Shanxi Courtyard Culture in Shanxi Courtyard

Historical conditions for the emergence of courtyards

The relaxed political and economic environment is the social basis for the emergence of courtyards in Shanxi, and the enhancement of businessmen's strength is the prerequisite for the emergence of courtyards in Shanxi. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanjin sent troops to Saibei many times for the purpose of sweeping away the remnants and consolidating the feudal dynasty in Zhu Ming. In order to meet the needs of the troops stationed in the border areas, Hongwu began to implement the "opening ceremony" in nine military towns such as Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong and Yansui in the third year (A.D. 137). Businessmen exchanged hard labor and physical objects for the exclusive right to export salt to the country, while the state power that controlled salt and iron resources called merchants to transport grain regularly or irregularly, depending on the urgency of the border defense. This policy is particularly beneficial to the neighboring nine provinces. After the implementation of "Opening China", Shanxi and Shaanxi business groups, with the geographical advantage of neighboring towns, got there first and became the first batch of government businessmen with legal status in the country. The commodity economy developed rapidly in Ming Dynasty, and the system of economy serving politics built a bridge for the communication between businessmen and political power. A series of policies during Ye Zhengde and Jiajing in the middle of Ming Dynasty were very beneficial to the development of businessmen. Merchants who participated in major national economic activities in the early stage, such as salt merchants. Through the activities of making friends with the government, we strive for their children's right to participate in scientific research with county status. During the Wanli period, the government explicitly allowed businessmen's children to take part in scientific research, breaking the traditional habit that businessmen's children were not allowed to be officials. From then on, businessmen's children were openly justified in their careers.

The donation system in Qing Dynasty provided the best choice for businessmen to expand their political capital. In the 13th year of Kangxi (AD 1674), the Central Committee of the Qing Dynasty decided to cut the vassal on a large scale. In order to make up for the lack of military pay, a decree of donation was issued, and civilian donation of officials began at this time. Kangxi originally planned to temporarily open a donation case to solve the urgent need. However, after the military incident, there were military incidents in Xi 'an, Yongding River Engineering and Qinghai. Once the donation case was opened, the civilian staff could be donated to the Langzhong (positive five products) and Daoist (positive four products), and the military posts could be donated to the General Manager (positive seven products) and the General Manager (positive six products) until the generals (positive three products). In Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, donations became more frequent and became another way to become an official. Wealthy merchants of the bank actively donated officials to buy knighthoods for themselves and their descendants. Mao Hongyao, the first general manager of Pingyao Weizi Bank, donated the titles of "General" and "Doctor" to 31 people in his family from his father to his great-grandson. Dadetong and Dadeheng's ticket number is Qiaojia in Qixian County, Caidong County, Qiao Jingxi awarded Hualing Yuanwailang, Qiao Jingkan Hualing was a tribute student with four products, and Qiao Jingxin Hualing was a Taoist with two products. Fan's family in Jiexiu, Shanxi Province, who made a fortune in Zhangjiakou trade in the early Qing Dynasty, gave Fan's Zhangjiakou real estate in Shunzhi because of his contribution to the Qing army. Fan Yu (Xiangqi), a descendant of Fan's family in Kangxi, "gave Wei Qianzong with martial arts, supported the army with camels, and moved to Tianjin Zongbing in Zhili (positive second grade)." Similar wealthy families are not uncommon in Shanxi. Similar official donation records are numerous. With the protection of the government, the rich who donate their official positions have fewer restrictions on their activities and more convenient wealth accumulation. After the official title is donated, the restrictions on the expansion of the mansion are reduced, and the mansion can be built wider and more magnificent. The decoration of housing accessories can show the difference between officials and businessmen and civil and commercial affairs. For example, the spine animals in houses are usually decorated with a kiss, which is fond of overlooking and respected as the patron saint of houses. The ancients thought that the kiss was water-based and put the roof to avoid fire. The shape of the kiss is different in the courtyards of officials, businessmen and civil and commercial enterprises. The Cao family in Taigu, the Wang family in Lingshi and the Qu family in Qixian are all open-mouthed beasts, while the Qiao family in Qixian is a closed-mouthed beast. For businessmen, the more they make money, the better, and the closed-mouthed beasts have the meaning of not revealing their wealth. For officials and businessmen, when an official speaks for the people, he must open his mouth when he speaks. Businessmen all hope that someone in the family will donate an official or take a scientific examination to become an official. When they have a part-time job, they will publicize it to the outside world to show their pride in being rich and expensive.

