Siheyuan is composed of many individual buildings, including gates, main rooms, wing rooms, etc. The gate is also called the street gate or the house gate. It is the channel for communication between the Beijing courtyard and the outside world. It is usually built on the southeast side of the entire courtyard to take the meaning of "purple air coming from the east". It is also said that it occupies the Xun position in the Bagua, which is the wind. The position is the position where the gentle and moist wind blows in to introduce the southeast wind and block the northwest wind in winter. It is an auspicious position and embodies the principle of "Kanzhai Xunmen".
The shape of the gate
According to the status of the owner, the street gates of the courtyard are divided into Wangfu gate, Guangliang gate, Jinzhu gate, Manzi gate, Ruyi gate and wall gate. (Gatehouse) and several other different shapes. With the construction of the Western-style Old Summer Palace, a large number of Chinese and Western gatehouses appeared among the people, which are vividly called "Old Summer Palace-style" gatehouses by the people.
As the name suggests, the palace gate is used for the palace and is the largest in scale. Its size is usually: five rooms for the prince's palace (five rooms and three openings), three rooms for the county prince's palace. The gate of the prince's palace is usually located in the center. There are also regulations in the book: There are five gates to the Prince's Mansion, the middle three can be opened, and green glazed tiles can be used on the roof. Kissing beasts can be installed on the roof ridge. There are door nails on the door. The Prince's Mansion has 63 door nails. The gate of the County Prince's Mansion is There are three rooms, only the middle one is open, and the doornails have become 45 in nine rows and five columns.
Guangliang Gate is a gate second only to the palace gate. The Guangliang gate is of a very high level. At that time, it could only be used by people with certain official status. The Guangliang gate was usually one bay wide and was located at the center pillar with more ornate decorations.
Jinzhu Gate is also used by officials, but the Jinzhu Gate is one level lower than Guangliang Gate. The Jinzhu gate is slightly smaller in size, and the door is located at the position of the Jinzhu (the door is located further forward).
Manzi Gate and Ruyi Gate are used by ordinary people and are relatively small in scale. The door of Manzi Gate is further forward and is located on the eaves. It is said that it was named because most of the merchants from the south lived here at that time.
Ruyi Gate. The next level lower than Manzi Gate is Ruyi Gate. Ruyi Gate usually has a wall built at the position of the eaves column. The door is very small, and the word "Ruyi" or the image of "Ruyi" is often carved on the forehead of the door.
Small gate tower. The simplest and most common gate is to build an entrance opening with bricks directly on the wall, install the door leaf, and have no internal space, which is called a gatehouse.
The components of the gate
The roof of the gatehouse is usually tiled in two ways: downward tiles and upward tiles. There are several types of roofs, such as Qingshui Ridge and Rolling Shed (also known as Yuanbao Ridge). Qingshui Ridge usually has two upward tiles on both sides, called scorpion tail, owl tail, Chaotian Wat, and there are flower tiles below the scorpion tail. Where the eaves are located at the bicep, there is usually a Bofeng installed to protect the bicep wall. The Bofeng can also have brick carvings.
The queti is a wooden component located between the eaves column and the eaves beam. It plays a certain role in mechanics, but the queti and the three clouds are more symbols of official status. Only the Wangfu Gate, Guangliang Gate and Jinzhu Gate have bird seats, while Manzi Gate and Ruyi Gate have no bird seats because their gates are located on the eaves pillars.
The door hairpin is a wooden structure that fixes the couplets on the threshold of the door. Four door hairpins are used for the main door and two door hairpins are used for the small door. The exposed part of the door hairpin is decorated with a door hairpin cap, which is generally a hexagonal shape with a curve. The door hairpin caps are usually engraved with symbolic patterns and text.
There are many kinds of door panels. The door panels are usually engraved with door couplets. The more sophisticated street gates are engraved with the door heart. Generally, the more common couplet is "loyalty is passed down to the family for a long time, and poems and books" "To help the world grow" and so on. The door is equipped with a door cymbal in the middle for knocking on the door, and there is a door guard iron below the door.
