As the saying goes, "White tigers cover green dragons, and people are poor from generation to generation." What does it say in terms of architectural Feng Shui?
There is a jingle in the northern countryside that I have heard for a long time: "What you eat is chaff, and what you go to is the temple." It can be seen that northerners are particular about building houses and have their own special features. The most typical building is a courtyard facing north to south. The building directly north of the courtyard is called the main room. The main rooms are mainly three, five, or seven rooms. It is forbidden to build even numbers. There are one or two wing rooms on each side of the main room. The east and west rooms are side rooms, and the form should be symmetrical. The east room should be higher than the west room, otherwise it will violate the taboo of "white tiger covering green dragon, and people will be poor for generations". The south room is called the opposite courtyard. A gate is built on the left side of the courtyard and a toilet is built on the right side. When entering the door, a screen wall is built close to the gable wall of the east room, commonly known as the screen wall. The overall building is dignified and square.
The eaves, brackets, screen walls, kissing beasts, foundation stones, stone drums, doors and windows of the courtyard houses are all unique in conception, lifelike in shape and finely carved. They have both the majesty of northern architecture and the beauty of southern architecture. Developed its own unique style. Building a house is a major event in life for northern rural people, and a house is a matter of several lifetimes. Everything must be perfect. Residential architecture is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese Taoist culture. Rural people also often say that one must fight for one's life, three for one's feng shui. The main steps are:
The first is to choose a homestead. The most auspicious places for the homestead are Qinglong on the left, White Tiger on the right, Suzaku in the front and Xuanwu in the back. The homestead is considered auspicious if it is high in the west and low in the east, high in the north and low in the south, with a river in the east, a road in the south, and square terrain.
The second is to break ground. To start construction, you must choose an auspicious day, that is, ask a Feng Shui master to calculate a day when Tai Sui will go out, which means "to repair secretly". Then the tributes are laid out, incense is burned, kowtows are made, and the gods in all directions are informed before the ground can be broken.
The third is the foundation. A good foundation is the foundation and foundation of house construction. The process of laying the foundation will be accompanied by simple, warm and rough laying songs. After laying the foundation, another important task is to erect the beams.
The fourth is the upper beam. This is an important day in building a house. Relatives and friends should offer congratulations, which is called "Shang Liang". The house owner posted couplets, fired cannons, and held banquets, which was very lively. The main content of the couplet is that "the upright pillar coincides with the zodiac day, and the upper beam coincides with the purple star". In the middle of the beam, the Eight Diagrams and the "Five Positives" drawn by the Feng Shui master should be hung.
The fifth is to nail the rafters to the walls. For example, Yang's fan bone twist corner construction technique in Dai County is a special method for building wing corners. From the inside of the building, the combined shape of the wing corner rafters looks like "fan bone" or "twist twist", hence the name.
The fifth is to press on the stack. First install the slab tiles, then buckle the barrel tiles, and lay them out row by row, seamlessly. When the last tile is deducted, it is called Helongkou. Mascots should be placed in Longkou. Nowadays, one is usually withheld to make money and so on. When closing Longkou, people should burn incense, burn paper, and fire cannons to express celebration. There are dripping tiles on the front and rear eaves of the house, and there are cat-head tiles on the dripping water. The roof ridge is paved with tiles with lotus and other patterns, and there are majestic dragon-shaped animal heads on both sides, which is extremely majestic.
The sixth is the soil-giving ceremony. After the new house is built, the owner will choose an auspicious day to hold a land-grabbing ceremony. Building a house is regarded by people as "breaking the soil" and destroying the land. The soil must be thanked afterwards to thank the Earth God for its protection and hope that the Earth God can bless the owner.
Do you know these rules? What's the point of building a house in your hometown?