A Combination of Forms (part 4)

　　11. Siheyuan in Beijing

　　The size of courtyards in dwellings is related to the climate. The colder the climate, the larger the courtyards will be. The aesthetic function of Chinese architecture is not only to give pleasure by dint of the outer appearance, but also, and even more important to "help and enlighten human relations". The siheyuan is a regular square with straight sides, with an inside configuration of the character "井 "implied. Since jingtianzhi (the system of the井-shaped field) of remote antiquity up to Mingtang, palace buildings of ancestral temples, the traditional architecture of China has consistently endeavored to give architectural art clear and definite social, political and ethical meaning. Division using the character"井"gives rise to a center which implies symmetry, stability, dignity and seriousness, To it, many symbolized contents may be attributed. According to the bagua (eight diagrams initiated in Yijing (the Book of Changes), Kun indicating the North symbolizes the earth and qian indicating the South symbolizes Heaven. Orientation to the north and the south therefore means conformance with heaven and earth, while conforming with the natural laws would ensure prosperity and bring luck. Huangdizhaijing (the classical Book on Buildings by Huangdi) reads:" The house is the pivot of yin and yang and the model of human relations. Only sages with wisdom can interpret the principle." In a siheyuan, only the north room was considered ideal for dwelling purposes but it was in fact the halls used for reception and sacrificial rites that were located here, the east and west wing rooms, the dozuo and rear hall being the rooms actually dwelt in. As stated in the Liji(the Book of Rites); " A man of dignity considers the ancestral temples first, the stable and storehouse second and the room for dwelling last when constructing houses." Reason therefore prevails over the function in China. The more sophisticated the configuration of the vernacular dwelling is, the more this maxim holds. The entrance gate, the yinbi, the chuihuamen, and the verandah all add dignity. Spatial arrangement within a siheyuan is orderly and the building are of reasonable dimension. In the inner courtyard of a siheyuan in Beijing there are often verandahs weaving round from the second gate to the main house, not only offering protection against rain, but also adding interest to the courtyard as they zigzag their way through.

　　The entrance gate is generally opened on the left at the front with the zhaobi located immediately inside. The deep courtyard is quiet, and as it cannot be seen from outside, functions as an outdoor living room in summer. Potted plants transform it into a small and idyllic often brick-paved garden.

　　12. Vernacular Dwellings in Xinjiang

　　Rainfallin the Turfan Basin in Xinjiang is practically non-existent, with so-called earth-rain falling on spring and summer days. At this time, loess dust is everywhere even cutting out the sunlight. The Uygur people adapt to this climate by planting grapevines and fruit trees in the courtyards of their dwellings and in summer eating outdoors or receiving guests under the grapevine.

　　Their flat-roofed dwellings are made of adobe and have wooden beam roof with compact rib-work of compactly combined horizontal and vertical ribbed slabs which serve the purpose of partitioning or load-bearing in the same way as beams and posts. The configuration is complicated, flexible and varied. Space is often divided up by adobe floral walls and arched doors. As temperatures in this region can rise to as high as 47C, falling at night to just 20'C, walls of buildings are constructed of immature soil and made especially thick. Grapevines are often to be seen forming long corridors along streets, and provide welcome shade.

　　Interesting are the earth arches with their wide spans, on top of which airy courtyards are constructed, and tunnel-like long alleys which are widen and narrow.

　　The toilets of Uygur dwellings are generally to be found on the roof, the dry climate facilitating the removal of feces.

　　Although the climate poses no problems for houses built of immature earth, well-to-do families still have their dwellings built of bricks as a precaution against erosion. Fine carvings decorate arched galleries, wall surfaces, niches, fireplaces, the compact rib work, ceilings, etc. As the inhabitants are Muslim, green colors are mostly used. In dwellings of the common people, internal decorations are simpler, and there is usually little furniture, but beautiful tapestries are hung on the walls for decoration.

　　13. Vernacular Dwellings in Southwest China

　　The provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi are famous for the uniqueness and beauty of their scenery. The population includes minority ethnic groups such as the Dai, Jingpo, Dong, Wa, Aini and Shui, and the vernacular dwellings have a variety of forms, many tribes adopting ganlan-type buildings.

　　These have a long history. In the period of the Hemudu civilization, about 1000 years ago, very mature ganlan-type buildings already existed. The Liao Zhuan, a description of the Liao nationality in the book Wei Shu, which tells the history of the Wei Dynasty, says the following:" The Liao nationality is a branch of the Nanman. They live in the area stretching from Hanzhong to Qiong, Ze, Chuan and Dong, and consist of many branches scattered through the valleys.…leaning against trees, they pile up wood to live thereon." Ganlan-type dwellings were small storied buildings with bamboo for the columns or beams, the upper floors for dwelling and the lower ones for raising livestock or storing sundries.

　　Ganlan-type dwellings can be of the high-storied or the low-storied type depending on the height of the void space of columns and beams on the lower floors. The most common type is three-storied: the uppermost floor being a bedroom, the floor between a sitting room and ground floor serving as a pen for animals and storage space.

　　In sparsely populated areas, ganlan-type dwellings are ideal for fending off wild beasts. They also uphold the ancient tradition of huotang (fireplace, a hollow made in the floor for an open fire for the cooking of food, the heating of water and the drying of clothes). The huotang is also to be found on the second floor, the number depending on the ethnic group and the number of brothers; but there is generally at least one. In addition to the uses mentioned above, they also serve to repel mosquitoes, and blackened beams and floor panels are less likely to be attacked by woodworm. The huotang is also used for smoking meat and vegetables.

