A famous historical and cultural city-Datong Siheyuan

The layout of residential courtyards in Datong is mainly quadrangles, which are basically the same as the ancient cities in northern China. The construction history of quadrangles can be traced back at least to the Qin and Han Dynasties. At that time, quadrangles had begun to take shape and were widely used in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. From the murals of Yongle Palace in Ruicheng, Shanxi Province, it can be seen that the residential quadrangles in the Yuan Dynasty are basically the same as the current quadrangles. By the Ming Dynasty, the layout of quadrangles had been improved day by day.

Since the fifth year of Hongwu, Xu Da, the general, has "added" the big city, and started to build large-scale buildings, creating government offices, palaces and houses. Because the chessboard streets in the east, south, west and north corners are a foregone conclusion, the overall layout of the quadrangle is built according to the direction of the street. On each street, there are courtyard doors in four directions: east, west, north and south. In the sixth year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty, after Dourgen led the army to capture Datong City, he frantically "killed" and "cut down" the city, and the Ming Dynasty was completely destroyed by the war-torn fire. The quadrangle buildings that can be seen now were all built in the early years of the Republic of China after the "return of Datong" in the eighth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty.

When you wander in the streets, you will find beautiful and varied gatehouses dotted with street scenery. Among these gatehouses of different shapes and sizes, there are broad and bright ones, buildings and hanging flowers. No matter what style the gatehouse is, the workmanship is quite fine. Brick carvings are used to install horizontal arches, vertical columns and carved buckets. The roof of the gatehouse is provided with ridges, vertical ridges, gullies and drops, and unicorn animals are also arranged on the ridges. Some large houses have Ma Shitou, pegs and lampposts in front of them; Some officials hung huge plaques on their doorsteps, such as "Jinshi Ji", "Prefect's gatehouse" and "Five generations under one roof". A flagpole three feet high was erected in front of the door, and there was a stone pedestal below. At the height of the flagpole two feet, there is a container, which is specially used to place sacrifices. There are stone lions on both sides of the gate to show its strictness.

In the past, the gates of government agencies were all facing south, and the gatehouse was located on the central axis to show its strictness and power. The gates of residential quadrangles extend in all directions along the street, and the gatehouse is not on the central axis, but in the southeast corner. The reason is that "Feng Shui" has been very popular in China since the Song Dynasty. In the Yin and Yang gossip, the door is opened in the direction of "Xun", which means "Zhai Kun Xun Men", that is to say, "Xun Men" means the southeast, and the door opens to the southeast corner for good luck. This custom is in Shanxi. Hebei, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places are quite popular, so in Datong area, residential doors also like to open in the southeast corner.

Entering the gate, there is a shadow wall on the front, which is divided into three parts: upper, middle and lower: there are wooden rafters, a single slope tile roof, a transverse ridge in the middle, unicorn beasts at both ends, brick arches on the forehead and brick pendants on both sides; The center of the screen wall is inlaid with brick carvings such as "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", "Fu Lushou Sanxing", "Crane and Deer in the Same Spring", "Good Luck and Good Luck", "Magpie Climbing the Plum", "Feng Dan Facing the Sun" and "Fu". Below the screen wall is a carved brick seat. The whole screen wall is exquisitely carved, with unique and novel patterns and magnificent composition, which means good luck and great sense of welcoming guests.

Most of the secondary doors are located on the left side of the screen wall, and their scales are different from those of the main door. If the gate is open or with a mansion, the second gate can only use vertical flowers; If the gate is vertical, the second gate can only use arches and wall doors.

When you enter the second door, you will arrive at the residential quadrangle, which is generally closed layout. Courtyard is the center of fire prevention, theft prevention, lighting, ventilation, transportation, rest and housework. Siheyuan generally has three main rooms, one wing on the left and one wing on the right, three rooms on the east, three rooms on the west and three rooms on the south. Toilets and mills are all built in the southwest corner. Small quadrangles have only one courtyard, while large quadrangles have two courtyards, three courtyards, east-west courtyards and gardens. According to the investigation, Qipan Street 10 in the southwest corner is a courtyard with two entrances, and there is an east courtyard in the backyard. Jiaoxi Street 10 in the southeast corner of the county seat is a courtyard with three entrances.

Now quadrangles, due to population growth, housing is relatively tight, and every family has to build another kitchen. Although the original appearance of the quadrangle has changed, it still has the feeling of majestic gatehouse and deep courtyard. Through the courtyard of the gatehouse, we can distinguish the family wealth, status, official position and hobbies of the owner of the house.