Characteristics of quadrangles in Beijing (detailed description)

Siheyuan has always been regarded as one of the representative architectural forms in Beijing, but what is the quadrangle in Beijing and its cultural connotation? Different people have different standards and opinions.

Some people think that the quadrangle in Beijing is a four-house, symmetrical residential building in Beijing. More specifically, only those residential courtyards surrounded by four buildings are typical Beijing quadrangles. The other two houses surrounded by three houses are not quadrangles, at least not formal quadrangles in Beijing.

Someone gave a more "complete" explanation to the typical quadrangle in Beijing. The standard is: the gate opens in the southeast corner of the whole courtyard (the residence of princes and nobles opens on the central axis); Entering the gate is the wall, and turning left is the first entrance; Turn the central axis to the right around the hanging flower gate to reach the spacious main courtyard; There is a main room in the north of the main courtyard, with wings at both ends, and wings lower than the main room on both sides of the main courtyard; There should be an inverted building to the south of Diaohuamen. If there are quadrangles with higher specifications, there will even be "copying corridors".

Some people think that the traditional quadrangle in Beijing should be a family living space with public kitchen and bathroom facilities, where several generations live together and are relatively closed to the outside world. Typical quadrangles should have special plants and furnishings such as begonia, pomegranate and goldfish bowl, and indoor and outdoor furniture and decoration should have the traditional cultural characteristics of Beijing.

The above views naturally have their reasons, but in my opinion, these definitions are too broad and too modular.

According to the first view, quadrangles are not unique to Beijing. There are quadrangles in many places in China, even abroad. For example, some quadrangles in Shanxi are closed quadrangles; Hakka earth buildings in the south also have squares. Obviously, this definition of Beijing quadrangles is inappropriate.

According to the standards stated in Articles 2 and 3, there are probably only a few quadrangles in Beijing. Not to mention from the historical data, there has never been more than one type of quadrangles in Beijing. From the analysis of residential survey data in Beijing for nearly 30 years, it can be seen that there are not many quadrangles that meet this standard.

The planning department of Beijing analyzed the building quality of the old bungalows in the urban area when compiling the 1983 Beijing Urban Construction Master Plan. The conclusion is that quadrangles with good quality only account for 15.4% of all bungalows at that time.

According to the remote sensing survey data of the planning department in 1988, there were 805 fine quadrangles in the urban area at that time, covering an area of about 1 15 hectares, accounting for 1.8% of the total land in the old city. If the land for cultural relics protection units in the total land of the old city is excluded, the land for good quadrangles only accounts for 2. 1% of the total land of the old city. [3]

From 65438 to 0996, the planning department made a statistics on the three quadrangle protected areas of Nanluoguxiang, Xisibei and Dongsibei according to the land area. Among them, the quadrangles that should be protected (including regular quadrangles, irregular quadrangles and quadrangles that need to be repaired and built) account for about 30% of the total area of the three protected areas; The area of good quadrangle (main quadrangle) only accounts for 12.6% of the total area of the three protected areas. If the quadrangle reserve is still like this, there will be fewer good quadrangles in other areas.

The author thinks that Beijing quadrangle, as a residential building in a specific period and historical stage, can neither be defined by a certain fixed form nor measured by a certain fixed form and atmosphere. Mr. Liang Sicheng, a famous architect, once summed up a very incisive conclusion when discussing the characteristics of classical architecture in China: "There are differences in similarities". I think this sentence by Mr. Liang is also very suitable for the traditional quadrangles in Beijing.

The formation of quadrangles is a process of gradual evolution. According to the analysis of relevant experts, the earliest quadrangles may be based on single buildings, gradually adding fences and walls to form courtyards, and then adding warehouses, stables, toilets and so on. On the east and west sides of the courtyard, then these ancillary buildings are moved to the outer courtyard, and gradually two wings are formed on both sides of the main courtyard [4]. This is probably the history of the formation of "Zhenghe Courtyard".

Of course, in the process of social development, people have different social and economic status, different industries and different housing forms. Therefore, various forms have been formed in the development and evolution of quadrangles. There are not only the official residences of princes and ministers, but also dilapidated miscellaneous houses where the poor live; There are not only big houses for wealthy businessmen and tycoons, but also small shops and frontispiece for vendors and craftsmen. People of different classes have different social status, economic ability, cultural accomplishment, lifestyle and hobbies, so the rooms, courtyards, furniture and furnishings they live in and use are inevitably different. Therefore, in any era, there will be luxurious and typical quadrangles, shabby and shabby quadrangles, double quadrangles and row houses, and people of different classes play with different colors in these regular and irregular quadrangles.

In my opinion, the gradual formation and evolution of quadrangles in Beijing is actually the product of social economy and its political system in various historical periods, reflecting the culture and life of people of different classes in different historical periods. In the previous historical period, the wealthy class dominated by princes, rich businessmen and tycoons was always a minority, while the poor and well-off families who only solved the problem of food and clothing were the majority of Beijing's population. Based on this fact, we can infer that there will not be many regular quadrangles with begonia, fish tanks, pomegranate trees, ceilings, fat dogs and fat girls in history; And those relatively simple or even simple houses belonging to irregular quadrangles should be the main body of Beijing quadrangles at least in number. In fact, according to the analysis of historical materials such as Qing Dynasty and Qianlong Map, experts have come to the conclusion that no matter which dynasty, period and scale, regular quadrangles have never reached 50% of the total number of quadrangles in Beijing.

To sum up, it is really difficult to summarize an incisive concept of traditional quadrangles in Beijing, but can we draw a conclusion: as the product of social, economic and political systems in different historical periods, regular and irregular quadrangles have profound historical and cultural connotations and are all important components of traditional quadrangles in Beijing.