Characteristics of Lijiang Traditional Dwellings

The traditional folk houses of Naxi nationality in Lijiang are the largest type of architecture, reflecting the economic and cultural level, national customs, production and lifestyle, ethics, religious beliefs and philosophical values of Naxi nationality, with distinctive characteristics.

Plane feature

The Naxi folk house is called "one side", which takes the spacious three-bay room as a unit, the first floor, the first floor and the second floor as the main body, and the courtyard as the center to form an inward courtyard is one of its characteristics. Every family has a spacious mansion (veranda), and the houses in each square are connected by the mansion, which is the second feature; The annex building is located in the "leaky corner", that is, the corner of two adjacent houses. The entrance is on the end wall of the wing and is controlled by a door, which is the third feature. Because the yard area is large, the surrounding houses are moderately high, and the ventilation and lighting are good, which is its fourth feature; The main building is the leading building in the courtyard, with the west facing east or the north facing south, which embodies "purple gas coming from the east" and "colorful Yunnan", with its fifth feature of "going against the universe and facing the sun" in the east and south.

The basic plane types that make up the courtyard

Sihe patio-a closed quadrangle consisting of main room, lower room, left and right wing rooms and four or five square rooms. In addition to the middle yard, there are four small patios with "missing corners" in the four corners. Generally, there are two wings with shallow depth and reduced room height at both ends of the main house, which are separated by a patio, facing the gables of the adjacent wings of the main house, that is, "three rooms and two ears form a four-in-one and five-in-one patio".

Three squares and one zhaobi-one side of the main room, one side of the left and right wing rooms, and the lower room opposite the main room with four patios and five patios, surrounded by a zhaobi, form a three-in-one courtyard.

Two-turn house-if the economic conditions do not allow for the time being, build two squares first. These two squares cannot be built opposite to each other, but must be arranged in a rectangle, thus forming a plane pattern of two square corners, and the other two sides are composed of a wall and a fence.

Sihetou-Like the "four-in-one-five patio", it consists of four houses, with a main room and left and right wing rooms. There are three differences: first, the roofs of two adjacent squares overlap, and the main room is higher than the wing. There are not only spatial levels, but also inclined ditches are avoided, and there is a saying of "ten inclined and nine leaks" in construction; The roofs of the two houses adjacent to Sihetou are the same height, and an oblique ditch is formed at the intersection, which is the joint. Second, the "Sihetou" building is connected with the four Xia Zi families and becomes the "Happy Valley Corner Building". Third, the former can choose any form of three-sided wooden frame; The latter is limited to the "soaring building" frame without waist eaves.

Front and rear courtyards-four planes, namely "three squares and one wall", "four entrances and five patios", "four entrances and one head" and "two turn houses", are all small-sized houses based on the basic plane type of the courtyard center; The "front and back yard" is a plane type composed of the above two types, which is connected with two hospitals. It is characterized by connecting two courtyards with a living room, with the front yard as the garden and the back yard as the main courtyard, and the axes of both courtyards are on the axis of the house. Forecourt housing is generally a small and exquisite hall and other buildings that are in harmony with the garden of the house.

Two courtyards-different from the front and back courtyards, the two courtyards are not arranged on the axis of the main house, but parallel to each other, and they are connected by a hall. Typically, each house has axes parallel to each other. "Front and back yards" and "two houses" are generally medium-sized units.

Once in two houses-meaning that after entering the gate, there is a transitional space, and then there are two entrances into the yard. Each courtyard has the above four basic plane types, which are connected by the flower hall and the hall to form a courtyard with multiple entrances.

Multi-entry and multi-hospital-it is a multi-hospital synthesis of the above four basic plane types, which develops vertically, horizontally and synchronously. "One into two houses" and "many into many houses" generally belong to rich houses, which are large-sized houses.

Naxi folk houses are mostly civil structures, and the common forms are: three squares and one wall, four entrances and five patios, front and rear courtyards, and one entrance and two courtyards. Among them, room ratio is the most basic and common living form of Naxi nationality in Lijiang. Structurally, the main room and one side are generally higher, facing south and facing the wall. Mainly for the elderly; The east and west rooms are slightly lower, for the next generation to live in; Patio is used for living, mostly paved with bricks and stones, and often beautified with flowers and plants. If there is a house facing the street, residents will use it as a pavement. Rural houses with three rooms and one wall are slightly different from towns in function. Generally speaking, three squares have two floors. The main square facing east and the wing square facing south live downstairs, and the upstairs is used as a warehouse. The square facing north is used as the stable downstairs, and the forage is stored upstairs. The patio is not only used for living, but also for production (such as drying millet or processing grain), so the patio in rural areas is slightly larger and the ground is relatively flat, so there is no masonry. In addition, the most striking feature of Naxi folk houses is that there is a spacious mansion (that is, an veranda) in front of every house, regardless of urban and rural areas. Xia Zi is one of the important parts of the Naxi folk houses in Lijiang, which is inseparable from Lijiang's pleasant climate. So Naxi people moved some functions of the room, such as eating and meeting guests, to the mansion.

