How did the Beijing Courtyard House come about?

(si he yuan)

Siheyuan is the collective name for traditional dwellings in which the main house and the east and west compartments form a plan layout around a middle courtyard. It has the longest history and the widest distribution in China, and is a typical form of Han Chinese residence. Its history has been more than three thousand years, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the form has taken shape.

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

In the big and small hutongs of Beijing, there are many courtyard houses surrounded by houses in the east, south, west and north, which are called siheyuan.

The gate of the courtyard is generally open in the southeast or northwest corner, the north room in the courtyard is the main room, the main room is built on a brick and stone foundation, larger than the other houses, is the owner's room. On both sides of the courtyard were built the east and west compartments, where the younger generations lived. A corridor was built between the main house and the chambers for people to walk and rest. The walls of the courtyard and the houses facing the street generally do not open windows to the outside, making the courtyard a closed and quiet environment.

Beijing has various sizes of siheyuan, but no matter how big or small they are, they are all made up of courtyards surrounded by houses on all sides. The simplest siheyuan has only one courtyard, the more complex ones have two or three courtyards, and the deep houses where rich and noble people live are usually composed of several siheyuan side by side. There is also a partition wall in the middle.

The typical characteristics of the courtyard is the appearance of rules, symmetry in the center line, and the use of the extremely flexible, to the large expansion, is the palace, the royal residence, to the small shrink, is the residence of the common people, the brilliant Forbidden City and the suburbs of the ordinary farmers are quadrangles.

The general distribution of the courtyard for the gate, the first courtyard, the hall, the second courtyard, the study, residential, etc., on both sides of the compartment, each room has a corridor, the partition door connected. The understanding of the dwellings existing on the surface will surely make the culture of the dwellings to be carried forward and developed.

The Beijing courtyard house is an inner courtyard house formed by enclosing four houses in the east, west, south and north. As the main architectural form in which old Beijingers have lived for generations, the Beijing courtyard house is famous both at home and abroad, and is well known to the world.

First of all, it has a very long history. Since the Yuan Dynasty, when the capital of Beijing was formally established and large-scale planning and construction of the capital city began, the courtyard has appeared at the same time as Beijing's palaces, government offices, neighborhoods, alleys and hutongs. According to the late Yuan dynasty Xiong Mengxiang's "analyze the Jin Zhi": "Metropolis street system, from the south to the north is called the warp, from the east to the west is called the woof. Main Street twenty-four paces wide, three hundred and eighty-four long alleys, twenty-nine alleys through."

Secondly, the composition of the courtyard has its own unique features. Its courtyard is spacious and sparse, the four sides of the houses are independent, and there are corridors connecting each other, living is very convenient; closed housing so that the courtyard has a strong sense of privacy, close the door to its own world; courtyard, four sides of the door to the courtyard, the family and the beauty of the family, and the joy of the happy; spacious courtyard can be planted in the trees and flowers, birds and fish, stacked rocks and landscape, the occupants of the best enjoy the beauty of nature.

In addition, although the courtyard is a residential building, it contains profound cultural connotations and is a carrier of traditional Chinese culture. The construction of the courtyard is very concerned about feng shui, feng shui doctrine, is actually the ancient Chinese building environment science, is an important part of the theory of traditional Chinese architecture; courtyard decorations, carvings, paintings are also everywhere reflecting the folklore and traditional culture, showing the pursuit of happiness, beauty, wealth, good fortune, such as bats, longevity patterns, meaning "good fortune and longevity"; to vase inside the vase to enjoy the beauty of nature, the Chinese traditional culture. "The pattern of moonflower in a vase implies "four seasons of peace"; the auspicious words embedded in door hairpins and door headers, the couplets attached to the pillars, as well as the paintings and calligraphies hanging indoors are a collection of ancient teachings of sages and philosophers, and famous lines from ancient and modern times. The ambition of the swan, elegant, full of rich cultural flavor, like a temple of traditional Chinese culture.

