Main landscape of Xue Fucheng's former residence
Xue Fucheng once wrote a book about how to build a homestead, Yang Zhai Yao Ju. Xue Zhai designed by him has carried out some architectural principles and feng shui requirements of Yang Zhai in Yao Ju. The former residence we saw was a house with a narrow front and a wide back. The whole former residence was convex. Looking down from the air, it looks like a huge Kunpeng soaring with its wings, which coincides with Zhuangzi's saying that "Peng spreads his wings vigorously, and the water strikes three thousand miles" and "When he spreads his wings, he will migrate to the south". On second thought, Xue Fucheng's great ambition is not only reflected in the names of his eldest sons "Yongyun" and "Nan 'ai", but also in the graphics of the mansion. It is the second main building on the central axis. The sedan chair hall, as its name implies, is the place where sedan chairs are parked, which is equivalent to a modern private garage. Chen Honghua, deputy curator, told us that the three rooms in the middle are called "Xituo Hall", which is a carriage used by ancient envoys. The "Xituo Hall" symbolizes that the master Xue Fucheng was sent to four western countries. Let's feel the grand scale of "Qin", from east to west, a total of nine houses.
Speaking of "Nine", we know that in the feudal society with strict hierarchy, people's houses are strictly hierarchical. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court had clear regulations on the specifications of houses, which were followed in the Qing Dynasty: the width of houses under six officials should not exceed three, and the depth should not exceed seven; Five to three officials, the width shall not exceed five and the depth shall not exceed seven; There shall be no more than five second-class or above officials and no more than nine in depth. When Xue Fucheng was building his own mansion, his official title was "the right three products" and he was rewarded with "the second product", which was equivalent to the cadres in brackets. Even if Xue Fucheng, a second-class official, lives in a living room with a width of no more than five rooms, the width of the first four entrances of Xue Fucheng Mansion is nine rooms, and the width of the turntables of the fifth and sixth entrances is eleven rooms, far exceeding the standards promulgated by the imperial court. Nine is an ancient number in China, a very sacred number, which means the honor of the Ninth Five-Year Plan. A nine-bay house can only appear in the palace. If special treatment is not taken, it may be fatal because of "deviance". Xue Fucheng was familiar with the laws and regulations of the imperial court, so he took care of his son Xue Nanming. In a unique way, he split the sedan chair hall and the main hall into two, turning nine halls into three relatively independent ones. The so-called split column is two semi-circular columns juxtaposed together, which looks like a cylinder from a distance; There is a gap several centimeters wide in the middle. Correspondingly, the stone drum of the pillar is also composed of two semicircles, and the girders and walking beams on the pillar naturally split into two rows. The invention and creation of this architectural structure is unique in Wuxi and China. From the design, we can not only see Xue Fucheng's flamboyant personality, but also reflect the designer's cautious attitude towards life. This kind of special treatment in building structure, even if the building area reaches the scale of nine bays, will not bring political trouble to itself because it exceeds the regulations. An east-west interior wall separates the front yard and the back yard of the whole mansion, which plays a role of "difference between inside and outside" here. Entering the backyard from behind this fence should be a private space, and visitors are generally not allowed to cross this door.
The back hall is the fourth entrance of the whole mansion, and the middle three rooms are "Huirantang". The word "Ran Hui" is taken from the meaning of "willing to come" in the Book of Songs. Huirantang is the place where the hostess of the Xue family meets relatives and friends, handles family affairs, and is also the place where the Xue family get together. The building structure of the back hall is much simpler than that of the front car hall and main hall. Most of the beams here are round, there are no carved beams and painted buildings, and there are few changes in the level of the roof. The partition of the nine-bay is only a Chinese fir screen door, which can be removed. If a large party is held in this hall, the screen door can be removed to make more room for activities. The turntable building is the last two advances of the ambassador on the first central axis-the fifth and sixth advances. This building is two stories high, with pure wood structure, eleven bays wide and hard roof. There are five stacked walls on the gable, and the two ends of the building are connected by compartments. The plane is in the shape of a "back" with a rectangular patio in the middle. This yard is the largest in the whole mansion, and the ground of the yard is covered with flower streets. Because the upstairs and downstairs corridors of these two buildings are all inward to the patio side, you can go up and down and back through the stairs in the box building, which is also commonly known as the turntable building. This kind of building is a common residential building form of large families in the south of the Yangtze River. Compared with the existing turntable buildings in China, Xue's turntable buildings are different in two aspects. First, the scale is large, 1 1 room width. The first four-in and nine-out system exceeded the prescribed limits, and it was even more "heinous" when it came to the turntable building. Careful Xue Fucheng divided the turntable building into three rooms, five rooms and three rooms through the architectural art of Brokeback Mountain. In this way, the building did not exceed the five bays allowed by Xue Fucheng's official position, and now the turntable building in front of us has become the largest turntable building in China. Second, it is manifested in the architectural style of combining Chinese and western styles. Looking up, you can see the railing in the second corridor. The shape of the railing is made of advanced lathe processing technology. The National Tourism Administration designated this building as the first turntable building in China.
Through the east wing of the turntable building, you will reach the back garden of the Xue family, follow the path on the east side of the garden, cross the covered bridge pavilion on the garden pool, and you will come to the Xue family lecture hall. The Chuanjing Building is located in the northwest corner of the back garden, with six rooms wide and two floors high, surrounded by cloisters. This is a library in the shape of "Tianyi Pavilion" specially built by Xue Fucheng in Ningbo. The word "Chuanjing Building" was written by Zuo, who was famous for his exploits in the late Qing Dynasty, and it was handed down from generation to generation to gather thousands of books. It is a place for the Xue family to hold festive activities, receive relatives and friends or negotiate business, and then go to the theatre, enjoy tea and watch fish. It consists of three main halls, two slant halls, a stage, two cloisters, five attached rooms, a clear water pool and a curved bridge. Formed its own courtyard, with typical Jiangnan garden characteristics. The design of the stage is in line with the acoustic principle. The stage adopts a dome-shaped roof with a rear sound insulation screen. The sound reflected by the roof and screen vibrates with the water surface of the pond. The courtyard of the cloister, main hall and slant hall seems to be a huge * * * speaker, which can transmit the sound to far away places, without the need for public address equipment to perform on this stage, and the sound effect is ideal. The main hall and the stage are separated by water, and there is a sense of remoteness in listening to the sound across the water.