The courtyard house in Beijing has a long history. It started in the Jin Dynasty and has been evolved and used to this day. It is famous all over the country and even the world.
There are too many things to pay attention to in this.
Take the door, which is a symbol of the social status of the owner of the house, as an example. This door alone can show the family background and dignity of the owner of the house.
In addition to what is stipulated in the "Qing Huidian Cases", the "Prince's Gate" of princes, county princes, princes, and beizi each have different regulations. The "Guangliang Gate" and "Jinzhu Gate" of officials and officials also have different regulations.
Pay attention. Among the common people, the "Barbarian sect", "Ruyi sect" and "Suiqiang sect" also have different levels of sects.
Therefore, what people often say about "family status" and "well-matched" are derived from this.
In short, the things contained in this courtyard house can be said to be a system of their own. The regulations, forms, and styles of everything are worthy of careful study. Tiles, wood, oil, and carvings are not simple tasks.
Not to mention that most people today don’t understand the specific details. Even in the ancient construction industry, not everyone is proficient in it and understands it clearly. We want to list them one by one here, but it is unrealistic to explain them clearly.
However, if we want to describe the area and scale of the Hong family residence, we only need to clarify the two quantification words first. That is "enter" and "cross".
As we all know, "siheyuan" is a general term for the courtyard architectural form unique to the capital.
"Four" refers to the four sides of "south, east, northwest", and "he" means that the houses on the four sides are gathered together to form a "kou" shape.
As long as it meets these two requirements, it can be called a "siheyuan".
But depending on whether people are rich or poor, the specifications of their houses must also be different. This simple form of a small courtyard surrounded by houses can actually only meet the needs of a small family.
Private residences of nobles, officials, and wealthy people often have several courtyards. There is a verandah in front of the main house, a pavilion in the back, and wing rooms in the east and west. They are luxurious and spacious. There are many additional facilities inside and outside the courtyard, and they all have gardens.
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How can such an extremely complex courtyard house be accurately expressed and distinguished in language?
That's the word "enter" and "cross".
To put it simply, "in" can be regarded as the "meridian" of a set of courtyards, which represents the depth of the courtyard.
A courtyard surrounded by houses on four sides is the basic unit of a quadrangle, and is called a one-entry quadrangle. If a house is surrounded by two courtyards, it is a two-entry quadrangle, and if there are three courtyards, it is a three-entry quadrangle, and so on.
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Most of the dignitaries of the dynasty can reach the seventh or eighth level. The saying that "the depth of a prince's family is as deep as the sea" is not empty talk.
However, due to the actual limitations of space, not all houses can develop vertically indefinitely, so some large houses have developed horizontal structures.
This is the relative concept of "enter" and "cross". It can be regarded as a "latitude", which refers to the width.
The principle is the same as "entering". There are as many "crossings" as there are left and right parallel courtyards.
Usually, the courtyards arranged along the central axis are called "middle roads", while the courtyards on both sides are distributed according to the direction, and are called "certain road" cross-courtyards.
Take the Hong family's old house as an example.
Since Meishi Street is a north-south street, their home is on the west side of the street.
And because after several generations of expansion, the middle courtyard has been gradually improved to include a gate, a screen wall, an outer courtyard, a second gate, an inner courtyard, a third courtyard, and a backyard.
Their old house can be called a "siheyuan with four entrances facing east and west".
Of course, this kind of orientation facing the main house also faces the west and the east, which is definitely inferior to the orthodox courtyard facing the north. What does the old saying say? "If you have money, don't live in the southeast house. If the east is not warm, the summer will not be cool."
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But the Hong family later made up for this shortcoming by gradually adding several north-road courtyards.
Although it was not possible to incorporate the surrounding homes to maximize space utilization, the newly added parts were somewhat untidy, like a bouquet of scattered flowers.
But after all, the shortcomings do not hide the good points. These spanning courtyards undoubtedly make the functionality of the overall courtyard more perfect.
The Hong family eventually became a "house" with a concierge, accounting room, carriage house, porter team, private school, living room, flower hall, dining room, warehouse, kitchen, toilet, garden, and a foreign-style building.
Deep house compound".
In fact, by the time of Hong Lucheng's generation, the scale of the Hong family's buildings was already comparable to that of the royal palace and the residences of the emperor's relatives. The houses were tall, with overlapping courtyards, front porches and rear buildings, and courtyards connected. It was a bit like "the first house in the south of the city."
