Why should we build residential materials in southern Anhui?

It is also called Huizhou Famous Residence. They took advantage of the environment of Huizhou's mountainous areas, where "high and low are facing away from each other, and cloudy and sunny are different." Guided by the five elements of Yin and Yang, they tried every means to select Feng Shui treasures and sites to build villages, hoping for blessings from God, abundant food and clothing, and prosperous descendants. In ancient Huizhou, almost every village had a certain basis for Feng Shui. It may be based on the mountains, straddling the throats of mountain foothills, mountain docks, and mountain passes; or it may be located near the water, hugging the meanders of rivers, relying on ferries, or at the heart of branch rivers. Some are horn-shaped; such as Wuyuan Xikeng; some are bow-shaped, such as Wuyuan Taibaisi; some are band-shaped, such as Wuyuan Gaosha; some are zigzag-shaped, such as Wuyuan Plum Grove; some are wavy. Some are in the shape of clouds, such as Xidi in Yixian County; some are in the shape of clouds, such as Qiankou in Shexian County; some are in the shape of a dragon, such as Jiangcun in Shexian County; there are also half-moon, T-shaped, herringbone, mouth-shaped, and square-yin types. , arc type, straight type, etc. They come in different shapes and styles.

In the ancient residential buildings in Huizhou, the strict Confucian hierarchy and the feudal moral values ​​of distinction between superiority and inferiority, distinction between men and women, and ordering of elders and younger ones are also very obvious. The perfect unity of practicality and artistry is another typical feature of Huizhou folk houses. Most of the ancient dwellings in Huizhou are located near mountains and rivers. The mountains can block the wind, making it easy to get firewood for cooking and heating, and they also give people a sense of beauty. Villages are built next to water, which can not only facilitate drinking and washing, but also irrigate farmland and beautify the environment. The ancient village of Huiju has relatively rough streets, wide and tall white gables, and unique gray horse-head walls.

This kind of structure saves land, facilitates fire prevention, theft prevention, cooling and moisture-proofing, and makes each house strictly distinguishable. The white walls and gray tiles of the house are very beautiful among the green mountains and green waters. The patio of Huiju can be ventilated and lighted, and water can be brought back into the house. It also adapts to the simple mentality of not letting the rich water flow out of the field.

In the old days, urban and rural residences in Huizhou were mostly buildings with brick and wood structures. The Ming Dynasty was characterized by spacious upstairs. After the Qing Dynasty, there were mostly three-room houses with one light (hall) and two darks (left and right bedrooms) and four-bedroom houses with one light and four darks. Multiple entries into one room. The gate is decorated with stone and brick carvings of landscapes and figures. The gatehouse has double eaves and flying corners, and there are patios at each entrance to provide ventilation and light. Rainwater flows into the gutter through the water gutter. Commonly known as "Sishui Guitang", which means "wealth does not flow out". There are partition walls between each entrance, and a high fire wall (horse head wall) is built around it. From a distance, it looks like an ancient castle. Generally, a family lives together, the middle door is closed, and each family lives alone. The middle door is opened, and a large door is used to enter and exit to pay homage to the ancestors. The climate in the mountainous areas of Huizhou is humid, so people generally use the upstairs as their main habitat for daily life, preserving the legacy of the "nest dwelling" of the indigenous Shanyue people. The halls upstairs are generally relatively spacious, with halls, bedrooms and wing rooms, and there is also a "beauty couch" along the patio.

North-facing residence: Unless the terrain is special, the best orientation for a house is north-south. However, most of the houses built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Huizhou had their doors facing north. It turns out that there were many taboos in the living habits of the ancient Hui people. In the Han Dynasty, there was a popular saying that "it is not advisable for merchants' doors to face south and for merchants' doors to go north". The reason is, according to the Five Elements: Shang belongs to gold, and the south belongs to fire, and fire overcomes metal, which is unlucky; Zheng belongs to fire, and the north belongs to water, and water restrains fire, which is also unlucky. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Huizhou, Huizhou merchants were at their peak. Once they made a fortune, they would return to their hometowns to build houses. For the sake of good luck, the doors never faced south, and they all lived north-facing. To this day, Huizhou still retains tens of thousands of ancient residential buildings facing north.

Houses with suites: Huizhou houses are very deep, with a vestibule at the entrance, a patio in the middle, and a living hall at the back. The hall is separated from the back hall by a middle door. There are two bedrooms in the back hall, and there are two bedrooms in the back hall. It is a fire sealing wall, with a patio built against the wall and wing rooms on both sides. This is the first entrance. The structure of the second entrance is still divided into two halls on a ridge, with two courtyards at the front and back, with partitions in the middle, four bedrooms and two halls. The structure of the third entrance, the fourth entrance or more entrances in the future is all the same, one entrance is nested inside another, forming a house within a house.

Double eaves: Huizhou folk houses are all built with double-layer eaves. The formation of this custom of double eaves has a widely circulated story. It is said that during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Shezhou was under the jurisdiction of Li Yu, the later lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty. Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chenqiao mutiny, established the Song Dynasty, and personally marched to Shezhou. When Song Taizu arrived outside Haiyang City in present-day Xiuning County, the sky suddenly changed and heavy rain was approaching. Taizu took shelter in a tile-roofed house to avoid disturbing the people. Zu ordered not to enter indoors, but the eaves of Huizhou folk houses are very small, far less than the length of eaves in the Central Plains. In addition, it was a windy and rainy day, and everyone was soaked. After the rain, the sky cleared, and the residents opened the door to find Taizu in this state. They thought that they could not escape the death penalty and knelt down. However, Taizu did not blame him and asked: Why are the eaves of Shezhou's houses so narrow? The villagers replied, “This is inherited from our ancestors and has always been like this.

Taizu then said: "Although the old system of our ancestors cannot be changed, you can build another eaves below to help passers-by avoid the rain." "There was a pavilion at the village gate, and Lian said it was reasonable, so he immediately followed the instructions. From then on, all the houses in Huizhou gradually had two-story eaves.