Traditional Design and Practices for Building Chinese Wooden Arch Bridges
01 · Historical Records
The tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridge (bianliang mugong langqiao) originates from the special type of wooden-arch bridge known as the "Three-Beam Bridge" (San Tiao Qiao) of the Tang dynasty, possessing special historical research value and occupying an important place in the history of Chinese bridge-building. According to the Guangxu-era "Qingyuan County Gazetteer," since the Song dynasty more than 230 various wooden-arch covered bridges have been constructed within Qingyuan County, of which over 90 still survive—the most of any county in the nation. In September 2005, the Qingyuan Houkeng tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridge received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation, Award of Excellence (first class). Among these wooden-arch covered bridges, the Xidong Bridge from the Longqing reign period of the Ming dynasty has the longest history.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Chinese bridge-building craftsmanship has a history of several thousand years. The laboring people of antiquity, relying on their own ingenuity and wisdom, created excellent bridge-building techniques. The craft of constructing tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridges is one such technique, now mainly transmitted in Zhejiang, Fujian, and other places. The Zhejiang–Fujian tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridges have a long history, rich forms, and great numbers, standing unrivaled among comparable covered-bridge structures in the country. Qingyuan County lies in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, with deep valleys and secluded ravines; its people long suffered from "impassable waterways," sighing at the chasms. Under these circumstances, the wooden-arch covered bridge arose in response to the need, becoming an indispensable transportation facility in the mountainous area.
The old lapped-beam work of Xidong Bridge
Dating from the Longqing reign of the Ming, Xidong Bridge is the oldest surviving example and a specimen of the local lapped-beam method.
Houkeng Bridge and its Asia-Pacific heritage award
Houkeng Bridge received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific heritage conservation award in September 2005 and now serves as a reference for newer construction.
Rites attached to each stage of bridge building
Hu Miao inherited the full cycle of bridge-building rites, each stage with its own observance; the rituals served as an unwritten manual for organising the work.
Hu Miao's bridge campaigns
Born in Qingyuan in 1967 and a fifth-batch national inheritor, Hu Miao has led the construction of more than thirty timber arch and covered bridges over ten-odd years.
A bridge company with a permanent crew
Loosely organised crews were consolidated into a bridge construction company with a permanent workforce, designated a municipal transmission base and a provincial productive-protection base.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Qingyuan is in the southwest of Zhejiang, with deep valleys and secluded ravines, a single stream flanked by two mountains; historically it suffered from impassable waterways, and crossing ravines by bridge became routine for its villages. According to the Guangxu-era "Qingyuan County Gazetteer," since the Song dynasty the county has built more than 230 various wooden-arch covered bridges, and the over 90 that survive today rank first in the nation—a density that is itself the product of generations of craftsmen dividing labor and collaborating. The branching of bridge styles is roughly divided by era and bridge site: the old-style method, represented by the Xidong Bridge from the Longqing reign of the Ming dynasty, shows the most archaic relationship between layered beam frames and diagonal braces; the Qingyuan Houkeng tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridge, which received the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation, Award of Excellence (first class) in September 2005, belongs to the most completely preserved among recently built examples, and comparing the two bridges reveals how the arch's taper and joints shifted over a thousand years. In terms of inheritance organization, the locality gathered the formerly scattered folk construction teams, founded the Covered Bridge Ancient Architecture Co., Ltd., and equipped it with a standing crew, subsequently listing it as a municipal-level intangible cultural heritage inheritance base and a provincial-level productive protection base; moreover, each stage of bridge construction is accompanied by its own set of folk rituals, with masters and apprentices following the rites at such junctures as commencement and closure—etiquette and craft being of one and the same origin.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Taishun County in Zhejiang Province also preserves a large number of tied-beam wooden-arch covered bridges, of which 15 have been listed as nationally protected cultural relic units. Hu Miao (from the official records of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1967, a native of Qingyuan County, Zhejiang Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage for the traditional craft of building wooden-arch bridges. Artisan of traditional wooden-arch bridge construction. While inheriting the traditional craft of building wooden-arch bridges, he has explored aspects such as the form, appearance, and durability of wooden-arch bridges; over more than ten years he has, as chief carpenter (zhumo), built more than thirty wooden-arch bridges and various covered bridges. He has completely inherited the traditional bridge-building customs, with a corresponding set of folk rituals at every stage of construction, embodying a covered-bridge culture passed down for a thousand years. He organized loose folk construction teams into the Covered Bridge Ancient Architecture Co., Ltd., maintaining a standing bridge-building crew, and it was successively listed as a municipal-level intangible cultural heritage inheritance base and a provincial-level productive protection base, enabling the living protection and transmission of the craft.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Dong Zhiji 03-1434
- Zheng Duojin 03-1435
- Huang Chuncai 04-1913
- Hu Miao 05-2870
- Cengjiakuai
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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