Simplify it! - Siheyuan is a general term for traditional residences with a main house and east and west wings surrounding a central courtyard to form a floor plan.
It has the longest history and the widest distribution among Chinese folk houses. It is a typical form of Han folk houses.
It has a history of more than three thousand years, and its form began to take shape during the Western Zhou Dynasty.
The courtyard houses in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Beijing and Hebei are the most representative.
The typical characteristics of a courtyard are its regular appearance, symmetry along the center line, and extremely flexible usage. When it gets bigger, it becomes the palace or the palace, or when it gets smaller, it becomes the residences of ordinary people, the glorious Forbidden City and the suburbs. Ordinary farmers’ homes are courtyard houses.
The general distribution of the courtyard is the main entrance, the first entrance, the lobby, the second entrance, the study room, the residence, etc. There are wing rooms on both sides, and each room has a corridor and a partition door. connected.
Understanding the folk houses existing on the earth’s surface will surely promote and develop the culture of folk houses.
Beijing’s courtyard house is an inner courtyard-style residence surrounded by houses on the east, west, south and north sides.
As the main architectural form where old Beijingers have lived for generations, the Beijing courtyard house is famous both at home and abroad and is well known to everyone.
First of all, it has a long history.
Since the Yuan Dynasty when Beijing was formally established as the capital and the capital was planned and constructed on a large scale, courtyard houses have appeared at the same time as Beijing’s palaces, government offices, neighborhoods, lanes and alleys.
According to "Analysis of Tianjin" written by Xiong Mengxiang in the late Yuan Dynasty: "The street system of most cities is called longitude from south to north, and latitude from east to west.
Main Street Twenty-four steps wide, three hundred and eighty-four long lanes, twenty-nine lanes open."
Secondly, the composition of the courtyard has its unique features.
Its courtyard is spacious and spacious, and the houses on all four sides are independent and connected with each other by verandas, making living very convenient; the enclosed residences make the courtyard highly private, and you can feel like you are surrounded by heaven and earth behind closed doors; inside the courtyard, Doors on all four sides open to the courtyard, where the whole family can live in harmony and enjoy themselves together. The spacious courtyard can also be used to plant trees and flowers, feed birds and fish, and stack rocks and landscapes, allowing residents to fully enjoy the beauty of nature.
In addition, although the courtyard is a residential building, it contains profound cultural connotations and is the carrier of traditional Chinese culture.
The construction of quadrangle courtyards pays great attention to Feng Shui. Feng Shui theory is actually ancient Chinese architectural environment science and an important part of traditional Chinese architectural theory. The decoration, carvings and paintings of quadrangle courtyards also reflect folk customs and traditions. Traditional culture shows people's pursuit of happiness, beauty, wealth and auspiciousness. For example, the pattern composed of the characters "bat" and "shou" means "good fortune and longevity"; the pattern of rose flowers placed in the vase means "peace in all seasons"; and the pattern embedded in the The door hairpins, the auspicious words on the door, the couplets attached to the pillars, and the masterpieces of calligraphy and painting hanging indoors are a collection of ancient teachings from sages, famous quotes from ancient and modern times, or praising the beauty of mountains and rivers, or inscribing the knowledge of life. , or chanting the ambition of the swan, it is elegant and full of rich cultural atmosphere, like a palace of traditional Chinese culture.
Siheyuan
Siheyuan is a combined architectural form in civil residences in North China. It is a square or rectangular courtyard.
One family lives in a closed courtyard, leading a comfortable, leisurely and quiet life, enjoying family joy and family fun, which naturally creates a leisurely and contented atmosphere.
This kind of courtyard house was left over from the old society before the founding of New China and is still in use today.
This kind of courtyard generally uses one entrance and exit gate.
Normally, once the courtyard door is closed, it is in a completely closed state.
Most of the courtyard gates of courtyard houses are wooden gates.
One end of the door made of thick wooden boards is placed in the center of the axis. It can be opened and closed by rotating left and right, which is safe and reliable.
In the courtyard, there is the main room, which is the north room.
This is the main room in the courtyard, and generally the direction of a courtyard is from north to south.
The east and west sides are the east and west wing rooms.
