china homes

　　地道的英文 出国留学必读 英文宣传中国文化

　　Homes

　　TO THE TEACHER

　　OBJECTIVES OF THIS UNIT: To enable students to think about how Chinese homes were built and

　　furnished. To encourage discussion of the connections between material culture and socialorganization. To provide concrete examples of regional variation in Chinese culture.

　　TEACHING STRATEGIES: Because students all have lived in homes, they should find it easy to thinkabout the ways organizing space shapes interactions or reflects social relations. The technical detail onhow houses were constructed should be of interest to anyone who has ever tried to build anything, andcertainly some students will find this approach to the material side of Chinese culture more interestingthan a more strictly aesthetic approach.

　　Because of its emphasis on climate and on regional variation, this unit complements the one on

　　geography at a more sophisticated level. To make this unit more challenging, students could be askedto relate the aesthetic principles of Chinese houses and furniture to the aesthetic principles they haveseen in other units (especially Ancient Tombs, Calligraphy, and Painting).

　　WHEN TO TEACH: This unit relies heavily on modern and contemporary photographs, but aims todocument features of traditional architecture that date back many centuries, giving the teacherconsiderable leeway on when to use it.

　　By the Ming dynasty, we have substantial evidence of

　　how people lived. Not only do some houses survive, but

　　we also have thousands of items of furniture from the

　　period, numerous illustrations of homes in novels and

　　plays published in the period, and even manuals

　　describing how to build houses and furniture. Besides,

　　we know enough about what houses were like in Ming

　　times to know when photographs of modern buildings

　　can be used to illustrate features of Chinese houses

　　already present in Ming times.

　　How people constructed, decorated, and furnished their

　　homes tells us a lot about their resources, aesthetic

　　preferences, and social habits. This unit covers building

　　structure and the interiors of homes. It offers material to

　　think about both class and regional variation. In China, as

　　in most other societies, houses are a form of material

　　culture with strong connections to family structure.

　　Indeed, like the English word house, the Chinese word jia

　　can be used to refer both to the physical building and the

　　family that occupies it.http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/thomintr.htm (1 of 2) [11/26/2001 11:02:43 AM]

　　地道的英文 出国留学必读 英文宣传中国文化

　　Homes

　　Think about the following questions as you look at each aspect of the home environment:

　　What can we infer about people's lives from the spaces they created to live in?

　　How did geography shape how people met the need for shelter?

　　What aspects of house design and furnishing cannot be explained by climate?

　　Are there features of Chinese furniture that make it especially suited for use in a

　　Chinese house?What were the biggest differences in the ways the rich and the poor lived? Are these thesame sorts of differences one would have found in Europe of the same period?

　　http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/thomintr.htm (2 of 2) [11/26/2001 11:02:43 AM]

　　地道的英文 出国留学必读 英文宣传中国文化

　　Home Architecture

　　SOURCE: Photograph courtesy of Ronald G. Knapp, 1987, Cangnan xian, Zhejiang

　　Province

　　Homes all over China in pre-modern times had a lot in common. The way of laying out a housewas similar among the rich and poor, both in earlier and later times. Certain materials and

　　techniques, such as pounded earth foundations, timber framing, and use of bricks and tile werepresent throughout the country. Nevertheless, houses were by no means identical in all parts ofChina. If we look at houses in different regions we can see much that differed from place toplace.

　　Although few examples of Chinese homes have survived from antiquity, using archeological

　　evidence, scholars have determined that many of the basic principles of Chinese house design,such as the emphasis on orientation, layout, and symmetry go far back in Chinese history. In thisunit we will examine first the basic elements of a Chinese house, then look at how houses variedby wealth and regional variation.

　　http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/tintrhme.htm (1 of 11) [11/26/2001 11:02:45 AM]

　　地道的英文 出国留学必读 英文宣传中国文化

　　Home Architecture

　　Orientation

　　One of the most striking aspects of Chinese

　　domestic architecture is the practice of

　　making houses face south. Archeologists

　　have found that many Neolithic-period

　　houses were rectangular with a south-facing

　　door. Zhou period settlements were also

　　organized on a north-south axis. These early

　　dwellings no longer exist, but houses inChina, the earliest of which date from the

　　Ming dynasty, also show a tendency to face

　　south. Houses built today are also built

　　facing south, if space allows.

　　Detail from the Ming dynasty Carpenter's Manual showing

　　the best places to site a house. The text for the house to the

　　right says: If there is a rock resembling a wine jar, the

　　house changes into a 'site of fullness.' The family will be

　　rich and as soon as a wish is pronounced, gold and silver

　　will come pouring out.South-facing houses have several advantages. Can you think of some of them?

　　HINT: Besides issues related to sunlight, think of the direction of prevailing winds, especially cold winds.

　　The importance of orientation developed into the practice of feng-shui which literally means windand water but is often translated as geomancy.

　　Feng-shui concepts also dictated the kindsof material used in buildings. Combined with the location of the building, the proper buildingmaterials were thought to re-direct beneficial energy for the inhabitants. The most commonbuilding materials for houses in China are earth and wood, both of which have positive

　　associations.The foundation of a house generally is

　　made of pounded earth, and in some

　　situations where wood was rare, earth was

　　used in the construction of walls. Earth canbe pounded into shape or made into bricks

　　for walls. For roofs, depending on the wealth of a

　　family, the material could vary. Clay is a

　　fairly common material for making tiles for

　　roofing. In some areas, for poorer people,

　　http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/tintrhme.htm (2 of 11) [11/26/2001 11:02:45 AM]

　　地道的英文 出国留学必读 英文宣传中国文化

　　Home Architecture

　　thatch and bamboo were also common

　　material.

　　How do these building materials differ fromones found in your environment?

　　Detail from a Ming period manual showing brickmakingSOURCE: Sung, Yingxing (b. 1587) Tian gong kai wu

　　(Beijing: Zhonghua shuzhu, Xinhua shudian zongjing xiao,1959), vol. 2, leaf 1.

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　　Wood framework systems are important to consider because they determine the size of thehouse. The basic building block of Chinese architecture is the bay or the space between,which is the space defined by roof supports. Chinese houses almost always consist of anodd number of bays; an even number of bays is considered unlucky. Therefore, three- orfive- bay houses are common.

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