Corbel brackets

Chinese temples always use corbel brackets to to support the weight of the roof. They are made up of two separate elements, the dou and the gong.

The dou is a a more or less cube-shaped block of wood, although the corners and edges may be worked to produce something rounded, hexagonal, octagonal, or the like.

The dou sits on the end of a short cross member called the gong. The gong is sometimes decorated with flowers, dragons, or other sorts of ornate carving, but because it serves a structural purpose the carving is done in low relief, if indeed there is any carving at all.

The weight-bearing principle of the corbel bracket is similar to that of the human skeleton. Chinese architects had already developed corbel brackets to perfection at the time of the Qin and Han dynastyies over 2000 years ago.