The crest refers to the part of the gable wall that protrudes beyond the eaves column. The pan heads on the crest wall (also known as eaves and eaves) and the brick carvings on the head of Ruyi Gate are all exquisite handicrafts. . From top to bottom, there are eaves, two-story eaves, lotus piers, decals and other components. From top to bottom, the door of Ruyi Gate is composed of railings, pillars, ice plate eaves, owl, connecting beads, hanging boards and other components.
The door pier refers to the part of the door pillow located on the outside of the door. There are usually two types: box-shaped and drum-shaped (baogu stone). There is a stone nest inside the door pillow for inserting the door pivot. The gate pier is a distinctive component of the gatehouse. It usually consists of a xumi base, a drum or box shape, and a beast's kiss or lion (some say it is Suan Ni). The shape of the gate piers varies depending on the shape of the gate tower. The carvings that appear on the gate piers are important materials for studying ancient Chinese social culture and are also exquisite stone carvings.
There are usually facilities such as horse-mounting stones and horse-tying posts next to the door, and some even have Taishan stone pillars. Main article: Screen wall
The screen wall is usually used to block the line of sight, beautify the realization and highlight the function of the door in the courtyard. It is usually made of bricks and consists of three parts: seat, body and roof. The seat has a Xumi base. There are also simple ones without seats. Sometimes the gate of a courtyard is set back a few steps and eight-character walls are built on the left and right sides of the gate, which are called Yanqi screen wall or Bizi screen wall. There is usually a screen wall inside the gate of a courtyard, which is usually mounted on the gable of the roof of the east wing. There are also courtyards with higher specifications that use an independent screen wall. The screen wall is also placed on the street outside the courtyard gate, facing the gate.
The central area of ??the screen wall is called the center of the screen wall. It is usually made of square bricks placed at an angle of 45 degrees. A simpler screen wall may not have much decoration, but the bricks must be polished and the seams must be very precise. Neat and luxurious screen walls are usually decorated with brick carvings with many auspicious patterns. The brick carvings on the screen wall mainly include the center and four corners of the central area, and there are also Hunxiao and Lianzhu at the intersection with the roof. There is a central flower carved on one side of the central square brick, and a brick plaque with the Chinese character "Fu Shou" or brick carvings with auspicious meanings is inlaid in the center of the screen wall.
The top of the screen wall is generally the same as the roof. Although it is made of bricks, the roof of the screen wall is also made of bricks with rafters, and a clear water ridge or rolled shed ridge roof is installed on it. Main article: Daizao Fang
Daizao Fang is the southernmost row of houses in the entire quadrangle. Its eaves wall faces the alley and generally does not open windows. Since the doors and windows all face north, the lighting is not good. The easternmost part is the private school, and the westernmost part is the toilet. The houses in between are usually occupied by servants.
The street gate, the reverse-seating room on the south side, the hanging flower door and the verandah on the north side together form the front yard of the courtyard. The front yard is where the owner receives guests and works. After passing through the hanging flower door, there is the inner house. , that is, the living area of ??the courtyard. Main article: Screen door
After entering the gate, there is a screen door on the left and right sides of the screen wall, which leads to the small courtyard of the "shu" to the east and to the outer courtyard with the reverse seat room to the west. There is also a screen door inside the hanging flower door between the inner and outer courtyards. Main article: Hanging Flower Gate
The hanging flower gate, also known as the second gate, opens on the partition wall between the inner and outer courtyards and is located on the central axis of the courtyard. In the old days, it was said that the daughter of a wealthy family "could not go out from the front door, nor step through the second door", which meant that she did not step up to the hanging flower door. The outer eaves column of the hanging flower gate does not stand up from the ground, but hangs on the crossbar of the central column. It is called a hanging column. The lower end of the hanging column has a hanging bead, which is usually painted in the form of petals, so it is called a hanging flower gate. The hanging flower gate is a richly decorated building in the courtyard.
