The Mingqi Pottery Buildings of Han Dynasty China: 206 BC – AD 220: Architectural Representations and Represented Architecture

An enormous number of burial objects have been unearthed from ancient tombs in archaeological excavations in China. These mingqi were made in all kinds of materials and in a broad range of forms, techniques, and craftsmanship. In this book, author Quinghua Guo examines a particular type of mingqi - pottery buildings. The striking realism of the pottery buildings suggests that they were modeled after actual buildings. They bring to life courtyard houses, manors, towers, granaries, and pigsty-privies, as well as cooking ranges and well pavilions. These pottery buildings, previously little known, preserve knowledge of antiquity and demonstrate the architectural quality and structural variety of the period. The book identifies the typology of the pottery buildings in terms of ontology and semiology, in order to provide a conceptual map for classification. Additionally, it identifies building systems reflected by the mingqi to detect architectonic systems of the Han dynasty. Key features of this volume include its cross-disciplinary research - an architectural study interlocking with an archaeological study, as well as an architectural study interlocking with a graphic study. The Han pottery buildings are important architectural models from the ancient world and are contrasted with wooden houses of Middle-Kingdom Egypt and brick buildings of the Minor civilization, Crete, allowing cross-cultural comparisons.