What is the difference between residential houses in China?

Si He Yuan (courtyard house)

(si he yuan)

Si He Yuan is the collective name for traditional houses with the main house and the east and west compartments around the middle courtyard to form a plan layout. 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 weft. 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 in 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 the pleasure of family, and naturally has a relaxing atmosphere.

This kind of courtyard is left over from the old society before the founding of new China, and is still in use. This kind of courtyard, generally use the entrance and exit of 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 heart of the axis, left and right rotation, can be turned off closed, safe, 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 local courtyards where the gate opens in the south-facing center.

Some families, in order to decorate the courtyard, but also in the courtyard of a door directly opposite, build a shadow wall, that is, a brick wall. In this side of the front door, there are generally 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 of the courtyard isolation.

Inside the courtyard, there are slate paved floor, there are brick paved floor, there are cobblestones paved floor, varying. Some are all paved ground in the courtyard, there are also the main channel paved, no matter how to pave, the courtyard should always leave a few places to plant trees, flowers, as a courtyard embellishment.

With the development of the times, there have been many changes in architecture. In the countryside, most of the big evolutions have occurred from the original courtyard. This is, expanding the number of rooms in the main house because the main house ?d?d the north room for good lighting. Thus, when building the house, as much as possible to make full use of the space, ground in the north, which makes the courtyard become irregularly shaped, a square or rectangular courtyard formed in front of the main house, mainly 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 is open to the outside, called the hall. The two rooms on the two sides only open to the hall, forming a suite, becoming 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 can also be divided and used as a kitchen or dining room. The back room?d?d is often built in medium-sized courtyards and above, mainly for women who have not yet left the court or for maids to live in.

The courtyard is an independent compound composed of the main house (usually the north room), the east and west rooms, and the south room, and sometimes there are east and west rooms next to the main house, with a coping corridor linking the houses on all four sides to protect them from the wind and rain.

Beijing's hutongs are generally east-west oriented, mainly to walk people, the north side of the hutong courtyard door is generally open in the southeast corner of the courtyard, the south side of the courtyard door is generally open in the west corner of the courtyard. 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, the hanging flower door inside the wall, only in the case of a major event to open, 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 home of the male servants are generally not allowed to enter this door, the door of the house is not allowed to enter the door, the door of the house is not allowed to enter the door. 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 tree will fall down a kind of bugs, commonly known as the ghost of the hanged, worried about passers-by said "how so many hanged ah," because of the mulberry tree and the "funeral" homophonic, the courtyard side is not planted mulberry trees. 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, which was first formed in the Liao Dynasty, and was gradually perfected by the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, as well as by the Ming and Qing Dynasties, eventually becoming the most characteristic form of residence in Beijing.

The so-called "sihe" refers to the east, west, south and north sides, and "huan" means that the four houses are surrounded by each other, forming a "mouth" shape. 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's formal courtyard houses are generally situated in east-west hutongs and face south, with the basic structure being the northern room (the main room), southern room (the backward room), and the eastern and western compartments on all sides, surrounded by a high wall to form a quadrangle, with a single 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 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, the courtyard is spacious, 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 has a certain system, but the size of the scale is not equal, can be roughly divided into large quadrangle, in the quadrangle, small quadrangle three:

1, small quadrangle is generally the north room three, a bright two dark or two bright a dark, east and west rooms each two, three rooms in the south room. The brick to the top of the lying, ridge tiled 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 main doors, decorated with black lacquer and oil, with a pair of brass door cymbals and couplets on both sides.

2, the middle quadrangle is more spacious than the small quadrangle, generally 5 rooms in the north room, 3 square and 2 ears, 3 rooms each in the east and west rooms, and there is a porch in front of the room to avoid the wind and rain. Separated by the courtyard wall into the front yard (outer courtyard), the back yard (inner courtyard), the courtyard wall to the moon gate connected. The depth of the forecourt is shallow, with one or two houses