Cultural significance of residential buildings

Siheyuan is an ancient and traditional cultural symbol of China. The four sides of "four", east, west, north and south, and "combination" is the shape of a mouth, which is the basic feature of quadrangles. Courtyard houses are elegant in architecture, exquisite in structure and numerous in number, and Beijing is the most popular. Beijing's quadrangles, large and small, are dotted around, either in downtown areas or in quiet deep alleys; The big one covers a few acres, and the small one is only a few feet; Or an exclusive single-family family, or several families or more than a dozen families live together, forming a living environment that conforms to human psychology, maintains traditional culture, and has harmonious neighborhood relations. A social network system with family courtyard as the center, neighborhood as the trunk line and community area as the plane has been formed.

Its layout is characterized by an axis symmetry between north and south and a closed independent courtyard. According to its size, there is the simplest one, two or three yards, four yards or five yards along the longitudinal axis. Cai's ancient residential building complex is located in Guanqiao Village, Nan 'an, Fujian, 20 kilometers away from Quanzhou City. As an ancient building in Qing Dynasty, it was approved by the State Council as a national key cultural relic protection unit, and it is also called two wonderful residential buildings in Fujian with Yongding Earth Building.

Cai's ancient residence was built by Chi chang Tsai and his son Sigh from Tongzhi (1862) to (19 1 1). There are 16 complete mansions, which are arranged in parallel and orderly on a rectangular plot of about 3 hectares (more than 40 acres), with a length of more than 200 meters from east to west and a width of 100 meter from north to south. A stone dike with a width of more than 10 m is paved between the front and rear seats, and a fire-proof passage with a width of two meters is set between the gables. In summer, the sun in the south can't enter the room, and in winter, the north wind is blocked by the back wall, which is the best direction for houses in southern Fujian.

The building has a high roof, carved beams and painted buildings, a strong relief of masonry on the front wall, and a strong three-dimensional sense. The window shuttle is carved with birds, and the decoration is ingenious and gorgeous. The door wall is decorated with paintings and calligraphy, which has a unique taste and charm, leaving more famous paintings and calligraphy at that time. Calligraphy and painting such as ink, color, gold, plain and other colors; Books, scrolls, fans, diamonds and other plaques are unique; Doors and windows have various forms, such as round, arch, diamond and square. Wood carving, clay sculpture, brick carving and stone carving can be seen everywhere with exquisite craftsmanship, and many techniques such as through carving, relief carving and flat carving are used. The carving content is rich and colorful, with animals, flowers, birds, fish and insects, landscape figures, and the design is simple. The dressing room, the last bookstore connected to the northeast corner, is a two-story building, overlooking by the railing, which makes people have a faint ancient style. The exquisite carving of ancient dwellings not only shows the mature sculpture art in southern Fujian, but also reflects the influence of Hinduism, Islam, Nanyang culture and western architectural art. It is known as the grand view garden of southern Fujian architecture. At the same time, the ancient dwellings are large in scale, rigorous in layout, exquisitely carved and rich in connotation, and are known as the Minnan Architectural Museum in the Qing Dynasty.