Tang Dynasty Crossing Guide: Chang'an and People's Life Manual

Chapter 16 Do as the Romans do, you must have basic life knowledge (6)
The main hall of the outer house is a tall single-story building, while the inner hall is a small two-story building.This kind of two-story small building can also be seen in many inner courtyards and gardens that we will visit later.Come closer, everyone, did you find anything?
The first floor of this small building has walls on all sides, and the walls seem to be very thick.The second floor is like a pavilion, only supported by wooden pillars, without walls, and is completely exposed to the outside.Standing outside the inner hall now, we can clearly see a large enthroned bed on the ground on the second floor.

But if you look more closely, there are bamboo roller blinds under the eaves on all sides of the second floor, which are now rolled into a bunch and hung on it.If the hostess goes upstairs and sits down to watch the scenery, the maids only need to lower the bamboo curtains to form a translucent effect, which can cover the person without hindering the view.

This kind of air-through attic with curtains as walls is very popular in Chang'an City.The winter in Chang'an is not too cold, but the summer is very sultry, so it is very comfortable to enjoy the cool air in the high place.

Let's go this way, and then pass through several courtyards, and the flowers and trees will gradually increase.Let's go to the back garden of the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.

This house is really big. Look, there is a big lake in the back garden, and you can even row a boat on the lake!Everyone is tired from walking, let's take a rest on the boat and enjoy the scenery along the lakeshore.

Let’s not talk about these rockery and rocks, green forests and grasses, flowers and fish, rare birds and animals, and I guess all the group members have seen a lot of them.Please pay attention to the buildings in the garden, the waterside pavilion here, the song platform there, no matter how many floors, even if there is only one floor, they are almost all wooden column structures without walls. When there is a need for privacy, curtains, Just use screens, barriers or something to cover it up.

Everyone is really tired from walking and listless.Let me tell you an eclectic palace secret to lift your spirits.

It is said that one year during the Dragon Boat Festival, Emperor Xuanzong and Concubine Yang Guifei were sleeping at noon in the "Water Palace" on the Xingqing Palace Lake, and were awakened by the chirping of a group of concubines.When I opened my eyes, I saw that group of women were leaning on the railing and leaning on the sill, watching what the two males and females were doing in the water.Emperor Xuanzong was also open-minded. With his arms around his concubine, he said to his concubines through a layer of gauze tents: "You love water, fight like a mandarin duck under my bed." It can be seen that the "Water Palace" in the palace also has no walls. The fully transparent frame structure, the emperor's noble concubine and so on, just ask the servants to set up a layer of light gauze tents, just to separate them.

What do you ask this guest?How big is this house?How long does it take to go through it all?Oh, it's hard to say, it depends on the walking speed of our group and the carefulness of the visit.So far, we have only seen the main courtyard and the main hall of the outer house, and the inner hall of the inner house. There is a big one.

Now we are equivalent to looking at the garage, entrance hall, living room, a master bedroom and a corner of the garden of a modern large villa, what about the kitchen, bathroom, basement, servant's room, many guest bedrooms, dressing room, laundry The room and balcony functional areas are almost not involved.Moreover, how many people can live in a villa?This prime minister's mansion had more than 1000 masters, servants and workers in its heyday, not counting the poor relatives, friends, old students, and fellow villagers who came to make a living.

Guys over there, don't vomit blood.If everyone is really too tired, let's stop visiting this house. Anyway, the kitchen, toilet, and servant's room are nothing to see, and they are far worse than the grandeur and grandeur of the main room.You ask how much this house sells for?

Hey, that's the point.

In fact, compared with the current housing prices in Beijing and Shanghai, this house is really not expensive at all!For a mansion covering an area of ​​nearly 500 square meters, the official price is only 500 million Wen! 1 million coins!The ratio of Kaiyuan Tongbao in the Tang Dynasty to the current RMB was about 1:10 before the Anshi Rebellion and about 1:[-] after the Anshi Rebellion.

In other words, in the early Tang Dynasty, you could buy such a 500-square-meter mansion in the prime location of Chang'an City for 50 million yuan!It was even cheaper in the late Tang Dynasty, only [-] yuan!
①An ancient book refers to a water bird that looks like a mandarin duck.

Group members, don't get excited, listen to me, listen to me...the price is so cheap, there is a reason, that is, to buy this house, there are many additional conditions besides paying the money.

The most important thing is that the houses of people in the Tang Dynasty had to be arranged according to their grades.Like the old prime minister’s house we visited today, only high-ranking officials and dignitaries above the third rank can live in this kind of architectural specification.Ordinary people like you, no matter how rich you are, if you buy a house and live in it yourself, it is called overreaching. If you are arrested, you will be spanked and exiled, or you will be accused of treason, and you may be beheaded!