Siheyuan

Siheyuan, a combination of architectural forms of civil housing in North China, is a four-square or rectangular courtyard. A family, living in a closed courtyard, lives a peaceful, leisurely and quiet life, enjoying the joy of family and heavenly pleasures, naturally having a relaxing atmosphere.

This courtyard, which was left over from the old society before the founding of New China, is still in use. This kind of courtyard, generally used to enter and exit a courtyard door. Usually, the door is closed, in a completely closed state. Courtyard door, most of the use of wooden board gate. Thick boards made of wood at one end of the gate, up and down are placed in the center of the shaft, rotating left and right, can be turned off and closed, safe and reliable. In the courtyard, there is the main room, that is, the north room. This is the main room in the courtyard, and, in general, the direction of the courtyard is also north to south. On the east and west sides, there are the east and west rooms. East and west rooms, generally more symmetrical, architectural format is largely the same or similar. On the south side, there is a south room, which corresponds to the north room. The whole courtyard, mostly in accordance with traditional Chinese "custom, using symmetrical approach to building into. Of course, in the corners formed by the north, south, east and west rooms, there are also ear rooms. This kind of ear room, some used to store grain, become grain depot and other warehouses, some do kitchen, there is a corner, usually the southwest corner of the toilet, and the southeast corner, is mostly the gate of the courtyard, this courtyard program, in Shanxi's counties and nearby rural areas is more common. There are also some places where the courtyard, the gate is open in the center of the south.

Some families, in order to decorate the courtyard decorative, but also in the courtyard at the door directly opposite, build a shadow wall, that is, a brick wall. In this side of the front door, generally have flowers, pine and bamboo patterns or large calligraphy characters prominently placed on the front of the shadow wall. On the book "Fu", "Luk", "life" and other symbols of good luck. There is also a part of the shadow wall, painted with auspicious patterns, such as "pine and crane to prolong life", "magpies to the plum", "unicorn to send children," and so on, to the courtyard to create a kind of atmosphere of calligraphy and ink. There are also farmers, using the words or pictures of "abundant harvest", "good luck", "blessed as the East China Sea". This shadow wall, located in the gate within the door to meet the door, some are separate buildings, some are set in the compartment on the wall. Shadow wall, also known as the wall, the wall are square, surrounded by brick carving decoration, the center of the square for calligraphy or painting. The wall is divided into two parts: the base and the wall, in addition to the courtyard to increase the atmosphere, praying for good luck, the wall also plays a role in making it difficult for the outside world to spy on the activities in the courtyard of the isolation.

Inside the courtyard, there are slate paved floor, there are brick paved floor, there are cobblestones paved floor, not the same. Some are all paved ground in the yard, there are also the main channel paved, no matter how to pave, always leave a few places in the yard to plant trees, flowers, as the courtyard embellishment.

With the development of the times, there have been many changes in architecture. In the countryside, most of the big evolution has taken place from the original courtyard. This is, expanding the number of rooms in the main house, because the main house - the north room has good light. Consequently, when building the house, the space and ground on the north side were fully utilized as much as possible, which made the courtyard irregularly shaped, with a square or rectangular courtyard formed in front of the main house, which was dominated by the north room.

The distribution of the residence in the courtyard is very strict, the location of the house is superior to the prominent main house, are given to the old generation of lords and wives live.

The three rooms in the north house, only the middle one opens to the outside, called the hall. The two rooms on both sides only open to the hall, forming a suite, a bright and dark pattern. The hall is a place for family members to live, entertain relatives or make offerings to ancestors during festivals, and the two sides are mostly used as bedrooms.

The bedrooms on the east and west sides were also distinguished by their superiority or inferiority. Under the polygamy system, the east side was honored by the main room and the west side was humbled by the side room.

The east and west ear rooms - which can have a single door or be connected to the main room - are generally used as bedrooms or studies. The east and west compartments, on the other hand, are inhabited by the younger generation. The compartments are also one bright and two dark, with one in the center as the living room and bedrooms on both sides.

One of the rooms on the south side of the house can also be used as a kitchen or dining room. The back room - the back room or the back building is often built in medium-sized courtyards and above, and is mainly used for women who have not yet left the court or for maids to live in.