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It's no wonder that the house can accommodate a hundred workers, each leader has an independent office, and eventually two buildings can be divided into more than thirty households.
Needless to say, it would take a lot of time to take a good look at such a big house.
In fact, there is nothing much to say about the outer courtyard.
The "concierge" was changed into the "concierge room" of the street factory. The two wing rooms on the north and south sides of the outer courtyard were used as warehouses, and the other rooms in the row of "inverted sitting rooms" facing east and west were used as warehouses.
, which was originally the Hong family’s accounting room and the valet’s residence, became the street factory’s “shipping office” where finished goods are accumulated and packaged.
At these places, Hong Lucheng and everyone just opened the door and took a quick look around.
What really made Hong Lucheng stop for a long time was after bypassing the screen wall of the Hong family and entering the hanging flower gate.
This hanging flower door is no ordinary door, it must be built on the central axis of the courtyard.
In the old days, the lady was called "the main door does not go out, and the second door does not step forward." The "second door" refers to the hanging flower door. Its function is actually the key door used to distinguish the inner house from the outer house.
The shape of the hanging flower door is mostly one hall and one roll, which is composed of a pointed roof and a roll shed. Its door leaves are usually four doors with a bucket square on the top.
Except for important events such as weddings and weddings, the arrival of distinguished guests, etc., these four doors are not open on weekdays and serve as a screen wall in the inner house. Family members enter and exit from the side.
Therefore, it was from the moment they entered this door and walked from the hand-painted corridor into the widest inner courtyard that Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin's memories that had been dusted by time for many years were revived little by little.
In large courtyards, the north room in the second courtyard is mostly used as a hall to receive distinguished guests. In small courtyards, there are no extra rooms, so this function has to be arranged in the middle hall of the north room, and the suites on both sides are still occupied.
In the old days, the living allocation of the inner house was very strict. The main house was the most important building in the courtyard. Since the ancestral tablets and the main room were located in the middle of the main house, it had the highest status in the whole house.
The second inner courtyard of the Hong family must have the highest regulations. The main house on the west side is "seven square and four ears", and the wing rooms on the east and west sides are "five square and two ears". This courtyard alone has twenty-five rooms. For example
The entire east courtyard of Guanyin Yuan is one and a half times larger.
In this courtyard, the two sweet-scented osmanthus trees in front of the main house are also old. Their trunks and branches have reached the height of an adult’s legs. Moreover, because they are southern tree species, they are very rare to grow in the capital. Under their lush cover,
The main house is also made more solemn and elegant.
It's a pity that the street factory is a bit rude. In order to facilitate the workers at the front and the leaders at the back to have meals, in addition to using the east and west wings as paper cutting workshops, the main building was also converted into a factory canteen.
In the eyes of Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin, the place that was originally a shrine has become a food window, and the scent of sandalwood that used to emit all year round has been replaced by the strong smell of chopped green onion.
In front of the main house, the smooth concrete floor makes it difficult to find traces of grass. Moreover, two water pipes have been connected to it.
This allowed them to instantly appreciate the vicissitudes of life and feel the power of time.
"Dad, shouldn't all these courtyards be red and green? Why are the pillars in our house black? But let's not say it, it looks pretty this way and looks solemn..."
Just when Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin looked at the greasy floor of the main house and shook their heads frequently, Hong Yanwu suddenly asked a question.
But his question was quite interesting. Even Hong Yanzheng and Chen Liquan looked over with concern. Obviously they also wanted to know the answer to this question.
Hong Lucheng and Wang Yunlin both looked at each other and smiled at first, and then Hong Lucheng answered.
"You don't understand this. Where can ordinary people use red and green oil ornaments? They must be used by relatives of the emperor or princes and nobles. Your mother's natal family is qualified. Our family is a businessman, so it can only be used by ordinary people.
It’s plain and dark.”
Several juniors suddenly realized. Especially Hong Yanwu, he finally understood why the doors, windows and pillars of the Wang Family Courtyard in Pingyao, Shanxi and the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qixian, Shanxi, were all of that color.
Because just like their family, the owners of the family are also businessmen and cannot use red and green oil.
As for the fact that red and green must be used in all ancient buildings today, that is purely a fool's errand to pretend to understand.
Transgression is not something we can talk about now, but in terms of culture, it has undoubtedly lost its original taste and authenticity. Moreover, the red and green oil has also been downgraded, making it look quite gaudy.
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