The outer shadow wall of quadrangles is usually used to ward off evil spirits. Because the ancients believed in ghosts and gods, people thought that there would be souls after death, and these souls would continue to enter the house without shelter. In order to prevent ghosts from entering the house, people always set up a screen wall. In this way, if a ghost wants to enter the house, he will see his own shadow on the screen wall and be scared away by himself, so he will not enter the house.
The inner shadow wall of the quadrangle mainly plays the role of isolation, shielding and sound insulation. Because the courtyard is a large open-air living room as a whole, every household will plant some flowers and trees in the courtyard or raise some fish, insects, birds and animals for fun. These personal preferences are not easy to see. Therefore, the inner shadow wall was built to play a shielding role. In addition, some exquisite patterns are usually carved on the inner shadow wall, which also plays a decorative role in the courtyard.
Top view of Sanjin quadrangle
Dali "three drops of water" screen wall
Screen wall is an important part of traditional architecture in China. It exists not only in ancient quadrangles, but also in Shanxi merchants' courtyard and Dali Bai folk houses. There are many forms of shadow wall, including the inner shadow wall inside the gate and the outer shadow wall outside the gate. For example, the screen wall of the Imperial Temple in Beijing is just across the road. This kind of screen wall is generally only available in high-rise buildings like Wang Fu. In the past, people were forbidden to drive in the middle space. There is also a shadow wall, located on the east and west sides of the gate, which looks like a figure of eight, and is called "anti-figure shadow wall" or "Guanshan shadow wall".
The biggest function of the screen wall is to block people and ghosts, of course.
Shadow wall is the most common. We went to Beijing to see Hu, walked along Chang 'an Avenue, and saw the shadow of xinhua gate's "serving the people". Take the screen wall of xinhua gate as an example. Because of its existence, we can't see what it looks like in Zhongnanhai. This is the role of the shadow wall. The screen can protect privacy and security. In order to play these roles, exquisite quadrangles not only rely on screen walls, but also rely on front porches and back buildings to increase the depth of the courtyard. The role of the outer screen wall and the inner screen wall is the same, and as I said just now, the space between the screen wall and the gate also belongs to the territory, which highlights the style and status. The doors of the "inverted eight-character wall" are generally indented inward, so the entrance to the yard will be made deeper and can also play a role in shielding.
The screen wall not only blocks people, but also blocks ghosts, because ghosts can only go straight and can't turn, so there is a wall at the door, so ghosts can't get in, avoiding disaster. In the past, building a house, how to erect a screen wall at the gate and how to build it were all about Feng Shui.
Shanxi Qiao compound screen wall
Because of the importance of the screen wall in the whole building, people have spent a lot of thoughts on this wall and tried their best to pile up sculptures, so the screen wall has another function-decoration. People with money and status will decorate the screen wall beautifully. For example, the Nine Dragon Wall of the Forbidden City is a scenic spot today.
Finally, to popularize it, in old Beijing dialect, the screen wall is usually called "North".
From the past to the present, great changes have taken place in our urban architecture. In the past, urban architecture emphasized stability. We can look at the houses of wealthy families in Beijing in the past, and rarely see how many floors they have. They all pay attention to one area. The main manifestations of wealth are carved beams and painted columns and the layout of houses.
Old Beijingers and we can see from the film and television works that in the past, most houses in Beijing were quadrangles, that is, a large screen wall entered the door, and then patios were built on three sides, which were divided into main rooms and accompanying rooms.
With the development of the times, urban quadrangles began to slowly disappear. Of course, there is a reason for this. One of the biggest reasons is that the urban population began to increase sharply, and buildings with large area and few people began to slowly withdraw and become tall buildings. People have changed from a plane life in the past to a three-dimensional life now.
In the past, the living environment of the small courtyard in the city has been extended to the countryside, and it is still like this until now. To be exact, the countryside has continued the traditional architectural occupancy mode in China for thousands of years.
For example, the shadow wall in the quadrangle in the past is basically invisible in the city now, unless it is some historical buildings that have not been demolished. In rural areas, such screen walls abound.