The increasing strength of Shanxi businessmen is the direct reason for the emergence of compound communities. Kangxi once said during his southern tour: "I heard about dajia, a giant businessman in the southeast, and he was known as a convergence. Today, I traveled through the counties of wuyue, and most of them were people in Shanxi Province, while the aborigines were widowed, so they were thrifty and easy to accumulate. The southerners had extravagant customs and no savings at home." After three or four hundred years of commercial accumulation, Shanxi merchants in the late Qing Dynasty had more abundant assets. Liu Dapeng, a scholar of Jin Dynasty, recorded the local prosperity when he was teaching in Taigu Private School: "Taigu is the first rich area in Jinchuan, and Jia Duoji, a great businessman, is here. Towns and villages are also rich in rooms, and customs and luxury are the most important. " On October 22nd, the 21st year of Guangxu, it was the time of the Winter Bid. Therefore, "I live here today, and I see the husband's market, with gold ingots on my shoulders and Zhu Ti (synonymous with silver ingots) in my hand, like a stream of water, flowing endlessly." The author feels that rich people are forced to donate money and materials: "Well, there are many rich people in Taigu, one with five million gold, three or four with one million gold, dozens with hundreds of thousands of gold, and countless tens of thousands of gold." The diary of Liu Dapeng, a native of Taiyuan, is more detailed than that of Xu Ke, a native of Hangzhou, from which we can see that Taigu businessmen are more powerful. It is not surprising that people who are backed by strong financial resources and can donate their official positions overhaul their homes in their hometown to show off their families. There is a lack of information about the construction of houses by the Han people, but the fact that the strength of Shanxi businessmen was increasing in the Qing Dynasty was undoubtedly a necessary prerequisite for building large-scale houses. During the Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang dynasties, the capital of Shanxi merchants expanded like a snowball, and people who went out to do business transferred a large amount of silver to Shanxi. Linfen was "in its heyday, facing each other from millions and hundreds of thousands of homes, decorating pavilions, gathering antiques, buying beautiful children in Wu Lv and beautiful jade in Yanzhao." Among the many Shanxi firms engaged in foreign trade in Chaktu, the one with the longest operating history and the largest scale is the first to promote Yuci Chewan Changjia. Chang's family was engaged in foreign trade during the Qianlong period, and the descendants came down in the same line. After more than 15 years from Qianlong to Xuantong. With the development of commerce, the homes are also expanded. Shirongtang and Shihetang are the proof of the prosperity of Chang's business, so that in the late Qing Dynasty, Chewang Village formed a street with an area of more than 2 mu and a scale of more than 1,5 houses in more than 2 courtyards, which was spectacular. It is because of the strong financial and material support that such a magnificent mansion can be built.

Architectural culture of the compound

Architecture expresses the cultural connotation that written language can't reach, and it is the concentrated expression of three layers of culture: utensils, systems and concepts. Housing is an important part of human physical culture, the carrier of systems, concepts and social customs, and the supporting form of history and culture.

In Qing Dynasty, the restrictions on Han residential buildings were relaxed. To be exact, since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the rich class who have accumulated considerable wealth have relieved the difficulties of the Qing court and created a more relaxed environment for the door. When the merchants donated their official positions, they built houses, repaired houses and put on ostentation and extravagance with a clear conscience. Most of the existing Shanxi courtyards have been built since the middle of Qing Dynasty. After the rise of Shanxi Draft Bank, the scale of Shanxi Courtyard has reached a new level. During the Tongzhi period, Pingyao Draft Bank Caidong Houdianyuan built seven 7-purlin luxury houses and businesses. Such Han folk houses would never appear before the Qing Dynasty. Building a super-large-scale residential group was regarded as a challenge to the imperial power, and then Hou was convicted for building a luxury mansion. There are no more than five purlins in the Shanxi Courtyard we see today, but the owner of the bedroom has developed to the sky on the base of five or three rooms, and built more than two floors of Guangsha, which constitutes a special cultural landscape in the late feudal society of China. The four courtyards of Qiaojia, Qujia, Taigu Caojia and Lingshi Wangjia in Qixian County, which are well preserved in Jinzhong, and the street of Changjia in Chewang Village in Yuci, which has not been restored, have no more than five main rooms and the height of buildings varies from 2 to 4 floors, which is the interpretation of this architectural system. However, in the remote Xiwan Village, Qiaokou, Linxian County, which used to be the gathering place of land and water materials, and in the Zhangjia Courtyard in Guangou, Yangquan, which has convenient transportation, this kind of castle building built on the mountain also fully embodies the architectural specification that the main room should not exceed five.