The roof of the hanging flower door is usually of rolling shed type, or one hall and one rolling style, that is, the clear water ridge type is outside the door and the rolling shed type is inside the door. There are two doors in the hanging flower door. One is at the center pillar, which is open during the day and closed at night. The other is a screen door, which is at the inner eaves pillar and is closed at ordinary times to isolate the view of the inner courtyard. The entrance to the inner courtyard through the hanging flower door is through the space between the inner eaves pillars and the central pillar on both sides of the hanging flower door, which is usually connected with the hand verandah. Main article: Wing rooms
The east and west wing rooms are the residences of descendants, and there are often three rooms. The east wing is respected and the west wing is humbled. The eldest son and daughter-in-law usually live in the east wing of a courtyard in Beijing. Therefore, there is a slight difference in the height of the east and west wing in the building. The east wing is slightly higher and the west wing is slightly lower. However, because the difference is very subtle, it is difficult to See it with the naked eye. For example, the east wing of a Shijiazhuang courtyard is two inches taller than the west wing. However, in North China, the east wing is exposed to the west sun in summer and is directly hit by the cold northwest wind in winter, so it is not suitable for living. The east wing of Shaanxi courtyards is mostly used by wealthy households to store grain, or as kitchens and stables. Main article: Back House
The back house is usually the innermost house entering the courtyard and close to the boundary of the courtyard. Usually the owner's daughter lives there. The rear house has the same orientation as the main house, facing north and south, and the number of sides is generally the same as that of the back house, so as to fill the width of the residential site as much as possible. The grade of the back house is lower than that of the main house and the wing house, and its scale and quality are slightly inferior. Main article: Corridor
The corridor in a courtyard is a covered building, used for walking when it rains or snows. It is divided into two types: eaves corridor and verandah. The former refers to the covered corridor in front of the main house and wing rooms. The roof is usually an extension of the eaves; the latter refers to the corridor along the wall (chaoshou veranda) and the corridor connecting the main room and the wing room (mountain verandah). Some eaves corridors and hand verandahs are sealed with windows and become indoor environments, called warm corridors.
In "A Dream of Red Mansions", when Lin Daiyu first entered Jia's house, there was the following description:
"All the women walked around and fell in front of a hanging flower door. All the boys exited, The ladies came up and opened the sedan curtains, and helped Daiyu out of the sedan. Lin Daiyu held her hand and entered the flower door. There were corridors on both sides, and in the middle was a large marble screen with a red sandalwood frame. There are three small halls with screens, and behind them is the main courtyard. The five upper rooms on the front are all decorated with carved beams and painted beams, and the verandahs on both sides are decorated with various parrots, thrushes and other birds. In addition to the main courtyard of the house, there are also some small courtyards, such as the small courtyards in front of the side rooms on both sides of the main house, and the small courtyards on both sides of the outer courtyard separated by screen doors.
The courtyard of the inner house has a north-south cross-shaped corridor. Most residents in old Beijing would plant trees in the courtyard. Except for pine, cypress and poplar, which cannot be planted because they are planted in cemeteries, Various other trees are planted. In the past, there was a folk proverb in Beijing: "Sangsong, cypress, pear, and locust tree cannot enter the palace of the prince." This refers to the taboo of planting trees in the courtyard. The more common trees include jujube trees and persimmon trees. The main flowers and trees include peonies, peonies, magnolias, lilacs, crabapples, wisteria, pomegranates, etc. Planting jujube trees and pomegranate trees in a courtyard means giving birth to noble children "early" and having more children. Planting persimmon trees means everything goes well; planting lilacs and crabapples means the owner has status and a certain degree of cultural accomplishment.
In addition, there is also a folk custom of raising fish. Fish tanks with a diameter of 60 to 70 cm are often used to raise various fish and plant lotus flowers. In winter, the fish tanks can also be used to store food.
In summer, when the weather is hot, you can also set up a ceiling in the courtyard to provide shade. There is a saying in old Beijing that "the ceiling is a fish tank and a pomegranate tree, and the husband is a fat dog and the girl is fat", which is a portrayal of the life of the scribe family living in Beijing. .