Jiangnan water town of food, clothing, housing and transportation

Six ancient towns in Jiangnan Water Town: Zhouzhuang, Jiaozhuang, Tongli in Jiangsu, Xitang, Wuzhen and Nanxun in Zhejiang

Food in Jiangnan Water Town: braised mutton, sauce popped snails, Malan head cabbage, steamed white fish, mutton noodles, three white wine, flower carving, carp steamed eggs

Features of the Jiangnan Water Town dwellings: The history of the dwellings in the Jiangnan Water Town can be traced back to the Heimudu culture, which is about 7,000 years ago. The ancestors lived and prospered on this piece of land, inheriting all the dwellings and lifestyles. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jiangnan had become the most economically and culturally developed region in the country, where prominent officials, landowners, rich merchants, and literati chose to build their homes, with villas, pavilions and pavilions everywhere, each with its own unique characteristics. Due to the large population, the land is precious, Jiangnan's architecture is extremely space-saving, but in the height of the effort, its architectural art also seems to be more than exquisite, less than the grandeur. But with the hands of skilled craftsmen, a house placed in the gurgling water is still fascinating.

Compared with "Zhouzhuang" and other deep houses, the ordinary houses built near the water are more common in the south of the Yangtze River, which can best represent the characteristics of the water town houses in the south of the Yangtze River. Due to the dense network of rivers in the southern region, most people rely on waterway transportation, residential homes are built near the river, due to the large number of people and little land, the ground becomes confined, so the formation of a unique water village small openings, long depth, the number of layers of high residential forms. The closely arranged buildings meander along the river, forming the unique river channel in Jiangnan. The Yangtze River Delta and the Taihu Lake water network area, where the Jiangnan Water Town is located, has a mild climate, distinct seasons and abundant rainfall, thus forming a transportation system mainly based on water transportation. The production and life of the residents rely on water, this natural environment and functional needs, shaped the rich flavor of the Jiangnan water town residential style and characteristics.

Jiangnan water town dwellings in the monolithic wooden structure of one or two-story hall type of residence, in order to adapt to the climatic characteristics of Jiangnan, residential layout more through the hall, patio, courtyard. Constructed for the tile roof, empty bucket wall, Guanyin pocket ridge or horse head wall, forming a staggered height, whitewashed walls, courtyard deep architectural group style. The environment of the water town of many rivers appeared in the water alleys, bridges, barges, pedal ferry, wharf, stone road, water wall door, street building and so on rich in the water town characteristics of the architectural vignettes, composed of a whole set of the water town of the living environment.

Because of the Jiangnan water town has been one of the most culturally developed areas of the country, the talent pool, so many households in the water towns are poets and scholars. And because of the abundance of goods and commerce, these towns have always been the place where officials and eunuchs retired, rich villas, and bachelors resided. Those who have cultural literacy is of course carefully created premises; and some rich gents and merchants are also attached to elegance, employing learned earth planning, so in many water towns left a lot of exquisite courtyard house. Secondly, most of these water township houses were built in feudal society, feudal ethics, Confucian tradition, feng shui customs have a direct impact on the management of these houses layout, arrangement of premises. Such as the main hall, before and after the order of position, the distinction between the host and the guest, the master and the servant of the isolation, the difference between men and women, etc. in the design of the unique approach, which is the Jiangnan water town houses of human factors in the consciousness of the idea of the reflection of the shape.

Based on the scale of the residence, it can be divided into three categories:

Majority of the mansion is the residence of rich merchants, officials and eunuchs, and the vertical is called into the horizontal is called down, and the mansion is more than nine into the less than four into the more than seven into a less than one down ranging. For example, the Shen Hall in Zhouzhuang is seven. Some of the mansions and gardens are skillfully combined, both to create a residential building products - private gardens, but also to add the attraction of the residence itself. For example, the Retreat Garden in Tongli Town is a very exquisite garden.

Mansions in the layout, usually have a strict axis, the main door facing south or east, the house rules square, into the fall in order.