Shanxi compound covers an area of tens of thousands of square meters. The courtyard building is as solid as a castle, with a high building, a thick wall and a wide base, which is very defensive. Some people have summarized it as follows: First, the external wall is high. From the outside of the house, the brick solid wall without windows is as high as four or five stories, which is very defensive. Second, the main houses are single-sloping roofs, no matter wing or main house, building or bungalow, there are not many double-sloping roofs. Because of the single slope, the outer wall is tall and the rainwater flows into the yard, that is, "fertilizer and water do not flow out." Third, the courtyards are mostly rectangular with narrow east and west and long north and south, and the gates are mostly opened in the southeast corner. Several courtyards that are now open to the outside world are only a part of the scale of that year. For example, the house of Qujia in that year occupied half of the county town of Qixian, and the scale is so grand that people are impressed.

The general layout of the compound is full of auspicious and peaceful atmosphere among the Han people, expressing people's longing for a better life. The layout of Qiao's compound is a complete and upright double word "Xi", in which joy and peace are all in it; The Wangs' Courtyard ingeniously pinned their surnames and their predecessors' longing for their descendants to be promoted to rank and knighthood, showing a pattern of "king" with its internal passages; The Taigu Sanduo Hall injects the folk custom of many children, many blessings and long life into it, and the courtyard is in the shape of "longevity". The accumulation of traditional culture in China is everywhere. Taking the Wangs of Lingshi as an example, the arrangement of the building into a "Wang Zi" accords with the theory of heaven and man's induction and the unity of heaven and man. Dong Zhongshu, who advocated "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", explained "Wang" and said: "The ancient writers, with three paintings connected, are called the king. Three painters, heaven and earth and people. And even among them, the way is also clear. Take the heavens and the earth and people as expensive and participate in it. It is not the king who can be right. " The combination of the surname of the Wang family and Confucianism in Wang's compound is a masterpiece of seizing the right time, place and people. Qixian people with a tradition of doing business, during the Daoguang and Xianfeng years in Qing Dynasty, there were many shops in the county and nearby towns, with complete cloth numbers, salt houses, banks and banks, and now there are more than 4 hospitals in the city that are basically well preserved. These dozens of courtyards, as a whole, are all gray brick walls, and the upper parts along the top of the wall are often laid in the shape of "Shi" or "Ji", indicating the good wishes of the owners for being an official and auspicious.

The door is the entrance of the building and the frontispiece of the building, and its status and significance are self-evident. It is an old saying that the house is crowned by the portal, and the cultural content of the courtyard door is particularly rich. "Summary of Yang Zhai", a geomantic book in Qing Dynasty, said: "It is most important for those who are at the gate to close the gate outside the house, so it is advisable to open the auspicious side above their own house." Therefore, when the courtyard of Shanxi Courtyard faces south, the gate is slightly inclined to the east, usually in the southeast corner. The Han people call this "grabbing the sun", and the sun shines on the doors and windows as soon as possible, expressing people's initiative to nature. There has always been a saying among the Han people that a noble family comes from a noble family. For the sake of the descendants of Fuyin, the house door of the Qiao family courtyard is magnificent, thick and tall. At the top of the cave-like heavy house door, the word "ancient style" is carved in stone, with vigorous brushwork and extraordinary foundation, which contains the momentum of the courtyard and is full of the master's knowledge of advocating the virtue of gentlemen and the wind of the ancients. Lang Huan's blessed land is the legendary fairy cave. It is said that when Zhang Hua of the State of Jin visited the Cave Palace, he met a man and led him to one place. In the middle of the big stone, the palace was craggy, and there was a unique world. Each room had its own Chen Qishu, and Zhang Huaguan read his books, which was unheard of before the Han Dynasty. Zhang Hua asked about its place name and answered "Langhuan Blessed Land". Zhang Hua came out of the hole and the door was closed. The Qiao family has a plaque of "Blessing the Langhuan", which was given by Ding Baoquan, the governor of Shanxi Province. In the eyes of the government officials, it is difficult to count the treasures of the Qiao family, which shows the wealth and style of that year.

It was an architectural custom in Jiangnan and Jiangbei at that time to set up Taishan Shi Gandang in front of the gate. Shi Gandang in the jstars' compound is a large zhaobi, 1-foot high and 9-foot wide, with blue bricks and gray tiles, excellent materials and exquisite workmanship. In the middle, there is a 2-meter-long and 4-cm-wide stone carving, with the tiger head carved on the upper part, the lotus throne embossed on the lower part and the characters "Mount Tai Shi Gandang" engraved in the middle. In architectural culture. Shi Gandang's influence is very extensive. About the origin of Shi Gandang, most of the folklore of Han nationality is related to Jiang Taigong's deity. Jiang Ziya forgot his first name and surname, so he called himself Mount Tai Shi Gandang. There are other theories, however, all of which are based on the function of the town house to ward off evil spirits.

