Since the Yuan Dynasty when Beijing was formally established as the capital and the capital was planned and constructed on a large scale, courtyard houses have appeared at the same time as Beijing’s palaces, government offices, neighborhoods, lanes and alleys.
Beijing’s quadrangle courtyard is a veritable courtyard, spacious and open, with ample sunlight and a wide view. Another point is that Beijing courtyard houses are rich in cultural connotation and fully embody the traditional Chinese concept of living.
Between the hutong and the hutong is land for the subjects to build residences. At that time, Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, "ordered the old city residents to prioritize those with high status (wealthy people) and senior officials (serving in the imperial court) among the old people in the capital, and ordered eight acres of land to be divided into one portion." Officials who moved to Beijing built residences, and this was the beginning of the large-scale formation of traditional courtyard houses in Beijing.
Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, although the courtyard houses in Beijing have gone through many vicissitudes, this basic living form has been formed and continuously improved to better suit the living requirements, forming the courtyard house style we see today.
The courtyard house in Beijing is famous because of its unique composition, which is typical and representative of traditional Chinese residential architecture. Most of the residential buildings in China are inner-courtyard residences. The residential courtyards in the south are very small, and the surrounding houses are connected into one, which is called "a seal". This kind of house is suitable for southern climate conditions, and ventilation and lighting are not ideal. The courtyards of Beijing's courtyards are spacious and spacious, and the houses on all four sides are independent and connected by corridors, making living very convenient.
The so-called Sihe, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north sides, and "he" means that the houses on the four sides are surrounded together to form a "kou"-shaped structure. After hundreds of years of construction, Beijing's courtyard houses have formed the capital's unique Beijing style from their floor plan to internal structure and detailed decoration.
Beijing’s formal courtyard houses are generally located in an east-west alley facing north and south. The basic shape is the north room (main room), south room (inverted room) and east and west wing rooms, which are separated on four sides. Use high walls to form a quadrangle and open a door. The gate is located at the "Xun" position in the southeast corner of the house. The total number of rooms is generally 3 in the north room, 2 in the front and 5 in the west, 3 in the east and west rooms respectively, and 17 in the south room including the main door and hanging flower door, not including the main door. If each room is 11-12 square meters, the total area is about 200 square meters. In the middle of the courtyard is the courtyard, which is spacious and planted with trees and flowers and tanks for raising goldfish. It is the center of the courtyard's layout and is also a place for people to walk through, get light, ventilate, enjoy the cool, rest and do housework. Siheyuan is a closed residence with only one street door to the outside. When the door is closed, it can be seen from the sky and the earth. It has strong privacy and is very suitable for exclusive living. In the courtyard, all the houses on all sides open their doors to the courtyard, and the family is harmonious and happy inside. Because the courtyard is spacious, you can plant trees and flowers, raise birds and fish, and stack rocks to create landscaping. Residents not only enjoy comfortable housing, but also share a beautiful world given by nature.
Although it is a residential building, it contains profound cultural connotations and is the carrier of traditional Chinese culture. The construction of a quadrangle is very particular about Feng Shui. From site selection and positioning to determining the specific scale of each building, all must be carried out according to Feng Shui theory. Beijing's courtyard houses are world-famous. In old Beijing, in addition to the Forbidden City, royal gardens, temples, temples, and government offices, a large number of buildings were countless people's residences. A poem from the Yuan Dynasty is quoted in the "Research on Old News of Japan": "The clouds are opening and closing three thousand feet, and the fog is darkening the towers of millions of homes." The residences of these "millions of homes" are what is now known as the courtyard house in Beijing.
Although it is a residential building, it contains profound cultural connotations and is the carrier of traditional Chinese culture. The construction of a quadrangle is very particular about Feng Shui. From site selection and positioning to determining the specific scale of each building, all must be carried out according to Feng Shui theory. Beijing's courtyard houses are world-famous. In old Beijing, in addition to the Forbidden City, royal gardens, temples, temples, and government offices, a large number of buildings were countless people's residences. A poem from the Yuan Dynasty is quoted in the "Research on Old News of Japan": "The clouds are opening and closing three thousand feet, and the fog is darkening the towers of millions of homes." The residences of these "millions of homes" are what is now known as the courtyard house in Beijing.
Edit the origin of the name of this paragraph
Why is it called "Siheyuan"? Because this kind of folk house has four houses, the main house (north house), the reverse side (south house), the east wing and the west wing, surrounded by four houses, forming a square shape with a central courtyard inside, so this kind of courtyard style house is called Siheyuan. Siheyuan has a long history in China. According to the analysis of existing cultural relics, buildings in the form of Siheyuan appeared as early as more than 2,000 years ago. In the process of historical development, the Chinese people particularly loved the architectural form of the courtyard. Not only palaces, temples, and government offices used courtyards, but they were also widely used in residential buildings everywhere. However, whenever people mention courtyard houses, they will naturally think of Beijing courtyard houses. Why is this? This is because the Beijing Siheyuan has a regular shape and is very typical. Among all kinds of Siheyuan, the Beijing Siheyuan can represent its main characteristics. First of all, the central courtyard of a Beijing courtyard is basically a square in plan view, while some residential buildings in other areas are not like this. For example, the courtyards of courtyard houses in Shanxi and Shaanxi are a vertical rectangle that is long from north to south and narrow from east to west. However, the courtyards of courtyard houses in Sichuan and other places are mostly horizontal rectangles that are long from east to west and narrow from north to south. Secondly, the houses in the east, west, south, and north directions of Beijing's courtyards are independent of each other. The east and west wing rooms are not connected to the main house and the reverse building itself, and all the houses such as the main house, wing rooms, and reverse floors are separate. It is a one-story building with no buildings. The only thing connecting these houses is the verandah at the corner. In this way, when viewed from the air, Beijing's courtyard houses look like four small boxes enclosing a courtyard. In many quadrangle courtyards in the south, most of the houses on the four sides are buildings, and the houses are connected at the four corners of the courtyard. The houses on the east, west, north and south sides do not exist independently. Therefore, southerners call courtyards "patio". It can be seen that the courtyards in Jiangnan are as small as a "well", which inevitably reminds people of the idioms of "frog at the bottom of the well" and "sitting in a well and looking at the sky".
The highest price of a courtyard house in Beijing is 400 million