Ancient Bridges in China

Kong Qingpu

Kong Qingpu has been occupied in Beijing construction for more than 40 years. He successively served as captain of the engineering team of Beijing Municipal Construction Bureau， leader of the public works group， director of the working area， chief engineer of the Municipal Office， as well as deputy chief engineer of the Municipal Council.

As Mr. Mao Yisheng once commented， “bridges are a country’s cultural feature.”" Indeed， Chinese ancient bridges not only witnessed the development of Chinese ancient civilization， but were also embedded with the essence of traditional culture that is thousands of years old. This book， recording the information of 1749 ancient bridges， both includes their technical data， structural forms and construction methods， while also evaluating some ancient complexly-structured bridges. Combining with his working experience of more than 40 years， the author inspected the ancient bridges across China. Even those that have been demolished and abandoned， as long as there is information available to research， they have been included in the book.

Ancient Bridges in China

Kong Qingpu

Oriental Press

October 2020

198.00 （CNY）

As a long history as they have， early records of Chinese bridge construction cannot be found in historical archives. The wooden bridge mentioned in the Shuijingzhu （Commentary to the River Classic） authored by Li Daoyuan （466–527） in the Northern Wei Dynasty is an ancient bridge that has the earliest written record， but the detailed material of it is still lacking.

Anji Bridge， located in Zhao County， Hebei Province， is the oldest existing stone arch bridge. It was constructed from 591 to 605 in the Sui Dynasty. As a single-hole open-shoulder stone arch bridge with an circular arch， it consists of 28 parallel arch stones. The net span of it is 37.02 meters and the sagittal height is 7.23 meters. Anji Bridge features the highest stage of stone arch bridge technology in ancient China.

Baodai Bridge in Suzhou， Jiangsu Province is the oldest and longest existing light stone arch bridge with thin arches and thin piers. It took three years to build the bridge， ranging from 816 to 819 in the Tang Dynasty. Baodai Bridge is a stone arch bridge with 53 holes. It reaches 249.8 meters in length and 4.1 meters in width. In addition， its maximum span is 6.95 meters.

The title of the oldest and longest existing heavy stone arch bridge with thick arches and thick piers goes to Lugou Bridge in Beijing. From 1189 to 1192， it took three years to be completed. As an 11-hole stone arch bridge， Lugou Bridge enjoys a width of 9.4 meters and a length of 268 meters， with the maximum span of 15.4 meters. Moreover， Lugou Bridge features the following points in its structure： first， its semi-circular arch uses a longitudinal structure; second， tall watershed points are built in the upstream end of the pier; third， its foundation is made up of multi-layer stone slabs with vertically cast iron columns.

Luoyang Bridge， also known as Wan’an Bridge， located in Quanzhou City， Fujian Province， is the oldest existing slab girder bridge. It took six years to finish the bridge construction， lasting from 1053 to 1059 in the Northern Song Dynasty. With 46 holes， Luoyang Bridge is 360 zhang （a unit of length in China， 1 zhang is 3.333 metre） in length， and 1.5 zhang in width.

Jihong Bridge in Yongping County， Yunnan Province， which was built during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty （1456–1487）， is the oldest extant iron cable bridge. It straddles the Lancang River between Shanyang Village in Yongping County and Laoying Village in Baoshan County. Jihong Bridge is a single-hole iron cable bridge and its main structure is formed by 18 iron chains， consisting of 16 bottom cables and 2 side cables. The length of it is 113.4 meters and the span is 57.3 meters.

China is a country with vast territory. As each region has different geography， terrain and rivers， the production of bridge materials are diverse from each other. Ancient bridge builders took measures to fit local conditions and adopted local materials to build bridges that are suitable for their region. As a result， many different kinds of bridges have appeared all over the country.

Due to the changes of rivers and roads after thousands of years， as well as the changes in topography and landform， and the development of bridge construction in the past dynasties， many ancient bridges have been transformed， abandoned or buried underground. Therefore， quantities of ancient bridges on the ground vanished. In fact， there are deficiencies of physical objects and relics of early bridge structures in China. Consequently， it is hard for contemporary people to study the development of China’s early bridge structure technology in detail.