/ The Yingzao fashi project / Teaching materials / Coursework / Reaction / Papers / Who's who / Related sites /


                         / About the materials / Design and construction / Examples / Animations / Interactive models / Student work / Glossary / Readings and bibliography /

The grade
The Song construction system is modular. Dimensions are given in the modular unit fen. One fen ranges from 6.0 to 3.0 cun (an absolute unit) and is determined by the rank of the building.
There are eight grades, used as follows:
size of fen (in cun) 0.60 0.55 0.50 0.48 0.44 0.40 0.35 0.30
grades of dian tang 1 2 3 4 5
grades of ting tang 3 4 5 6
grades of other type 6 7 8

For our sample building, we are using the 6th grade. In the Song, 1 cun = 32 mm approximately. At this grade, 1 fen = 0.4 cun x 32mm/cun = 12.8 mm.

See the illustration in Liang (1984, 240).

/ Top of design and construction / Previous page / Next page /


We'd like to know what you think of this site. Send your (constructive) comments, both good and bad, to Andrew I-kang Li. August 1997.
Copyright © 1995, 1997, Department of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved including and not limited to the right of reproduction or transmission in whole or in part in any form, electronically or otherwise.