In ancient buildings in China (temples or something), the eaves of houses are tilted up. Why?

This is a cornice, which has the function of drainage and beauty.

cornice is a traditional form of eaves in China, which refers to the eaves, especially the eaves of the corners, rising upwards. If it flies, it is often used at the corners of the roofs of pavilions, terraces, buildings, pavilions, palaces, temples and other buildings, and the four corners are stretched out, which is like a bird spreading its wings and is light and lively, so it is often called cornice upturned.

cornices are one of the important manifestations of China's architectural national style. Through this special treatment and creation on the eaves, not only the lighting surface is enlarged, which is conducive to draining rainwater, but also the upward movement of the building is increased, as if a kind of gas lifts the eaves upward. The cornices in the middle layer of the building complex create a spectacular momentum and a unique flying and brisk charm of ancient buildings in China.

Extended information:

Traditional architecture in China has a clever and scientific frame structure:

This is the most important feature of ancient architecture in China. Because the ancient buildings in China are mainly wooden frame structures, that is, wooden columns and beams are used to form the frame of the house, and the weight of the roof and eaves is transferred to the columns through the beam frames, and the walls only serve as partitions, not structural parts that bear the weight of the house.

The old proverb, "The wall falls down but the house doesn't collapse", generally points out the most important feature of China architecture as a frame structure. This structure can make the house meet the ever-changing functional requirements of life and production under different climatic conditions. At the same time, because the walls of the house are not loaded with weight, there is great flexibility in the setting of doors and windows.

In addition, this frame-type wood structure forms a unique component unique to palaces, temples and other high-rise buildings in the past, that is, bundles of "bucket arches" under the eaves. It is composed of bucket-shaped wooden blocks and bow-shaped crossbars, which are criss-crossed and picked out layer by layer to form a bracket with a big top and a small bottom.

this kind of component not only has the function of supporting the load beam frame, but also has the decorative function. Only after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the simplification of the structure, the beam was directly placed on the column, which caused the structural function of the bucket arch to almost completely disappear and became almost a pure ornament.

Baidu encyclopedia-cornices