Yixian residential houses are widely distributed, especially in Xidi, Hongcun, Nanping and Pingshan. These ancient houses are beautifully built, exquisitely shaped, beautiful and practical; It not only has a typical Huizhou architectural style, but also is unique. Combined with local topography, landforms and geomantic omen, it has become an amazing natural and cultural landscape and a rare treasure in residential buildings.
Xidi Village, 8 kilometers away from Yixian County, was founded in Yuanfeng period of Northern Song Dynasty, with a history of more than 930 years. The village is boat-shaped, covering an area of 16 hectares, and is known as the "home in the Peach Blossom Garden". The village takes a vertical street and two downstream roads as the main skeleton, which constitutes a village street system extending mainly to the east and north and south. Streets and alleys are all paved with Yixian bluestone, and ancient buildings are maintained with wooden structures and brick walls. Wood carving, stone carving and brick carving are rich and colorful, and lanes, streams and buildings are properly laid out. The change of village space is full of charm, and the architectural color is simple and elegant. There are more than 300 residential buildings in Ming and Qing dynasties in the village, of which 124 is well preserved, and a large number of excellent works of art such as bricks, wood and stone carvings are dotted among them. Most of the houses in this village are built of black marble, with two clear springs passing through the village and 99 high walls and deep alleys. At the head of the village, there are three four-column and five-story bluestone archways built in the sixth year of Wanli (1578), which are exquisite in structure and are a symbol of Hu's status. There is a "Lv Fu Tang" built in the Kangxi period in the village, which is elegantly furnished and full of scholarly atmosphere. In the class, there are couplets of "Filial piety is the foundation" and "Good reading, good business and good results, but it is difficult to start a business, so it is difficult to know", which shows the infiltration of Confucianism into architecture. Another ancient house in the village is "Dafudi", which was built in the 30th year of Qing Emperor Kangxi (169 1). Originally used for sightseeing, the six characters of "Peach Blossom Spring Man" were hung on the floor. In addition, every household in the village has magnificent houses, exquisite gardens, doorframes and leaky windows made of black marble, exotic flowers and plants carved in stone, birds and animals, pavilions carved in brick, people's operas, exquisite wood carvings, colorful paintings and murals, which contain extremely rich cultural connotations and fully demonstrate the artistic characteristics of Huizhou architecture in ancient China.
Hongcun is located in the northwest corner of Yixian County, 65km away from Tunxi and 1 1km away from Yixian County. The village was founded in the Northern Song Dynasty and has a history of nearly a thousand years. From the overall appearance, Hongcun is a peculiar cow-shaped ancient village in the Peach Blossom Garden of the ancient Miao nationality, which has both the interest of Shan Ye and the scenery of water town, and is known as "the village in Chinese painting". In particular, the "cow" structure layout of the whole village is regarded as a great miracle of the historical and cultural heritage of the world today. The towering green Leigang is a cow's head, the towering old trees are horns, and the scattered residential groups from east to west are like the body of a spoiled cow. A stream in the northwest of the village is dug around the house to transfer ownership. The winding canal meets the natural spring water in the village to form a barrel-shaped pond, which looks like a cow intestine and a cow stomach. The canal finally pours into the lake in the south of the village, commonly known as tripe. People built four bridges on the river around the village as supports. A few years later, a cow totem appeared like mushrooms after rain. There are more than 40 well-preserved Ming and Qing ancient dwellings 140 in the village, and there are hundreds of ancient dwellings with white walls and blue tiles, among which Chengzhitang is the most prominent. It was built by salt merchants in Qing Dynasty, covering an area of more than 2,000 square meters. This is a brick-wood building. This room is magnificent and exquisite in workmanship. The wood carvings on the beams, arches, flower gates and windowsills of the main hall are complex in level, with a wide range of people and different gods. It can be called the "four sculptures" art of Huizhou school and has the reputation of "folk palace". In addition, there are resplendent, quaint and spacious Dongxiantang and Sanlitang, mirror-smooth moon marsh and rippling South Lake, deep hutong doors, antique shops beside Qingshi Street, towering ancient trees on Leigang and sinomenine trees that have penetrated into the walls of residential buildings, century-old peony, well-guarded ancestral halls such as Xurentang and Shangyuantang, which are isomorphic into a perfect artistic whole. It is really a scene at a time.
Nanping Village, also known as Hanlin Village and Yecun Village, is located 5 kilometers southwest of Yixian County. Because the northwest and south of the village are close to Nanping Mountain, it was renamed Nanping Village. Surrounded by Wuling Creek and the east-west dry stream, it has beautiful scenery, and there are more than 300 well-preserved ancient Ming and Qing dwellings in the village. There are 72 lanes in the village, 100 meters, ranging from 20 to 30 meters. Alleys are interlinked and cross-connected, which is called "Jiangnan maze". The most distinctive building in Nanping belongs to the ancestral hall. Up to now, there are still eight ancestral halls, most of which are located on the central axis of Hengdian Street in front of the village, which is about 200 meters long. Divided into ancestral temples, family temples and branch temples, it is known as "China Ancient Ancestral Temple Architecture Museum".
Lu Guan Village is 7 kilometers west of Yixian County, at the foot of Mu Jong Mountain and Xiwuling Mountain. Because West Wuling is known as the "Xiongguan of West Wu", the village is located at the foot of Xiongguandong, hence the name. The ancient buildings in the village are row upon row, strewn at random. Among them, the most famous ones are eight ancient houses built in the middle of Qing Dynasty, which are called "Lu Guan Eighth Hospital". The so-called "eight houses at the foot of Lu Guan" is actually a conjoined building. The Wangs have their own eight sons, each with its own portal, independence, exquisite design, wealth or elegance, and each with its own merits. There are always walls, paths or doorways between these eight houses. Around the Wang Ancestral Hall, eight families are like one family, maintaining the overall elegance and neatness. The interior is beautifully decorated, carved with beams and painted with gold, exquisitely designed and rich and elegant. Although it has gone through hundreds of years, it is still extremely beautiful. This strange conjoined building embodies the strict clan system and ideology of the family everywhere.
Yixian residential buildings, like perfect works of art, exude artistic charm everywhere, which is of great ornamental and research value.