The architectural style of Jiangxi

With the rhythm of modern life and the modern Western civilization, the traditional civilization is increasingly dim, a group of experts and scholars are worried about this; in their appeal to call, the traditional civilization has gradually been attached importance. In recent years, the maintenance of historical remains has been mentioned as the core content of the city construction planning, in which many traditional buildings in Jiangxi are listed as national cultural protection projects. Nevertheless, the depth of research on Jiangxi's ancient architecture is still far from adequate, and the situation is not optimistic. The destruction of many precious architectural relics has intensified the conflict between modern civilization and ancient civilization. Prof. Yao started to study the local traditional architecture of Jiangxi in the early 80's and has been doing so for more than 20 years. He hopes to draw students' attention to the traditional architectural heritage of Jiangxi through this presentation, and to be able to inherit and carry forward the traditional architectural culture of Jiangxi in their future study and work.

To maintain and inherit historical and cultural traditions, it is necessary to understand their characteristics and features, that is to say, in-depth study of the traditional architecture left behind. Traditional architecture itself reflects the traditional culture, its formation and the origin of the local civilization has a close connection. Therefore, to study the traditional architecture of Jiangxi, you should understand its history and geography.

The water system is the cornerstone of Jiangxi civilization, which maintains Jiangxi farming civilization, constructs Jiangxi transportation system, and promotes the development of Jiangxi civilization. In addition, the water system also determines, to some extent, the formation of Jiangxi city and local administrative system. Regardless of which dynasty, Jiangxi administrative system is divided into watersheds have an inextricable relationship.

The distribution of traditional architecture in Jiangxi is affected by both the watershed direction and the administrative division, and the architecture of different places has formed various styles based on regional differences. Prof. Yao elaborated on the styles of Jiangxi architecture in different regions, which are divided into three major areas and four major basins.

The traditional architecture of Jiangxi was greatly influenced by the Huizhou merchant group that emerged after the middle of the Ming Dynasty and the Hakka folklore that was formed. The Hui merchant group was a business group formed in the northeastern region of Jiangxi and southern Anhui, and with the expansion of business activities, they gradually took root in the northeastern region of Jiangxi, where they formed their own architectural style. Their architectural style had a far-reaching influence on the architecture of the north Gan region. The Hakka folk system is a large folk system formed by immigrants who moved into the southern region of Jiangxi from the north-central region, and both the customs and architectural styles are quite different from those of the local Turkish people. This foreign culture has a deep influence on the architecture of many places in the middle and lower reaches of the Gan River. And the typical buildings with local traditional style of Jiangxi are mainly distributed in the middle reaches of Gan River. The buildings in these places are less influenced by the architectural styles of other places, and can more truly reflect the traditional architectural characteristics of Jiangxi itself.

Prof. Yao then made a series of introductions to the local architecture of the four major basins, namely the Fu River Basin, the Xin River Basin, the Jin River Basin, and the Rao River Basin. He listed the characteristic buildings in each basin and analyzed the differences between the eaves and arches of each type of buildings, so that the students have a better understanding of the local architecture.

At the end of the lecture, Prof. Yao put forward his views on how to integrate ancient houses with modern architecture. After the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Chinese buildings became more and more ornate in decoration, but the structure tended to be simpler, which is the progress of traditional architecture in spatial composition; at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the original wooden structure developed into the familiar brick and wood mixed structure, which is the improvement of the technology. Even so, there is still a big difference between our traditional architecture and modern western architecture in terms of construction technology, so it is impossible to directly copy the wooden structure form of ancient architecture when designing. But we can inherit and develop the spatial characteristics of the residential form, and combine it with Western architecture, the design of modern buildings with Chinese characteristics.

In short, the traditional architecture of Jiangxi is a diversified system, which is a major feature of traditional architectural culture in Jiangxi. Respecting the history and culture and protecting its diversity is what every one of us college students should do, which is also the purpose of Prof. Yao's lecture.