The main house is generally five into the main hall, in turn, by the foyer (along the street with some stores or buildings), sedan chair hall (parking sedan chair), the main hall (reception of major guests, wedding and funeral ceremonies), within the hall (meet with relatives and friends, family deliberations), women's hall (also known as the upper room, often used for living room) composed of the main building to the box room or the courtyard wall enclosure composed of the courtyard. The side of the general not open the door independently, often by the flower hall (meet with regular guests, hold banquets, etc.), study (reading), garden, house (living), kitchen (more along the back alleys to open the door, do not cause interference, but there is no family bathrooms, toilets) composition. The entrance of the house is along the street or along the river, which is convenient for the entrance and exit of people and transportation of goods. Between the two falls, often set back alley, so that not only separated the master and servant traffic routes, but also greatly enhanced the privacy of the house, and is conducive to sound insulation, fire and burglary.

Middle house from the form of similar to the mansion, the difference is that the number of middle house into less, generally less than four, and generally no side drop, the combination of internal space is not as elaborate as the mansion, but compared to the more flexible. The middle-income families are mostly in this house.

Small house, is a general civilian residence, smaller, mostly one to two, some along the street, some along the river, the layout is more casual, for the water townships and towns unique alleys and water lanes landscape.

Ordinary small house occupies a small area, there is no strict axis, generally two, the width of more than one to three, the form of free, according to the local conditions, the use of space is reasonable, but the privacy is poor. Ordinary small house along the river along the street often have business nature, the river are open, there is a pedal crossing the water port has been to the water. Water towns and cities in the combination of its halls, created a number of characteristic components, not only enriched the content of the water towns and houses, but also has a strong character. The patio is a characteristic component used for light and ventilation in residential houses. In the general courtyard, its depth is equal to its height, and there are various widths, such as the three-room main house, which is based on the width of the bright room. Or five openings of the larger, then the width of the bright room or the second room shall prevail. In the mansion, the patio is mostly made into a rectangle, and the depth of the two wedges will be reduced, or use the corridor instead of compartments, the patio into a horizontal rectangle, east and west of the length of the larger, better ventilation, and can reduce the sun's irradiation in the summer. Permanent front and back patio to facilitate ventilation, the back of the sky **** generally smaller depth, planted with deciduous trees to facilitate shade.

Brick doorway This is done on the front and back into the waist door, is purely decorative features components, the doorway of the Ming Dynasty is more simple, the Qing Dynasty carving is more complicated, these doorways are inscribed with plaques.

Wall The water town dwellings are mainly wood structure, so the wall has an important fire prevention function, the general mountain wall are higher than the roof, made of ladder type or flat head high wall, called "seal fire wall" or "daughter wall". The wall can be divided into two kinds of solid masonry and empty bucket, or under the solid on the empty hybrid. Wall base commonly used stone, lime stucco, when used as a decorative wall, it is used to grind bricks with water veneer, both simple and show the owner of the earnest.

Floor The open ground in the courtyard house (such as the patio) with slate paved, block paved, cracked stone or cobblestone paving, but also brick paved. Indoor ground are used brick. Jiangnan rainy, shallow water table, the indoor easy to damp, generally first tamped with lime, on which the sand, sand on the brick, to avoid moisture, the room of the residence with wooden floors.

Xuan is the indoor ceiling, in fact, the roof to increase - an air insulation layer. Some of the Xuan of the mansions and houses are decorated with elaborate wood carvings, and there are various practices such as boat-topped Xuan, crane-topped Xuan, flower basket Xuan, and so on.

Roofs and walls The roofs are covered with green tiles, and the entire sloped roofs are slightly curved inward, which is conducive to roof drainage, and there are a lot of patterns of roof ridges, and ordinary small houses only use tiles to build vertically, and the ends of the tiles are made with simple ornaments. Large, medium-sized residential main hall ridge head made of dragons, chickens and other decorations. Ordinary mountain wall for the hard mountain type not out of the roof, halls and other important buildings of the mountain wall with out of the roof of the screen wall, with the size of the depth of the house, there is a mountain, three mountain and five mountain screen wall of the different.

