The courtyard house is a traditional form of dwelling in Beijing, which has begun to become a scale in the Liao Dynasty, and has gradually improved through the Jin and Yuan dynasties to the Ming and Qing dynasties, and finally became the most distinctive form of residence in Beijing.

The so-called four, "four" refers to the east, west, south and north of the four sides, "together" that is, the four sides of the house are surrounded together, forming a "mouth" shape.

After hundreds of years of construction, the Beijing courtyard house has formed a unique Beijing style from the plane layout, internal structure and detailed decoration.

The basic shape of the formal courtyard house in Beijing is to sit in the north and face south according to the east-west alley, and the basic form is to separate the north room (main house), the south room (inverted seat room) and the east and west wing rooms on four sides, and then surround it with a high wall to form a quadrangle and open a door.

The gate is located in the southeast corner of the house

"Xun" bit. The total number of rooms is generally 5 rooms in the north room 3 and 2 ears, 3 rooms in the east and west rooms, and 4 rooms in the south room, including the gate hole and the hanging flower door, a total of 17 rooms.

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, the courtyard is spacious, the courtyard is planted with trees and flowers, and the goldfish are raised in the tank, which is the center of the layout of the courtyard, and it is also the place where people walk, lighting, ventilation, coolness, rest, and housework.

Although there are certain regulations in the quadrangle, the size is different, and it can be roughly divided into three types: the small quadrangle is generally three rooms in the north room, one bright and two dark or two bright and one dark, two rooms in the east and west wings, and three rooms in the south room.

Lying brick to the top, ridged tile house. It can live in a family of three generations, the ancestors live in the main house, the younger generation lives in the wing room, and the south room is used as a study or living room.

The courtyard is paved with brick roads to connect the doors of various houses, and there are steps in front of each house. There are two large doors, decorated with black lacquer and oil, and there is a pair of brass door cymbals on the door, and two are pasted with couplets.

The middle courtyard is more spacious than the small courtyard, generally there are 5 rooms in the north room, 3 are 2 ears, 3 rooms in the east and west wings, and there is a corridor in front of the house to shelter from the wind and rain.

In addition, the courtyard wall is separated by the front yard (outer courtyard) and the back yard (inner courtyard), and the courtyard wall is connected by the moon gate. The front yard is shallow in depth, with one or two houses as the gatehouse, the backyard is the living room, the building is exquisite, the square bricks in the layer are on the ground, and the bluestone is used as the steps.

The large courtyard house is customarily called the "mansion gate", and the house setting can be 5 south and 5 north, 7 south and 7 north, and there are even 9 or 11 large main houses, which are generally duplex courtyards, that is, they are connected by multiple courtyard houses in depth.

There are many courtyards, including front yard, back yard, east courtyard, west courtyard, main courtyard, partial courtyard, cross courtyard, study courtyard, enclosed courtyard, horse number, one entry, two entrance, three entrances...... Wait a minute.

There are hand-copying verandahs in the courtyard to connect all places, covering a huge area. If the ground available for building is narrow, or the economic capacity is unaffordable, the courtyard can be rebuilt into a triple courtyard instead of a south house.

Medium-sized and small-sized courtyard houses are generally the residences of ordinary residents, while large courtyards are mansions and government offices.

Beijing courtyard houses are brick and wood structure buildings, with wooden walls around the shelves, purlins, columns, beams, sills, rafters, doors and windows, partition fans, etc., and brick walls around the wooden shelves.

The beams, columns, doors and windows and cornice rafters should be painted and painted, although they are not as brilliant as the palace garden, but they are also colorful.

The wall is accustomed to using grinding bricks and broken bricks to build the wall, and the so-called "Beijing City has three treasures...... Rotten bricks build walls and walls do not fall".

Most of the roof tiles are made of green board tiles, the front and back are interlocked, the eaves are loaded with dripping, or not paved with tiles, all with green ash to wipe the roof, weighing

"Ash shed". The gate of the courtyard generally occupies the area of a room, and its spare parts are quite complex, only the name of the construction has the gatehouse, the door opening, the door (door leaf), the door frame, the waist fang, the plug board, the horse board, the door pillow, the sill, the threshold, the door hairpin, the big side, the trowel, the belt, the door heart board, the door cymbals, the plug gate, the animal face, the door nail, the door link, etc., the gate of the courtyard is composed of these parts.

The gate is generally an oil-black gate, and a couplet with red oil and black characters can be added. After entering the gate, there are also hanging flower gates, moon gates, and so on.

The hanging flower door is the most gorgeous decorative door in the courtyard, called "hanging flower" is because the eaves outside the door are used as an archway, the function is to separate the inner and outer courtyards, the door is the living room, the gatehouse, the carriage house and other "outer houses", and the door is the main living bedroom

"Inner house". If there is no hanging flower door, the moon door can be used to separate the inner and outer houses. The hanging flower door is painted very beautifully, the cornice rafter rafter is blue-green, the wood oil is red, the round rafter is oiled into blue, white and black like a halo of the pearl pattern, and the square rafter is a blue gold swaskaji or rhombic pattern.

The front eaves front center brocade, flowers, Bogu, etc., the weeping lotus column head on both sides is painted colorful according to the carved pattern.

The carved patterns of the courtyard are mainly composed of various auspicious patterns, such as bats and longevity characters

"Happiness and longevity", with the meaning of the vase of the moon season

"Four seasons are safe", and

"Generations to come",

"Three Friends of the Cold",

"Yutang Wealth",

"Fulu Suxi" and so on, showing the old Beijingers' yearning for a better life. The windows and sill walls are embedded in the large frame between the upper sill (no lower sill) and the left and right pillars, and the upper fan can be supported, and the lower fan is generally fixed.

