cǎojià
- Scope note
- As an architectural term, caojia (literally “draft frame,” Kroll 2015 34, 194), primarily appears in technical manuals such as the Yingzao fashi(1103), Yuanye 園冶 (1631), and Yingzao fayuan 營造法原 (1959). It refers to the roof frame between the interior ceiling (the pingqi 平棊 in Yingzao Fashi and the xuan 軒 or juan 卷 in mansion-hall style architecture of Jiangnan area in Ming and Qing dynasties) and the roof, which is left rough (hence the term “draft”) because it is not visible to the viewer (Chen 2010, 259; Yao 1986, 116).
- Date of creation: 07-Oct-2024
Accepted term: 07-Oct-2024