Then someone will ask, what is this screen wall for? Why were there such abrupt buildings in quadrangles in the past? Why are there such buildings in small courtyards in rural areas now?
In fact, such a question is quite easy to understand, because this screen wall has no practical effect, but almost every family has it.
Black sister-in-law is also very curious about this question. If anyone has seen the video before Black Sister-in-law, they will understand that Black Sister-in-law is very interested in this aspect and has made a video specially for this purpose.
Today we will talk about past lives, the role of this screen wall in the yard.
No matter in the past or now, our nation attaches great importance to the place where we live.
In the past, even a simple small courtyard needed a shadow wall. A fence will do. Of course, this only exists in some exquisite families, especially those with conditions.
If you don't have this condition, you can't build it naturally. Take Zhu Yuanzhang as an example. According to historical records, after his parents died, he didn't even have a piece of land to bury his parents. How could he bother to build a ghost house? Just find a place to bury it
So what exactly is this screen wall? Why is it so important? What exactly do people want to do with this thing?
Psychologically speaking, people built this thing to "block evil spirits", so in the folk, there is actually a popular name for this screen wall called "block evil spirits wall".
We in China take this very seriously. For example, our main entrance faces a big pit, so we have to build a wall next to it, which means that the pit will not directly face the yard. If the wall of our house directly faces the alley or the road, then write a "Taishan Shi Gandang" plaque on it. If it's a production road, or your home has an alley facing someone else's alley, then hang a mirror on the gable or put an urn with a small mouth and a big belly.
Why are you doing this? The whole purpose of doing this is to stop evil spirits. Then some people will ask, what is a barrier? What the hell is this? In fact, this is not a specific reference, but a general reference. Evil here refers to some unclean things.
In people's minds, if there is an alley in one's house, and it is opposite to another's alley, that is, alley to alley, this is called an arrow through the heart, which is easy to attract unclean things, so people will hang a mirror on the gable or place an urn with a small mouth and a big belly. The purpose of this is that if something unclean comes from the opposite alley, it will be reflected by the mirror and then go back. If it really can't go back, it will be sucked in and out by the small mouth and big belly urn above.
In fact, it is for this purpose to write Taishan Shi Gandang on the back wall and build a screen wall in the courtyard. People stubbornly believe that those so-called unclean things will not turn, but will go straight. If there is no screen wall in the door, they will drive straight ahead. If there is a shadow wall, it will be blocked and go back to the original road.
This is the main psychology of people building screen walls in the courtyard in the past, and it is also the function of building screen walls. In fact, even now, the shadow wall of rural small courtyard still has this function psychologically, but people just don't say it.
Now it seems ridiculous to us, but from the perspective of architectural aesthetics, this screen wall is actually reasonable, which is what we will talk about below.
In the development of architecture in China, palaces are actually the most affected. All folk buildings extend from the palace, so it may not be easy to understand. In other words, folk architecture is actually copying the palaces of the past authorities.
Of course, in terms of specifications, it is absolutely impossible to exceed. Exceeding it is called trespassing, which was a crime in ancient times. People will imitate it, but only in its shape, or in a smaller version.
The previous buildings started from the sky, paying attention to "negative yin holding yang". What is negative yin holding yang? In fact, to put it bluntly, it is sitting facing south, which is also a kind of folk building that we follow most now, which is also called "hall". If the direction is the north house, facing south, the sun shines for a long time. In ancient times, once someone sat facing south, it could be said that he became an emperor. We can understand the meaning of the so-called "attracting phoenix from the north to the south".
From the human aspect, our architecture pays attention to "the difference between the superior and the inferior, the order of the old and the young". There is a difference between who lives in what house and in what direction.
Some people may wonder, saying that you talk so much about black sisters-in-law, what does it have to do with our screen wall? We can see that there is a generational difference here, that is, the elders are in order, that is, a family, and there is a difference between who lives in which direction. For example, the head of the household lives in the main room, that is, the room facing south in the middle, and the sons live separately, either in the west wing or in the wing, and the daughter is the backyard. Why do we always say that an accident happened and the backyard caught fire? This is well-founded.