The east and west wing rooms are generally relatively symmetrical, and the architectural formats are generally the same or similar.
There is a south room built in the south, corresponding to the north room.
The entire courtyard is mostly built in accordance with traditional Chinese "customs" and is built symmetrically.
Of course, there are also side rooms in the corners formed by the north-south and east-west rooms.
Some of these side rooms are used to store grain and become granaries and other warehouses. Some are used as kitchens. There is also a corner, usually the southwest corner is the toilet, and the southeast corner is mostly the gate of the yard. This style of courtyard is more common in Shanxi counties and nearby rural areas.
There are also courtyards in some places with the main door opening in the south.
In order to decorate the courtyard, some families also build a screen wall, that is, a brick wall, directly opposite the entrance to the courtyard.
Usually on the side facing the gate. There are flowers, pine and bamboo patterns or large calligraphy characters placed prominently on the front of the screen wall. There are also some auspicious words such as "Fu", "Lu" and "Shou". The screen walls are painted with auspicious patterns, such as "songs and cranes prolong life", "magpies ascend plum blossoms", "unicorns send children", etc., creating a scholarly atmosphere in the courtyard.
There are also some. Farmhouses in China use the words or pictures of "good harvests", "good luck" and "blessings like the East China Sea".
This kind of screen wall is placed at the entrance inside the gate, and some are built separately. Some are set on the gables of the wing rooms.
The screen wall is also called a screen wall. The walls are square and decorated with brick carvings. The squares in the middle are divided into calligraphy or paintings. The two parts, the base and the wall, not only add atmosphere to the courtyard and pray for good luck, but the screen wall also plays a role in isolating the outside world from peeking into the activities in the courtyard.
In the courtyard, the ground is paved with stone slabs. Some pave the ground with bricks, and some pave it with cobblestones.
Some pave the entire courtyard, and some pave the main passages. No matter how it is paved, there must be some paving in the courtyard. Set aside a few areas to plant trees and flowers as decorations in the courtyard.
With the development of the times, there have been many changes in the architecture in rural areas. Some courtyard houses have undergone major changes.
This is to expand the number of rooms in the main house, because the main house - the north room has better lighting.
Therefore, when building a house. , make full use of the space and ground on the north side as much as possible, which makes the courtyard into an irregular shape, forming a square or rectangular courtyard in front of the main house, which is dominated by the north house.
The distribution of residences in the courtyard. It is very strict. The main room in the inner house, which is in a privileged and prominent position, must be occupied by the older generations.
Only the middle one of the three rooms in the north opens to the outside and is called the main room.
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The two rooms on both sides only open to the main room, forming suites, forming a layout of one light and two dark.
The main room is a place where family members live, entertain relatives, or worship ancestors during festivals. There are more bedrooms on both sides.
The bedrooms on the east and west sides are also divided into seniority and inferiority. Under the polygamy system, the east side is the senior one and is occupied by the main room, while the west side is the lower one and is occupied by the side room.
The east and west wing rooms can have single doors or can be connected to the main room. They are generally used as bedrooms or study rooms.
The east and west wing rooms are occupied by younger generations. The wing rooms are also bright and dark, with the middle one being the living room and the two sides being the bedrooms.
You can also divide the room on the south side and use it as a kitchen or dining room.
Back military rooms or back buildings are often built in courtyards of medium or larger size, mainly for the residence of women or maids who have not left the pavilion.
A courtyard is an independent courtyard composed of the main house (usually the north house), the east and west wing rooms and the south house. Sometimes there are east and west wing rooms next to the main house, and there are hand-curved verandahs connecting the houses on the four sides. Shelter from wind and rain.
Hutongs in Beijing generally run east-west and are mainly used for pedestrians. The courtyard door in the north of the alley usually opens in the southeast corner of the courtyard, and the courtyard door in the south usually opens in the west corner of the courtyard.
Siheyuan is a typical residential form in Beijing.
Generally, quadrangle courtyards have two courtyards, and large ones have three or four courtyards and flower courtyards. The two courtyards usually have a partition wall built between the east and west wing rooms, and the outer house is usually where the staff live. , a luxurious hanging flower door is usually built between the inner and outer houses. There is a screen wall inside the hanging flower door, which is only opened when there are major events. In the old days, it was said that the young lady of a wealthy family could not go out through the front door, and the second door was not open. This refers to this door, and the male servants at home. Generally, you are not allowed to enter this door.
