44

Beyond Projection:
A New Way to Understand Ancient Chinese
Architectural Drawing*

Wu Cong**

Abstract: Based on psychological law of visual perception, architectural

drawing, as 2D representation of 3D subjects, transforms them equiva-
lently to the forms integrated in certain artistic media; so how people
represent can be well explained, no matter their methods are accord
with projection theory or not. From these basic facts, this paper dis-
cusses ‘Chinese representation methods’: types, examples, properties,
evolution, psychological reasons and practical, cultural and aesthetic
values, and so on. In their architectural practice, ancient Chinese tended
to represent empirical space-time instead of physical, logical space-
time, preferred synthesis of various, specific, practical meanings
instead of universal principles.

Keywords: architectural drawing, projection, representation, Chinese

representation methods

* NSFC General Projects, Grant No. 59978027.

** Wu Cong is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Architectural History
and Theory, School of Architecture, Tianjin University China and Director of
Fieldtrip for Measuring and Drawing Historic Chinese Architecture. He
earned his PhD in Architectural Design and Theory from Tianjin University,
China. He has wide experience of fieldwork and has done many research
project works in this field. His some of the completed Research Projects are:
Traditional Architectural in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, Architectural Archives
of Lei Family, Preservation of Architectural Heritage.

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2003, pp. 44-61.
© 2003 by the Sungkyunkwan University, The Academy of East Asian Studies
Wu Cong 45

I. Introduction

Projection theory as the basis of the modern architectural graph-

ics provides designers, builders, users and other people with a pre-
cise and universal graphic language. However, a simple fact is that
human beings were able to represent buildings long before the
maturity of the projection theory. There also exist many non-projec-
tion elements and conventions in architectural drawing, like line
width, legends and colors representing different features and mate-
rials, and so on. There may be many explanations, but the most
important one may be the basis on which a projection drawing is
able to be a normal drawing: human visual perception.
In fact, projection is not the guideline for the perception. On
the contrary, people have to learn, use, and develop projection the-
ory through their visual perception. For example, even the per-
spective projection is only partially accepted: the visual angle is
strictly limited to a certain range (from the view of mathematics,
there is no difference between the results got from inside and out-
side the range), otherwise the over-distorted image cannot cheat
your eyes any more. Since human beings perceive the world with
their eyes, the new way to understand architectural drawing
should start from the psychological research on visual perception
and pictorial representation.
In fact, based on psychological law of visual perception, archi-
tectural drawing, as two-dimensional representation of three-dimen-
sional subjects, transforms them equivalently to the forms integrated
in certain artistic media; so how people represent can be well
explained, no matter their methods are accord with projection theory
or not. On the whole, the way of representing can be summarized as
following: strengthening figure-ground relationship, selecting typi-
cal sides, overlay, obliquity, distortion, foreshortening and perceptual
gradient (Fig. 1).
Along with the development of ancient Chinese architecture,
Chinese had devised a system of their own pictorial or graphic rep-
46 Beyond Projection

Figure 1. Way of representation, after Arnheim (1984)

resentation methods which we could name ‘Chinese representation

methods’

II. Types

During thousands of years of evolution, for different purposes,

functions and specific requirements, different representation types
were applied among architectural images including primitive paint-
ings, ancient Chinese characters, engravings on bronze wares, stone
Wu Cong 47

or brick relieves in tombs, wall paintings, rolled paintings, illustra-

tions in books, woodcuts, design drawings and so on,.

1. Typical sides and their combination

Selecting and mixing subjects’ typical sides from different orien-

tations to depict is one of most important characteristics of primitive
arts and children’s drawings in early stage. This method was also
applied in Chinese early paintings, ‘hieroglyph,’ and ancient writings.
For architectural drawings, typical-side method can be regarded
as the archetype of modern elevation and plan. However, it should
be pointed out that this kind of two-dimensional forms are not
‘single-plane projection’ drawings, but merely the two-dimensional
equivalents of three-dimensional subjects, even though they resem-
ble each other in appearance. Essentially, in this stage, people
depended on empirical schema which had been built up during the
individual and social development of vision and pictorial represen-
tation, rather than the projection theory which are based on
advanced geometric knowledge.
Since an observer can freely transform, to some extent, from one
orientation to another, juxtaposing and mixing ‘horizontal space’
with ‘vertical space’ is in fact a relatively simple and effective way
(Arnheim 1984). Affected by the traditional Chinese practical ration
and practical attitude, this method has been insisted on for thou-
sands of years, and is even used in some special context today. Such
examples can be seen in stone or brick relieves of Han Dynasty (
像石, ), murals in burial chambers, early Dunhuang wall paint-
ings ( ), city maps, and general plans of large-scale architec-
tural complexes. As a mature, stable method, it was mainly used in
city maps and general plans of groups of buildings (fig. 2). With a
characteristic of synthesis of elevation and plan, some Eastern Han
( ) brick relieves excavated in Chengdu (成都) and Xinfan County
( ) with patterns depicting city markets seem to be the earliest
existing images with characteristics of a city map (fig. 3)(Cao 1990).
48 Beyond Projection

