As for the commoners, their houses tended to follow a set pattern: the centre of the building would be a shrine for the deities and the ancestors, which would also be used during festivities. On its two sides were bedrooms for the elders; the two wings of the building (known as "guardian dragons" by the Chinese) were for the junior members of the family, as well as the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen.
Sometimes the extended families became so large that one or even two extra pairs of "wings" had to be built. This resulted in a U-shaped building, with a courtyard suitable for farm work; merchants and mandarins, however, preferred to close off the front with an imposing front gate.
Compared with other structures, the residence is the earliest and most fundamental type of structure, largest in numbers and the most extensively distributed. The direct aim of residential construction is mainly to satisfy the actual needs of people's daily fives. It is the location of the "family".
In
China which pays special attention to blood relationship and affinity, "family" is a place full of the color of sentiment. People have not forgotten to set an appropriate spiritual demand on it, i.e., the general esthetics and affection which may even be raised to the plane of 1expressing a certain ideological tendency, Such as patriarchal and ethical ideology, including the rite between the elite and the lowly, the order between the elderly and the young, the difference between man and woman and between inside and outside.
All buildings are legally regulated, and the law held that the number of storeys, the length of the building and the colors used depended on the owner's class.
Ask Questions ?