The courtyard is composed of the main house (usually the north room), the east and west rooms and the south room of a separate courtyard, the main house is sometimes next to the east and west rooms, there are copious corridors will be connected to the four sides of the house, can be sheltered from the wind and rain.

Beijing's hutongs are generally east-west, mainly to walk mainly, the north side of the hutong courtyard door is generally open in the southeast corner of the yard, the south side of the courtyard door is generally open in the west corner of the yard. The courtyard is a typical residential form in Beijing.

The general courtyard has two courtyards, large three or four courtyards and flower courtyard, two courtyards are generally in the east and west rooms built between a partition wall, the outer house is generally staff living, inside and outside the house is generally built between the luxury of the hanging flower door, hanging flower door inside the wall, only in the case of a major event will be opened, the old saying of the big families of the lady door does not go out, two doors do not step, both refers to this door, the family's Menials are generally not allowed to enter this door. Street door is relatively simple, the street door is generally built on the left side of the courtyard. The last row of rooms in a large courtyard is the back room.

The old Beijing people pay more attention to, such as the courtyard in front of the door can not be planted acacia trees, because the acacia trees in the past will fall down a kind of bugs, commonly known as the ghost of the hanged, worried about passers-by said "here how so much hanged ah", because the mulberry tree and "funeral" homophonic, courtyard side also The Beijingers love to have mulberry trees in their courtyards. Beijing people love to plant oleander in the yard.

The courtyard is a traditional form of residence in Beijing, the Liao Dynasty has been the first scale, through the Jin, Yuan, to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and gradually perfected, and eventually became the most characteristic form of residence in Beijing.

The so-called siheyuan, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north, and "hui" means that the four houses are surrounded together, forming a "mouth" shape. After hundreds of years of construction, Beijing courtyard houses from the layout to the internal structure, the details of the decoration have formed a unique Beijing style.

The Beijing formal courtyard house is generally oriented according to the east-west hutongs and sits in the north-south direction, the basic form is divided into four sides of the north room (the main room), the south room (inverted seat room) and the east and west rooms, and then surrounded by a high wall to form a quadrangle, open a gate. The main gate is located in the southeast corner of the mansion in the "Xun" position. The total number of rooms is generally 3 in the north room 2 ear 5, east, west room 3, the south room not counting the gate 4, even the big doorway, hanging door **** 17. Such as 11-12 square meters per room, the total area of about 200 square meters. Courtyard in the middle of the courtyard, spacious courtyard, the courtyard planting trees and flowers, ready to keep goldfish tank, is the center of the layout of the courtyard, but also people walk through, light, ventilation, cool, rest, housework place.

Although there are certain rules and regulations, but the size of the courtyard is not equal, can be roughly divided into large four, in the four, small four three:

1, small courtyard is generally the north room three, a bright two dark or two bright and one dark, the east and west rooms are two, the south room three. Lying brick to the top, the ridge tile room. It can accommodate three generations of a family, with the grandparents living in the main room, the younger generations living in the compartments, and the south room being used as a study or a living room. Inside the courtyard, there are paved brick canals connecting the doors of each house, and there are steps in front of each house. There are two big doors, decorated with black lacquer and oil, with a pair of brass door cymbals on the door and couplets on both sides.

2, the courtyard is more spacious than the small courtyard, generally 5 rooms in the north, 3 is 2 ears, the east and west rooms are 3 rooms, there is a porch in front of the room to avoid the wind and rain. In addition, the courtyard wall is divided into the front courtyard (outer courtyard) and the back courtyard (inner courtyard), and the courtyard walls are connected by a moon gate. The depth of the forecourt is shallow, with one or two houses as the gatehouse, and the backyard is the living room, which is well-built, with square bricks plastered on the floor and green stones as steps.

