Editing Chinese architecture (section)

==Miniature models==
{{Main|Science and technology of the Han dynasty#Structural engineering}}
Although mostly only ruins of [[brick]] and [[rammed earth]] walls and towers from ancient China (i.e. before the 6th century AD) survive, information on ancient Chinese architecture (especially wooden architecture) can be discerned from clay [[Scale model|models of buildings]] created as funerary items. This is similar to the paper [[joss paper|joss]] houses burned in some modern Chinese funerals. The following models were made during the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220):
{{Gallery
|width=160
|Image:Pottery palace 1.JPG|A pottery palace from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Pottery tower 6.JPG|Two residential towers joined by a bridge, pottery miniature, [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Pottery tower 5.JPG|A pottery tower from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Earthenware architecture models, Eastern Han Dynasty, 7.JPG|A ceramic model of a house with a courtyard, from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Pottery gristmill.JPG|A pottery [[gristmill]] from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Pottery tower 3.JPG|A pottery tower from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|Image:Pottery well.JPG|A pottery model of a [[Water well|well]] from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
||A pottery tower from the [[Han dynasty]] (202 BC&nbsp;– AD 220)
|title=}}

During the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)]] and the [[Six Dynasties]], miniature models of buildings or entire architectural ensembles were often made to decorate the tops of the so-called "soul vases" (''[[hunping]]''), found in many tombs of that period.<ref name=dien>{{citation
|first=Albert E. |last=Dien
|publisher=Yale University Press |year=2007
|isbn=978-0-300-07404-8
|title=Six dynasties civilization|series=Early Chinese civilization series
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0zp6iMZoqt0C&pg=PA214
|pages=214–215
}}</ref>