chuāndòu

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Scope note
The “penetrating and interlocking framework” (chuandou 穿鬥) is one of the two main categories of Chinese timber-frame structures, the other being “interlocking and lifting beams” (擡梁 táiliáng). In the chuandou structural system, several layers of tie-beams are tenoned through the pillars to join them together and the pillars support the purlins directly without the use of a bracketing layer. Chuandou has a verbal connotation, referring to a particular procedure of construction. First, pillars of the truss-like framework perpendicular to the roof ridge are connected by the tenoning work of chuan, and then multiple frames of different bays are interlocked parallel to the roof ridge by the work of dou to form the whole timber-frame structure. The earliest known textual use of the term chuandou was in the work of architectural historians in the 1940s, who were learning the terminology of craftsmen in southwestern China. The term came to be used to describe the structural system of timber-frame domestic architecture in southern China. Other terms for this structural system include chuandou 穿逗, litie 立貼, and chuandou 串斗.
chuāndòu
Accepted term: 18-Nov-2024