3, the large courtyard is customarily called the "mansion", the house set up for 5 South 5 North, 7 South 7 North, and even 9 or 11 large rooms, generally compound courtyard, that is, by a number of quadrangles to the depth of the connected. There are many courtyards, including the front courtyard, the back courtyard, the east courtyard, the west courtyard, the main courtyard, the side courtyard, the inter-courtyard, the study courtyard, the enclosure courtyard, the horse number, the first, the second, the third ...... and so on. The courtyards are all connected to each place by copious corridors, covering a huge area. If the ground available for building is narrow, or if the economic capacity can not afford it, the courtyard can again be converted into a triple courtyard, not to build the south room.

Medium-sized and small courtyards were generally the homes of ordinary people, while large courtyards were used as mansions and government offices.

The Beijing courtyard house is a brick and wood structure, the purlins, pillars, beams (柁), thresholds, rafters, as well as doors, windows, partitions and so on are made of wood, and the wooden frame is surrounded by a brick wall. The beams, doors, windows and eaves rafters should be painted colorful paintings, although not as brilliant as the Palace Court, but also colorful. Walls used to grind bricks, broken bricks wall, the so-called "Beijing City has three treasures ...... rotten bricks wall wall wall does not fall". Roof tiles mostly with green slate tiles, positive and negative interlocking, the eaves before the installation of drip, or do not store tile, all with green ash plastered roof, called "gray shed".

The main door of the courtyard generally accounts for the area of a room, the spare parts are quite complex, only to create the name of the door, doorway, door (door), door frame, waist square, plug Yu board, horse board, door pillows, even the threshold, threshold, door hairpin, the big side, wiping the head, through the band, the door heart plate, door cymbals, insertion of the shutters, the beast, the door nails, the door and so on, the gate of the courtyard is composed of these parts.

The gate is generally oil and black gate, can add red oil and black characters of the couplet. Into the door there are hanging flower door, moon door and so on. Draped flower door is the most gorgeous decorative door in the courtyard, said "Draped flower" is therefore the door with the eaves of the pagoda method, the role is to separate the courtyard, outside the door is the living room, concierge, garage, such as the horse "outside the house", the door is the main living room of the bedroom "inside the house.

There is no hanging flower door can be used to separate the moon gate inside and outside the house. Pendant door painted very beautiful, gable rafters rafters oiled blue-green, looking at the wood oiled red, round rafters oiled blue-white-black sets such as the halo of the pearl pattern, the square rafters is a blue background of the gold word stranded or rhombus pattern. Front of the front of the front center of the brocade pattern, flowers, Bogu, etc., both sides of the inverted pendent lotus column head according to the carved pattern is painted colorful.

The carvings of the courtyard are based on a variety of auspicious motifs, such as bats, longevity of the composition of the word "Fukushu Shuangquan", to insert the vase of the moon means "four seasons of peace", as well as "grandchildren," "the age of the three friends," "Yutang Fortune," "Fukushouxi," and so on, demonstrating the old Beijing's aspirations for a better life.

Windows and sill walls are embedded in the upper sill (no lower sill) and the left and right hold pillars in the middle of the large frame, the upper fan can be supported, the lower fan is generally fixed. In winter, the windows are made of paper or cellophane, which is bright from the inside and dark from the outside, preventing the cold from invading the interior and keeping the interior well lit. Summer window paste with yarn or cold cloth, which is the southern counties of Beijing with wood with the weaving of the window screen, like cloth and non-cloth, can be air permeable, lifting the indoor summer heat. Cold cloth outside with a paper, rolled up during the day, down at night, so it is also known as "roll window". Some people use the upper support under the pick of the window.

Beijing winter and spring sandy winds, more residential curtains. General family, winter to hang a plywood cotton curtain, spring and fall to hang a plywood folder curtain, summer to hang a plywood bamboo curtain. Poor people can use straw curtains or broken felt curtains. Door curtains can be lifted, the upper, middle and lower parts of the plywood installed for the purpose of increasing the weight, so as not to be lifted by the wind. Later, the curtain was replaced by the wind door, but still use the bamboo curtain in summer, cool and bright and practical.

