The Visiting of the Ancient Constructions of
Huizhou
| When people are driving on the winding highway and
spiraled up the mountain. Looking out of the window you can see among the Green-lade
Mountains, there, stand tall and upright ancient houses and temples or huts, uneven and
scattered here and there. You see the white walls, and the black tiles with the horse's
face tile to close the walls, which shows special antique. You may think of the ancient
mountain city, which you just have been in. |
|
Shexian is the Huizhou district area. Its
construction style has local characteristic. There are many ancient structures and houses
in it. With simple overall arrangement old beautifully shaped, the fine carvings are
having a distinctive style.
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The village constructions generally have old trees,
clear streams, small bridges, brooks, stone road, square pavilions and ancient towers,
etc. The rough strong old trees and the dark green dense forests set off one another old
pavilions, houses and towers to serve as a fail to whole village in the hills and water,
which makes up a beautiful picture. The street was built facing the water. Beside the
street there are many shops in it. There are bridges connected to the brooks. Across each
side of the bank, to make it convenient for the people such as: wash things, and drain off
water, they have built many stone-steps. At the village entrance or the end, temples and
ancient trees have always been built. It is rather quiet and fine conditions. |
| The people¡¯s houses and constructions are usually surrounded by high
walls and the preventing firewalls. The houses' out-wall, except the gate, is only opened
some small windows. The terrazzo bricks or the black bluestones are carved and made up to
become various shaped windows and dotted on the white walls. Mountain-walls are always
steps style and higher than the houses. Some walls have been put the decorative designs of
the shaped ornamental object (usu. made of jade, formerly a symbol of good luck). The
gate-frame is built with the blue stones, and there is an arch over the gateway. Generally
it is always built with the water-stones. In the Ming-Qing Dynasties, Huizhou district
houses are normally big houses, such as: Siheyuan |
|
| is sometimes a popular style. It has the three-storeyed building, and has
built a small house in the house yard. It is square shaped, and in the front of the house
there is a Tianjing (sky light in the court yard) and there are two wings in it (usu. of a
one-storeyed house). Under stairs the bright place is the central room (of a one-storeyed
Chinese house consisting of several rooms in a row). On the left and the right there are
the bedrooms. In the upper stairs, is always built the horse-race storeyed house with the
wood railing around it. |
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The street and the lane in structures are throughout
the river and villages, and there are row upon row of houses line. The shops are facing
the bustling with activity. The roads paved with many stones are clear, level and shining
the quite old village¡¯s flavors. Some streets and lanes are paved with cobblestones,
and some are paved with slab stones in the middle and cobblestones at both sides. Workers
have chosen the various kinds of color stones, decorated with plum blossoms and an
S-shaped ornamental object (a symbol of good luck)¨Cthe different designs. It shows
ingenuity, interesting and absorbing. |
Everywhere of Shexian county ancient people houses
of Ming Dynasty kept perfectly have been arranged into the preserved unit of province and
county.
| The Fang Shizhai¡¯s house lies in the Shexian County,
Dikou Well. It is made in the middle of Ming Dynasty, and it is a wood-bricked structure.
The Sanheyuan (a compound with houses around the courtyard, two-storeyed) sits in the east
facing the west with the door gate opened in the left. This house remains the distinctive
characteristic of the middle of Ming Dynasty: The first storey is lower and the second
storey is clear. It is arranged into the Ming Dynasty¡¯s Exhibition. |
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The Chengkan village is the concentrate place of the
people houses of Ming Dynasty. Among the houses Luo Runkun, Luo Lailong¡¯s houses keep
the wood-bricked structure characteristics of the middle period of Ming Dynasty. The
Siheyuan is two storeyed. In the back stairs, there are three outline rooms in the left
and right. The front storey has three rooms, the skylight in the middle. This is the
example of Huizhou mountain area¡¯s structures. Under stairs is lower, and the windows
are carved into square lattice with the fine window railings. Lying in the Zheng village,
Su Xuehen¡¯s house is an ordinary people house, wood-bricked, Sanheyuan, two-storeyed.
It is also a structure in the middle of the Ming Dynasty¡¯s period, without any
magnificent decorated things.
Lying in the east of the county-Yaokeng village,
Fang Chunfu¡¯s house is the structure in the later period of Ming Dynasty. It is
wood-bricked, three-storeyed construction with five stairs, three skylights. Around the
houses are standing high walls, and they are bright in the one-storey. There is a hall in
it. In the middle of it, there is a room with the reed mixture and mud to separate the
rooms.
| The people houses of the Ming-Qing Dynasty¡¯s period
always build the gateway. Some people houses also build the Eighth Walls. There is carving
with fine designs, activity picture after another. This is the folk brick-carving art. The
thick brick no more than an inch are carved with figures, the life like inspect or fishes,
the strange hills and rivers, and the graceful flowers and grasses, which are all carved
in empty. From the close shot to the distant view, always there are 7-8 administrative
layers upon layer. |
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According to the artists, to make the brick (unfired), it is the first
step to choose the fine mud as materials, by washing put away the impurity and sands to
make the unfired brick, fire it, and become the brick if there is some sands in it, it
will be less quality.
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The order in making the carving brick are twice: the first order of making
bricks is hit the unfired brick. It is also called the product plot or plot picture
course. It is generally made by the experience skilled teacher, drawing the outline on the
unfired brick, digging it shallow or deeply and making sure the front shot, middle shot
and distant shot¡'s administrative. The second working order is: Cuxi. That is the course
of the work at the unfired brick, with the care and precision of a sculpture to make the
figures, towers, flowers, trees, inspects and animals all convex out. This order is made
by the assistant. |
The brick¡'s carving designs are chosen from
various materials. Some of them are mainly chosen from the figures. Among them, such as:
the fairy stories, dramatic stories, and people¡'s habit; the woodcutters, working
peasants, the shipped boy on the bull¡'s back and the girl spinners; and raise pig¡'s
man working scene. There are playing children, programmer acting, dancing lion, and plum
blossoms, bamboos, chrysanthemum, cymbidium, Pomegranate, oranges, pipa (loquat), litchi,
vegetables and domestic fowl, domestic animals, monkeys, squirrels. |