In winter, Korean paper or cellophane are mostly used for pasting windows, which are bright from the inside and dark from the outside, which not only prevents the cold from invading, but also keeps the indoor light sufficient.

In summer, the window screen or cold cloth is woven with wood in all counties of Jingnan, which is like cloth but not cloth, which can be breathable and breathable, and relieve the indoor heat.

The cold cloth is rolled up during the day and put down at night, so it is also called "roll window". Some people use windows with upper and lower branches.

There are many winds and sands in winter and spring in Beijing, and door curtains are mostly used in residential buildings. Generally, cotton curtains with splints should be hung in winter, clamped curtains with splints should be hung in spring and autumn, and bamboo curtains with splints should be hung in summer.

Poor families can use straw curtains or felt curtains. The curtain can be hoisted, and the purpose of the upper, middle and lower parts of the cleats is to increase the weight so as not to be lifted by the wind.

Later, the curtain was replaced by a damper, but in summer it is still used with bamboo curtains, which are cool, translucent and practical. The ceiling of the courtyard is made of high beam poles as shelves, and the outside is pasted with paper.

Beijing paste roof is a technology, in the courtyard, from the ceiling to the wall, curtains, windows are all pasted with white paper, called "four white to the end".

Ordinary people frame it once every few years, and rich people are "four changes a year". Beijing is very cold in winter, and the residents in the courtyard all sleep on the kang, and a coal stove in front of the kang is sunk into the ground, and a fire is lit in the furnace.

The soil kang is empty, the fire enters the kang hole, the kang bed is roasted hot, people sleep on the hot kang, and suddenly feel warm.

The coal used for burning kang is mostly produced in Xishan, Beijing, and there is a difference between raw coal and coal powder, coal dust and loess are shaken and briquettes, which are used for burning kang or cooking.

Indoor heating mostly with stoves, stoves can be divided into mud, iron, copper three kinds of texture, tandoor to Beijing produced pot helmet wood manufacturing, heat permeability is very strong, easy to move, rich homes often have several stoves.

Generally, people often use the stove in front of the kang to cook and cook, and do not burn another stove, the so-called "pot and table are connected to the stove", and it is difficult to separate life and living.

The stove seals the fire, so it is often kept out for years in case it is needed. If it is extinguished, it is lit with dry firewood and charcoal, and housewives get up every morning and carry the stove outside the house (to prevent gas poisoning) to make a fire, which has become a scene in Beijing.

The discharge of domestic water in the courtyard is mostly in the form of seepage pits, commonly known as "seepage wells" and "seepage ditches".

There are generally no toilets in the courtyard, and the toilets are mostly located in the alleys, which are called "official thatched houses". Beijing courtyard pays attention to greening, and the courtyard is planted with trees and flowers, which is indeed sparse with flowers and trees, elegant and pleasant.

The flowers that old Beijing loves to plant are lilacs, begonias, elm leaf plums, mountain peach blossoms, etc., and the trees are mostly jujube trees and locust trees.

In addition to planting, flowers and plants can also be potted and water-raised. The most common potted flowers and trees are pomegranate trees, oleanders, golden cinnamon, silver cinnamon, rhododendrons, gardenias, etc., planting pomegranates to take pomegranates "many seeds".

As for the grass jasmine, impatiens, morning glory, and lentil flowers in the flower garden in front of the steps, it is the homely beauty of the courtyard.

There is a saying in the Qing Dynasty that describes the life in the courtyard: "the ceiling, the fish tank, the pomegranate tree, the old man, the fat dog, the fat girl", which can be said to be a typical portrayal of the life in the courtyard.

The middle gate that enters the inner courtyard from the outer courtyard is usually a small gatehouse called the Hanging Flower Gate, and the "hooked" roof (i.e., the two double-sloped roofs in front and back are connected) is exquisitely shaped and quite ornate, indicating that it has entered the inner courtyard and enriched the landscape of the inner and outer courtyards (Figure 6).

The permanent door leaf is set up at the eaves pillar behind the hanging flower door, called the screen door, the function is similar to the instrument door, usually closed, people enter by the left and right corridors in front of the door, and it is opened only when a major event or distinguished guest comes.

The separation of the inside and outside by the middle gate not only keeps the inner courtyard quiet, but also contains the meaning of the patriarchal ritual system.

An encyclopedic work of life in the Song Dynasty, Shilin Guangji, said: "All palaces (this refers to the house) must distinguish between inside and outside,...... Men govern foreign affairs, women govern internal affairs, men do not stay in private rooms during the day for no reason, and women do not peep into the middle door for no reason";

"The maid does not go out of the middle door without a reason, and if she goes out of the middle door for a reason, she will hug her face." It can be seen that the early origin of the middle door is necessary to distinguish between inside and outside.

Beijing courtyard is kind and quiet, there is a strong breath of life, the courtyard is wide, the scale is appropriate, the courtyard is planted with flowers, the begonia trees are generally planted, the pomegranate bonsai is planted, and the goldfish are raised in a large tank, which means auspicious, it is a very ideal outdoor living space, like an open-air large living room, which brings the world closer to the hearts of the people, and is the most loved by people.

In case of weddings and funerals, a temporary greenhouse can be set up in the courtyard to wait for guests. The verandah divides the courtyard into several large and small spaces, but they are separated but not separated, and penetrate each other, which increases the level of virtual and real contrast and light and shadow contrast, and also makes the courtyard more in line with the scale of people's daily life; Family members get exchanges here, which plays a great role in creating a friendly life interest, and the courtyard house is generally one household and one residence, but there are also multiple households living in a courtyard, mostly for poor families, called "miscellaneous courtyards".

The warmth of the compound is something that many old Beijing residents cannot forget.