Beijing Siheyuan
Siheyuan is a traditional residential form in Beijing. It had begun to take shape in the Liao Dynasty, and gradually improved through the Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and finally became the most distinctive living form in Beijing. The so-called four-in-one, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north, and "combination" means that all the houses are surrounded together to form a "mouth" shape. After hundreds of years of construction, Beijing quadrangles have formed a unique Beijing style from the plane layout to the internal structure and detailed decoration.
Beijing's regular quadrangles generally sit in the east-west hutong, facing south. The basic shape is the north room (the main room), the south room (the inverted room) and the east and west rooms, which are separated on all sides, and surrounded by high walls to form a quadrangle and open a door. The gate is located in the southeast corner of the house. The total number of rooms is generally 3 rooms in the north room, 5 rooms in the front room, 3 rooms in the east room and 3 rooms in the west room, 4 rooms in the south room excluding the gate, and 17 rooms including the gate hole and the hanging flower door. If each room is 11-12 square meters, the total area is about 2 square meters. There is a courtyard in the middle of the courtyard, which is spacious. Trees and flowers are planted in the courtyard, and goldfish are raised in tanks. It is the center of the layout of the courtyard, and it is also a place for people to walk, light, ventilate, enjoy the cool, rest and do housework.
Although quadrangles have certain regulations, their sizes are different, which can be roughly divided into three types: large quadrangles, medium quadrangles and small quadrangles.
Small quadrangles generally have three rooms in the north, one bright and two dark or two bright and one dark, two rooms in the east and west wings and three rooms in the south. Lay bricks to the top, ridge tile house. Can live in a family of three generations, the ancestors live in the main room, the younger generation lives in the wing, and the south room is used as a study or living room. The courtyard is paved with brick tunnels, which connect all the doors, and there are steps in front of each door. There are two gates, decorated with black paint and oil, a pair of brass cymbals on the doors, and couplets on the two.
The middle quadrangle is more spacious than the small quadrangle. Generally, there are five rooms in the north, three rooms in the front and two rooms in the east and west wing, and there are corridors in front of the rooms to avoid the wind and rain. In addition, the courtyard wall is divided into the front yard (outer yard) and the back yard (inner yard), and the courtyard wall is connected by the moon gate. The front yard is deep and simple, with one or two houses as the concierge and the backyard as the residential house. The building is exquisite, and the floor is paved with bricks and bluestones.
large quadrangles are customarily called "big house doors", and the houses can be arranged in five south and five north, seven south and seven north, and there are even nine or eleven large main rooms, which are generally compound quadrangles, that is, a plurality of quadrangles are connected in depth. There are many courtyards, including front yard, backyard, east yard, west yard, main yard, partial yard, cross yard, study yard, enclosed house yard, horse number, first entrance, second entrance, third entrance, and so on. There are hand-written verandas in the courtyard connecting all places, covering a huge area. If the floor available for construction is narrow, or the economic capacity is unbearable, the quadrangle can be changed to a three-storey courtyard instead of a south building.
Medium-sized and small-sized quadrangles are generally the residences of ordinary residents, while the big quadrangles are the residences and official offices.
Beijing quadrangle is a brick-wood structure, with purlins, columns, beams (rafters), sills, doors and windows, partition fans, etc. all made of wood, with brick walls around the wooden shelves. Beams, doors, windows and eaves rafters should be painted with colorful pictures. Although they are not as splendid as the palace garden, they are also colorful. Walls are used to building walls with ground bricks and broken bricks. As the saying goes, "There are three treasures in Beijing ... rotten bricks can't build walls". Most of the roof tiles are made of green tiles, which are interlocked with each other, dripping water is installed in front of the eaves, or no tiles are laid, and all the roofs are plastered with green ash, which is called "grey shed".
