With rich political and historical context, Steinhardt covers forty centuries of architecture, from the genesis of Chinese building through to the twenty-first century and the challenges of urban expansion and globalism.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chinese Dynasties
• Map of China
• Introduction: Beyond the Forbidden City
• Chapter 1: Genesis of Chinese Buildings and Cities
• Cities and Buildings before Written Records
• Cities and Buildings of the Bronze Age
• Western Zhou to Warring States
• Chapter 2: Architecture of the First Emperor and His Predecessors
• Rulers’ Cities
• Rulers’ Tombs
• Architecture of China's First Empire
• Chapter 3: Han Architecture
• Han Chang'an: The First Emperor's Vision Realized
• Han Luoyang and Other Cities: Realistic Imperial Vision and Nonimperial Presence
• Han Tombs outside the Capitals
• Additional Evidence of Han Architecture
• China's Earliest Buddhist Architecture
• Chapter 4: An Age of Turmoil: Three Kingdoms, Two Jins, Sixteen States
• Urbanism and Palaces in an Age of Disunion
• New Buildings for a Buddhist Age
• Tombs
• Chapter 5: Northern Dynasties and Southern Dynasties
• Cities and Palaces
• Tombs of Royalty
• Tombs in Gansu, Koguryŏ, and Datong
• Great Age of Buddhist Cave-Chapels
• China's Earliest Pagodas
• Toward a Timber Frame
• A Buddhist Monument to Pious Deeds
• Sarcophagus as Architecture
• Chapter 6: Sui and Tang: Architecture for Empires
• Three Great Cities
• Palace Architecture in and outside the Sui-Tang Capitals
• Sacred Wooden Architecture
• Exemplary Tang Pagodas
• Tombs
• Five Extraordinary Buildings
• Tang Architecture outside the Empire
• Chapter 7: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
• Humble Halls for Aspiring Rulers, 963–966
• Tenth-Century Timber Architecture before 960
• Official and Royal Tombs
• Architecture of the Dali Kingdom
• Chapter 8: Grandeur and Magnificence under Liao and Western Xia
• The Ancestral Prefecture
• Magnificent Halls—Liao Style
• Liao Pagodas
• Liao Tombs
• Octagonal Construction: Liao and Western Xia
• Chapter 9: The Chinese Building Standards
• Fundamentals of the Chinese Timber Frame
• Bracket Sets and Roofs
• Jiehua
• Chapter 10: Song Elegance and Jin Opulence
• Religious Architecture North and South, 960–1127
• Religious Architecture, 1127–1279
• Secular Architecture
• Chapter 11: The Chinese City between Tang and Ming
• Urbanism on the Grasslands
• Metropolises of Millions
• Jin Capitals
• The Road to Dadu
• Yuan Dadu and Zhongdu
• Cities and Princely Retreats outside the Capitals
• Chapter 12: The Mongol Century
• Eminent Halls
• Other Yuan Buildings
• Architecture of Foreign Faiths
• Chapter 13: The Chinese Imperial City and Its Architecture, Ming and Qing
• Imperial Nanjing
• Imperial Beijing
• Building Standards in Qing Palatial Architecture
• Altars
• Thirteen Ming Tombs
• Qing Imperial Architecture
• Chapter 14: Late Imperial Architecture in Chinese Style
• Ming Buddhist Monasteries
• Monasteries on Sacred Peaks
• Architecture of Confucianism
• Three Towers in Shanxi
• Chapter 15: Convergences: Lamaist, Dai, Islamic
• Architecture of Lamaist Buddhism
• Chengde: Qing Vision Realized
• Buddhist Architecture in the Yunnan Marshes
• Dong Towers
• Ming and Qing Islamic Architecture
• Chapter 16: Garden and House
• Gardens of South China
• Imperial Gardens of Beijing
• Residential Architecture
• Chapter 17: China Comes to Europe, Europe Comes to China, Chinese Students Come to the United States
• Chinoiserie
• Sequestered European Architecture
• China's First Generation of Architects
• Conclusion: Resolving the Forbidden City
• The Counteraxis
• Glossary
• Selected Bibliography
• Image Credits