Cultural Essence of the Folk Residences in Shanxi Province

Source: Cultural-china

Shanxi businessmen used to be the best at financing and the richest in China. At present, although the rich businessmen in the old days have passed away, their luxury mansions have been preserved. These grand mansions were exquisitely built, magnificent and comfortable; besides, their most distinctive feature is their tall walls and deep yards out of the defensive concern. Like solid castles, they are telling the history of the prosperous and rich businessmen in those days.

Among the folk residences in China, those in Shanxi and South Anhui are equally famous, as the saying goes, "Shanxi in the north and South Anhui in the south have the best folk residences of China". Among the Shanxi residences, the most luxurious and magnificent are those in the areas around the Fenhe River, among which the most representative are those in Qixian County and Pingyao.

Qixian County is located in the south of Taiyuan and in the center of Shanxi. It is amazing that there are over 40 luxury residences with yards in the county. The reason why they are of high quality is that since the Ming Dynasty, many people in Qixian County have been travelling outside to do business, returned home after they got rich and spent extravagantly in building luxurious houses.

Qixian folk residences can perfectly demonstrate the main characteristics of Shanxi folk residences. First, they have tall outer walls. Looking from outside the houses, you may find the solid windowless walls, as tall as the buildings with four to five stories, are quite defensive. Second, most of the houses are built with the lean-to roof; the gable roof is rarely seen on the wing-rooms, the principal rooms or the bungalows. Due to the adoption of the lean-to roof and tall outer walls, the raindrops will flow into the courtyards and hence the saying "fertilized water is to enrich one's own land exclusively". Third, the courtyards are mostly in the shape of a rectangle with the distance from east to west shorter than that from south to north. The gate is often located at the southeast corner.