The gate of a quadrangle generally occupies the area of a room, and its spare parts are quite complicated. Only the building names are gatehouse, doorway, gate (door leaf), door frame, waist truss, stopper board, running board, door pillow, connecting sill, threshold, door pin, big edge, plastering head, threading belt, door core board and door. The gate is generally black and oily, and couplets with red, oil and black characters can be added. Entering the gate, there are hanging flower doors, moon doors and so on. The hanging flower door is the most gorgeous decorative door in the quadrangle. It is called "hanging flower" because the outer eaves of the door are arched, which is used to separate the inner and outer courtyards. Outside the door is the "outer house" such as the living room, the concierge and the garage, and inside the door is the bedroom "inner house" for the main living. If there is no hanging door, the moon door can be used to separate the inner and outer houses. The hanging doors are beautifully painted, the eaves rafters are painted blue-green, the rosewood oil is red, the round rafters are painted blue-white-black, and the square rafters are painted with gold swastikas or rhombuses on a blue background. The center of the front eaves is decorated with brocade, flowers and flowers, Bo Gu, etc. The hanging lotus stigma on both sides is painted colorful according to the carved patterns. The carved patterns of quadrangles are mainly auspicious patterns, such as "Fu Shou Shuang Quan" composed of bats and longevity characters, "Peace in the Four Seasons" implied by a vase with Chinese roses, as well as "Three generations of descendants", "Jade Tang is rich" and "Fu Lu Shou Xi", which show the longing of old Beijingers for a better life.
Windows and sill walls are embedded in the upper sill (without lower sill) and the large frame between the left and right holding columns, and the upper sash can be supported, while the lower sash is generally fixed. In winter, Korean paper or cellophane is often used to paste windows, which are bright from the inside and dark from the outside, which not only prevents the cold from invading, but also keeps sufficient indoor light. In summer, window gauze or cold cloth is used to paste windows. This is a window gauze woven from wood in various counties in southern Beijing. It looks like cloth instead of cloth, which can provide ventilation and relieve indoor heat. A piece of paper is added outside the cold cloth, which is rolled up during the day and put down at night, so it is also called "rolling window". Some people use windows with upper branches and lower branches.
There are many sandstorms in Beijing in winter and spring, and door curtains are often used in residential buildings. In general, people should hang a cotton curtain with plywood in winter, a sandwich curtain with plywood in spring and autumn, and a bamboo curtain with plywood in summer. Poor families can use straw curtains or broken felt curtains. The door curtain can be hung, and the purpose of installing plywood in the upper, middle and lower parts is to increase the weight so as not to be lifted by the wind. Later, the door curtain was replaced by the air door, but bamboo curtain was still used in summer, which was cool, bright and practical.
The ceilings of quadrangles are all made of sorghum poles and covered with paper. Beijing ceiling pasting is a technology. In quadrangles, the ceiling, walls, curtains and windows are all pasted with white paper, which is called "four whites in the end". Ordinary people mount it once every few years, while rich people do it "four times a year".
It's very cold in winter in Beijing. Residents in the quadrangle all sleep on the kang. In front of the kang, a coal stove is buried underground, and a fire is lit in the stove. When the kang is empty and the fire enters the kang hole, the kang bed will be heated, and people will feel warm when they sleep on the hot kang. Most of the coal used to burn kang is produced in Xishan, Beijing. There is a difference between raw coal and coal powder. Coal powder and loess are shaken with briquettes for burning kang or cooking.
indoor heating uses stoves, which can be divided into mud, iron and copper according to their texture. The mud stove is made of Guo Kui wood produced in Beijing, which has strong heat penetration and is light and easy to move. There are several stoves at home with wealth. Generally, people often use the fire in front of the kang to cook and cook dishes, instead of burning another stove. The so-called "pot is connected to the stove", so it is difficult to separate life from daily life. The stove can seal the fire, so it is often kept on for a rainy day. If it goes out, it will be burned with dry wood and charcoal. Housewives will take the stove outside the house every morning to make a fire (to prevent gas poisoning), which will become a scene in Beijing.
The drainage of domestic water in quadrangles is mostly in the form of seepage pits, commonly known as "seepage wells" and "seepage ditches". There are generally no toilets in quadrangles, and toilets are mostly located in hutongs, which are called "official huts".
Beijing quadrangles pay attention to greening, and trees and flowers are planted in the courtyard, which is really elegant and pleasant. The favorite flowers in old Beijing are lilac, begonia, elm leaf plum, peach blossom and so on, and most of the trees are jujube and locust trees. In addition to planting flowers and plants, they can also be potted and watered. The most common potted flowers and trees are pomegranate trees, oleander, Jingui, Yingui, Rhododendron, Gardenia, etc. Planting pomegranate is a sign of "multiple children". As for the grass jasmine, impatiens, morning glory and flat bean curd in the garden in front of the courtyard, it is the daily beauty of the courtyard. There is a saying in Qing Dynasty that describes the life in quadrangles: "the ceiling, the fish tank, the pomegranate tree, the old man, the young lady and the fat girl", which can be said to be a typical portrayal of the life in quadrangles.