Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1478 The courtyard

After the local people’s explanation, everyone finally understood why this ancient town has the pattern of Huizhou.

It turns out that the people who built these houses came back from "seeing the world" outside.

The Wen Family Courtyard is located on South Street of the ancient city. It is a building with obvious characteristics of the early Qing Dynasty.

"At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the ancestors of the Wen family served as county magistrates in Meixian County, Guangdong, and later became governors." The town cadre introduced: "When Huguang occupied Sichuan, the Wen family moved to Dachang, Wushan and built this compound. It is said that at that time In addition to the courtyard, the Wen family also built a pagoda and thousands of hectares of fertile land. Unexpectedly, the descendants of the Wen family sold off the pagoda and pagoda because of their heavy smoking. In the last century, only the compound remained."

"From the beginning of the Qing Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, this was incredible." Zhou Zhi sighed: "The foundation is still thick enough. I have eaten it for the entire dynasty."

"That's right, the Wen family had a nickname in our area back then, called 'Wenbancheng'." The town cadre told everyone: "But we can't tell how exquisite this house is. Anyway, we came here to inspect it. The experts all say it’s good.”

"Elbow, how does this compare with those yards you built in BJ?" Li Laosan asked, looking at the beautifully carved gatehouse.

The gatehouse is the standard format of Huizhou architecture. All Huizhou buildings are equipped with this gate. However, the larger gatehouses are called door covers on a slightly smaller scale.

The main function of the gatehouse is to prevent rainwater from splashing down the wall onto the door. A little away from the upper part of the door frame, water-milled bricks are used to build eaves and feet that protrude outward, and the top is covered with tiles and some decorations are carved.

However, this facility later developed and became a status symbol for wealthy families to show off their wealth. It became more and more elaborate, and eventually developed into a decoration with brick or stone carvings regardless of the cost.

The gatehouse of the Wen family courtyard is made in the style of an archway in the Ming Dynasty. It is divided into three rooms with four pillars and five floors. It is built with a mixture of bluestone and water-polished bricks. The horizontal rails of the gatehouse are decorated with pine, crane and plum deer carvings, which are vivid in image and delicate in knife work. There is a brick carving of "Baby Play" between the horizontal beams, with eight babies of different shapes holding "Dark Eight Immortals" toys, full of charm and lifelike.

There are huge drum-holding stones on both sides of the column, which is quite elegant and luxurious.

Zhou Zhi also raised his head and looked at the stepped gables without comparing himself: "Not as good as above but more than below. It can't be compared with the one that Jesse Cheng got overseas."

"That set is top-notch among the Hui style." Lin Wanqiu said, "The prices are also different."

After speaking, he glared at Zhou Zhi: "Slippery! Compared with what you have in the capital, this set can only be considered mid-range."

"Let's go in and have a look. It would be nice to stay here for a few days." Zhou Zhi felt that each had its own merits.

There are three patios, a large garden, and dozens of houses in the compound.

It used to be the canteen and warehouse of the production team, and there were also several families here.

Now that several families have moved above the waterline, the entire compound theoretically belongs to the Three Gorges Cultural Preservation Foundation, and the town government only takes care of it.

Entering the door is the main hall. The main hall has a wooden structure with a single eaves hard gable roof, a lifting beam frame, a double eave hard gable roof, a horizontal secondary fall and a primary fall mixed fire sealing wall, covered with blue tiles, and both sides of the ridge. Decorated with owl kisses, the plane is a rectangular shape that is not parallel in the longitudinal direction. The gable is stepped, higher than the roof. The top is made of bricks with simple lines in a herringbone shape, covered with small green tiles, and the ridges of the tiles are decorated with clay sculptures or geometric lines.

This is a traditional Huizhou feature. The materials used in the front hall are huge and thick, and a large ginkgo tree eight meters long, more than one meter high, and eighty centimeters wide is used as the moon beam; How tall are the ginkgo trees used as hall pillars?

Ginkgo wood is called "Ginkgo" in Shu, so this front hall is also called "Ginkgo Hall".

There are four columns and thirteen beams upon entering, with a width of three rooms and four feet, a depth of two rooms and three feet, and a height of two feet and two feet. It is quite open, with heavy beams stacked on top of each other, and it is solemn and solemn.

There are also two couplets hanging on the beams and columns.

One is "It's good to study well, do business well, and be efficient; it's hard to start a business, it's hard to maintain success, but it's not difficult to know the difficulties." The other is "For hundreds of years, people have only accumulated good deeds, and the first good thing is just reading."

The two couplets reveal profound philosophy and also reflect the identity of the family here - businessmen who like Confucianism and value literature and learning.

There are tables and stools in the hall, but except for the tables and stools, the other furnishings have been moved away by the original residents and are now empty.

"After the funds were in place, we built new houses and new streets, and the cadres organized the original residents to move to the 176-meter line." The town cadres seemed to be embarrassed: "Knowing that you all like old things, we moved them This place was vacated, and the old furniture and old beds that the demolition households were unwilling to take away were installed here. The conditions are really rough, but the beds and other items are definitely new! "

Zhou Zhi and Lin Wanqiu looked at each other, and both saw the amazement in the other's eyes.

These residents have really picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons. At least the Eight Immortals table and strip stools in front of them are worth a few hundred yuan, even if they are not very good things. I guess those old beds are also similar. As a result, everyone dislikes them. The furniture is bulky, no more!

"If you don't want them, just put them away." Lin Wanqiu said, "We will have someone to identify and receive them when the time comes."

According to the functions, the first-level courtyard has a foyer, patio, right and left side rooms and main hall; the second-level courtyard has a patio, left and right side rooms and a back hall. The back hall turns slightly to the north and deviates from the central axis by about five degrees. The halls, halls, rooms, corridors and other spaces are arranged in a clear and orderly manner, giving it the style of a deep courtyard.

The back hall of the second entrance has a wooden structure with a single-eaves hard gable roof, a cross-beam frame, five columns and thirteen beams. The width is the same three rooms and four feet, and the height is also two feet and two feet. However, the depth is changed from three feet to four. The room is much smaller and has a lot more space.

The workmanship everywhere in the inner courtyard is much more exquisite than that in the outer courtyard. Different from the carvings on the windows in the outer courtyard, each of the flower windows here has exquisite carvings, some with the pattern of "Lian Wan" and "Double Happiness", and some Carved with auspicious objects such as peaches, bats, chrysanthemums, and peonies. Even the water leak in the patio, which is the place where sewage and rainwater are discharged, is carved with sitting animals above the copper coin-shaped leak hole at the bottom. The four directions are green dragon, white tiger, red bird and basalt, which means "guarding from all directions".

The surrounding houses form a corridor, and the corners of the entire courtyard are connected to form a closed, irregular double quadrangle.

The entire Wen family courtyard is decorated with blue bricks and black tiles, and white walls and cornices. It is simple, elegant and unique. The front facade adopts the form of double eaves, and the other three sides are surrounded by brick walls. The gables on both sides are mostly stepped horse-head walls, which are about one meter higher than the roof. The gables on the south side are damaged, but the gables on the north side are well preserved.

Although there are many traces of smoke in the house, there are traces that it was once used as a canteen for the production team. There is also a clear water line on the board and wall. According to the town cadres, this is the trace left by a huge flood of the Daning River ten years ago.

(End of this chapter)