About the history and traditional customs of Beijing courtyard houses

Editing the history of the Beijing courtyard house Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although the Beijing courtyard house has gone through many vicissitudes, this basic form of residence has been formed, and has been continuously improved, more suitable for the requirements of residence, forming the form of the courtyard house we see today. Edit this section is famous for Beijing's courtyard house so famous, but also because of its composition has a unique, typical and representative of traditional Chinese residential architecture. Most of the Chinese residential buildings are inner courtyard houses, and the houses in the southern region have small courtyards, with the surrounding houses connected as a whole, called "one seal". This kind of housing is suitable for the southern climate conditions, ventilation and lighting are less than ideal.　Beijing's courtyard, the courtyard is spacious and sparse, the four sides of the houses are independent, with corridors connecting each other, living is very convenient. Edit this section of the structure of the Beijing courtyard house The so-called courtyard, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north, "together" that is, the four sides of the house surrounded by the formation of a "mouth" shape of the structure. After hundreds of years of construction, the Beijing courtyard houses have formed a unique Beijing style from the layout to the internal structure and detailed decoration. Beijing formal courtyard houses are generally oriented in the east-west direction of the hutongs and sit 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, 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 ears 5, east, west room 3, the south room not counting the gate 4, even the big doorway, hanging flower door **** 17 rooms. Such as 11-12 square meters per room, the total area of about 200 square meters.　The 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. The courtyard is a closed house, with only one street door to the outside world, making it a world of its own behind closed doors, with a strong sense of privacy, perfect for exclusive living. Inside the courtyard, all four houses open their doors to the direction of the courtyard, so the family can live in harmony and happiness.　Because of the spaciousness of the courtyard, trees and flowers can be planted, birds and fish can be raised, and rocks can be stacked to create a landscape. The residents not only enjoy a comfortable house, but also share the beautiful world given by nature. Edit This section contains a profound cultural connotation Although it is a residential building, it contains a profound cultural connotation and is a carrier of traditional Chinese culture.　The construction of courtyard houses is extremely concerned about feng shui, from the choice of land, positioning to determine the specific size of each building, all according to feng shui theory.　Beijing courtyard houses are famous all over the world. Beijing in the old days, in addition to the Forbidden City, the Royal Court, temples and royal palaces and government offices, a large number of buildings, that is, the countless people's homes.　The old news under the sun" in the Yuan quoted the poem: "the clouds open the coccyx three thousand zhang, fog dark building a million homes." These "million homes" are now known as the Beijing Courtyard. The origin of the name Why is it called "siheyuan"? Because this kind of residence has four houses, namely the main house (the north house), the inverted house (the south house), the east house and the west house, which are surrounded by the four sides, forming a zigzag shape, with a central courtyard inside, so this kind of courtyard type residence is called a courtyard.　The courtyard has a long history in China, according to the analysis of existing cultural relics, as early as two thousand years ago there were buildings in the form of quadrangles.　In the course of historical development, the Chinese people have been particularly fond of the quadrangle as a form of architecture, and not only did palaces, temples, and governmental offices use quadrangles, but also residential houses around the world also widely used quadrangles. However, whenever people mention siheyuan, they will naturally think of Beijing siheyuan, why is that?　This is because the Beijing courtyard house is very typical in its regularity, and among the various types of courtyards, the Beijing courtyard house can represent its main characteristics.　First of all, the central courtyard of the Beijing courtyard house is basically a square in plan, which is not the case with some residential houses in other regions. For example, in the courtyard houses in Shanxi and Shaanxi, the courtyard is a long vertical rectangle from north to south and narrow from east to west, while in the courtyard houses in Sichuan and other places, the courtyards are mostly horizontal rectangles from east to west and narrow from north to south.　Secondly, the Beijing courtyard houses in the four directions of east, west, south and north are independent of each other, the east and west compartments are not connected with the main house and the building of the inverted seat itself, and the main house, the compartments, the inverted seat and all the other houses are one-storey, there is no building, and the connection of these houses is only the corners of the veranda. In this way, Beijing courtyard house from the air bird's-eye view, it is like four small boxes around a courtyard.　And many areas of the south of the courtyard, the four sides of the houses for the building, and in the courtyard of the four corners, the houses are connected to the east and west, north and south of the four sides of the house does not exist independently. So the South will be called the courtyard "patio", see Jiangnan courtyard is small, like a "well", inevitably make people think of the name, associated with "the frog at the bottom of the well", The idiom of "sitting in a well and watching the sky". Edit the typical representative of the Beijing courtyard house is a veritable courtyard, spacious and open, full of sunlight, a wide field of vision.　Another point is that Beijing courtyard houses are rich in cultural connotations, fully reflecting the traditional Chinese concept of living.　For example, the Han Chinese courtyard in Northeast China (Northeast China Rural Courtyard) conforms to the first two characteristics of the Beijing courtyard house, but it does not have the characteristic of rich cultural connotation.　For example, the Northeast courtyard of the single door (Chinese tradition is mostly double door form), behind the hall set "inverted gate" as a storage room and other practices are felt to be the Qing Dynasty Shandong and other places "running Guandong" immigrants brought the continuation of the habits of the poor.　It is because of the above characteristics, people tend to Beijing courtyard house as a typical representative form of Chinese courtyard houses.　The gate of the courtyard generally occupies the area of one room, and its spare parts are quite complicated, only the name of the building has a door tower, doorway, gate (door), door frame, waist square, plug Yu board, go horse board, door pillow, even threshold, threshold, door hairpin, big side, wipe head, through the belt, the heart of the door, door cymbals, insertion of the shutters, the animal face, the door nail, the door, the door, and so on, the gate ping ping ping in the courtyard is made up of these parts. The gate is generally oil black gate, can add red oil black characters of the couplet. Into the gate 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 inside and outside of the courtyard, outside the door is the living room, concierge, garage, such as horse number "outside the house", the door is the main living room bedrooms "Inside the door is the main living room of the bedroom. Inside the door is the main living room, the inner house. If there is no hanging flower gate, the moon gate can be used to separate the inner and outer houses. Edit this section of the Beijing courtyard house scale Although the courtyard house has a certain regulation, but the size of the scale is not equal, can be roughly divided into large quadrangle, in the quadrangle, small quadrangle three kinds: small quadrangle The small quadrangle is generally the north room of three rooms, a bright two dark or two bright and one dark, the east and west rooms each of two rooms, the south room of three rooms. The small courtyard is usually three rooms in the north, two in the east and two in the west, and three in the south. 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 main doors, decorated with black lacquer and oil, with a pair of brass door cymbals and couplets on both sides. Middle Courtyard The middle courtyard is more spacious than the small courtyard, with five rooms in the north, three in the front and two in the back, three rooms in the east and three rooms in the west, and a corridor in front of the rooms to protect them from the wind and rain. The courtyard wall divides the courtyard into a front courtyard (outer courtyard) and a back courtyard (inner courtyard), which are connected by a moon gate and a dining hall. The depth of the front courtyard is shallow, with one or two houses as the gatehouse, and the back courtyard is the living room, with elaborate architecture, square brick palladiums on the floor, and green stones as steps. Large Courtyard The large courtyard is customarily called "Dazhaimen", and the houses can be set up as 5 south and 5 north, 7 south and 7 north, and there are even 9 or 11 large houses, which are generally compound courtyards, i.e., they are connected to each other by a number of courtyards in a deeper way. 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 ability is not affordable, the courtyard can be converted into a triplex, without building a south room.　Medium-sized and small courtyard is generally the residence of ordinary residents, the large quadrangle is a mansion, government offices.