Rebuilding Relics
he Forbidden City, constructed over 600 years ago, served as the imperial palace of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Its wooden-framed buildings, erected without nails or glue, have existed for hundreds of years and weathered several earthquakes. The secret lies in , or the mortise and tenon technique, which is a concave-convex joint used to connect two sections of wood commonly applied in ancient Chinese architecture, furniture and other wooden instruments. The convex part is called the tenon (), and the concave part is called the mortise (). Mortise and tenon together
