Explanatory text Clothes, food, and houses with local characteristics

Siheyuan

Siheyuan is the collective name for traditional residences with a main house and east and west wings surrounding a central courtyard to form a floor plan. It has the longest history and the widest distribution among Chinese folk houses. It is a typical form of Han folk houses. Its history has been more than three thousand years? bgt; in the Western Zhou Dynasty, its form had begun to take shape.

The courtyard houses in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Beijing and Hebei are the most representative.

The typical characteristics of a courtyard house are its regular appearance, symmetry along the center line, and extremely flexible usage. When it gets bigger, it becomes the palace or the palace, or when it gets smaller, it becomes the residences of ordinary people, the glorious Forbidden City and the suburbs. Ordinary farmers’ homes are courtyard houses.

The general distribution of the courtyard is the main entrance, the first entrance, the lobby, the second entrance, the study room, the residence, etc., with wing rooms on both sides. Each room has a corridor and is connected by doors. Understanding the folk houses existing on the earth's surface will surely promote and develop the culture of folk houses.

Beijing courtyard house is an inner courtyard-style residence formed by houses on the east, west, south and north sides. As the main architectural form where old Beijingers have lived for generations, Beijing courtyard houses are famous both at home and abroad and are well known to the world.

First of all, it has a long history. Since the Yuan Dynasty when Beijing was formally established as the capital and the capital was planned and constructed on a large scale, courtyard houses have appeared at the same time as Beijing’s palaces, government offices, neighborhoods, alleys and alleys. According to "Analysis of Jin Zhi" written by Xiong Mengxiang in the late Yuan Dynasty: "The street system of most cities is called longitude from south to north, and latitude from east to west. The main street is twenty-four steps wide and there are 384 long lanes. Twenty-nine alleys lead to it.”

Secondly, the composition of the courtyard is unique. Its courtyard is wide and spacious, and the houses on all four sides are independent and connected with each other by verandas, making living very convenient; the enclosed residences make the courtyard highly private, and you can see the heaven and earth when you close the door; inside the courtyard, the doors on all four sides open to the courtyard. , the family is in harmony and happy; the spacious courtyard can also plant trees and flowers, feed birds and fish, and stack rocks and scenery, so that the residents can enjoy the beauty of nature.

In addition, although the courtyard is a residential building, it contains profound cultural connotations and is the carrier of traditional Chinese culture. The construction of quadrangle courtyards pays great attention to Feng Shui. Feng Shui theory is actually ancient Chinese architectural environment science and an important part of traditional Chinese architectural theory. The decoration, carvings and paintings of quadrangle courtyards also reflect folk customs and traditional culture, showing people's respect for the courtyard. The pursuit of happiness, beauty, wealth and auspiciousness, such as the pattern composed of bat and longevity, means "both happiness and longevity"; the pattern of rose flowers placed in a vase means "peace in all seasons"; and the pattern embedded on the door hairpin and door head The auspicious words and auspicious words, the couplets attached to the pillars, and the masterpieces of calligraphy and painting hung indoors are a collection of ancient teachings from sages and famous quotes from ancient and modern times. It is elegant and full of rich cultural atmosphere, just like a palace of traditional Chinese culture.

Siheyuan

Siheyuan is a combined architectural form of residential buildings in North China. It is a square or rectangular courtyard. Each family lives in a closed courtyard, leading a comfortable, leisurely and quiet life, enjoying family joy and family fun, and naturally has a leisurely and contented atmosphere.

This kind of courtyard house was left over from the old society before the founding of New China and is still in use today. This kind of courtyard usually uses one entrance and exit gate. Normally, once the courtyard door is closed, it is in a completely closed state. Most of the courtyard gates of courtyard houses are wooden gates. One end of the door made of thick wooden boards is placed on the axis, and it can be opened and closed by rotating left and right, which is safe and reliable. In the courtyard, there is the main room, which is the north room. This is the main room in the courtyard, and generally the direction of a courtyard is from north to south. On the east and west sides are the east and west wing rooms. The east and west wing rooms are generally relatively symmetrical, and the architectural formats are generally the same or similar. There is a south room built on the south side, corresponding to the north room. The entire courtyard is mostly built in a symmetrical manner according to traditional Chinese customs. Of course, there are also side rooms in the corners formed by the north, south, and east and west rooms.

Some of these side rooms are used to store grain and become granaries and other warehouses. Some are used as kitchens. They also have a corner, usually the southwest corner is the toilet, and the southeast corner is mostly the gate of the yard. This kind of quadrangle courtyard The program is relatively common in Shanxi counties and nearby rural areas. There are also some courtyards where the gate opens in the center facing south.

In order to decorate the courtyard, some families also build a screen wall, that is, a brick wall, directly opposite the entrance to the courtyard. On the side facing the door, there are usually flowers, pine and bamboo patterns or large calligraphy characters placed eye-catchingly on the front of the screen wall. Write "Fu", "Lu", "Shou" and other words that symbolize auspiciousness. There are also some screen walls painted with auspicious patterns, such as "pines and cranes prolong life," "magpies ascending plum blossoms," "unicorns delivering children," etc., creating a scholarly atmosphere in the courtyard. Some farmers also use the words or pictures of "good harvests," "good luck," and "blessings like the East China Sea." This kind of screen wall is located at the entrance inside the gate. Some are built separately, and some are built into the gable wall of the side room. Screen walls, also called screen walls, are square in shape, decorated with brick carvings on all sides, and the squares in the middle are filled with calligraphy or paintings. The screen wall is divided into two parts: the base and the wall. In addition to adding atmosphere to the courtyard and praying for good luck, the screen wall also plays an isolation role to make it difficult for outsiders to peek into the activities in the courtyard.

In the courtyard, the ground is paved with stone slabs, bricks, and cobblestones. Some have the entire ground in the courtyard paved, and some have paved the main passages. No matter how it is paved, there should always be a few areas left in the courtyard to plant trees and flowers as decorations for the courtyard.

With the development of the times, there have been many changes in architecture. In rural areas, most of them have undergone great changes based on the original courtyard houses. This is to expand the number of rooms in the main house, because the main house - the north room has good lighting. Therefore, when building a house, we should make full use of the space and ground in the north as much as possible, which makes the courtyard irregular in shape, forming a square or rectangular courtyard in front of the main house, mainly the north house.

The allocation of living space in the inner house of the courtyard is very strict. The main house in the inner house with a superior location must be given to the older generation of masters and wives.

Only the middle one of the three rooms in the north room opens to the outside and is called the main room. The two rooms on both sides only open to the main room, forming suites, forming a pattern of one light and two dark. The main room is a place where family members live, entertain relatives, or worship ancestors during festivals. There are multiple bedrooms on both sides.

The bedrooms on the east and west sides are also distinguished by superiority and inferiority. Under the polygamy system, the east side is the superior and is occupied by the main room, while the west side is the inferior and is occupied by the side room.

The east and west wing rooms can have single doors or can be connected to the main room. They are generally used as bedrooms or studies. The east and west wing rooms are occupied by younger generations. The wing rooms are also light and dark. The middle room is a living room and the two sides are bedrooms.

You can also divide the room on the south side and use it as a kitchen or dining room. Back-house - medium-sized or larger quadrangles often have back military rooms or back-houses, mainly for women or maids who have not left the pavilion.