Drawing Boundaries: Architectural Images in Qing China

Unlike previous studies of architectural painting, which have tended to focus on artistic style, technique, or architectural correspondence as a means to date paintings or reconstruct ancient buildings, Drawing Boundaries primarily directs our attention to pictorial images of architecture as systems of constructed meanings that vary over time and location. While illustrations in the Yingzao fashi Song dynasty imperial building manual are mentioned (pp. 2223), it would also be interesting to consider the system of architectural construction documents-schematic designs, presentation drawings and paintings, working drawings, detail sketches, and models-devised by seven generations of the Lei Family Design Office in the Qing imperial building bureaucracy.