The street gate is relatively simple and is usually built on the left side of the yard.
The last row of main rooms in a large courtyard house is the back room.
Old Beijingers are very particular. For example, they cannot plant locust trees in front of their courtyards, because in the past, a kind of insect would fall from the locust trees, which is also known as the hanged ghost. They were worried that passers-by would say, "Why are there so many hanged ghosts here?" Ah." Because mulberry trees have the same pronunciation as "mourning", there are no mulberry trees planted near the courtyard.
Most Beijingers like to plant oleanders in their yards.
Siheyuan is a traditional residential form in Beijing. It first took shape in the Liao Dynasty. It was gradually improved through the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and eventually became the most distinctive residential form in Beijing.
The so-called Sihe, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north sides, and "he" means that the houses on the four sides are surrounded together to form a "kou" shape.
After hundreds of years of construction, Beijing’s courtyard houses have formed the capital’s unique Beijing style from their floor plan to internal structure and detailed decoration.
Beijing’s formal courtyard houses generally face south along an east-west alley. The basic shape is the north room (main room), south room (inverted room), east and west wing rooms, which are surrounded by four separate buildings. Use high walls to form a quadrangle and open a door.
The gate is located at the "Xun" position in the southeast corner of the house.
The total number of rooms is generally 3, 2 and 5 in the north room, 3 in the east and west rooms, and 17 in the south room, excluding the main door, including the main entrance and hanging flower door.
If each room is 11-12 square meters, the total area is about 200 square meters.
In the middle of the courtyard is the courtyard, which is spacious and planted with trees and flowers, as well as tanks for raising goldfish. It is the center of the courtyard layout and is also a place for people to walk, get light, ventilate, enjoy the cool, rest and do housework.
Although Siheyuan has certain regulations, its size varies. It can be roughly divided into three types: large Siheyuan, middle Siheyuan and small Siheyuan:
1. Small Siheyuan A courtyard usually has three rooms in the north, one light and two dark, or two light and one dark, two east and west wing rooms, and three south rooms.
Lay the bricks to the top and raise the ridge to build a tile-roofed house.
It can accommodate three generations of a family. The grandparents live in the main room, the younger generation lives in the side room, and the south room is used as a study or living room.
The courtyard is paved with brick corridors, connecting the doors of various houses, and there are steps in front of each house.
There are two doors, decorated with black oil. There are a pair of brass door cymbals on the door, and there are couplets on the two doors.
2. The middle courtyard is more spacious than the small courtyard. It usually has 5 rooms in the north, 3 in the front and 2 in the west, and 3 in the east and west. There is a corridor in front of the room to protect it from wind and rain.
In addition, the courtyard walls are divided into the front courtyard (outer courtyard) and the backyard (inner courtyard). The courtyard walls are connected by a moon gate.
The front yard is of obvious depth, with one or two rooms used as the gatehouse, and the backyard is used as the living room. The architecture is exquisite, with square bricks on the floor and bluestone steps.
3. A large courtyard is customarily called a "big house gate". The layout of the house can be 5 south and 5 north, 7 south and 7 north, and there are even 9 or 11 main rooms. It is usually a duplex courtyard, that is It is composed of multiple courtyards connected vertically.
There are many courtyards, including front courtyard, backyard, east courtyard, west courtyard, main courtyard, side courtyard, cross courtyard, study courtyard, enclosed courtyard, horse barn, first entrance, second entrance, third entrance... etc.
There are hand-curtained corridors connecting various parts of the courtyard, covering a large area.
If the land available for building is small, or the financial capacity cannot bear it, the quadrangle courtyard can be converted into a triple courtyard without building the south room.
Medium and small courtyards are generally the residences of ordinary residents, while large courtyards are residences and government offices.
Beijing Siheyuan is a brick-wood structure building. The purlins, columns, beams (trusses), sills, rafters, doors, windows, partitions, etc. are all made of wood. The wooden shelves are surrounded by brick walls. .