On the bluestone or white marble pillar foundation stone and drum-hugging stone near the gate of the courtyard, there are generally carved patterns such as lions, deer, golden pheasants and Qingyun, which means the house is safe, prosperous and lucky. A group of drum-hugging stones in the Wangs' courtyard, the above picture shows the pine crane in Yannian and the bamboo branches in bright knots are symmetrical, while the following picture shows the peach in the middle of the pot and the apple in the middle of the pot, which is a homonym for peace and longevity. In Shang and Zhou Dynasties, "the cup and the bamboo pole were ancient sacrificial vessels for holding food, which was a system article and a ritual instrument". The old saying that "I don't wear ornaments" is a metaphor for being an official. "It's not cheap for an ancient minister to sit and waste, saying' I don't wear ornaments'". If you don't decorate, you won't be put in order. Later, people impeached officials for taking bribes and bending the law, and used the word "don't decorate". The Wangs carved the sacrificial vessel at the gate of the compound, in order to warn the officials in the clan to be honest and upright, so as to keep their wealth and splendor forever.

The stairs where the master of the compound lives are usually three levels, which implies the auspicious words of "going up to three levels". There are usually only one or two steps in front of the living room of the servant or Mr. Accountant, which indicates that the identity of the master and servant is different and the rank is high and low. In front of the main building of Cao Family Courtyard, there are five or even nine steps, and the houses rise from the ground and stand in the air, which not only shows the majesty of the owner, but also shows the noble status. In those days, there were seven 7-purlin houses in Rishengchang, with seven main rooms. The main wing rooms were all two floors, consisting of three courtyards. The courtyards were raised layer by layer. On the roof of the innermost main house, a wall was built to improve the height of the main house, which is also the most common construction method in Shanxi courtyards. The implication is profound and the expression is implicit. It is the eternal pursuit of human beings to go higher and become stronger every generation. The Sanduotang of Cao family is a courtyard house with three courtyards in the north and three courtyards in the south, with many children, many blessings and many longevity courtyards in the north. The old people live in the east, the master is in the middle, and their children live in the west. The idea is that happiness is like the East China Sea and longevity is better than the South Mountain. Moreover, a tunnel is designed, which is contrary to the trend of water flowing downwards in the west. People in the house will go west when they step out of the gate, so that they can reflect the idea of people going higher and realize climbing higher step by step. When the jstars courtyard goes inward from the gate of No.1 courtyard, the horizon rises one by one, and it takes several steps to reach the end of the main room. Especially in Shanxi, a mountainous place, building houses according to the mountain situation caters to the geomantic prophecy that "the front is low and the back is high, and the descendants are heroic".

In the courtyard community of Shanxi, the carefully conceived and cleverly designed carved beams and painted buildings contain rich and colorful cultural connotations, reflecting the traditional moral culture and aesthetic taste of China. All kinds of stone carvings, brick carvings and wood carvings from doors and windows to archways bear the traditional customs of ancient China and cover all aspects of China's traditional culture. The most common materials are bricks, stones and tiles, which contain auspicious and philosophical elegant and popular culture in the form of meaning, shape and sound, or express or implicit. The double lions protect the door (the dialect "protection" is the same as "blessing"), Five Blessingg holds longevity (blessing longevity and well-being), phoenix plays peony (great wealth and great responsibility), magpie climbs plum (beaming) and unicorn sends off children. White is cabbage, and an official takes the homonym of "clear and white", "Cats and butterflies in spring", "Yu Qiao", "Going out to study", "Mei Lan Zhu Ju" and so on, all of which are the pursuit of interest by the owner of the room, showing the talents of designers and craftsmen. The sculpture of Hehe Erxian was of special significance to Shanxi businessmen who were mainly engaged in business trips abroad at that time. Historical records show that in the Song Dynasty, "Hang Cheng worshiped his elder brother with the twelfth lunar month. He looked like a man with a unkempt head and a smiling face, dressed in green, holding a drum in his left hand and a stick in his right. The cloud was the' god of harmony'. Sacrifice can make people come back outside Wan Li, so it is said that it will be ten thousand times. " The God of Harmony was later divided into Er Shen, which was called "the two immortals of harmony". With a lotus flower and a round box, the legendary God of Harmony was carved with the meaning of harmony and harmony and smooth business.