jiǎnzhùzào en

Jianzhuzao, literally translated as "reduced-column construction" or "column-elimination construction," is a term used to describe the arrangement of interior columns in traditional Chinese architecture. This term was not used in classical literature. Rather, it was first coined by architectural historians who conducted field investigations and wrote Chinese architectural history from the 1930s to 1960s. Generally, jianzhuzao refers to buildings with fewer interior columns than those with a full interior column grid aligned with the eaves pillars (Liang and Liu 1933; Guo 2009, 786). Some scholars, in accordance with the interpretation that there were two timber-frame structural systems (diange 殿閣/diantang 殿堂 and tingtang 廳堂) defined in Yingzao fashi, argued that only buildings with fewer interior columns than these two structural systems could have "column elimination" (Fu 2002). However, Chen Mingda, who used the two timber-frame structural systems as a standard to analyze extant buildings, opposed the use of the "jianzhu" neologism (Chen 1981, 4,178-181).