Dougong (斗拱dǒugǒng),also known as Bracket Set or Arch, is one of the Wooden Structure Parts in Ancient Architecture of China. Bracketing inserted between the top of a column and a crossbeam, it is one of most important elements in traditional Chinese architecture and also a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets.  

Dougong is the critical part of the timber frame. It has special external frame: many layers of stylobate, colorful curving-slope roof, courtyard type buildings. 

Dougong is a special component in the Chinese ancient building. The square board is called "Dou", the short bowed wood is called "arch"，the long inclined wood is called "Ang"，and "arch" is their general name. Usually it is placed among the pillar head ,pillar forehead and face of the house to prop up a beam and pick up eaves, and it also has a decorative function. It is made up of the square wood, the short bow wood and the long inclined wood, mixing in length and breadth layer upon layer and pursuing a layer to pick outwardly to form a pad base which is to descend.

 

Dougong was widely used during the Spring and Autumn Period and developed into a complex set of interlocking parts in the Tang and Song dynasties. From the culture relics being unearthed from mausoleum of Han Dynasty, we can find the courtyard type buildings appear in the more than two thousand years paintings. And the magnificent Forbidden City of Ming and Qing Dynasty adopted the complicated enclosed forms.

Ask Questions ?