What components does the “door” in ancient Chinese architecture consist of?
The wisdom of ancient construction craftsmen cannot be underestimated. The components of ancient building doors generally consist of door frames, door headers, door leaves, door hairpins, door piers, door knockers, and door nails.
Chinese classical architecture is an extremely splendid and glorious part of the excellent culture of the Chinese nation. Learning about architectural culture is a very interesting activity. Because the ancient Chinese people paid attention to changes in architectural shapes and spaces, which reflects the wisdom of our ancestors. Today we come to admire and approach the doors in ancient buildings.
The gate is the main entrance and exit of the building and is installed under the door opening of the courtyard wall or the gate tower of a large building. The door is made of solid materials and heavy materials. It is generally a panel door instead of a partition door, which means that the door panel is a solid board and not transparent, which has better shielding and defensive properties. The door panels can be made of wood, iron or other materials, or the wood can be clad with iron, copper, or even gilded. In order to fix the door leaf of the door, a door frame must be installed between the door leaf and the door pillars. In this way, the width of the door leaf will naturally be smaller than the width between the door pillars of the door. The addition of door frames requires the addition of many door components at the same time. Therefore, the structure of the door may seem very simple, but in fact it also has a lot of detailed decoration and attention to detail.
From a large perspective, there are two different methods of door leaves: solid couch doors and chessboard doors. From a specific component perspective, there are door cymbals on the outside of the door and bolts on the inside. Pay attention to the use of paint on door panels, especially vermilion paint, which shows class. In addition, the door panels of official residences and royal palace buildings are often decorated with door nails. The number of door nails is generally from five to eleven. The number of door nails can strictly distinguish the grade of the building.
As the facade of a Chinese-style courtyard, the house door often gives people the most intuitive first impression. No matter in terms of shape, structure, sculpture, or decoration, it is the most concentrated expression of traditional Chinese ancient architectural art.