So, if you really plan to buy this house, after paying the money and taking the land, you have to demolish the magnificent and majestic gatehouses, outer walls, and main halls first.Then, this piece of land is too big to be used as the residence of your own family. It needs to be divided into several houses, and you can live in one that does not exceed the specified size. The other houses may be resold or rented out. .

Therefore, many descendants of high-ranking officials and ministers, if their families are in decline, cannot afford to live in a large house, and cannot be sold, they often simply donate to religious believers and rebuild them into Buddhist temples, Taoist temples, and nunneries (these religious buildings generally do not have excessive restrictions). question).

Let me tell you, if you really want to speculate in real estate to make money, you might as well pay attention to those houses that are considered average in terms of location, location, area, and specifications.The main housing demand and market in Chang'an City are concentrated in that kind of houses, such as low-level officials who have just entered the officialdom, candidates from other places taking part in the imperial examination, and businessmen who come to do business. Most of the houses they want to buy or rent are those houses. kind.

Alright, since you're interested, let's go take a look.What?Can't move anymore?Well, let me give you a brief description.

The first is location and area.Most of the mid-range houses are concentrated in those Lifangs in the middle of Chang’an City. The general trend is: houses with similar prices, the further south they go, the larger the area; the further north they go, the smaller the area.If you want to take an average area, a decent house with complete facilities should take up 10 mu of land.The prime minister's mansion we are visiting now covers an area of ​​nearly [-] mu.

This kind of house for rent and sale, in order to avoid the trouble of exceeding the regulations, the gate is often not opened in the middle of the house, but at the "Xun" ① position in the southeast corner, which is also particular.

There is no outer wall and outer door, only a circle of house walls, white or khaki.The main entrance is also very simple, usually Wutoumen.After entering the door, you will see the courtyard of the outer house. There is a main hall in the courtyard, which is also a single-family house built on the platform.

There is a wall and a door to enter the inner courtyard. The inner hall doubles as the owner's bedroom. There are some rockery and flowers in the inner courtyard, which also doubles as a garden.Just like this, I entered the yard in two directions.

①One of the gossip, representing the wind.

The servants live in the side room next to the wall, while the stables and warehouses build another yard along the wall of the house, and a door is cut out on the wall of the house to enter and exit.If there are still pigs in that courtyard, a toilet will be built next to the pigsty. The structure is exactly the same as the "connected latrine"① still commonly used in modern rural areas.

As for the price, it varies from tens of thousands of dollars to 10,000+ dollars depending on the situation.rent?It also depends on the situation, and the monthly fee should be considered relatively expensive.

Moreover, I heard the gossip from the Ministry of Household Affairs of Shangshu Province, saying that the imperial court is going to introduce a policy to rectify housing prices. The first thing to implement is a price limit order on housing rents, stipulating the most expensive commercial prime locations, and the monthly rent of commercial houses. No more than 500 cash.

However, everyone knows that the policy itself is very vague, such as the price limit order. The monthly price limit is 500 Wen, which is not calculated by the square meter or the number of rooms, but by the "room", 500 Wen per room money.Everyone knows that the houses in the Tang Dynasty were very large, so it was stipulated that everyone should look up and count the beams, and the space covered by every two beams would count as one room... In short, all kinds of messy things, and the implementation of this policy power is...

Judging from before and after the Anshi Rebellion, real estate sales prices have hardly changed, and the real estate depreciation was also caused by currency depreciation.It should be seen that in general, the Tang Dynasty had a vast land and few people. Even the most densely populated cities like the capital had a lot of open space for building houses.Unlike now, there was very little room for value-added real estate transactions in the Tang Dynasty, and it was impossible to rely on speculation.If you want to make money in real estate, you still have to choose a good location to buy a house and rent it out, because the rent-to-sales ratio was very high in the Tang Dynasty.

In short, for us moderns, housing prices in the Tang Dynasty are still acceptable.For people in the Tang Dynasty, whether it is expensive or not depends on how much money they make.If you want to further investigate this aspect, you have to study the average income of people in the Tang Dynasty, or the salary of civil servants in the Tang Dynasty.If I have time another day, I will recommend a big fool in this area... Ah no, an economist.Let's stop here today. If you have investment intentions, please contact me in private.

① Lian latrine, a common toilet in rural areas, is built in the yard and connected to the pigsty, and human feces fall directly into the pigsty as pig food.

References & in-depth understanding recommendations for this article:
Edited by Fu Xinian. History of Ancient Chinese Architecture (Volume Two). Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press, 2001
Edited by Fan Jinshi, written by Sun Yihua and Sun Rulai. Interpretation of Dunhuang. Medieval Architectural Paintings. Wuhan: East China Normal University Press, 2010
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