The general outlook of the Jiangnan water town houses is: cottages mixed with buildings, various kinds of walls, forming alleys and water lanes on the barge that undulating, staggered landscape, architectural modeling light and simple, virtual and real, color and elegant, in accordance with the local conditions, near the river and the water, the spatial contours of the soft and rich in a sense of aesthetics. Therefore, it is often called "pink walls and tiles" and "small bridges and flowing water".

Jiangnan Waterfront Dress: Rural women living in the area of Jiaozhi, Shengpu, Weiting, and Chen tomb in Wu County, east of Suzhou, still retain the traditional purchase of folk costumes. They have always combed their heads, tied their headscarves, and wore patchwork shirts, patchwork pants, Cambodian stubborn skirts, wrapped bladders, and embroidered shoes as the main features of traditional dress, which is quite characteristic of the Jiangnan water town, and is therefore known as the "ethnic minorities of Suzhou".

Women in the water town attach great importance to the combing and decoration of the head, and they show their dexterity and dignified beauty by their black hair, large hair stay, numerous ornaments, supplemented by exquisite head wraps and costumes. The local characteristics of their costumes are very strong and the inheritance is stable, but with the change of seasons, age differences and the need for etiquette, and there are obvious differences. Generally speaking, spring and fall, spring and fall seasonal costumes are particularly distinctive. Spring and Autumn season clothing tops are mainly patchwork shirts, fabrics are mostly flower cloth, earth cloth, dark and light shillelagh cloth as the main tone, contrasting colors, bright but not colorful, colorful but not vulgar, commonly used several colors of fabrics spliced together, tailored, sewing fine, decorative, and its characteristics are also reflected through the decorative techniques of the clothing Song: there are splicing, piping, new climbers, with ornaments, embroidery and so on. The pants are mostly made of white printed cloth on blue ground or blue printed cloth on white ground, and the trouser stopper is spliced with blue or black silk cloth. These costumes were initially spliced due to the limitation of cloth width and material saving, and the splicing was developed from realizing the actual need of splicing to the subjective consciousness of splicing, and all of them paid attention to the neat and balanced and symmetrical form of beauty. The waist skirt is also very unique, knee-length, the skirt is very thin, the surface of the skirt and the skirt are decorated with different crafts, outside the skirt tied a small waist, the waist is connected to the skirt with the auxiliary parts. A large pocket is sewn on the waist, and various patterns are embroidered around the waist and on the belt, which are important decorations in the costume. The design of the skirt is very practical, labor Cambodian stubborn skirt, waist and back is not easy to wind and cold, standing and can increase the strength of the waist. Hem larger, does not affect the action, is conducive to paddy field operations, but also convenient to the field of small relief cover, both practical and beautiful. However, the water village area shoes are also very strong. The form of shoes is quite like a boat, not divided into left and right, so it is also known as boat-shaped embroidered shoes, the upper of the two hangers composite, the upper is mainly embroidered, brightly colored, colorful patterns. The workmanship of the boat shoes is fine and durable, sturdy and affordable, and they are the traditional ceremonial shoes for women in the water towns.

Women's clothing in the water towns, with the age of the size, has different requirements, young women to fancy mainly, fine use of clothing on the limited space, clever use of color contrast, set off, interlacing techniques, in order to achieve conspicuous, fancy artistic effect, just right out of the water towns of the women's human body beauty and beauty of the decorations, give people a sense of lightness and spontaneity.

While middle-aged and elderly women are mainly in dark colors, their costumes are solemn and stable, and they are required to wear stretchy and wide clothes, so they give people a sense of simplicity and dignity.

Women's clothing in the water town has a long history, and has been passed down from generation to generation, and has become a habit because of it, with a strong inheritance. For many years, after the screening of the working masses, a series of folk costumes with water town characteristics have been designed. Suitable for women's wear in the water village, especially suitable for production and labor in the water village, with high practical value, loved by the people. In the long-term development, these costumes are constantly changing and updating, forming the aesthetic concepts with the characteristics of the national culture tradition in the water town area, and proving that human beings are in accordance with the law of beauty, shaping themselves and beautifying themselves. So far, the Jiaozhi area still retains the traditional characteristics of women's folk costumes in the Jiangnan water town.