Residences in the Qing Dynasty:
There are no less than forty types of residential buildings. They are roughly divided into seven categories, namely: courtyard-style dwellings, cave-dwelling dwellings, dry-wall dwellings, yurts and tents, Tibetan dwellings, Uyghur dwellings and other special types of dwellings.
Siheyuan:
Formal Siheyuan, one house per house, and the floor plan can be large or small. The owner of the house can build it according to the size of the land and the number of people in the family. It can be as small as one entrance, as large as three or four entrances, or as wide as two courtyards with a span. The smaller ones have 13 rooms; the ones with one or two courtyards have 25 to 40 rooms.
The back wall of the wing room is the courtyard wall, and a brick wall is built at the corner. The large courtyard is surrounded by walls from the outside. The walls are tall and have no windows to show its privacy. In terms of format, many palaces and temples were also designed and built according to the layout of the quadrangle.
Extended information:
Historical evolution of the Siheyuan
The Siheyuan has a long history. Complete Siheyuan appeared as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty in China more than 3,000 years ago. The two-entry courtyard architectural remains unearthed from the Zhouyuan site in Fengchu Village, Qishan, Shaanxi Province, are the earliest and most rigorous examples of courtyard houses known in China.
The courtyard architecture of the Han Dynasty has undergone new development. Influenced by Feng Shui theory, the courtyard has a complete set of Yin-Yang and Five Elements from site selection to layout. The quadrangle courtyard of the Tang Dynasty inherited the Han Dynasty and the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Its layout is narrow in front and narrow in the rear.
However, the quadrangle courtyards that were popular in ancient times were corridor-style courtyards, that is, the central axis of the courtyard was the main building, surrounded by cloisters, or there were houses on the left and right instead of houses on all sides. In the late Tang Dynasty, courtyards with verandahs appeared and gradually replaced the corridor courtyards. After the Song Dynasty, the corridor courtyards gradually decreased and gradually disappeared in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Siheyuan gradually matured during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, "ordered the residents of the old city to go to the capital to prioritize those with high status (rich people) and senior officials (serving in the imperial court), and ordered eight acres of land to be divided into one portion" to be distributed to Dadu. Rich merchants and officials built residences, thus beginning the period of large-scale formation of traditional courtyard houses in Beijing. In the early 1970s, the ruins of the Yuan Dynasty courtyard house unearthed in Houyingfang Hutong, Beijing, can be regarded as the prototype of the Beijing courtyard house. After being perfected in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Beijing's unique courtyard architectural style gradually formed.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many courtyards in Beijing were reduced to large courtyards. After the reform and opening up, with the development of urban transformation, many traditional courtyards were demolished, such as the demolition of Kang Youwei's Yuedong Courtyard in 1998. For the new museum, Zhao Zichen's former residence was demolished in 2000, the Qing Dynasty Guojun Prince's Mansion at No. 45 Mengduan Hutong was demolished in 2004, Cao Xueqin's former residence was demolished in 2005, and Tang Shaoyi's former residence was demolished in 2006. At the same time, some courtyard houses have been listed as protected courtyards at the city and district and county levels in Beijing.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Siheyuan
Baidu Encyclopedia-Qing Dynasty Architecture