What about the size of the back of the ancient shadow?

The Scale of Ancient Architecture in China and the Theory of "Five Elements"

In fact, the lengths of woodworking rulers used in different places are also different, which may be caused by poor manufacturing, long-term wear and tear, transmission errors and differences in the inheritance of architectural rulers in previous dynasties. 1986, the author has conducted a wide range of investigations on traditional woodworking rulers in various places; It is found that there is little difference in the absolute value of the length of woodworking straightedge from place to place (Table 6- 1). In addition to the story described by the Hao family, this seems to be related to the long-term centralized system and unified measurement in China.

Note: ※ Degree of people who have never read Wuzhong National History 1.

The building ruler is ten inches, and the woodworking ruler is ten inches based on the building ruler. There are also some differences between the two. The building ruler is a building ruler issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade according to the rule. Woodworking ruler is a ruler used by folk carpenters. In order to facilitate climbing in use, woodworking rulers are often made into L-shape, commonly known as "bending ruler". The angle between the two sides of the ruler is a right angle, which is the so-called "moment" in ancient times. The short side of the ruler is one foot long, and the length of the long side changes with the use of the ground. Some are as long as two feet, but the length is generally determined by "square five oblique seven" (Figure 6-2). There are also some small rulers with sides of five inches and seven inches respectively.

In traditional buildings, the construction ruler is the main ruler. The official palace buildings, temples, and folk houses in the past dynasties are basically based on this, especially the official buildings. However, due to the widespread popularity of Feng Shui, some concepts of Feng Shui have also penetrated into the scale. Therefore, there are various rulers and ruler methods closely related to Feng Shui, such as white ruler, door ruler, ovary ruler, nine-day Xuan Nv ruler and Ding Lan ruler. Among them, "white ruler" and "door lamp ruler" are popular and have great influence. Let's introduce them separately below.

Double-pressure white ruler method

The white ruler method is a popular superstitious calculation method for determining the scale of buildings. It is the product of the combination of Yijing Bagua, Yin and Yang Five Elements, Luoshu Jiugong, carpentry scale and architectural design, and it is the concrete application of Feng Shui theory in architectural construction methods.

In the traditional architectural design, ancient geomantic omen and craftsmen associated the carpentry scale with each star palace in the nine-star map, so the scale included one white, two black, three blue, four green, six white, seven red and eight white nine purple in Huang Wu. According to the laws set by Kanyu, these three white stars belong to auspicious stars, so the scale is auspicious. The proportion determined in this way is used in architectural design, which is called "pressing white" proportion method. Nine purple stars in the nine planets are lucky stars, which can also be used, thus forming an auspicious scale of purple and white, so the method of pressing the white ruler is also called the "purple and white" ruler method.

The methods of pressing white ruler are divided into "ruler white" and "inch white". Ruler white is the method to determine ruler unit; Inch white is the way to determine inch units. They are all methods used by builders to determine the overall spatial scale of houses, such as height, width and depth. Generally speaking, both foot white and inch white are used in the design of Buddhist temples and large-scale houses, while ordinary house design only emphasizes inch white, which is related to the size of the building. For example, the "Lu Ban Jing" only uses inch white. It also varies with time and place because of the formation and spread of the white ruler method and the different schools of craftsmen. For example, in Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province, the principle of its use is "ruler white has the amount of ruler white, and ruler white has no amount of inch white", that is, ruler units should be used as much as possible when there is a suitable scale of ruler white. For example, if there is no ruler white or the scale is small, it is convenient to use the white ruler scale in inches. No matter how white it is, the general principle is to "suppress white".

In order to facilitate the use and dissemination of memory, the use methods of foot white and inch white have been compiled into formulas. The formula can be divided into father divination and mother divination. God's divination is white feet and inches, which is a formula for measuring the vertical dimension (house height); The ruler white and inch white of Mother Earth divination are scale formulas for horizontal dimensions (such as house depth, area width, etc.) (Figure 1-3). The ancients thought that residence was the hub of yin and yang, and it should be a place where heaven and earth meet and yin and yang meet.

The use of concepts such as divination by the heavenly father and divination by the earthly mother is related to the concepts of the ancients, such as "the sky is round, the heavenly father and earthly mother are sunny and cloudy, and the sky is rich". The data calculated by foot white and inch white is not a fixed constant, but a variable that is easy to change according to the orientation of the house, that is to say, the value of white mark is calculated according to the orientation of the house. Geely's data are different with different architectural orientations.

