuan

Chinese Architecture in a Mongol Empire

Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780691240169
• eBook ISBN: 9780691253350
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

A monumental illustrated survey of the architecture of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century China

The Yuan dynasty endured for a century, leaving behind an architectural legacy without equal, from palaces, temples, and pagodas to pavilions, tombs, and stages. With a history enlivened by the likes of Khubilai Khan and Marco Polo, this spectacular empire spanned the breadth of China and far, far beyond, but its rulers were Mongols. Yuan presents the first comprehensive study in English of the architecture of China under Mongol rule.

In this richly illustrated book, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt looks at cities such as the legendary Shangdu—inspiration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Xanadu—as well as the architecture the Mongols encountered on their routes of conquest. She examines the buildings and monuments of diverse faiths in China during the period, from Buddhist and Daoist to Confucian, Islamic, and Christian, as well as unusual structures such as observatories, archways, stone and metal buildings, and sarcophaguses. Steinhardt dispels long-standing views of the Mongols as destroyers of cities and architecture across Asia, showing how the khans and their families built more than they tore down. She demonstrates that the stipulations of the Chinese building system were powerful and resilient enough to guide the architecture that rose under Mongolian rule.

Drawing on Steinhardt’s groundbreaking textual research in numerous languages as well as her pioneering fieldwork at sites across East Asia, Yuan will become the standard reference on this critical period of cultural and artistic exchange.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Family Tree of Chinggis Khan
• Introduction: Mongol Lords, Chinese Architecture, Visions of Empire
• Chapter One: Wall-Enclosed Spaces
• Chapter Two: The Century before the Mongol Century
• Chapter Three: Official Yuan Construction
• Chapter Four: Halls to the Gods and of the Populace
• Chapter Five: Architecture of Death, Private Life, and Popular Life
• Chapter Six: Muslim, Tibetan Buddhist, Manichaean, and Christian Architecture
• Chapter Seven: Rock-Carved Architecture and Freestanding Stone
• Chapter Eight: Yuan-Period Construction East of China
• Conclusion: A Revisionist History: Chinese Architecture, Mongol Patrons, European Observers, East Asian Archaeologists
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Character Glossary
• Photo and Illustration Credits
• Index