Fully illustrated in color photos, picture index, text in Chinese, with contents and foreword in English, in a slipcase.

This volume explains the constructional colored drawings on wood of ancient Chinese architecture from the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty. Chinese ancient colored drawings, passing down from generation to generation, differ from dynasty to dynasty, such as the simple style of colored drawings in Tang dynasty, gorgeous style in Song dynasty, bold and unconstrained of those in Yuan, regulative and decorative characteristics of those in Ming dynasty and more programmed feature and more variety in modeling in Qing.

The author, Sun Dazhang, a famous Chinese expert on the history of ancient architecture, introduces with chromatic drawings the history, artistic styles, criterion and techniques, etc. of ancient Chinese architecture. The colored drawings in the book include realistic-view pictures, colored drawing samples and ink graphics, among which quite a number of colored drawing samples were made by former academy of building research shortly after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, which adds to the value of the book for collection and reference.