 During the Song dynasty , previous works on architecture were brought to more sophisticated levels of description , as in Yili Shigong , written by Li Ruogui in 1193 AD . One of the most definitive works , however , was the earlier Mu Jing ( " Timberwork Manual " ) , ascribed to Yu Hao and written sometime between 965 and 995 . Yu Hao was responsible for the construction of a wooden pagoda tower in Kaifeng , which was destroyed by lightning and replaced by the brick Iron Pagoda soon after . In his time , books on architecture were still considered a lowly scholarly achievement due to the craft 's status , so Mu Jing was not even recorded in the official court bibliography . Although the book itself was lost to history , the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo wrote of Yu 's work extensively in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088 , praising it as a work of architectural genius , saying that no one in his own time could reproduce such a work . Shen Kuo singled out , among other passages , a scene in which Yu Hao gives advice to another artisan @-@ architect about slanting struts in order to brace a pagoda against the wind , and a passage in which Yu Hao describes the three sections of a building , the area above the crossbeams , the area above ground , and the foundation , and then proceeds to provide proportional ratios and construction techniques for each section . 