The roof of the courtyard is made of high-beam poles as a frame, and the outside is glued with paper. Beijing paste roof is a technology, courtyard, from the roof to the walls, curtains, windows, all framed with white paper, known as the "four white in the end". Ordinary people framed once a few years, rich people are "four easy a year".

Beijing is very cold in winter, the residents of the courtyard are sleeping on the kang, kang before a plunged into the underground coal stove, stove fire. The kang is empty, the fire enters the hole in the kang, the kang bed will be roasted hot, people sleep on the hot kang, suddenly feel warm and cozy. The coal used for kang-burning is mostly produced in the western mountains of Beijing, and there is a difference between raw coal and coal powder, which is shaken with yellow earth and briquettes for kang-burning or cooking.

Indoor heating with a stove, stove to the texture can be divided into mud, iron, copper three kinds of mud stove to Beijing produced pots of helmet wood manufacturing, heat penetration is very strong, light and easy to move, the rich and noble families often have a few stoves. Commonly used in front of the kang fire cooking food, do not burn another stove, the so-called "pots and pans even with the stove", it is difficult to live and live separately. The stoves could seal the fire, so they often stayed lit for years, just in case of emergencies. If it goes out, then dry wood, charcoal burning, housewives get up every morning to the stove to the outside of the house (in order to prevent gas poisoning) to make a fire, become a scene in Beijing.

The drainage of domestic water in the courtyard is mostly in the form of seepage pits, commonly known as "seepage wells" and "seepage ditches". There are no toilets in the courtyard, and the toilets are mostly located in the hutongs, which are called "official thatched rooms".

The Beijing courtyard is concerned about greening, planting trees and flowers in the courtyard, which is really a flower and tree, elegant and pleasant. Old Beijing love to plant flowers lilacs, begonias, elms, peach blossoms and so on, trees are mostly jujube, acacia. Flowers and plants in addition to planting, but also pots, water.

The most common potted flowers and trees are pomegranate trees, oleander, osmanthus, silver osmanthus, azalea, gardenia and so on, pomegranate take pomegranate "more children" of the omen. As for the steps in front of the flower garden in the grass jasmine, anemone, petunia, lentil flowers, is more of the courtyard of the common beauty of the home.

There is a saying in the Qing Dynasty that describes life in the courtyard: "canopy, fishbowl, pomegranate tree, master, fat dog, fat girl", which can be said to be a more typical portrayal of life in the courtyard.

The courtyard is usually a one-family house, but there are also many families living together in a courtyard, mostly poor people, called "Daxiaoyuan". The coziness of the compound is something that many old Beijing residents can't forget.

The courtyard door of the old Beijing courtyard house

The courtyard door is the main entrance of the courtyard house, and Beijingers used to call it the "street door". Today, when everything in the world is changing rapidly, it is difficult to judge the level of the owner of the courtyard by these street doors. Linger in the tree-covered streets and alleys, that many of the old-style street door has become a silent history, silently bring you boundless associations and enlightenment, like a century old man, with a trembling voice to tell you the story of the early years.

In Beijing, there are many courtyard doors, which can be roughly divided into two categories, i.e., the building type door and the door with the wall. The former has a doorway, the door occupies a house; the latter has no doorway, only open the door on the wall. In detail, the building-style door is divided into the royal gate, Guangliang gate, Ruyimen, etc.; with the wall door with a small gatehouse, car door, etc..

Let's start with the royal gate. In the past, the title of the residence, "the Qing dynasty canon" has a clear provision: "Where the Prince, the County King, the Prince, Beilei, Beizi, Zhenguo Gong, Auxiliary Duke's residence, are known as the House." Among them, the residence of Prince and County King is called Wang Fu. As for those who are not the phoenix son and dragon grandson of the dignitaries, although there is a title, or have the title of the minister, university scholar, military minister, their residence can not be called "House", can only be called "house" or "first". ". In terms of property rights, "House" and "Royal Palace" are imperial property, once the title is removed, it is necessary to remove the House accordingly, in order to prepare for the future sub-division of others, "House" is generally private property.