The beams, columns, doors, windows and cornices and rafters all need to be painted. Although it is not as magnificent as the palace garden, it is still colorful.
It is customary to build walls with ground bricks and broken bricks. It is said that "Beijing has three treasures... a wall built with rotten bricks will not fall down."
Most of the roof tiles are made of blue tiles, with the front and back interlocking, with dripping water installed in front of the eaves, or no tiles are laid, and the whole roof is plastered with green ash, which is called "grey shed".
The gate of a courtyard house generally occupies an area of ??one room, and its components are quite complex. The building names include gate tower, door opening, gate (door leaf), door frame, waist railing, rest board, walking horse board, Door pillows, sills, door sills, door hairpins, large edges, wipers, straps, door core panels, door cymbals, plugs, animal faces, door nails, door couplets, etc. The gate of a courtyard house is composed of these parts.
The gate is usually painted black, and couplets with red and black characters can be added.
After entering the gate, there are hanging flower gate, moon gate and so on.
The hanging flower door is the most gorgeous decorative door in the courtyard. It is called "hanging flower" because the outer eaves of the door are made of archways. Its function is to separate the inner and outer courtyards. Outside the door are the living room, concierge, carriage house, horse number, etc." "Outer house", inside the door is the main living room and bedroom "inner house".
If there is no hanging flower door, the moon door can be used to separate the inner and outer houses.
The hanging flower door is very beautifully painted, the cornice and rafter heads are painted blue-green, the wood is painted red, the round rafter heads are painted blue, white and black, like a halo orb pattern, and the square rafter heads are painted blue, white and black. Blue background with golden twist or rhombus pattern.
In the center of the front eaves are brocade patterns, flowers, Bogu, etc. The hanging lotus capitals on both sides are even more colorfully painted according to the carved patterns.
The carving patterns of the courtyard are mainly composed of various auspicious patterns, such as "good fortune and longevity" composed of the characters "bat" and "shou", a vase with roses in it means "peace in all seasons", and "descendants for generations to come", "Three Friends of Cold Years", "Yutang Wealth and Honor", "Fu Lu, Longevity and Joy", etc., show the old Beijing people's yearning for a better life.
The windows and sill walls are embedded in the large frame between the upper sill (no lower sill) and the left and right pillars. The upper sash can be supported, but the lower sash is generally fixed.
Korean paper or cellophane is often used to paste windows in winter. When viewed from the inside, the outside will be bright, and when viewed from the outside, the inside will be dark. This not only prevents cold air from invading, but also maintains sufficient indoor light.
Use gauze or cold cloth to cover windows in summer. This is a window gauze woven from wood in counties south of Beijing. It looks like cloth but is not cloth. It can provide ventilation and relieve indoor heat.
The cold cloth is covered with paper, rolled up during the day and put down at night, so it is also called "roll-up window".
Some people use windows with upper branches and lower ones.
Beijing has more wind and sand in winter and spring, so residential buildings often use door curtains.
Most people hang plywood cotton door curtains in winter, plywood plywood door curtains in spring and autumn, and plywood bamboo door curtains in summer.
Poor families can use straw curtains or broken felt curtains.
The door curtain can be hoisted. The purpose of installing plywood on the upper, middle and lower parts is to increase the weight and prevent it from being lifted by the wind.
Later, door curtains were replaced by air doors, but bamboo curtains were still used in summer, which were cool, translucent and practical.
The ceilings of courtyard houses are made of sorghum poles and papered on the outside.
Beijing ceiling-pasting is a technique. In a courtyard, everything from the ceiling to the walls, curtains, and windows is papered with white paper, which is called "Four Whites to the Bottom".
Ordinary families do it once every few years, while wealthy families do it "four times a year."
Beijing is very cold in winter. Residents in courtyard houses all sleep on heated kangs. In front of the kangs, there is a coal stove sunk into the ground, and a fire is lit in the stove.
The earthen kang is empty inside, and the fire enters the kang hole, and the kang bed is heated. When people sleep on the hot kang, they feel warm and comfortable.
The coal used for burning the kang is mostly produced in Xishan, Beijing. It can be divided into raw coal and minced coal. The minced coal is shaken with loess and briquettes are used for burning the kang or cooking.
