China News Service, Hefei, August 26th. Title: What oriental beauty is hidden in the ancient Hui-style houses in the world heritage site of Yixian County, Anhui?
Author Liu Hao
Yixian County, Anhui Province, is one of the "one prefecture and six counties" in ancient Huizhou and the birthplace of Huizhou culture.
A few days ago, Yixian, the "thousand-year ancient county" and the core area for the inheritance and development of Huizhou culture, was officially approved as the 137th national historical and cultural city in China.
Yixian County currently has 6 Chinese historical and cultural villages and 44 Chinese traditional villages.
Among them, Xidi Village and Hongcun Village were included in the World Cultural Heritage List in 2000.
What are the oriental aesthetic charms of the ancient Hui-style houses in these traditional villages?
What are the "secrets" of the protection and development of ancient Hui-style dwellings in Yixian County?
Recently, Wang Ji, director of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau of Yixian County, accepted an exclusive interview with Chinanews.com and made an analysis.
What are the characteristics of ancient Hui style houses?
What is the relationship with Huizhou culture?
Wang Ji introduced that Huizhou architecture is a brick-wood structure with a symmetrical layout. There are three-bay, five-bay, and front and back halls, with patios inside.
The interior is decorated with Huizhou three carvings, couplet plaques, painted murals, and nave plaques, which are full of bookish and simple and elegant temperament.
Huizhou architecture is a local characteristic architecture developed by the ancestors of Huizhou to adapt to the local climate and culture for a long time.
The Huizhou villages where the Huizhou architecture is gathered are the products of the patriarchal patriarchal system of the Chinese farming society. The embodiment of the idea of human unity.
The interior view of the Hui-style architectural hall photo by Liu Hao
Huizhou culture was developed under the economic support of Huizhou merchants. The Huizhou clan advocated "loyalty, filial piety, integrity, and righteousness", and there were a large number of family rules and family precepts to regulate people's behavior.
Huizhou people pursue the ideals of "cultivating one's body, being together, governing the country and the world", and also pursuing the life dream of "fu, luck, longevity, and jubilee". These are all through Huizhou three sculptures, Huizhou prints, Huizhou painted murals, Huizhou couplet plaques, etc. The manifestation of Huizhou culture is reflected in Huizhou architecture.
Therefore, Huizhou architecture and its interior decoration are full of the atmosphere of Huizhou culture, and Huizhou architecture itself has become an architectural symbol of Huizhou culture.
The two are interdependent, both external and internal.
What are the humanistic concepts contained in the ancient Hui-style houses?
Wang Ji said, one is that the ancient Hui-style residential buildings are integrated with ancient Chinese philosophical thoughts.
For example, respecting the harmony and unity of nature, the patio in the Hui-style dwellings expresses the concept of communication between man and nature.
The shuikou in the village of Huizhou embodies the Tibetan wind gathering gas in Feng Shui.
Huizhou private schools and academies are mostly built in the best locations in the village, which embodies Huizhou's values of respecting culture and education.
The second is that the ancient Hui-style dwellings have incorporated the concepts of the Chinese to be kind to others and the neighborhood to be harmonious.
For example, the “turning around” and “returning the building wall” at the corners of the streets and lanes of Xidi Village all reflect the owner’s obedience to the public interest consciousness.
The dwellings are closely interdependent, and alleys are connected to each other, reflecting the awareness of harmony, mutual care, and development among neighbors.
The third is that the ancient Hui style residential buildings also reflect the master's philosophy of life and family.
For example, businessmen, literati, and officials all reflected their own life experience and perceptions on the hanging couplets and plaques, door plaques, three carvings, colored paintings and other architectural decorations.
"The culture contained in the ancient villages and dwellings of Huizhou reflects the Chinese traditional culture of courtesy, courtesy, kindness, harmonious coexistence, diligence and thrift, and the national identity, family identity, cultural identity, ethnic development, and group development. And the development concept of internal unity and external cooperation." Wang Ji believes that these excellent traditional cultures still have guiding and reference significance for the implementation of rural revitalization strategies, innovative social management, and construction of a harmonious society.
It has a positive impact on handling relations between countries and promoting win-win cooperation.
How did the ancient Hui-style houses represented by Xidi and Hongcun move onto the world stage?
Wang Ji introduced that in the early 1980s, Xidi and Hongcun Villages in Yixian County attracted attention from the outside world.
The Yixian government realized the value of ancient villages such as Xidi and Hongcun, and began to try to develop tourism under the premise of protection.
As a result, Xidi and Hongcun first showed their veils and were highly praised as "a paradise" by the outside world, and the ancient houses were called "Chinese architectural treasures."
In 1996, Xidi and Hongcun of Yixian County were formally included in China's preliminary list for nominating World Heritage.
On February 10, 2000, Dr. Naomi Ogawa, a member of UNESCO, an expert from the International Council of Monuments and Sites, and a professor at Chiba University, Japan, was appointed by UNESCO to arrive in Yixian County, Huangshan City, to conduct a field visit to Xidi and Hongcun.
He admired Xidi and Hongcun, and affirmed that the local protection work has been effective. At the same time, he pointed out that with the development of tourism, the relationship between protection and development must be handled well.
After becoming a "world heritage", what are the normative measures for the protection and development of ancient dwellings in Yi County?
Wang Ji said that Xidi Village and Hongcun Village were included in the World Cultural Heritage List in 2000.
In terms of protection, Yixian County has established a heritage management organization, established a county-level World Cultural Heritage Management Committee and office, and the township where the two villages are located has also established a tourism management committee.
In 2001, Yi County formulated and promulgated the "Administrative Measures for the Protection and Management of Xidi and Hongcun World Cultural Heritage" and its implementation rules, and issued them in the form of government orders.
Under the premise of protection, Yixian County relies on cultural heritage resources to rationally develop tourism.
The first is to develop cultural heritage tours, research and study tours, and art sketching tours at the same time to develop tourism and performing arts products; the second is to develop homestay clusters, to promote the use of ancient dwellings, and to achieve tourism transformation and upgrading; The tourism industry funds back-feeding heritage protection.
In the protection and development of ancient houses, what concepts have been incorporated?
Wang Ji said, one is the concept of sustainable development.
By correctly handling the relationship between protection and development, the cultural heritage resources have been effectively protected, and the benefits have been brought into play, which has promoted the sustainable economic and social development of the communities in the heritage sites.
The second is to share the concept.
By correctly handling the interests of villagers, enterprises and the government, the sharing of tourism development results has been realized.
The interests of villagers and village collectives and the development rights of villagers have been safeguarded, so that the aborigines of the heritage site have not been lost, and the economic and social development of the village has been steadily developed.
The third is the concept of cultural communication.
By rationally developing tourism and promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism, Chinese traditional excellent culture can be well displayed and experienced through the tourism window.
The fourth is the value concept of cultural heritage resources.
An important example is that since Xidi and Hongcun began to integrate with tourism in 1986, they have brought more employment opportunities to villagers, promoted rural economic development, and increased the income of local villagers.
Taking the three indicators of total economic income, per capita net income of villagers, and population growth of the two villages in 1999 and 2020 as examples, the total economic income of Hongcun’s rural economy has increased by 5 times, the per capita net income of farmers has increased by 25 times, and the population An increase of 27.5%, while Xidi has increased by 1.6 times, 11 times and 30.3% respectively.
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