Figure 2. Map of Capital Figure 3. Relief on brick, market from (Cao 1990)

Examples of this kind can also be found in ancient western

drawings and recent practice. In fact, on the premises of meeting
practical needs, this method, after calibrated and standardized,
would no longer produce coarse and crude doodles. Even the some
simplified expressions in modern engineering drawing are also
based on the same method and system.
It is notable that since early times, the typical-sides method has
included quantitative measure to represent the scale and proportion
of buildings in city planning and architectural design in ancient
China. From Zhao Yu Tu ( , Map of a Graveyard) of Warring
States Period to Lei Family’s architectural archives in the Qing
Dynasty ( ), plenty of examples can be found, which
are explicitly scaled drawings and, furthermore, use a kind of grid
coordinate system (Wang 2003). This system dates from the Zhou
Dynasty ( 周朝, 776BC-221BC), when jingtain system ( 井田制) or the
‘nine squares’ system of land ownership was prevalent, and then the
notion and method of squared layout extended to the field of city
planning. Widely used and much developed in practice, it was even
divinized as an institution to be carried out and re-interpreted, and
developed into the jili huafang ( ) method, a famous cartologi-
cal tradition in the world history of science and technology. Its influ-
ence can also be found in the field of astrographic chart, military
formation, calligraphy, painting, go and chess games, mathematic
Wu Cong 49

Figure 4. From Lei Family’s Architectural demonstration, and divination.

Archieves In ancient China, with the help
of it, City planning, planning
of large-scale ar c h i t e c t u r a l
complex, elevation planning
and detail design, had attained
a very high level, which are
manifested by numero u s
drawings from the Lei Fami-
ly’s Architectural Ar c h i v e s
(fig. 4). Furthermore, the grid
system used here had turned
to a three-dimensional one.

2. Bronze Ware of Warring States Period ( )

Similar to the above type, the spatial representation in bronze

wares of Warring States Period, especially the representation of
architectural space or hollow part inside a vessel is also implied
through two-dimensional patterns (fig. 5). What these images con-
vey are neither ‘transparent’ front view nor ‘transparent’ side view,
but two-dimensional equivalents of the buildings or vessels. These
forms do not differentiate far and near subjects, and there is no overly
method used and proved that people had no intention to depict

Figure 5. Images on bronze ware Figure 6. From Arnheim (1984)

50 Beyond Projection

depth. This makes them obviously different from modern sections

that are based on projection theory. However, compared with the
children’s drawing shown in fig. 6, the images on the bronze wares
had been further calibrated and differentiated. the thickness of the
roofs had been represented and the structure and materials are
expressed by using grids or diagonal grids (fig. 5).
The purpose of these sec-
Figure 7. From Yingzao Fashi
tion-like images is not to repre-
sent the buildings’ facades, but
the hollow parts or interior
spaces and human activities
inside. In this context, it is no
need distinguishing between
elevation and section. Similarly,
in fig. 5, for the sake of depict-
ing the interior space, it is a nat-
ural extension of this method to mix ‘elevation’ with ‘section,’ or
change the orientations and levels in accordant with the specific
meanings. Bronze ware method was directly inherited in the burial
chamber murals of the Eastern Jin Dynasty 晋 in Shaotong, Yunnan
Province云南昭通 . This method can be regarded as the archetype
of modern section. Drawings of later ages such as some plates in
Yinzao Fashi (fig. 7) and some drawings from Lei Family’s
Archives, are the result of the calibration and quantification of this
method.

