Anhui’s rural gems of home building
THE unique rural residences of southern Anhui Province in eastern China are cherished by both ordinary people and professionals as gems of Chinese architecture.
Most of the still existing residences were built during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties or the early decades of the last century.
Their first owners were successful officials and merchants returning home from their appointments or businesses in other parts of the country. This was largely because the locals could hardly make a fortune in their home villages as this hilly area provided them neither fertile lands nor any other exploitable resources. So, it was a long tradition in this part of the province to send boys away in their early teens to seek a living on their own in other parts of the country.
They left their parents and home villages with a small parcel on their backs and little money in their pockets. Decades later, those who had become successful would come back to build grandiose residences in their home villages to glorify their families or clans.
Such residences all boast the iconic tall white gable walls and black tiles. The walls, used with flush gable roofs, are a type of stepped wall called “horse-head” gable. One of their main functions is to prevent fire from spreading from one house to another.
To boost security, such houses all have very small windows and narrow gates facing the streets, giving people an impression of seclusion and simplicity. The only carvings and decoration focus on the gate.
The builders created a relief of freestanding gateway on the tall wall around the gate. They used bricks to imitate the wooden bracket sets and soaring eaves, often seen in ancient Chinese wooden buildings.
Such a gateway could have two pillars with one opening (the gate), or four pillars and three openings. But they all have a protruding roof covered with black tiles.
Inside the gate, there’s a small and dim courtyard. Walking into the courtyard makes one feel as if standing at the bottom of a well, with the only light coming down from the opening over your head.
However, this specially designed courtyard was used not only to collect rainwater, but also to create an atmosphere of tranquility.
Also, the rainwater-collecting system in the courtyard is an auspicious — for “gathering wealth,” as most owners of such residences were successful businessmen.
The courtyard is surrounded by two-story houses on three or four sides. Unlike the typical courtyard houses in other parts of the country, the side houses along the right and left walls here are extremely narrow, some could only contain a staircase leading to the second floor.
So, instead of being used as living quarters, the side houses in the southern Anhui rural residences serve only as passages connecting different parts of the house.
The rooms on the ground floor are usually raised a few centimeters from the ground and equipped with wooden floors to fight the almost year-round dampness of this area.
In sharp contract with its thick, tall and plain-looking exterior brick walls, the houses inside are all made of wood with elaborate carvings.
These houses often feature thick beams but slim pillars. There are usually few carvings on the main beams, but the curved beams, lintels, bracket sets and sparrow braces are all covered with carvings of plants, flowers, animals and celestial figures.
Here, every door or window is a magnificent piece of artwork in wood carving.
The layout and architecture of these residences demonstrate ancient Chinese people’s pursuit of harmony among “man, water and heaven,” and also their ingenious use of limited space.
Today, most of the several hundred well-preserved residences could be found in Xidi, Hongcun and Nanping villages near the scenic Yellow Mountain. And in 2000, Xidi and Hongcun were named UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
山墙 (shānqiáng)
Gable Wall
In traditional Chinese architecture, shanqiang, or gable wall, refers to the exterior walls built on the two short ends of a building, mainly to separate two neighboring houses.
The gable walls are often built in different shapes. For instance, the triangular one is usually applied with both flush gable and overhanging gable roofs. This is the most common form for residential buildings.
Another popular form is the so-called “pot ear-shaped” gable wall. It looks a bit like the hat worn by officials in ancient times and is also a symbol of auspiciousness.
In northern China, people can find stepped gable walls, often used for overhanging gable roofs. But in the south, people prefer the flush gable roofs with the “horse-head” gable wall, which is also a type of stepped gable wall but is covered by tiles on the top.
In densely populated areas, the gable walls tend to be higher than the roofs in order to prevent fire from spreading from one house to another. So, it also serves as a fire wall.
In Guangdong and Fujian provinces in southern China, the residential buildings usually feature large and tall “pot ear-shaped” gable walls, which were believed to help shield buildings from strong winds, common in this area during the typhoon season.
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