Are houses expensive in ancient times? How much does a house cost?

In ancient times, houses were built by themselves during wars. For example, residents in Shaanxi Province dug cave dwellings in order to avoid wars, escape in time and reduce losses.

The selling prices of complete houses in the Song Dynasty ranged from 500 guan to 10,000 guan. 500 guan to 1,000 guan were for middle-income families. The usual currency value was converted into RMB based on the price of rice. According to different The price of rice during the period, the purchasing power of the Song Dynasty's regular money was approximately 300-600 yuan, of which 450 yuan was equivalent to the regular money. Then the price of a complete house in the Song Dynasty was between 225,000 yuan and 450,000 yuan. Those with more than 5,000 yuan were considered luxury houses, and the most expensive ones were 10,000 yuan. Inflation in the Southern Song Dynasty has always been calculated to 700 to 800 yuan, and 10,000 yuan is equal to 7 to 8 million yuan. Officials in the Tang and Song Dynasties had very high salaries, and officials in the Song Dynasty also had pensions. The annual salary of a prefect is 300 guan, and the annual income of a high-ranking official (second grade or above) is about 8,000 to 10,000 guan. (Don’t think that houses in the Song Dynasty were very expensive. The economy of the Song Dynasty was nothing to say.)

A family of ten people lived very well with a yearly consumption of about 100 yuan. The money of the Northern Song Dynasty could buy a house. For pigs, 600 copper coins can buy one stone of rice, which equals 66 kilograms. In the Southern Song Dynasty, when it was the most expensive, a pig only cost 2-3 guan, and one stone and meter cost 2 guan. The minimum assets of a middle-class family in the Northern Song Dynasty were more than 1,000 guan, and in the Southern Song Dynasty were more than 3,000 guan.

In the tenth year of Emperor Xuanzong's reign in the Tang Dynasty, Shen Duhe, a Dunhuang resident, sold his house because he was anxious for money. The house transfer contract states: This house is priced based on area, and each square foot is worth two shuo, five liters of wheat. In addition, all the furniture and furnishings in the house are also transferred with the house, and the total maximum value of the house is more than 29 shuo, five tushu, and six liters of wheat. "Shuo" is an ancient unit of capacity, which is the same as "stone". In the Tang Dynasty, one stone weighed about 90 kilograms. If the price of wheat at that time was 8 cents per kilogram, the price per square meter would be 1,555 yuan. At that time, the monthly income of common people in Dunhuang generally did not exceed two stones of wheat, which was less than 300 yuan. It can be seen that it is impossible for ordinary people to afford housing. It seems that housing prices have been high since ancient times, and the high housing prices today can be regarded as an inheritance of tradition.

But even if ordinary people cannot afford a house, officials must have a decent place to live. In fact, this may not be the case, it depends on when. The inscriptions on the unearthed bronzes record the buying, selling and leasing of houses during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, indicating that housing transactions took place at that time. However, because the population was sparse during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the economy was mainly self-sufficient, before the Tang Dynasty, housing transactions were not active, housing prices were not outrageously high, and the court could provide officials with free official residences. However, after the economic development in the Tang Dynasty, housing prices rose sharply. The number of officials has gradually increased, and under the pressure of high housing prices and too many officials, the government has gradually become unable to provide officials with free official residences.

In the Song Dynasty, those officials who could not afford to buy their own houses rented houses from the administrative departments that managed government real estate. According to the "History of the Song Dynasty", after the death of Liu Fu, a veteran who often served as Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong, his descendants lost their private homes to live in.

It seems that becoming an official does not mean that the whole family will no longer have to worry about housing problems. Moreover, the actual meaning of "retiring from office" during the Tang and Song Dynasties was not only the loss of the privilege of exercising power in a certain position and receiving full official salary, but also a major feature was that they could not continue to live in the official residence. People have to run around for housing. For example, Du Yan, the prime minister of Renzong in the Song Dynasty, was an honest official and did not own private property. After retirement, he had no way out of moving to a country house, so he had to live in Nanjing Cheyuan for a long time until his death. After Su Che retired to Xuzhou, he saw Li Fangshu's new residence and said with envy: "I am seventy years old and have no house, so I live in chaos... It's not as good as the Jun family, which has all the resources and has only thirty rooms." So Su Che also built a house for himself, but even though his wish was fulfilled, all his life savings were spent. It's really a pity that he is still a house slave at this age.

In fact, Su Zhe is not the only one who is a house slave.

During the Song Dynasty, a man named Zhang Zhongwen wrote a book called "White Otter Marrow". This book mentioned "house slaves": "The wives and children were all naked... At night, they rented quilts. "It means that all the savings and borrowed money have been spent on the house, and now I can only live frugally with debts. Not only do my wife and children not have any good clothes, but they even rent quilts from others.

There were also house slaves in the Qing Dynasty. During the Guangxu period, those in Beijing who couldn't afford to buy a house built it themselves. If they couldn't afford it, they borrowed money to build it and paid it back later. There is a Zhuzhi poem that reflects this situation: "The ceiling is so wide, how much is the debt?"

In fact, in ancient times, there were not only house slaves, but also squatters. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a great scholar named Tao Hub. He described the common people's housing situation in this way: "The neighbors are crowded, half-empty shelves, stacked boxes and cages, and the children sleep separately." This means that the house is too small and can only be placed on the ceiling of the house. Add a layer between the floor and the floor to create a small duplex. The bedroom was too small for the bed, so I put together boxes and cabinets for the children to sleep in.

Loans to buy houses actually only appeared in the Qing Dynasty, and housing mortgages in the true sense did not exist until the Republic of China.

When buying a house, ancient people had to consider many factors just like modern people.

The first is to see if the house price is affordable. For example, the Su brothers chose to buy a house in a relatively cheap place away from the capital. The Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi's experience of buying a house is even more interesting. At that time, his official position was "School Secretary" and he earned 1,600 yuan per month. At that time, Bai Juyi rented 4 huts in the eastern suburbs of Chang'an. Because they were far away from work, he kept a horse to travel around. In addition, he hired 2 nannies. This way, the monthly expenses were 7,500 yuan, leaving 8,500 yuan. Save it. But after saving for 10 years, he failed to buy a house in Chang'an. Later, Bai Juyi bought a house in Weinan County, Shaanxi Province. He lived in his work unit during the week and returned to his home in Weinan during holidays. This is similar to today's white-collar workers in big cities, who buy a house in the suburbs and rent a house in the city to work.

Then you have to consider whether the location and surrounding environment are satisfactory. The ancients attached great importance to the living environment. The most famous example that reflects this situation is Mencius' mother who moved three times.

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