中国民居

Introduction

Beijing Quadrangle Courtyards

Imposing Dwellings and Spacious Courtyards

Knock at the Door Leaves

Floral-Pendant Gates

A Place of Unique Beauty

Huizhou Dwellings

Hongcun: A Village of Rivers and Lakes

Xidi: A Land of Peach Blossoms

Patios and Horse-Head Walls

Colleges and Memorial Archways

Three Kinds of Carving and Gardens

Business and Culture Supplement Each Other

Shaoxing Riverside Dwellings

Three Thousand Taimens

Small Bridges and Flowing Streams

"Stage for All Ages" Close to Water

Ancient Heritages and Secluded Places

Minxi Clay Buildings

Hakkas Homeland

A Glimpse of Clay Building

Tracing Back to the Source

Intergrowth with the Human Affection and Reason

Architectural Novelty in the Homeland

of the Overseas Chinese

Towering Watchtower

Zigzag Arcade-houses

Ancestral Temples

Ganlan Wood House and Storm-Tossed Bridge

A Tour to Wood-House Village

Singing at the Chengyang Bridge

Drum Tower and Lusheng Column

Ganlan Wood Houses

Fire Pit

Ancient Lijiang Streets

Ancient City

A City Surrounded by Spring Water

Three Terrace Houses with One Screen Wall

Tibetan Watchtowers

A Long History

Colorful Forms of Tibetan Vernacular Dwellings

A Land of Bon and Buddhism

Homeland Developing with Heaven and Earth

A Living Picture Full of Grandeur

Appendix: Chronological Table of the Chinese

Dynasties

China has a vast territory and an extremely long history with the natural andcultural environment differing from region to region. Therefore thediversification of Chinese vernacular dwelling is rarely seen in the architecturalhistory of the world. This book has chosen some settlements which arerepresentative and widely spread to introduce basing on the interaction of theliving customs, action characteristics and the space mode of people who inhabitthe traditional vernacular dwellings.Chinese vernacular dwelling is various and colorful. Both the profound andsteady northern vernacular dwellings and the elegant and pretty southernvernacular dwellings contain the philosophy that "human beings should be inharmony with nature" and the ethic views such as superiority and inferiority insocial life, the order of elders and the young, the different treatment towardsmen and women, the differentiation between people in and out of a clan. Thisbook has described the origin, architectural characteristics and the passing-down value of the Chinese traditional vernacular dwellings in a popular waybut with the professional accuracy. This book is dotted with related historicallegends and folklores. Thus, a vivid scroll of Chinese vernacular dwelling wasclearly drawn.