Some servants live either in the concierge or in a small house in the corner. This scattered living style gave birth to the quadrangles in the past, which needed a lot of houses, but people didn't build them in the past, so the existence of quadrangles is very necessary.
In this architectural layout, the man who lives in the middle is the head of the family and the most authoritative person in this family. How can people have authority? Invisibility means authority. No matter when you come, happiness always gives people a frivolous feeling, not serious.
People are like this, and so are buildings.
What if they don't show their faces? Be good at hiding and keep your true thoughts in your heart. Is the building so invisible? It's also hiding. However, architecture is not a person, so it can't hide the true thoughts inside, but can only assist, so there is a shadow wall, which hides the main house, that is, the owner, behind it.
So from the past to the present, the biggest role of the screen wall is to hide, hide money, hide gas, and hide everything in this family. Someone passes by the door, and you turn to look at the screen. You can't directly see what the owner in the hall is doing.
Similarly, this screen wall is not only used in the yard. When we watch TV dramas and historical records, we often see screens standing in places where people sleep or entertain guests.
This screen, from a certain point of view, is actually an indoor screen wall, but with different materials and similar functions, all for hiding. Hiding here is for the main family, not for the interests of the main family.
ⅲ: To sum up, we can see that there were shadow walls in those quadrangles in Beijing in the past, psychologically speaking, for shelter, but in fact, for hiding.
Now that there are fewer quadrangles, they have all become high-rise buildings. Without quadrangles, the screen wall naturally disappears, but people's psychology has not disappeared. This can be seen from the porch of interior decoration design. In fact, they are all in the same strain, just changed.
Nowadays, people in rural areas don't pay much attention to this kind of video wall, but almost everyone has it at home. However, it should be noted that people now pay less attention to blocking and hiding. Nowadays, people in rural areas build screen walls in the yard out of a herd mentality, that is, they have them in other people's yards and in their own homes. As for the function, they don't care much, and some people don't understand it.
The function and formation of screen wall is actually a very interesting topic. What Black Sister-in-law said is only superficial, which is related to her own understanding and knowledge, so it is inevitable that there will be mistakes and misunderstandings. I hope you all know this.
But as far as the screen wall itself is concerned, black sister-in-law personally thinks it is a very beautiful thing. There is such a thing in the yard, which increases the aesthetic feeling, neutralizes the monotony of the yard and has certain architectural significance. Will this thing disappear? According to black sister-in-law, no, it will still exist. As for whether it is necessary, this is a matter of opinion.
"The entrance is a screen wall, and the inside and outside are separated." Shadow wall plays the role of "leading", "hiding", "surrounding" and "communicating" in the courtyard, and is an element of traditional residential courtyard. Its spatial position, structural modeling, carving techniques, decorative styles and other aspects have also formed a regular atmosphere, simple and elegant, full and vigorous, natural and vivid artistic style, which is the crowning touch in the courtyard environment of traditional houses. According to the shape, the screen wall can be divided into: one-character screen wall, eight-character screen wall, skimming the mountain screen wall and building the mountain screen wall.
One-word shadow wall is the most common, which is formed in one word on the plane, and some shadow walls are too long. In order to avoid dullness, it is divided into three sections horizontally, with the middle slightly longer and the ends slightly shorter, forming the relationship of "one master and two servants". The so-called eight-character shadow wall is to fold the "two servants" in the "one master and two servants" outward on the basis of the one-character shadow wall to form a eight-character shape. On the basis of the eight-character shadow wall, the shadow wall of Pie Mountain is turned inward and located on both sides of the gate, forming an angle of 120 or 135 with adults. The shadow wall of the mountain is a brick cap built on the gable of the courtyard wing to make a shadow wall, which is connected with the gable as a whole.
In the traditional architectural form of China, the carved patterns, dragon water and stories on the screen wall echo the gate and the open space in front of it, which can not only avoid the scenery and hide the building, but also decorate the courtyard, and has high architectural aesthetic value.