Southern residential buildings. Pay attention to mountains and rivers at your back. Influenced by Anhui's business culture, the windows are generally very narrow, with white walls and black tiles, and the smooth white walls play a role in preventing theft. They are hidden among the green mountains and green waters. Huizhou merchants do business all year round and spend most of their time at home. For the elderly, weak, women and children, high walls can prevent theft.
Due to the humid climate in the south, lime has certain adsorption properties and has the effect of preventing moisture and absorbing moisture, which can effectively protect the wall. Compared with the drier north, you can directly expose the bricks to the outside. In Huizhou, it is necessary to paint thick walls to prevent moisture. Huizhou Architecture now uses professional exterior wall paint instead of lime, further reducing the possibility of mildew and discoloration.
There is a folk saying in Huizhou that "I was born in Huizhou if I didn't practice cultivation in my previous life; I threw it away when I was twelve or thirteen years old." Huizhou people living in this difficult environment are well aware of the hardships of starting a business and have developed a The good demeanor of being frugal, diligent and thrifty has been written into the family rules and family motto, and has been educated by Huizhou people for generations. Therefore, the architectural style is relatively simple, without carved beams, painted beams, or gold and color. Instead, it is built with the most common materials and the natural beauty. home.
Extended information
The characteristics of Huizhou architecture are mainly reflected in architectural entities such as village houses, ancestral halls and temples, archways and gardens. The most distinctive style is the large number of remaining traditional residential villages. From site selection, design, shape, structure, layout to decoration and beautification, they all reflect Huizhou's mountainous characteristics, Feng Shui wishes and regional beauty trends.
Most of the sites of Huizhou villages strictly follow the rules of traditional Chinese Feng Shui. Surrounded by mountains and rivers, with beautiful mountains and rivers, they pursue the ideal living environment and artistic conception of the mountains and rivers. They are known as "the countryside in Chinese paintings". Influenced by the traditional Feng Shui concept of "water as a source of wealth", Huizhou people who relied on commerce paid special attention to the "water mouth" of the village and constructed some unique water mouth gardens.
The structure of Huizhou-style houses is mostly in the form of multiple courtyards (the smaller ones are mostly in the triple courtyard style), which reflects the Huizhou people's characteristic of "living together as a group". Generally, they sit north and face south, leaning on mountains and facing water, and pay attention to Feng Shui value. The layout is symmetrically arranged along the central axis, with three rooms in width, with a hall in the middle and wing rooms on both sides. The front of the hall is called a patio, which is well-lit and ventilated. The courtyards are linked together to create a deeply self-sufficient living space for the family.
The appearance of the residential houses has a strong sense of integrity and beauty, with high closed walls, angular horse heads, well-proportioned wall lines, black tiles and white walls, and an elegant and generous color. In terms of decoration, the clear brick door covers, stone-carved windows, and wood-carved pillars are integrated with the building, making the house exquisite and poetic, which is a major feature of Hui-style houses.
Huizhou’s ancestral halls and archways are also important architectural forms in Huizhou architecture. Every village has a temple, which is generally large in scale and magnificent. The various archways scattered throughout the country are an important part of the cultural landscape of ancient Huizhou.
As a traditional architectural school, Huizhou architecture has always maintained its unique artistic style that combines elegance, simplicity and magnificence. The abbreviation for the three folk carving techniques of brick carving, stone carving and wood carving with Huizhou style. The "Three Sculptures" of the Hui Style are most typical in She County, Yi County and Wuyuan County, and are relatively well preserved.
It is mainly used for the decoration of residential buildings, ancestral halls, temples, gardens and other buildings, as well as for the engraving of ancient furniture, screen couplets, pen holders, fruit plates and other crafts. The history of "three carvings" originated from the Song Dynasty and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The carvings of the Ming Dynasty were rough and simple, generally only flat carvings and bas-relief carvings. They relied on line modeling and lacked perspective changes, but emphasized symmetry and were full of decorative interest.
The carvings of the Qing Dynasty were exquisite and complex, and the composition and layout absorbed the expression techniques of the Xin'an School. They paid attention to artistic beauty, mostly used deep relief and round sculptures, and advocated the hollow effect. Some hollow layers have as many as ten layers. Pavilions, trees, mountains and rivers, people and animals, flowers, birds, insects and fish are all gathered in the same picture. They are exquisite, well-proportioned, layered and lifelike, showing the superb artistic talent of the carving craftsmen.
Brick carving is an architectural decoration formed by exquisite carvings on the fine gray bricks that are abundant in Huizhou. It is widely used in Huizhou style gate towers, door frames, lintels, eaves, roofs, and roofs. etc. to make the building look elegant and solemn. It is an important part of the Huizhou architectural art that has emerged since the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Brick carvings include flat carvings, relief carvings, and three-dimensional carvings. The themes include feathers and flowers, dragons, tigers, lions, elephants, forest landscapes, dramatic figures, etc., which have a strong folk color.
Stone carvings are widely used in urban and rural areas of Huizhou, and there are many categories. They are mainly used for decoration of pillars, door walls, archways, tombs, etc. of temples and houses. They are relief and round carving arts and enjoy a high reputation. The themes of Huizhou stone carvings are limited by the carving materials themselves and are not as complex as wood carvings and brick carvings. They mainly include images of animals and plants, ancient patterns and calligraphy. As for characters, stories and landscapes, they are relatively rare.
In terms of carving style, the relief carvings are mainly shallow openwork carvings and flat carvings. The integration trend of round carvings is obvious. The knife skills are refined and simple, and are not as delicate and cumbersome as the wood carvings and brick carvings of the Qing Dynasty.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Hui Style Architecture