Stoves are commonly used for indoor heating. Stoves can be divided into three types based on their texture: clay, iron, and copper. Clay stoves are made of potwood wood produced in Beijing. They have strong heat permeability and are easy to move. They are often used in wealthy homes. There are several stoves available.
Most people usually use the fire in front of the kang to cook and cook, without burning a separate stove. The so-called "pot and stove are connected to the stove", which is difficult to separate for daily life.
The stove can seal the fire, so it is often kept burning for years to prepare for emergencies.
If it goes out, use dry firewood or charcoal to light it. Housewives get up every morning and lift the stove outside the house (to prevent gas poisoning) to light a fire, which becomes a scene in Beijing.
Domestic water in courtyards is often discharged in the form of seepage pits, commonly known as "seepage wells" and "seepage ditches".
There are generally no toilets in courtyards. Most toilets are located in alleys, called "official latrines".
Beijing’s courtyard houses pay attention to greening, and trees and flowers are planted in the courtyard. The flowers and trees are sparse, elegant and pleasant.
The flowers that old Beijing loved to grow included lilacs, crabapples, elm-leaf plums, mountain peach blossoms, etc. The trees were mostly jujube trees and locust trees.
In addition to planting, flowers and plants can also be grown in pots and water.
The most common potted flowers and trees are pomegranate trees, oleanders, golden osmanthus, silver osmanthus, rhododendrons, gardenias, etc. Planting pomegranates is a sign of "plentiful seeds" in the pomegranate.
As for the grass jasmine, impatiens, morning glories and lentil flowers in the flowerbed in front of the steps, they are even more homely beauty of the courtyard.
There is a saying in the Qing Dynasty that describes life in a courtyard: "ceiling, fish tank, pomegranate tree, master, fat dog, fat girl", which can be said to be a typical portrayal of life in a courtyard.
Siheyuan generally houses one household, but there are also cases where multiple households share a courtyard, mostly from poor families, and are called "large courtyards."
The warmth of the courtyard is something that many old Beijing residents cannot forget.
The courtyard gate of the courtyard in old Beijing
The courtyard gate is the main entrance to the courtyard. Beijingers are accustomed to calling it "street gate".
Today, when everything in the world is changing rapidly, it is difficult to judge the level of the courtyard owner based on these street gates.
Wandering in the streets shaded by green trees, the numerous old-style street gates have become silent history, silently bringing you boundless associations and enlightenment, just like an old man from the century, speaking with a trembling voice The voices tell you stories of early years.
Among the many courtyard doors in Beijing, they can be roughly divided into two categories, namely house-style doors and wall-mounted doors.
The former has a door opening and the door occupies a room; the latter has no door opening and only opens the door on the wall.
To elaborate, house-style gates are divided into Wangfu gates, Guangliang gates, Ruyi gates, etc.; wall-mounted gates include small gatehouses, car doors, etc.
Let’s talk about the gate of the palace first.
In the past, the titles of residences were clearly stipulated in the "Qing Dynasty Huidian": "The residences of princes, county princes, crown princes, Baylor, Beizi, Zhenguogong and Fuguogong were all called
" Among them, the residences of princes and princes are called palaces.
As for those high-ranking officials who are not descendants of Phoenix, even though they have titles, or titles such as minister, bachelor, or military minister, their residence cannot be called "mansion", but can only be called "zhai". ” or “th.”
In terms of property rights, "mansion" and "wangfu" are both royal properties. Once the title is removed, the palace must be removed accordingly in case it can be divided among others in the future. "Mansion" is generally private property.
As for the gates of the prince's palace, there are five in the prince's palace and three in the county and prince's palace. They all face north and south. There is a door cover in front of the door (a house with doors, windows and walls), and the aisle is above the ground.
There is a corner door on the east and west side of the mansion gate, both called Asimen, for people to enter and exit.
The Qing Dynasty's "Jiao Xuan Sui Lu" written by Fang Ruishi said: "There is a door on the left and right of the main entrance of the Foreign Government Office, which is called the East Jiao Gate and the West Jiao Gate. The lower officials can all enter through the Jiao Gate.
