rinting in colours_ was known to the Chinese in the 17th century, and
probably earlier. In the British Museum is a set of prints brought from
the East by Kaempfer in 1693, in which eight colours and elaborate
_gauffrage_ are used. Some fine albums of colour prints have been issued
in China, but nothing equal in beauty to the prints produced in Japan by
the co-operation of woodcutter and designer. _Engraving on copper_ was
introduced to China by the Jesuits, and some well-known sets of prints
illustrating campaigns in Mongolia were made in the 18th century. But
the method has never proved congenial to the artists of the Far East.

See Sir R.K. Douglas, _Guide to the Chinese and Japanese Illustrated
Books_ (British Museum, 1887); W. Anderson, _Japanese Wood Engraving_
(1895).

3. _Architecture_.--In architecture the Chinese genius has found but
limited and uncongenial expression. A nation of painters has built
picturesquely, but this picturesqueness has fought against the
attainment of the finest architectural qualities. There has been little
development; the arch, for instance, though known to the Chinese from
very early times, has been scarcely used as a principle of design, and
the cupola has been undiscovered or ignored; and though foreign
architectural ideas were introduced under the influence of the Buddhist
and Mahommedan religions, these were more or less assimilated and
subdued to the dominant Chinese design. Ruins scarcely exist and no
building earlier than the 11th century A.D. is known; but we know from
records that the forms of architecture still prevalent imitate in
essentials those of the 4th and 5th centuries B.C. and doubtless
represent an immemorial tradition.

The grand characteristic of Chinese architecture is the pre-eminent
importance of the roof. The _t'ing_ is the commonest model of building.
The roof is the main feature; in fact the _t'ing_ consists of this roof,
massive and immense, with recurved edges, and the numerous short columns
on which the roof rests. The columns are of wood, the straight stems of
the _nanmu_ being specially used for this purpose. The walls are not
supports, but merely fill in, with stone or brickwork, the spaces
between the columns. The scheme of construction is thus curiously like
that of the modern American steel-framed building, though the external
form may be derived from the tent of primitive nomads. The roof, being
the preponderant feature, is that on which