Yingxian Wooden Pagoda

The 67.31-meter-high Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, located in Fogong (Buddha's Palace) Temple in the northwestern corner of the county town of Yingxian, was built completely of timber in 1056. For nearly a thousand years the wooden pagoda has withstood numerous strong earthquakes. According to historical records, about 200 years after its construction, the pagoda stood firm during a severe earthquake lasting seven days.

How could these wooden structures successfully withstand the test of heavy earthquakes? Do they have any trumps to play? Let’s take a close look at the frame and connective gadgets of typical Chinese wooden buildings.

Traditional Chinese wooden structures are all built on a brick or stone base, which can be regarded as a large ship carrying architectures floating through dangerous waves. When an earthquake came, the base would dampen the impact of the earthquake wave to the structures.

mortise and joints

Unique connections also contributed a lot to the shock resistant performance of traditional Chinese architecture. The wooden frames of traditional Chinese architecture were built up using mortise and joints without any metal nails or bolts. When an earthquake came, the structure shook with the earthquake waves but wouldn't break, as structural parts could move against each other because of the mortise-and-joint function, and the whole structure could be restored to the original condition after the earthquake. That’s why walls might collapse in an earthquake, but timber frames would stand firm thanks to the structural elasticity.