cuánjiān 攢尖

Note (full)

Literally meaning “massed [into a] point” (Kroll 2015, 68; 194) cuanjian is a form of traditional Chinese roof that meets at the top to form a spire. The term cuanjian first appeared in the literature of the Qing dynasty, and is characterized by a steep roof which can have several vertical ridges (in a polygonal plan) or no ridges (in a circular plan) but which comes together at the top in a point and is then covered with a tapered, jewel-shaped finial (baoding 寶頂).1

This kind of roof is called cuojian (Li 2009, 13.7a) and doujian (Li 2009, 5.10b) in the Song period Yingzao fashi. In the Yingzao fayuan (1959), the term jiandingshi is used to indicate the cuanjian-type roof (Yao and Zhang 1986, 92). Although the earliest known use of terms referring to this kind of roof dates to the Song dynasty, images and physical remains survive from much earlier, indicating that the cuanjian-type roof had appeared by the Eastern Han at the latest. The earliest extant cuanjian-roof buildings are from the Northern Wei dynasty, such as the pagoda of Songyue Monastery (523 CE) and the stone pagoda with carved figures unearthed from the Liquan Temple ruins (Liu and Xu 2016). In the Tang dynasty, we find a variety of cuanjian shapes, of which four are the most common: quadrangles, hexagons, octagons, and circles. The use of cuanjian is very widespread, and roofs of this type are found not only on pavilions and other garden structures, but also on palaces and temple buildings.4

“攢尖”為中國傳統建築的一種屋頂形式。“攢尖”一詞最早出現在清代文獻中，指建築物屋面在頂部交匯成一點形成尖頂的屋頂形式。其特點是屋面較陡峭，無正脊，數條垂脊（圓形攢尖無垂脊）交合於頂部，上覆寶頂，呈錐形。

《營造法式》（1103）中，這種屋頂形式被稱為“撮尖”（李 2009，13.7a）、“闘尖”（李 2009，5.10b）。《營造法原》（1959）中用“尖頂式”表示“攢尖”這種屋頂形式（姚 1986，92）。儘管文獻中指向該種屋頂形式的術語使用最早見於宋 《營造法式》，但根據目前已知的圖像資料和實物遺存，至遲東漢時期已出現攢尖式屋頂。現存最早的攢尖頂建築實物是北魏時期的，如嵩嶽寺塔，醴泉寺遺址出土的四方亭式造像塔（劉和徐 2016）等。而至唐代，攢尖頂出現了多種形狀，常見有四角攢尖、六角攢尖、八角攢尖和圓形攢尖四種形式。攢尖頂建築的使用範圍多樣，不僅可以在亭榭等園林小品建築中使用，也可在宮殿、壇廟建築中使用。 4

Related concepts

撮尖 cuōjiān

闘尖 dòujiān

尖頂式 jiāndǐngshì

寶頂 bǎodǐng

Broad Match: roof types