As far as architectural design, architectural style and art are concerned, the Naxi folk houses in Dayan ancient city are the most distinctive. The ancient city is located on Lijiang Dam, with Xiangshan and Jinghong Mountains in the north and Lion Mountain in the west, and the east and west sides are cheerful and vast. In the city, Yuquan water flowing from the foot of Xiangshan flows from the northwest of the ancient city to the foot of Yulong Bridge, which is divided into three tributaries: Xihe River, Zhonghe River and Donghe River, and then divided into numerous tributaries, which flow through the streets of the ancient city. Taking advantage of this favorable natural condition, the streets of the ancient city are neatly and freely arranged into an informal grid, with the main street near the river, the alleys near the canal, the roads extending with the bend of the canal, and the houses being combined according to the height of the terrain. Among these houses, the houses facing the street are mostly paved, or the owners manage some small commodities themselves or sublet them to others. For a long time, the Naxi people have formed a fine tradition of advocating nature and culture, and being good at learning and absorbing advanced cultures of other nationalities. This tradition has had a great influence on the art of residential architecture. It is manifested in the following aspects: distinctive features of residential buildings, construction according to local conditions, simple and vivid modeling and exquisite and elegant decoration.

In addition, Naxi people have always paid attention to seismic performance in architectural design, and summarized some effective seismic structural measures. This can be seen from the1996 "2.3" earthquake that a large number of residential walls collapsed in the ancient city, but the main frame was intact.

The structure of Naxi folk houses has a certain relationship with the surrounding geographical environment and folk customs.

(1) flexibility. Naxi custom: When brothers grow up, especially in rural areas, in order to facilitate farming activities, brothers should set up a new family. Generally, older brothers have to build new houses and move the allocated houses. Because the wooden frame has the flexibility of folding and installation, it can be disassembled in turn according to the number of components when it was first assembled, and reassembled from place A to place B.

(2) adaptability. Old Town of Lijiang is a famous cultural city, which is characterized by mountains and rivers, changeable terrain, slopes and rivers, and curved terrain. Therefore, residential buildings are organized into informal and freely distributed streets, which gather in the central square of the ancient city-"Sifang Street", forming the whole of the ancient city. The ancient city has the beauty of both a mountain city and a water town, and the building has completely maintained its unique local style, reflecting the adaptability of Naxi traditional houses to complex landforms.

The appearance characteristics of Naxi folk houses: the outer wall can't reach the top, the upper part of the back wall is separated by wooden boards, and the gables at both ends are separated from the peak by "sparrow terrace", which makes the peaches hanging under the eaves look deep. A long fishboard hangs from the top of the mountain. The wall slopes slightly from bottom to top, and the roof extends softly. Make the building structure light and elegant. Naxi folk houses are a mixed structure system of soil, stone, brick and wood with wood structure as the skeleton and wood structure as the main body. Due to the diversity of structures, houses have different shapes and rich contents. Every frame has its name, and the house composed of various frames is named after the frame.

Classification, characteristics and functions of wood structures

(1) bungalow buildings: according to the scale of the space covered under the tile roof, it can be divided into three types: bungalow buildings without big houses, usually called small bungalows; There are bungalow frames, and the houses formed by this frame are usually called bungalows; After cutting Beijing (Gold), the structure of Jingda bungalow is usually called double-sided Xiamen bungalow. The house garden in the front and back yard needs a small bungalow for the study with strong lighting; In cities and towns, small bungalows are often used to organize courtyards due to economic reasons or homestead restrictions, and small bungalows are rarely used in suburban and rural farmhouses. Poor economic conditions, with bungalows as wing rooms, finishing the courtyard; In large houses with many apartments, large bungalows with luxury houses on both sides are often used as living rooms or foyers. Whenever there is a holiday banquet at home, they are often used as living rooms to entertain distinguished guests. First, it is not disturbed by the upstairs. Second, the structure is high, and some eaves intersecting with adjacent houses are easy to stagger and overlap, so it is easy to set up indoors-hanging lights and red trees. Especially in the flower hall or lobby located in the east and south, it is more beneficial to the sunshine to use bungalows for courtyard lighting.