3. Transition in the Han Dynasty

Ancient Chinese architectural images first emerged in relatively

great numbers in burial chambers, where there usually were stone
or brick relieves and murals in the Han Dynasty, though buildings
were just treated as the background of human’s activities or part of
the whole composition in most of them.
In the system of ancient Chinese architecture, mausoleums
Wu Cong
Figure 8. From Xu (1991)
Figure 9. From Xu (1991)
Figure 10. Courtyard, Henan
51
served as ritual and monumental
buildings. People tended to represent
in their burial chambers what he pos-
sessed when he was alive with mod-
els, wall paintings, relieves on brick or
stone, and so on. Furthermore, the
whole cosmic and the social environ-
ment also became the subject of the
representation later. It required images
to solve the problem of ‘how’ rather
than ‘what,’ that is, a kind of narrative
requirement was coming into being. It
demanded people to get rid of the
coarse representation, and seek the
three-dimensional effect.
Simultaneously, in architectural
design, the tendency to spread space
horizontally instead of vertically and
the skill to arrange groups of buildings
as a whole complex became more and
more mature, from Pre-Qin times (先
秦) to the Han Dynast. Theories about
exterior space design began to estab-
52 Beyond Projection

lish, and a lot of literary

Figure 11. Cart, horses crossing bridge, Sichuan
works describing large-
scale architectural com-
plex emerged. At that
time, the early represen-
tation method obviously
did not satisfy the needs
of representing so com-
plicated ar c h i t e c t u r a l
complex, so people
began to devise new
method to correct the
old formula, and hence
the representation went
towards the depth representation. However, the representation style
in this stage was in changing, without uniform, fixed formula. Over-
lay, oblique construction, distortion, foreshortening, and oblique
from both sides to central part began to be used (fig. 8-12).

Figure 12. From March (1931)

4. Paraline

The exploration in the Han Dynasty laid a foundation for the

later development of art and graphics. To represent the depth or the
third dimension in a same pictorial frame, Chinese solution located
on the ‘paraline’ method, in which ‘frontal paraline’ method has
been the dominant one for thousands of years. ‘Frontal’ means that
the result still maintains the original shape of the subject’s typical
Wu Cong 53

side without any distortion. According to its content, purpose and

meaning, the ‘frontage’ can be the front view or side view of a build-
ing. ‘Paraline’ here means representing parallel relationships with
parallel relationships instead of converging lines as it does in a per-
spective drawing. In the frontal paraline system, the frontal face
remains the original shape and proportion of the subject, while the
side face makes some appropriate obliquity, distortion and fore-
shortening.
Another paraline system is ‘oblique paraline,’ in which the two
axial directions of subjects both cross the picture plane at oblique
angles, with both sides being distorted. Maybe for that reason, the
frequency of using this method was relative less, being limited with-
in certain context, or taken as an option to alter composition. (fig. 12)
Paraline was not an exclusive invention by ancient Chinese. It
can be found with great ease among artistic works of primitive
times, European Middle
Figure 13. By Li Tang, Southen Song Dynasty Ages, ancient India, and
modern children’s draw-
ings. Arnheim (1984)
have studied children’s
art and explained how a
child’s representing man-
ner changes in different
development stages (fig.
14). He pointed out that
the pattern shown in
fig.13a is not a projection
of a physical subject, but
the simplest str u c t u r a l
equivalent in pictorial
space and that in this
way the third dimension
is depicted with mini-
mum distortion. Since it
54 Beyond Projection

Figure 14. Representation of box, after Arnheim (1984)

involves only the simplest perceptual Figure 15. By Jia Quan,

structure and orientation, it can be eas- Qing Dynasty
ily understood and made. This con-
s t ruction also provides a pictorial
space the frame and structure of which
are in accordance with the physical
one where the observer is in, so the
pictorial space looks like a relatively
stable and static background. Based on
this scheme, the frontal paraline had
considerably developed with continu-
ous calibration, differentiation, and
quantification in ancient China.
The frontal face remains its nor-
mal shape and proportion, while the
side face is relatively foreshortened by
a certain ratio. This naturally lays a
sound foundation for its quantifica-
tion. That is why Jiehua , a kind of
traditional Chinese architectural paint-
ing flourishing in the Song Dynasty宋
代, was described as ‘scaled painting
and precisely calculated.’
‘Axonometric drawings’ or ‘oblique
axonometric projection,’ which are
used by some researchers today, are
Wu Cong 55

not appropriate terms for this method. In fact, ‘axonometric’ is a

mathematic term involving projection, coordinate axis, and efficient
of axial deformation ratio; however, as a ‘secondary geometry,’ this
method can be well understood and used without recourse to the
idea of projection at all. In addition, the paraline used in Chinese
paintings sometimes is different from the axonometric projection, as
shown in fig. 15, in which the building in foreground are much big-
ger than the ones in background, although there is not much differ-
ence in original size. Another counterexample is figures in paintings,
which seem to be seen with the line of sight parallel to the ground
and apparently are not axonometric projection of human bodies.

