What is the meaning of "牌坊" (牌坊)

Pai Fang refers to a building shaped like a pagoda, which is used to honor loyalty, filial piety and righteousness or to decorate famous mountains, scenic spots and gardens.

Pai Fang is one of the Chinese characteristic architectural culture. It is a building erected in feudal society to recognize the merit and honor, the science and technology, virtue and government, as well as loyalty, filial piety and righteousness. There are also some palaces and temples with pagodas as the gate of the mountain, but also used to mark the name of the place. Also known as pagoda, it is a doorway-type monumental building that promotes feudal rites and virtues. Pai Fang is also the ancillary buildings of the ancestral hall, indicating the noble virtues and achievements of the family ancestors, as well as the function of ancestor worship. Pai Fang, also known as "Chuo Cune" or "Shen Cune", is one of the traditional memorial buildings in China.

Modern urban construction of the pagoda is mostly used as a traditional symbol, built in scenic areas or neighborhoods, such as the entrance to the location of the many crude, disproportionate, but there is no lack of beautiful and spectacular success.

Origin of Pai Fang

The Pai Fang is the official name of the ancient times, and the common people commonly called it Pai Lou. As a symbol of Chinese culture, the house of cards has a long history and existed during the Zhou Dynasty, "Poetry - Chen Feng - Hengmen": "Under the Hengmen, you can perch late." The Book of Songs was compiled in the Spring and Autumn Period, roughly from the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, from which it can be deduced that the "Hengmen" had already appeared in the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period at the latest. Hengmen is to two pillars frame a beam structure exists, the old name "Hengmen" is what is now known as the ancestor of the memorial hall.

In fact, there is a significant difference between the pagoda and the pagoda, the pagoda does not have the structure of "building", that is, there is no arch and roof, while the pagoda has a roof, which has a greater atmosphere. But because they are used for recognition, commemoration, decoration, marking and orientation of a building in ancient times in China, and more built in the palace, temples, mausoleums, ancestral halls, government offices and street intersections, etc., coupled with a long history of ordinary people on the "Square", "Building" The concept of unclear, so in the end the two become an interchangeable title.

Tang Dynasty, China's cities are used in the neighborhood system, the city is crisscrossed by the checkerboard road is divided into a number of square residential areas, these residential areas, the Tang Dynasty, known as the "Square". Square is the basic unit of residential areas, "Square" and "Square" between the wall, Square wall in the center of the door, in order to pass through, known as the Square door. Later, because the door did not serve much purpose, this form was all that was left, so the people gradually called this kind of gate a pagoda.