Abstract:In 1596 and 1597, the two principal palaces and the three great Halls of the Forbidden City, were successively destroyed by fire and needed to be restored. Logging activities had never filled the project’s material requirement until the end of Wanli era. However, facing shortage of woods, some special strategies, like assembly of timber members and material sharing among different projects, were executed. This episode gives us therefore an opportunity to observe all these planning and managements as well as an architectural industry logic that underlies.