In terms of the royal gate, the Prince's House five, the County King's House three, are sitting in the north and south, the door in front of the door cover (with windows, doors and walls of the house), the aisle is higher than the ground. Mansion door east and west each have a corner door, are called the Ace door, for people to enter and exit. The Qing dynasty Fang Rui division of the "banana Xuan with the record" said: "foreign officials Yamen main door around each have a door, called the East Angle Gate, West Angle Gate, the next official visit, are from the corner door into also." Corner door set up, so that the door can be closed on weekdays, depending on the time and open depending on the event, is set up for the needs of etiquette. House outside the door with stone lions, lamp post, hitching post and jurisdiction Wo wood (the ancients said line horse) and other facilities. Opposite to the government gate for the shadow wall. If the two Ashi door is east and west opposite, let people pass, which must be a quadrilateral courtyard, so there is a pair of stone lions in front of the door, so it is also known as the "lions yard". Where this pattern, the House opposite the door is not a wall, but a row of cottages, the old soldiers live, or to do things where.

The Royal Palace of the number of doors, decoration, color, etc. are built according to the system. "Prince House for the green glazed tiles, each door gold nails sixty have three, Prince House minus Prince of two", Baylor House is the main door three, Kai door one. Wang Fu gate roof with tiles, large ridge, set up kissing beasts, pendant ridge set up fairy beasts, mountain wall to do the drainage ditch drops, the door painted red, beam square Shi color painting.

Ye Guangqin's novel "Cai Sangzi", described the appearance of a king's gate: "turned into the mirror hutong, the huge red lacquer gate broke into the eyes. The gate is closed, the steps are very high, there are on the horse stone. Because no one walks for a long time, in front of the steps has grown fine grass, on the horse stone is also buried by the soil most of the way. The gate opposite the eight eight brick shadow wall, has long been dilapidated ...... This is the residence of Prince Park Sakdoro."

In contrast, "Dream of Red Mansions" description is more specific, the third time in the text: "and traveled for half a day, suddenly saw the street north squatting two big stone lions, three animal head gate ...... main door are not open, only the east and west two doors have people in and out. Above the main door there is a plaque, the plaque on the large book 'Royal Decree Ningguofu' five big words ...... and to the west, not much far, as usual, is also three doors, Fang is Rongguofu." According to the text about the description of the stone lions, the gate should be considered the pattern of the Qing Dynasty Prince's residence. But such a royal residence, there should be a "lion yard" in front of the door, and the lions can not be placed in the street, the street should be the east and west corner of the door. Like the Qing dynasty Zheng Wangfu, Li Wangfu, Ding Wangfu, etc., the stone lions are in the corner of the House.

Some people ask, nowadays Zhang Zizhong Road People's University, that is, the original and Prince Gongfu, why the stone lions in front of the main door to the street? That's because there was no road here, was later opened.

After the Royal Palace gate, and then say Guangliang gate. "Guangliang", as the name suggests, should be more spacious, bright meaning, which is relative to the smaller gatehouse next to the shorter courtyard gate.

The original pronunciation of "Guangliang" is "Guangliang", which means that the roof beams are very wide. In that case, can the courtyard door be small? Obviously, only people with high official titles, or the warlords and merchants after the Republic of China could build it. In order to be conspicuous, the gate of this one to be larger than the houses on both sides, have their own walls, bumping the eaves of the application of brick carvings and decorations, the roof is raised, Edward wall protrudes. Wide bright, not only reflected in the scale, but also reflected in the decoration: there are several pairs of door hairpins, the lower part of the exquisite stone drum door pillows, brick carvings on the wall, wood on the colorful paintings are also not exquisite. Inside and outside the gate, there is a shadow wall, screen door, set steps, generally three or five inches higher than the ground. The inner wall on both sides of the gate is generally plastered white, the perimeter plus line foot. The elaborate use of bamboo or iron bars to do the skeleton, and then use cement and sand to pile up the relief patterns. There are also painting murals on it, and then there is grinding brick to the seam, smooth and clean the so-called "hard heart" decoration.

