Glazed tiles () have been used in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

since the

Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ; Old Chinese ( B&S): *''tiw'') was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, the Zhou dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history. The military control of China by th ...

(c. 1046 – 256 BC) as a material for roofs. During the Song Dynasty, the manufacture of glazed tiles was standardized in Li Jie's '' Architecture Standard''. In the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

and

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, glazed tiles became ever more popular for top-tier buildings, including palace halls in the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...

, and ceremonial temples (for example the

Heavenly Temple The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for a go ...

). There are two main types of Chinese glazed tiles: glazed tubular tile and glazed plate tile. Glazed tubular tiles (see

monk and nun Monk and Nun is a style of roof similar to imbrex and tegula, but instead of using a flat tile (tegula) and an arched tile (imbrex), two arched imbrex tiles are used. The top linking tiles are the ''monk'' tiles and the lower layer are the ''nun ...

) are moulded into tube shape on a wooden mould, then cut into halves along their length, producing two tubular tiles, each semicircular in section. A tube-shaped clay mould can be cut into four equal parts, with a cross section of a quarter of a circle, then glazed into a four plate tile. Glazed plate tiles are laid side by side across and overlapping each other. In the Song Dynasty, the standard overlap was forty percent, which increased to seventy percent in the Qing dynasty. With the Song-style forty-percent overlap, it was not possible to have triple tile overlap, as there was a twenty-percent gap between the first plate tile and the third plate tile. Hence, if a crack developed in the second tile, water leakage was inevitable. On the other hand, with the Qing dynasty style seventy-percent overlapping, the first plate tile was overlapped seventy percent, forty percent, and ten percent by the second, third and fourth tiles, respectively; thus even if the second and the third tiles developed cracks, there would be no leakage. Glazed tubular tiles used at the

eave The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

edge have an outer end made into a round shape top, often moulded with the pattern of dragon. Eave-edge plate tiles have their outer edges decorated with triangles, to facilitate rain-shedding.

References

{{reflist Building materials Architecture in China Chinese architectural history Roof tiles