Abstract
The glazed tile is an important building material used throughout the history of traditional Chinese architecture. Architectural glazed tiles used to decorate the screen walls of ancient China are studied scientifically for the first time. More than 30 glazed tile samples from the screen walls of the 15th to 18th century AD of the Hancheng Confucian Temple and Town God’s Temple in Shaanxi Province were carefully investigated using SEM–EDS and XRD. Microstructure and chemistry indicated the raw materials, the recipes and the technological choices used to produce the paste and glaze of the glazed tile samples studied. The causes for the key degradation processes of these glazed tiles used as building materials in the screen walls have also been discussed. This work has clear implications for the restoration and conservation treatments on these kinds of ancient Chinese building materials.
Highlights
The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)–Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis revealed that all the glazed tile samples are made by siliceous paste (60.2–65.7 wt.% SiO2 ) and contain 15.0–18.7 wt.% of Al2 O3
No significant differences in the major chemical compositions of glaze tile pastes could be observed between those used in the Confucian Temple screen walls and the Town God’s Temple screen walls
It needs to be pointed out that the chemical composition of some early period loess-based north Chinese ceramics is different from that of the glazed tiles in this study, especially for their lower content of CaO. This demonstrates that the kind of loess used to make Hancheng glazed tiles is characterized by its Ca-rich minerals
Summary
The glazed tile is an important building material used throughout the history of traditional Chinese architecture due to its artistic appearance and waterproof qualities. Architectural glazed tiles were used to decorate imperial palaces in China as far back in history as the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534 AD) [1]. Until the Ming (1368–1644 AD) and Qing (1644–1911 AD) dynasties, the use of architectural glazed tiles grew to the peak period. The first is the glazed tiles used as building materials on the roofs, such as roofing tile-ends (known as Wadang in Chinese), pan-roofing tiles and roll-roofing tiles (Figure 1a). The other kind is glazed tiles decorated on the walls, such as the walls of pagodas and screen walls (known as Yingbi in Chinese) (Figure 1b)
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