Literary accounts suggest that ancient China witnessed a highly developed architecture, says Guo (East Asian architecture, U. of Melbourne, Australia), but the actual remains are too rare and fragmentary to verify the impression. However, among the many grave goods are frequently found detailed models of houses--called mingqi both anciently and now--made of bronze, wood, stone, or pottery. Using models in pottery to illustrate architectural features of the now-vanished buildings they represented, he covers fortified courtyard houses, multi-stories and multi-eaved buildings, towers, granaries and storehouses, stoves and wells, pigsties and privies, roof types and ornaments, production methods and techniques, and whether gate-shaped tomb bricks were utile or representative. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)