Guangliang door of the roof is generally not ceiling, and later in order to neatly have added. The ridge has two sides of the diagonal extension of the "water ridge", there are also "Yuanbao ridge". The door of Gwangryangdaemun was set at half of the depth of the house, and half or even more of the usable area was left outside the door. After the Republic of China, for the sake of security, some of them added a layer of iron fence outside the gate. Guangliang gate and the royal gate, the same as the gate, the door is also on the horse stone, hitching post or hitching stone, etc..

Jinzhu gate said "Jinzhu", is the columns within the eaves. Golden pillar gate, is the door frame on the golden pillar of the gate. In scale, the gold pillar gate is obviously smaller than the wide bright gate, the door is also narrow, some only half-open room. Other aspects such as the construction of the gate, roof, carvings, etc., are the same as the wide bright gate. Its doorway is only about one step deep, some decorations on the gable of the main doorway, the overall appearance of lighter than the Guangliang gate.

Compared with the Jinzhu gate, the biggest feature of the barbarians door than the Jinzhu gate is pushed outward a little more, almost in the position of the front gable column. Other aspects are more or less the same as Jinzhu Daimon and Guangliang Daimon. The appearance of the barbarians door, because the owner's official status is not high, at least can not build wide bright gate, so the courtyard door outside the front pushed to the eaves, belonging to the south of the officials or residents of the capital preferred style. The "barbarians" was the disrespectful title of Beijingers at that time to the people of the two provinces and remote areas in the south.

The book "Metropolis" mentions this kind of street door: "Finally, he returned to Tsubaki Hutong snapped his own door bell, a few tall trees along the wall, through the young green buds, let the wind can not stop blowing. Inside the thumping of someone running, snapped, the door of the milky white round electric lamp lit up. The man unlatched it, looked through the doorway, and opened it. He stepped into the compound and realized that there were no more guests' carriages or horses over the front doorway, and the electric light was not on."

This description suggests that the ability to park in the doorway was naturally due to the gate being pushed outwards, which is a characteristic of a gold pillar gate. And the milky round electric light that could shine outside must have been on the top of the gate that was pushed out. It is not a delusion that parking is possible in the doorway as depicted here. The former residence of the Peking Opera artist Wang Yaoqing, now known as No. 20 Peiying Hutong in Xuanwu District, used to be a place to store foreign cars because of its spaciousness. They were the means of transportation for the brothers Wang Yaoqing and Wang Fengqing. In old Beijing, Ruyi Gate had the largest number of them because it was for general residential use. Because of the large number of Ruyi doors, there are many forms of Ruyi doors, which can be complicated or simple. In the strict hierarchical feudal society, rich and unofficial family, build a small door is not willing to build a large door. So, built wide bright gate size, while the door is not big. In this way, both appear to be different, but has not transgressed the system. In addition, the lintels were greatly carved, the roofs were raised, and the mountain walls were decorated with complete openwork. The highest level with Bogu, nine with the same house, lion hydrangea, glory and wealth patterns, medium with glory and wealth, fancao, figures, etc., and are generally made into a bridge or balustrade, appearing to be elegant and luxurious, but not offending the system.

The simplest Ruyi door, only with a tile composed of lines, "five flowers elephant eyes" and other patterns through the air. The door of this gate is reduced, only two door hairpin, stone pillows for stone pier, rather than stone drum, open flexible.

By the Republic of China, the original royal family began to decline, the use of mansions sold one after another. Purchase of these homes in order to cover the new rich, on the basis of the original wide bright gate, in the doorway wall, doorway sealed in the gate. This kind of wide bright gate changed into a lot of Ruyi gate. Such a gate, often in the hill columns left the original installed door groove traces, and even the original door is not removed, and under the eaves of another Ruyi door.

With the wall door is also called the wall wall door, which is characterized by no doorway, open along the wall, accounting for only half or half the width of the yard door is narrower.