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"The setting of the corner door allows the door to be closed on weekdays and opened depending on the situation. It is designed for etiquette needs.
Outside the gate of the mansion, there are facilities such as stone lions, lampposts, horse-tethering posts and Juhemu (called Xingma in ancient times).
Opposite the palace gate is the screen wall.
If the two Asimens are facing each other from east to west and allow people to pass through, there must be a square courtyard among them. Therefore, there is a pair of stone lions in front of the gate, so it is also called the "Lion Courtyard".
For those with this layout, the opposite side of the gate is not a screen wall, but a row of bungalows, which used to be where soldiers lived or where they went to work.
The number of rooms, decoration, colors, etc. of the palace gate are all built according to the regulations.
"The Prince's Mansion is made of green glazed tiles, and each door has three golden nails out of sixty, while the Crown Prince's Mansion has two less than the Prince's." Baylor's Mansion has three front doors and one open door.
The roof of the palace gate is made of tube tiles, large ridges, and kissing animals. There are immortals and animals on the vertical ridges. Drainage ditches are made on the gables. The gate is painted red, and the beams and beams are decorated with colorful paintings.
In Ye Guangqin's novel "Picking Mulberries", he describes the appearance of a palace gate: "When you turn into Jing'er Hutong, the huge red painted gate bursts into view.
The door is closed, the steps are high, and there is a horse-mounting stone.
Because no one has walked around for a long time, thin grass has grown in front of the steps, and most of the horse-mounting stone has been buried in the soil.
< p> The eight-character brick screen wall opposite the gate is already dilapidated... This is the residence of Prince Pusakdoro."In contrast, the description in "A Dream of Red Mansions" is more specific. There is an article in the third chapter: "After walking for another half day, I suddenly saw two large stone lions squatting on the north side of the street, and three animal-headed gates... The main gate was not open, and only the east and west gates had people coming in and out.
There is a plaque above the main gate, with the five characters "Edict to build Ningguo Mansion" written on it... Go west again, not far away, there are still three gates, and you will find Rongguo Mansion.
"According to this. According to the description of the large stone lion in the article, this gate should be regarded as the layout of the prince's mansion in the Qing Dynasty.
But such a palace should have a "lion courtyard" in front of the door, and the lion cannot be placed facing the street. The east and west corner gates should be facing the street.
For example, in the Qing Dynasty’s Prince Zheng’s Mansion, Prince Li’s Mansion, Prince Ding’s Mansion, etc., the stone lions of the mansions are all inside the corner gate.
Someone asked, why is the stone lion in front of the gate of Renmin University on Zhangzizhong Road, the original Prince He's Mansion, facing the street? That's because there was no road here originally, but it was opened later.
After talking about the Wangfu Gate, let’s talk about the Guangliang Gate.
"Guangliang", as the name suggests, should mean relatively spacious and bright, which is compared to shorter courtyard gates such as the small gatehouse next to it.
The original pronunciation of "Guangliang" is "Guangliang", which means that the roof beams are very wide.
In this case, can the courtyard gate still be small? Obviously, only high-ranking officials or warlords and merchants after the Republic of China could build it.
In order to be conspicuous, the room at the gate is larger than the houses on both sides. It has its own gable, brick eaves are decorated with carved flowers, the roof is heightened, and the headwall is prominent.
Guangliang is not only reflected in scale, but also in decoration: there are several pairs of door hairpins on the top, exquisite stone drum door pillows on the bottom, brick carvings on the walls, and colorful paintings on the wood are all exquisite .
There are screen walls, screen doors and steps inside and outside the gate, generally three to five inches higher than the ground.
The interior walls on both sides of the gate are usually plastered and whitened, with moldings added around them.
It is important to use bamboo strips or iron rods as the skeleton, and then use cement and sand to create relief patterns.
Some also painted murals on them, and others used so-called "hard-core" decorations with polished bricks and seams, which were smooth and smooth.
The roofs of Guangliang gates generally do not have suspended ceilings, but later they were added for neatness.
The roof ridge has "Qingshui Ridge" extending diagonally on both sides, and there is also "Yuanbao Ridge".
The door of Guangliang Gate stands halfway into the depth of the house, leaving half or more of the usable area outside the door.
