The multi-clustered bracket structure is an architectural form which developed
in Korea and the northen region of China. Although the earliest example likely
appeared during the Han Dynasty(206 B.C.~220 A.D.), it only existed in a concept
at the stage of forming the technique. Its practice from the concept to an actual
building was likely executed during the Tang Dynasty(618~907) and such practice was
completely established during the Northern Sung(960~1127), Liao(916~1125) and Jin
Dynasties(1115~1234).
There remain examples of which concept was applied to a building during the
Baekje and the Unified Silla periods followed by the complete multi-clustered bracket
during the Goryeo Dynasty. Built in the 14th century, the only example of the multiclustered
bracket structure during the Goryeo Dynasty is seen in Bogwang-jeon of
Shimwon-sa in Yeontan.
However, different from the earlier assertion which argues that the multiclustered
bracket structure was introduced during the late Goryeo period, additional
examples to prove that the multi-clustered bracket structure had existed before the
middle of Goryeo period have appeared: 1. the baldacchine of Geungnak in Bongjeongsa,
which was built around the 12th century when Yingzao fashi or 營告法式 or Treatise
on Architectural methods in the Northern Song was published; 2. the Gwangyeong
byeonsangdo(Transformation painting of the Contemplation Su?tra) painted after the
middle of the Goryeo Dynasty; 3. Ten-storied stone pagoda of Gyeongcheon-sa temple
site in Gaepung, Hwanghae-do; 4. the baldacchine in the lower Daeung-jeon of Janggok
in Cheongyang.Details of the multi-clustered bracket structure, such as jumps of protruding
brackets and the shapes of pseudo-昻, in the late Goryeo Dynasty became different from
those of the Yuan Dynasty in China. In addition, a compromised example between oncolumn
and multi-clustered bracke structures displays the developed stage of the multiclustered
bracket technique and such examples generate an assumption that the form of
the multi-clustered bracket structure got established in Buddhist buildings. Furthermore,
the multi-clustered bracket structure became more practiced form than on-column
bracket structure during the Goryeo Dynasty, replacing the latter.
In other words, the multi-clustered bracket structure in Korea appeared earlier
than the mid-Goryeo Dynasty and was established as a dominant and imporant form for
an wooden building during the late Goryeo Dynasty.