　　Dwellings of the outer-gallery type of the Jingpo in Yunnan are of the low storied ganlan type. The roofs are of double pitch, larger at the top and smaller lower down. Bronze funeral objects unearthed from a tomb with a wooden outer coffin and a bronze inner coffin found in the village of Xiangyun County in Yunnan Province testify to the fact that during the period of the warring states (400 BC), there were already at that time such ganlan-type buildings with roofs of inverted trapezoidal shape with a longer ridge and shorter eaves. In ancient times, the heads of oxen or even human heads were hung from the eves as a demonstration of the fighting spirit and courage of the master of the house. The Jingpo still use this form of dwell-Jinggan-type dwelling is also a style of building that was already in existence in ancient China. Patterns on vessels for storing shells and bronze articles unearthed from Shizhai Mountain in Yunnan give us an indication of what these dwellings looked like, the method of construction emerging as early as the Han Dynasty. The jinggan-type storied building constructed in the reign of Wudi of the Han Dynasty was very tall, and was once described in the following way: "Climbing only half way up a jinggan-type storied building leaves one feeling faint." Other interesting literary records of the 'high-rise' buildings of the Han Dynasty are to be found in zhangfanhanji, Dongguanhanji etc.

　　Both the outer and inner walls of jinggan-type dwellings are made of piled-up debarked round or square logs, with deep grooves being provided on the contact surfaces of the logs to facilitate stable piling and water-proofing. Crossed joints are used at wall corners. The logs of inner partition walls are also crossed and exposed. Lapping round logs are roughly exposed without being painted. The name of this type of building derives from its shape. Currently, this type of house is restricted to the forest zones of Northeast China Xinjiang and Yunnan. The roofs are generally of xuanshan type, some have their gaps smeared with clay for protection against the wind and cold. Roofs are of straw or bark, but roofs of wood slices are more representative. Jinggan-type dwellings are scattered about in small villages as a precaution against fire. Of these, the most impressive are those of the Naxi in Yongning County, Yunnan.

　　The city of Dali in the province of Yunnan is a beautiful place and famous for its folk songs. Eighteen brooks from Cangshan Mountain flow here into lake Erhai. The crystal-clear water is partly diverted through the town, making a murmuring sound as it runs through the stone channels of the streets and alleys. The brooks themselves are rendered green by the waterweeds, swaying like stalks of wheat in the breeze as the water flows gently over them. Bai girls are often to be seen washing clothes at dusk, an attractive sight against the background of the houses with their black tiles and white walls. Bai vernacular dwellings are justly famous. Sanfangyizhaobi and sihewutianjing are the layouts typically used and buildings are built to best withstand the strong gales and frequent earthquakes. A so-called fang is a two-storied house comprising three bays. Sanfangyizhaobi is a sanheyuan composed of three encircling two-storied houses of three bays each, plus a zhaobi. Such layouts are relatively common and are the most popular for the vernacular dwellings of the Bai.

　　Sihewutianjing is a siheyuan plus an entrance zhaobi and the encircling walls to make five large and small tianjing (patio, a small roofless space in a building or in a yard enclosed by houses on four sides or on three sides with a wall on the fourth). The Bai people prefer their houses to be built by the side of a hill or mountain, only thus is the well-being of the family guaranteed. The rear end of the principal axis of the building is thus set against a nearby hill, it being forbidden to have the back of a vernacular building facing a gully or an open place.

　　Guizhou Province is located to the east of the Yungui Plateau. Here hills rise and fall, surface soil is poor with rocks and stones everywhere. The local people utilize the readily available material to build their houses, and even flat mountain rocks are sometimes used for the walling of vernacular dwellings. The wooden frames of the houses are of the through-jointed type. The sloping roof surfaces are covered with thin layers of limestone and not given ridge tiles, solving the problem of roof ridge leaking.

　　In many villages, too, the ground is paved with stone slabs, the floors are of stone, water urns are also of stone and mangers are chiseled out of stone blocks. Whole villages of stone slab houses have a special character. Hundreds of steps zigzag their way up- wards to the top of the village. Arched gates span the road and high staggered buildings constructed of flat pieces of stone piled up one on top of the other are an impressive sight. Stone slab houses are to be found around the Huaxi District of Guiyang, Zhenning and Anshun in the province of Guizhou, in Ankang in the province of Shaanxi and in the mountainous region of the municipality of Beijing. From the famous waterfall in Huangguoshu one can easily walk to the shitouzhai (stone village) in Zhenning.

　　Yunnan Province is located on the plateau. The climate is spring- like all year round without extremes of heat and cold. Strong winds, however, can blow, so vernacular dwellings have thick earth walls and semi-cylindrical roof tiles. One finds Yikeyin (seal) vernacular dwellings, so called because their form of layout is as square as a seal. The sanjiansi'er yikeyin type is the most common, sanjiansi'er denoting these main central rooms and two rooms on each side. Such layouts not only fulfill the functional requirements of living but also those of defense. Yikeyin houses are all multi-storied, with people living upstairs and the ground floor used for livestock and storage. The ground floor of the main house is taken up by the main room, used to receive guests. Rooms to the left and right of the main room serve as bedrooms. The central bay upstairs is used as the family hall for worshipping Buddha. Two or three yikeyin units can be used in line when it is a question of building larger dwellings, and those of high-clan families have a daozuo of daobachi at the entrance.

　　出版：Springer Wien New York

　　ISBN-3-211-83008-1

　　2000年