Ancient Chinese wooden architecture

Ancient Chinese wooden architecture is a style of Chinese architecture. In the West it has been studied less than other architectural styles. Although Chinese architectural history reaches far back in time, descriptions of Chinese architecture are often confined to the well known Forbidden City with little else explored by the West. Although common features of Chinese architecture have been unified into a vocabulary illustrating uniquely Chinese forms and methods, until recently data has not been available. Because of the lack of knowledge of the roots of Chinese architecture, the descriptions of its elements are often translated into Western terms and architectural theory, losing their unique Chinese meanings. A cause of this deficiency is that the two most important Chinese government architecture manuals, the Song dynasty Yingzao Fashi and Qing Architecture Standards have never been translated into any Western language.