After the Republic of China, for the sake of public security, some people added an iron fence outside the door.
The Guangliang Gate is the same as the Wangfu Gate. There are also horse-mounting stones, horse-tying posts or horse-tying stones outside the door.
The "golden pillars" mentioned in the golden pillar gate are the pillars within the eaves pillars.
A golden pillar gate is a gate with a door frame mounted on golden pillars.
In terms of scale, Jinzhu Gate is obviously smaller than Guangliang Gate, and the doors are also narrow, with some only having half a bay.
Other aspects such as the structure, roof, carvings, etc. of the gate are the same as those of Guangliang Gate.
The door opening is only about one step deep, and there are some decorations on the eaves and pillars of the main doorway, making it overall lighter than the Guangliang door.
Compared with the Jinzhu Gate, the biggest feature of the Manzi Gate is that it is pushed farther out than the Jinzhu Gate, almost at the position of the front eaves column.
Other aspects are similar to Jinzhu Gate and Guangliang Gate.
The appearance of the Manzi Gate is because the homeowner’s official status is not high, at least he cannot build a Guangliang gate, and simply pushes the front door under the eaves, which is a style favored by officials or residents from the south who come to Beijing. .
"Barbarian" was a disrespectful term used by Beijingers at that time for people from Guangdong, Guangxi and remote areas in the south.
This type of street door was mentioned in the book "Dadu": "Finally, he returned to Chunshu Hutong and pressed the electric bell on his door. The tall trees beside the wall were full of tenderness. The green buds were blown by the wind.
Someone was running inside, and the round milky light on the door turned on.
After unlocking the door, he looked through the gap and opened the door.
He stepped into the courtyard and found that there were no guests or horses in the doorway in front, and the lights were not turned on.
This description shows that parking in the door opening is naturally because the door is pushed outward. This is the characteristic of the golden pillar door.
The milky white round electric light that can shine outside must be above the sliding door.
What is described here, parking in the doorway is not a lie.
The doorway of the former residence of Peking Opera artist Wang Yaoqing, which is now No. 20 Peiying Hutong, Xuanwu District, was once a place where foreign cars were stored because of its spaciousness.
They are the means of transportation for brothers Wang Yaoqing and Wang Fengqing.
In old Beijing, the number of Ruyi gates was the largest, because they were used in general residential buildings.
Due to the large number, there are many forms of Ruyimen, which can be complex or simple.
In a feudal society with strict hierarchies, wealthy and unofficial families were unwilling to build small gates and had to build large gates.
As a result, the scale of Guangliang Gate was built, but the gate was not big.
In this way, it looks different without going overboard.
In addition, there are large carvings on the lintel, overhangs on the roof, and complete carvings on the gables.
The most advanced ones use the patterns of Bogu, Ninth Generation Cohabitation, Lion Hydrangea, and prosperity and wealth; the medium ones use the patterns of prosperity, wealth, grass, figures, etc., and they are generally made into the shape of bridges or railings to look graceful. Luxurious, yet not offensive.
The simplest Ruyi Gate only uses tiles to form hollow patterns such as lines and "five-flowered elephant eyes".
The door leaf of this kind of door is reduced, and only two door hairpins are used. The stone pillow is a stone pier instead of a stone drum, so it can be opened flexibly.
During the Republic of China, the original royal family and dignitaries began to decline, and the houses they used were sold off one after another.
In order to cover it up, the newly wealthy people who bought these houses built walls inside the doorways based on the original Guangliang gates, and sealed the doorways inside the gates.
There are many Ruyi gates that have been converted from Guangliang gates.
Such gates often leave traces of the original door grooves on the mountain pillars, or even the original door is not dismantled, and a Ruyi door is added under the outer eaves.
The wall-mounted door is also called the wall-walled door. Its characteristic is that it has no door opening and opens along the wall. It only occupies half or most of the width of the room, and the courtyard door is narrow.
The small gatehouse is the most common type of wall-mounted gate.
Style still pursues the effect of a house.
It has two very short gables, a roof with a ridge on the top, two raised ends, and the eaves are decorated with flower and grass tiles.
Therefore, although this form of courtyard gate is the lowest level, ordinary families will decorate it as much as possible.