The small gatehouse is one of the most common with the wall door. In style, it still pursues the effect of the house. It has two very short mountain walls, with a roof, on which the main ridge is made, the ends of which are cocked, and the eaves are decorated with floral tiles. So it is said that even though this form of courtyard gate is of the lowest rank, ordinary people will decorate it as much as possible. Especially the walled gatehouse, which is no different from a house. The string of copper coins style built with tiles is even more novel and chic. In "The Four Together", the Qijia family lived in this small doorway, i.e., the flower wall sub-doorway.

The fence door is also a kind of door with the wall, commonly known as the lingjiao door, generally used for the horse number of the mansion door. Two wooden pillars supporting the horizontal wood, the upper side of a diamond-shaped wooden components to the outside of the pick, supporting the roof, the door is a straight lattice fence door.

In the book "Metropolis", there were several descriptions of this fence gate, and here is a representative selection of quotes as follows: "From Mishi-dajie, turn west and enter the alley, and this is where you are. Outside the wall planted four or five acacia trees, leaving a gap between the two trees. Outside the tree body with thick bricks like a short wall built high up around them, bricks when built between the time to leave a bright gap, brick wall above the flat dome smeared with several layers of smooth and hard ash ...... bell has not yet stopped sound, suddenly the door opened automatically, the carriage ran into the door of a long and narrow mud path to the horse. This is on both sides of the brick wall of the house ...... In front of the front is a piece of spacious mud yard, in addition to the northwest corner of a few rooms, this yard is rarely seen empty. Yu Ying with Jing Shan, Jin mom are off the carriage, across the four or five steps, face to face tightly covered is four green paint oil decorated screen door, in the middle of the paint four diagonal square red squares, oil with four full of black characters." This paragraph describes the scene from the time you enter the fence gate to the time you enter the courtyard, mainly the parking lot and the horse horn.

This scenario was also seen in front of the gate of the 11th yard in Badawan. At that time, this is not like today, just a red brick low gate building, on the contrary, is a large fence gate, there is a courtyard wall on the street. The yard is half an acre of open space, dedicated to parking, can park several mule carts it. The north side of the empty field diagonally opposite is the red formal gate, and the doorway. It is said that at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, this kind of fence with a lot of large households and parking lots, especially outside the Royal Palace gate of the empty field around the Regulus, but also with a fence gate. Yuanmingyuan style door is the end of the Qing Dynasty by the influence of foreign culture, Yuanmingyuan style door as a representative of the foreign-style courtyard door, also appeared in Beijing among the streets and alleys.

The Yuanmingyuan-style door, originating from the emperor in the Yuanmingyuan built Western-style building, the emperor's hobby also caused the interest of the princes and nobles, have built in their own homes and gardens in the Western-style gateway. Such as the east side of the Gongwangfu garden gate, is the representative of the Yuanmingyuan-style gate. This door in the Western-style columns above the surface of the daughter wall to do Chinese and Western-style flower decorations, or Western-style flowers and plants or Chinese antiques and cultural relics, a combination of Chinese and Western, very much the characteristics of the times.

Dongcheng Jiaodaokou South East Cotton Hutong 15 that there is a brick arch. More than 4 meters high, more than 2 meters wide, from just above the wall are brick carvings, carved flowers and beasts, the top of the sky railings, balustrades carved with pine, bamboo and plum three friends, carved on both sides of the archway outside the DuoBaoCao, the cabinet was carved with the Dark Eight Immortals and other patterns. The entire arch of the brick carvings, rigorous layout, concave and convex properly, fine workmanship, is very rare.

In addition, the old Beijing mansion has other forms of door. In the past, the hutongs around the South City, some residential street back wall and its side of the courtyard door, but also build a plank wall, plank wall and then open a door, called the board door. The gap between the plank wall and the back wall, set up toilets and put buckets, garbage baskets and other eyesores. Live in the board door in the households, most of them are single courtyard of the rich people, someone in and out of the door, better play a role in defense.

Some residential courtyard street, so the street side of the house was converted into a store house to do business, the back of the yard or home as a processing plant. Beijingers call such a house a pavement house. The door of this kind of store house is often the courtyard door, and there is also a side door or back door. This is also a special form of the courtyard door.