Abstract: Inspired and advocated by Ito Chuta, a pioneer of modern Oriental architecture and Chinese architecture research, sinologist Goto Asataro delivered a series of lectures on “Viewing Chinese Ancient Architecture from Ancient Chinese Characters” at the Architectural Society of Japan in 1912. These speeches are not mentioned in the modern architectural history of China and Japan. This paper sorts out the origin of the research idea of “researching ancient architecture from ancient Chinese characters”, analyzes the background of Goto Asataro, who is famous for his achievements in sinology, studying ancient Chinese architecture from ancient Chinese characters, and summarizes the theoretical system and theory of ancient Chinese architecture research published by him. The research has retraced the history of modern Chinese architectural research and explored its origin, in order to provide reference for the research of architectural history and architectural archaeology.

Key words: ancient Chinese Characters, ancient Chinese architecture, Goto Asataro, history of Chinese architecture