What are the architectural features of the old houses in Suzhou?

Since the capital of Wu Zixu, Suzhou has always had the geographical advantage of covering three rivers and five lakes. "Jun to gusu, the somebody else do pillow river. There are few leisure places in the ancient palace and many water bridges in Xiaogang. " The poem of Du Xunhe, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, vividly reveals the first feature of Suzhou residential architecture: building houses by water is beautiful and convenient. In the past, there were hundreds of rivers criss-crossing Suzhou. Citizens' houses are built on steep banks of the river, and there are stone steps leading to the river. This kind of building is the most common in Suzhou, and it is also full of historical and cultural colors. In the underdeveloped past, ships were the main means of transportation, and economic development was directly related to the existence of waterway transportation. Bai Juyi once described the grand occasion as "blowing pipes in front of the building and sailing outside the house". Taking a boat instead of walking has become the most convenient mode of transportation, and residents on both sides of the strait enjoy watching the excitement from the window. In ancient times, when rivers were not polluted, building houses by water also provided great convenience for residents to use water. Suzhou ancient dwellings contain rich cultural significance, which embodies the ancient people's peaceful, subtle, elegant and practical aesthetic pursuit. China's poems are meaningful, and China's paintings are meaningful. Suzhou Garden, the representative of China Garden, has so many flower windows, cloisters and winding paths that people feel euphemistic and memorable. The same is true of houses in Suzhou. In the past, it used to be a "first-class, second-class and prosperous place in the world of mortals" (in the language of A Dream of Red Mansions). During the Ming and Qing dynasties, literati and bureaucrats gathered wealth here to support their lives, and countless people built a number of houses, most of which still exist today. However, those big bamboo doors are hard to find. Don't they have several houses? Don't! In those ordinary stone kiln doors, there are often winding and deep residential groups, which are interlocking and enter one after another. Sometimes I walk through a small door and suddenly feel suddenly enlightened. It is actually a small garden with opposite halls and pavilions, and the stones set each other off. This architectural style is the materialized expression of China's traditional outlook on life and morality. It is peaceful and indifferent, and pays attention to self-improvement.

The residential buildings in Suzhou, whether they are houses along the street or along the river or self-sufficient closed houses, all reflect the characteristics of the coexistence of reality and reality, seeking rhythm in balance and seeking change in neatness. Look at the small house along the street. They were built in different periods, and craftsmen were not alone. However, there seems to be a chief engineer in command. Adjacent houses rarely have exactly the same depth, with single-eaved walls on the left and double-eaved windows on the right. The left building extends outward, the right building is slightly retracted, and the wall foundation is uniform, and a street naturally forms in front of a row of houses. Big houses are more particular, often with patios in front and small yards behind; The front door of the moon cave, the back window, the double eaves and single eaves, the soft ridge and hard ridge, the roof of the boat, the rest of the mountain and the porch hall echo each other and are different. There are corridors connecting the houses. The two rooms do not interfere with each other. Climbing high can win the victory of distant mountains, and leaning down can draw the spring of nine soils, winding and reaching, and the reality and reality are born together. Dan Qing's wonderful hands in past dynasties are often willing to favor this.