The nine planets are the basis of the calculation of the white letters, and the eight diagrams attribute of the mountain house is matched with the nine stars of the white letters to infer good or bad luck. The nine planets originated from the Big Dipper in astronomy. In ancient times, people used the stars in celestial bodies to determine the position and time. There are many ways to determine the position, and the time of determining the position of Polaris is the main method, because the position of Polaris is due north, and the earth axis just points to it. On the periphery of Polaris, there is a bucket handle-shaped constellation composed of seven stars, which is called the Big Dipper (Ursa Major). One star of Beidou is Shu Tian, two stars are Tian Xuan, three stars are celestial poles, and four stars are Tianquan. These four stars are connected into a square bucket, which is collectively called Kui. The fifth star is Yuheng, the sixth star is Kaiyang, the seventh star is Yaoguang, and the third star is connected into a line like a handle, which is collectively called structure. There are two little stars beside Kaiyang and Yaoguang. The one on the left is called the symbol, and the one on the right is called Bi. Because of its small magnitude and weak light (the Big Dipper is a second-class star, and the satellite is less than four), it is generally ignored by people. In this way, the Big Dipper and the auxiliary two stars become * * * nine planets. The Big Dipper revolves around Polaris from east to west, with one revolution for one year. Spring is in the east, summer is in the south, autumn is in the west and winter is in the north. The ancients used the position of the Big Dipper and the direction of bucket handle to judge the seasons of the four seasons, and determined four squares in the southeast, northwest and northwest.

According to Beidou and Fu Bi, the geomantic master evolved nine geomantic stars (table 1-2), namely Wolf-greedy, Jumen, Lucun, Wen Qu, Lian Zhen, Wu Qu, Pojun, Zuo Fu and Youbi. According to their order and form, the names of good and bad directions were matched in the format of five elements and eight houses. The wolf is the angry wood, the giant gate is the natural medicine soil, and Lu Cun is the harmful soil. Wen Qu is the six evil waters, Lian Zhen is the five-jack-o'-lantern, Wu Qu is the life-prolonging gold, Pojun is the broken gold, and the auxiliary body is the fumu. So eight to five, one fire and water, two wood, gold and earth, can be matched with gossip. Experts believe that Wolf-greedy, Giant Gate, Wu Qu and Fu Bi help each other and are auspicious stars. Pojun, Lucun, Wen Qu and Lian Zhen are all enemies, so they are designated as evil stars. The geomancers often use the good and bad luck of the nine planets to show people Feng Shui. The eight diagrams in the ruler white match the nine planets, so one hexagram corresponds to one star because of the combination of auxiliary and bi. As can be seen from the above, there is no "white" in nine planets ruler, but Jixing is also called "white" by borrowing the concepts of nine-star chart and inch white, and the order and quantity of ruler white are quite different from inch white (Table 1-3).

The meaning of the ruler-white formula of divination by Heaven and Mother is to point out the star corresponding to a certain divination "one foot", and then calculate from the star and circularly deduce the stars corresponding to the second, third and fourth grades. In turn, according to the order of the ruler-white nine stars. According to the good or bad luck of the stars, we can know the good or bad luck value of the ruler, so as to get the preliminary lucky ruler number. For example, in "Divination in Heaven", "There is a dry divination" means that if the house sits on a mountain and belongs to a dry divination, the first and second feet from the right star are wolves, and the third foot is a giant gate. In order to explain the cooperation between the scroll and divination, and the origin of the section of good and ill luck, this paper briefly describes the calculation of the auspicious number of the section by sitting in a mountain house, and the steps are as follows:

(1) Determine the orientation of the house according to the environment "sizing up the situation" or the owner's life. Suppose a house faces due east. From the 24 directions of the compass, it can be seen that the person sitting on the mountain is due west, that is, the direction of the mountain;

(2) According to the gossip method, determine the divination position of the house sitting on the mountain. Najia originated from Taoist alchemy, which is a theoretical and schematic method to explain the changes of the sun and the moon and the laws of solar terms. Ancient geomantic omen used and developed this theory, and combined the eight diagrams theory with the twenty-four directions of geomantic compass to create the "twenty-four mountains and one armor" method used in geomantic omen. This method is applied to the method of white ruler to determine which divination the house in a certain direction belongs to. That is subordinate (table 1-4).

According to the Najia law, the house on Mount Youshan belongs to divination;

(3) According to the foot white formula, the foot white number is deduced. From the ruler to the white side, the heavenly father divines one foot from the wolf star, and the mother divines one foot from the five stars, and then obtains the lucky number of the ruler unit through the corresponding good and bad luck. List of calculation results 1-5 (where the number of feet corresponding to "."is an auspicious number):

Inch white is calculated by nine colors in the nine-star map. "One white, two black, three blue, four green, Huang Wu, six white, seven red, eight white, and nine purple" is the form and order of the Kanyu family. Of the nine planets, four are auspicious and the rest are evil (Table 6-6). Father's divination and Mother Earth's divination in inches during the day all depend on these nine colors. Just like the white feet, the white inches also need to match the sitting of the house to calculate the value of the white inches. However, in the combination of "nine stars in inch white" and "eight", one star is not worthy of hexagrams, so in the formula of "inch white", the heavenly father's hexagrams are reduced by one white, and the earthly mother's hexagrams are reduced by nine purple's formula of "inch white" (see table 1-7).