(2) The frame of stuffy building: it is divided by numerous panels at the top of the ground floor. There are three forms of frame: stuffy building, stuffy building entering Beijing and stuffy building. The three forms of buildings have no eaves, and the houses are relatively short, especially the floors. Folklore is the example of wooden toast, and only people are allowed to build such buildings, with the intention of "bowing at the sight of wood". Although the floor of the house is short, similar to the attic, it is not the same. There is a passage between the three rooms and a square that can pass people from one end to the other. Folk experience shows that stuffy buildings are more windproof, so many areas with strong airflow all the year round use stuffy buildings to organize courtyards.

(3) Second-order mansion structure: A large number of investigation data show that "second-order mansion" building is the earliest one among the existing traditional houses. Its structural feature is that there is no interference from the partition room at the top of the mansion, and it is a building that emphasizes the mansion. The Naxi language of Lou is "Jian", which is homophonic with the Chinese character "Tiao", jumping from downstairs to upstairs, and evolving from bungalow to building. The Naxi meaning of "two-step mansion" is called "two floors", which means adding another floor on top of the bungalow and the house will become a building. In Naxi residential buildings, several types of architectural appellations are all Chinese words. No matter in towns or remote mountainous areas, the appellation of "two buildings" has continued to this day. When organizing the courtyard, the "second-order mansion" is often regarded as the main residence of the leaders, especially the official residence.

(4) Ming Lou architecture: Ming Lou architecture is characterized by no luxury houses. That is, the "two-step mansion" structure subtracts the big mansion part, so the two-step mansion structure is also called "bright building and big garden". Ming Lou is small, also known as "small building". The atrium in the "four-in-one five-patio" is composed of an open frame. Lijiang has a high demand for kitchen space because it burns firewood for cooking, cooks pig food and discharges cigarettes at will. Generally, the small building in the northwest corner is used as a kitchen when the floor insulation is removed. Among the urban dwellings, the smaller homestead also takes the Ming building as its wings to organize the courtyard; Small buildings in other leaky corners outside the kitchen are often used as quiet bookstores; One of the leaky corners is often used as a stable in urban areas to raise mounts. There are two ways to add a waist eave on the frame of the Ming building, which echoes the main building: one is to hang the foot building and the other is to ride the building. When facing the street, the waist eaves are laid on both sides to become commercial shops or handicraft workshops in the front shop and backyard. Or a restaurant.

(5) Building full of buildings: The mansion of this building is downstairs, and the farmhouse is often used as a "grass building", so more forage can be stored downstairs. Like an open building, the male building can also be added with a waist eaves, that is, the hanging-foot building style is called "hanging the building on the male building" and the riding-building style is called "riding the building on the male building". Without waist eaves, it is called "Tian Chong is full of buildings", and the courtyard of "Happy Valley Corner Building" is composed of it. However, after technical treatment, the eaves on the inner side are longer, which is generally 150 cm away from the front eaves column. Handicraft households and commercial households basically use the courtyard of the building, and the available space under the eaves is very large. Handicraft families are convenient for arranging workshops and drying products, and businessmen are convenient for storing more transformed and revolving goods.

(6) Arcade Mansion: This kind of building is between "two-step mansion building" and "barbarian building". The bottom structure of the "two-step building frame" building is completely separated from the floor space; "Man-style building structure" mansion is all under the floor partition; And half of the "arcade frame" mansion is under the mezzanine. Its characteristics are more eye-catching than full buildings, and the utilization rate of upstairs space is better than that of "two-step mansion". According to the survey data, most houses, whether farmhouses or urban residents, whether left over or built in modern times, adopt this frame, which shows that it has great advantages, and the most important thing is its good seismic performance; However, the "two-step mansion" structure is separated from the mansion, which has poor firmness and strong stability.

(7) Double-sided building: There are many ways to form a double-sided building, and there are many names for it. For example, a building with two steps on one side and a arcade on the other side is called "two buildings that are open and arcaded at the same time". The double-sided mansion with two steps is called "Bell and Drum Tower Frame". It is a greenhouse or hall house with multiple courtyards, and the double-sided building can flexibly meet the requirements of keeping the shape of the house consistent with the two houses.

In addition to the above seven kinds of frames, the frame of the house is divided into two types: the middle frame and the two-headed mountain frame. In the middle is a closed beam frame. So houses can be built on lots with complicated terrain. The frame of the house is composed of various types of structures, including middle frame and two-headed mountain frame. In the middle is a beam frame, and the joist is composed of beautiful contour components such as pearls, so it is called "pearl frame". At both ends are corresponding types of mountain frames, and there are two types of mountain frames: one is a bucket-wearing "frame for standing people (children's column is called dwarf)", which is used for hard mountain houses; Second, the "crib frame" of the stoplog type is used to hang the mountain house. Among the traditional houses of Naxi nationality, the hanging mountain house is the most common and representative.

