Ancient Villages of Ming and Qing Dynasties-Dangjia Village, Hancheng

Ancient Villages of Ming and Qing Dynasties-Dangjia Village, Hancheng Early yesterday morning, I went to Dangjia Village, which is my favorite tourist attraction. There are many preserved ancient buildings in Hancheng. In terms of economic and population size, the residential buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties in Guanzhong should have been more numerous and exquisite at the same time, but they have not survived due to historical reasons. Therefore, it is even more difficult for Hancheng to preserve the ancient residential buildings of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Dangjia Village is located in Xizhuang Town, northeast of Hancheng City, Shaanxi Province. During the Yuan Dynasty, the area was named after the ancestors of the Dang family who moved here and then multiplied their descendants. In fact, in addition to the surname Dang, there is also the surname Jia in Dangjia Village. Dangjia Village, with a history of more than 690 years, has formed a unique village spatial form. There are more than 100 Qing Dynasty residential courtyards, ancestral halls, forts and other buildings preserved in the village, as well as more than 20 ancient alleys. The location of Dangjia Village is particularly particular. It is located in the flat depression between the plateau and the river, close to the plateau and the water. There are tablelands on both the north and south sides. The northern tableland is higher, which can avoid cold winds in winter, while the southern tableland is lower. In front of the village is the Bishui River, a first-level tributary of the Yellow River. It is located in the southern part of the village, making it convenient for water collection. At the same time, the moist valley wind will also blow into the village. The residential courtyards in Dangjia Village usually cover one-fourth of the area, are elongated from north to south to facilitate lighting, and are narrow from east to west to leave room for more residents. Most of the villages are quadrangles with a living room on the upper floor and side rooms on both sides, with the gatehouse facing the living room. The courtyard house in Dangjia Village is different from the square layout of the courtyard houses in Beijing. It is a long and narrow courtyard. It is also different from the single-sloped roof of the wing rooms of the courtyard houses in Guanzhong. Here, the gables are mostly shaped like a "human" slope. The gate tower in the village is the front of a household, so the builders put more effort into it and it is naturally exquisite. The gatehouse in the village is built with blue bricks and covered with blue tiles, the same materials used for the main houses. There is a wooden plaque in front of the gatehouse with words like "humility" and "farming and reading" engraved on it to show respect. Behind the gatehouse is a screen wall to block external sight and protect privacy. Walking in Dangjia Village, you will find that its architectural decorations are very local in character, exquisitely made and rich in styles, most of which express the auspicious meanings of people's hopes for blessings, wealth, longevity and happiness. Especially the wood carvings on the gatehouse, the stone carvings on the column bases, the brick carvings on the archways, and the wood carvings on the window frames, these architectural accessories are all ingeniously designed, and one can imagine the intentions of the skilled craftsmen at that time. Hancheng's ancient buildings have a Jin flavor, and Shanxi's ancient buildings should also have a Shaanxi flavor. It is probably difficult to say which of them influenced the other. There are fundamental differences between Dangjia Village and the Wangjia and Qiaojia courtyards in Shanxi in terms of construction attributes. Compared with the Wang and Qiao family compounds, which were built by each family, the buildings in Dangjia Village are naturally not as exquisite and luxurious as theirs. But in Dangjia Village, every household carefully builds their own house, but they also consciously maintain a certain coordination with the neighboring buildings. As a result, the village houses built collectively by hundreds of households have similar architectural styles, but due to the preferences of the owners of the houses, the buildings inside each household are still very different.