Like ruler Bai, the meaning of the "one inch" formula of divination by God and Mother Earth is to point out the purple and white stars corresponding to the "one inch" of divination, and then deduce the stars corresponding to two inches, three inches, four inches and nine inches in turn according to the arrangement order of nine purple and white stars. Using the ancient evil of nine planets, we can get the initial auspicious value.

Here are a few examples to illustrate the cooperation between inch white and hexagrams and the origin of inch value:

(1) Suppose the house faces due south and the mountain is due north, which is the afternoon direction of Zi Shan.

(2) According to the formula of Eight Diagrams, it is known that Zuozishan's house belongs to divination.

(3) According to the formula of "inch white", it can be known that the distance between the Heavenly Father's divination and the Earth Mother's divination is one inch, and the Geely value table is 1-8.

For example, the number of feet white and inches white is only a preliminary calculation. It should be based on the five-element attribute of the nine planets (which has been converted into the five-element attribute of the scale) and the five-element attribute of the house to see how the five-element relationship is, and finally determine the specific size value used in the architectural scale. However, the position of the five lines of orientation and size is not equal, orientation is the main one, and size is the secondary one. Therefore, the change of the orientation of the house determines the change of the size, and the two are inferred according to the principle of five elements.

Assuming that A stands for orientation and B stands for size, the principle of five elements collocation of AB is shown in table 1-9.

In this paper, an example is given to illustrate the final determination of the scale of white pressing. From the table 1 18, we can know that the auspicious values of the divination inch of the heavenly father in Zishan Wuzhai are 5, 7, 8 and 9 inches, and their five elements are gold, earth, fire and water respectively. According to the five elements of orientation, Zi Shan belongs to wood. According to the principle of combining orientation and size, the finally available Geely values are 7 inches and 9 inches (table 1- 10).

However, after such screening, it is decided to adopt a small number of sizes, which is too restrictive, cumbersome and inconvenient to use. Through investigation, we know that in practical application, the last five lines are generally omitted, and the initial foot white and inch white values can be directly used. Only when there are many similar size values to choose from can we use the five elements to determine the grams. For people with a good foundation, it is not necessary to calculate the direction of the Geely size towards the mountain, but directly take the four values of 1, 6, 8 and 9 corresponding to one white, six white and eight white nine purple (Figure 1-5).

The Geely size obtained by the white label method is not suitable for every scale in the building, and it is mainly used to control or attach the key dimensions such as the scale and height of the plane column network in large wooden structures. The main control scope is as follows:

① Ridge height refers to the height from indoor floor to spinal epithelium;

(2) The cornice height refers to the vertical height from the indoor ground to the rafters or the bottom of the cornice (close to the dripping height);

③ Face width refers to the horizontal distance between faces, such as heart, second and tip. If it cannot be completely satisfied due to factors such as terrain or materials, the heart must be "white" and the rest need not be forced;

(4) the depth refers to the horizontal distance of the center of each column in the depth direction of the building plane column network;

(5) cornice refers to the horizontal distance from the center of the front and rear eaves column along the rafters to the overhangs.

⑥ Underangle refers to the horizontal distance from the center of the front and rear eaves column to the outer edge of the step. two

According to the field investigation, in the past, houses in Chaoshan area of Guangdong Province were mostly built by overpressure white ruler method. Xufuma House in Chaozhou is a large mansion-style residence. According to experts' appraisal, its building is the original building before the middle of Ming Dynasty at the latest. Although it was repaired later, the plane and beam frame did not change (Figures 6-6 and 6-7). The direction of nave in Xufu is 8o south by east, and Renshan is three-way, deviating from hexagrams. Chaozhou local carpenter is one foot twenty-nine. Seven centimeters. See Table 5- 1 1 for the measured dimensions and calculation results of Xufu Central Hall.

As can be seen from the above example:

(1) the height, width and other main dimensions of the roof building meet the Geely value;

(2) Only inch white, not foot white.

In many Qing Dynasty dwellings in Chaozhou, the measured dimensions are consistent with the white ruler method. After the middle of Qing dynasty, the method of pressing white ruler developed more perfect.

Interpretation of bending ruler figure;

"Foot * * * is ten inches, and it takes ten minutes. The height, height, length and short of building opening are all expressed on this ruler, which must be used as seriously as a man-eating tiger. Compared with this eight-inch number, it is better to have more good luck and less bad luck. Once the craftsman uses this number, it is generous and auspicious. " (Editor's explanation)

In fact, the key dimensions of the building, such as beam height and plane, should be determined according to the use function, terrain conditions, material preparation, scale between frames, structural performance and hoisting technology. After a long period of experience, craftsmen make the spatial scale and mechanical scale of architectural design coincide with the white scale to a certain extent, which becomes simple and convenient, and forms a systematic architectural scale system to a certain extent.