Especially the wall-style gatehouse is no different from a house.
The style of stringing copper coins made of tiles is even more novel and unique.
In "Four Generations Under One Roof", the Qi family lived in this kind of small gatehouse, that is, the Huaqiangzi Gatehouse.
Fence gates are also a type of wall-mounted gates, commonly known as water chestnut gates. They are generally used for the gates of large houses.
Two wooden pillars support the crossbar, and a rhombus-shaped wooden component is used to protrude outward to support the roof. The door leaf is a mullioned fence door.
There are several descriptions of this kind of fence gate in the book "Dadu". Here are some representative quotes: "Turn west from Mishi Street and enter the alley. Here we are.
There are four or five locust trees planted outside the wall, with gaps between the two trees.
The outside of the trees is built high with thick bricks like a low wall. They had translucent gaps left between the bricks when they were laid, and the flat dome on the brick wall was plastered with several layers of smooth and hard cement... Before the bell could stop ringing, the door suddenly opened automatically, and the horse-drawn carriage rushed through the door. Come through a long and narrow mud path.
There are brick walls of houses on both sides... In front is an empty mud yard. Except for a few rooms in the northwest corner, this yard is rarely empty.
Yuying, Jingshan and Jin Ma all got off the carriage and stepped up the four or five steps. What faced them were four green painted screen doors with four diagonal squares painted in the middle. A red square with four plump black characters.
"This paragraph describes the scene from entering the fence gate to entering the courtyard, mainly the parking lot and the horse racing track.
This scene, in front of the gate of Badaowan No. 11 courtyard, It has also appeared before.
At that time, it was not just a low gatehouse built with red bricks like it is today. On the contrary, it was a large fence gate with a courtyard wall facing the street.
p>The open space in the courtyard is half an acre, dedicated to parking, and can park several mule carts.
Opposite to the north of the open space is the vermilion formal gate, as well as the door opening.
It is said that at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, there were many large houses with fence gates and parking lots, especially the gates on the left and right sides of the empty space outside the palace gate.
Old Summer Palace. The Western-style gate was influenced by foreign culture in the late Qing Dynasty, represented by the Old Summer Palace-style gate, and also appeared in the streets and alleys of Beijing.
The emergence of the Old Summer Palace-style gate originated from the emperor's visit to the Old Summer Palace. The emperor's hobby of building Western-style buildings also aroused the interest of princes and nobles, who built Western-style gatehouses in their gardens.
For example, the gatehouse on the east side of the garden of Prince Gong's Mansion is the Old Summer Palace-style gatehouse. Representative.
This kind of door has Chinese and Western floral decorations on the surface of the parapet above the Western-style columns, either Western-style flowers and plants or Chinese-style cultural relics and antiques, which are a combination of Chinese and Western styles.
There is a brick-carved arch at No. 15 Mianmian Hutong, Nandong, Jiaodaokou, Dongcheng.
It is more than 4 meters high and 2 meters wide. From the diamond wall to the top, it is all brick carvings, with flowers and flowers carved on it. There are beasts, there is a sky-facing railing on the top, and the three friends of pine, bamboo, and plum are carved on the railing. Duobao Pavilion is carved on both sides of the arch, and the dark eight immortals and other patterns are carved inside the pavilion.
The brick carvings and layout of the entire arch. Rigorous, properly concave and convex, and fine workmanship, it is very rare.
In addition, there are other types of doors in old Beijing houses.
In the past, some houses in the hutongs in Nancheng had rear gables facing the street. Outside the courtyard gate on one side, a wooden wall is built, and another door is opened on the wooden wall, called the wooden door.
In the gap between the wooden wall and the back gable, a toilet and a water bucket are installed. , garbage baskets and other unsightly objects.
Most of the residents who live in the board door are wealthy families with single-door courtyards. They close the door when someone comes in and out, which plays a better defensive role.
< p> Some courtyard houses face the street, so the houses facing the street are converted into paved houses for business, and the yards or homes behind them are used as processing factories.Beijing people call such houses paved houses. p>
The door of this kind of shophouse is often the courtyard door, and it also has a side door or a back door.
This is also a special form of courtyard door.