It is the law of ancient city architecture and the way you appreciate it.

Building along the river is the first feature of ancient urban architecture. When you get off the Dashiqiao and go downstream, without the left bank of the river, you will find that the direction of Qiyi Street is almost synchronous with the flow direction of the middle reaches, forming a building corridor with civil tile houses, which is the basic format of the architectural layout of the ancient city. Built along the river, facing the street as a shop, facing the river as a building, laying in front and building behind, is a major feature of the ancient city architecture. Walking along the Xihe River, in Xinyuan Lane and Xingwen Lane, because of the dense canals, buildings crossing water and adjacent canals are very common. The canal enters east and exits west, passing through walls and houses, forming a water city landscape of "weeping willows every spring" in the area of "Jishasha" in Xingwen Lane. In the use of water, the ancient city buildings are natural, with the main street by the river and the alleys by the canal.

Building on the mountain is the second feature of ancient urban architecture. From Sifang Street to the west, climb the stairs along the lower section of Huangshan Mountain in Xinhua Street. The ancient city lingers in Lion Mountain, and the buildings along the street are constantly changing due to the ups and downs of the mountain. Some houses are fiercely competitive, while others are condescending. Visiting the ancient city is like climbing a mountain, climbing a floor, looking at a floor, turning into a slope and the house will be scattered. The impression of the mountain city is your best feeling at this time. The buildings in Guangbi Lane and Jinxing Lane of Guangyi Street have no noise along the river, but are more quiet built by mountains. The southern foot of Lion Mountain is lush with pine and cypress, with white walls and gray tiles all over the street, which is a mountain village scenery.

Street-facing architecture is the third feature of ancient city architecture. Go to the southeast of Sifang Street and enter Guangyi Street and Qiyi Street. The two rows of buildings facing the street are low-rise bungalows, commonly known as "underground buildings". A closer look reveals that the upper floor is paved on the street side, the street side is a bungalow, and the riverside side is a building on the first floor. Standing on the street, you look north, the space is wide and far-reaching, you can see snow-capped mountains and blue sky, and there is less shelter. The architecture of Ming Dynasty is simple and natural. Sifang Street goes south and enters Xianwen Lane. The buildings facing the street are two-story buildings, the lower floor is paved and the upper floor is residential. Xianwen Lane used to be the gathering place of Bai businessmen and the "little shanghai" of Lijiang, with all-wood buildings hanging on the street. If you look closely, you will find a mansion hanging on the outer wall of the building, which is a typical Qing dynasty building. The buildings here are tall and narrow, and the prosperity of the past is vivid. Go east on Sifang Street and enter the dining street. The building facing the street is also two stories, the lower floor is a wide shop, and the upper floor is a low attic. If you look closely, you will find that it is a bungalow and a mansion, commonly known as an arcade. Looking along the street, what you can't finish is the Ming and Qing architecture, and what you can't finish is the simplicity of nature.

In Dayan ancient city of Lijiang, Naxi folk houses are generally tile houses with civil structures. The plane structure of buildings is mostly "three rooms and one wall", and wealthy families also have the layout of "four in one and five patios". Naxi nationality's "three rooms and one wall", the main room is higher, mainly for the elderly to live in, and the wings on both sides are slightly lower, and the next generation lives in it. In addition, there is a zhaobi opposite the main room, which seems to have clear priorities and coordinated layout. Patio is used for living, mostly paved with bricks and stones, and often beautified with flowers and plants. If there are houses facing the street, most of them are paved, and the owners operate or sublet them to others. The foundation of the house is stone, the walls are adobe, some corners are decorated with bricks, and the upper section is surrounded by boards. The roof truss has strengthened the function of crossing bucket, enhanced the seismic capacity, and made the house have the characteristics of "the wall falls but the house does not collapse". Cylindrical tiles are laid on the roof, with eaves coming out from the front and back, and "hanging fish" is decorated at the junction of people and slopes to suppress fire.

Naxi folk houses not only pay attention to structural layout, but also pursue carving and painting decoration. The gatehouses overlap, the cornices become warped, the verandahs are spacious and bright, especially the doors and windows are carved with various exquisite patterns, and the patio flower beds are planted with noble and elegant flowers such as plum blossom, osmanthus, chrysanthemum and orchid. The whole courtyard is simple and beautiful, with unique local ethnic characteristics.