5. Orientation Alteration in Paraline:

Buddhist Sutra Illustration of Dunhuang

In the beginning period of the Tang Dynasty唐朝, among Dun-

huang Wall paintings, prevailed a kind of Buddhist painting: ‘Sutra
Illustration of Pure Land’淨土變. For example, fig. 16 is to depict the

Figure 16. Cave 172, Dunhuang Mogaoku, Tang Dynasty

56 Beyond Projection

Figure 17. Cave 45, Dunhuang Figure 18. Illustration of Diamond

Mogaoku, Tang Dynasty Sutra, 868

spectacle of the explaining the Sutra in the Buddhist Paradise. In this

kind of painting, Buddha is in the central position, surrounded by
bodhisattvas, with pond, balustrades, angels in front of them, and
storied buildings beside or behind them.
Generally speaking, the whole composition is symmetric, but
obviously, the left part or right part alone, especially the part in fore-
ground is constructed by frontal paraline method. Thus, there is a
vertical axis for converging. Meanwhile, in the upper part, buildings

Figure 19. Wall painting in Yanshan Temple, Shanxi, from Fu(1982)

Wu Cong 57

Figure 20.

a. Mural, Han Dynasty, Inner Mongolia

b. Tablet, Tang Dynasty, Shanxi
c. Relief, Tang Dynasty, Xi’an
d. by Wang Qihan, Five Dynasties
e. by Zhao Ji, Song Dynasty
f. Anonymous, Song Dynasty
g. by Qiao zhongchang, Song Dynasty

b c

e
d

f g
58 Beyond Projection

are represented in a way of combining upper part and lower part

into a uniform whole, and hence comes into being a horizontal axis
for converging.
This kind of construction is not equal to perspective. In fact, the
converging effect is the result of orientation changing for adapting to
the symmetric composition when constructing with paraline
method. Frontal paraline combines subjects’ original front views
with oblique and distorted side views, and the oblique lines, run-
ning leftward or rightward, have their own directions or orienta-
tions. In a painting, especially in a great one like a piece of long-
scrolled painting or wall painting, it is common that the orientations
alter for some reasons (fig. 19, 20), among which a possible reason
may be the symmetry of the composition.
The converging effect for the symmetric composition is not
unusual through ages (fig. 20). Most ‘Pure Land’ paintings are sym-
metric largely because of the supremacy of Buddha and the hierar-
chy of the Buddhist world, for symmetry and the central axis can
form a central position. This effect is obviously much better than the
asymmetric composition, as shown in fig. 18. The decorative and
static requirement of the wall painting is another reason, for wall
paintings usually pay less attention to the depth, and only need a
effect of wide, shallow niche. Of course, the symmetric building
groups themselves provide the possibility for the whole symmetric
composition.
Similarly, as to the phenomenon that in an individual building,
the upper part and the lower part will converge to a horizontal axis,
it also should be regarded as the correction of paraline construction.
In most situations, the upper part or the lower part itself is accor-
dant with the regulation of the paraline. This method began to be
used at least at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, and it was noth-
ing new to find so many examples of that time and times after that
(fig. 21a, b).
The phenomenon of multiple converging points or converging
axis is the correction of frontal paraline rather than the alteration of
Wu Cong 59

Figure 21.

a. Mural, Tang Dynasty b. Mural, Cave 431, Dunhuang,

Tang Dynasty

c. Anonymous, Song Dynasty d. by Zhang Zerui, Song Dynasty

the perspective rules. Sometimes, the correction even brings about a

diverging effect, as shown in a typical example of fig. 17.
60 Beyond Projection

IV. Summary

To Summarize, because of Chinese distinguished notion about

cosmos, nature, space-time, their practical ration and practical atti-
tude, ancient Chinese, tended to represent empirical space-time
instead of physical, even, infinite, logical space, preferred synthesis
of various, specific, practical meanings instead of universal princi-
ples. Based on primitive and basic schemas, in their architectural
practice, they devised a system of representation methods by stan-
dardization, differentiation, quantification, adjusting and correcting
it to meet the needs of specific, practical function and purpose.

Reference

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Cao, Wa n ru. ‘ : ’
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Fu, Xinian. ‘ ’ (Research on arc h i t e c t u r a l
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Wu Cong 61

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