Foreword

In ancient Chinese society, there has always been a strong sense of family status, so we can always hear words such as \”climbing high\” and \”marrying down\” that clearly contain family distinctions. These words have not existed for a short time in Chinese history.

But in ancient China, the economy was dominated by small farmers, and it was not necessary to make friends as widely as in today\’s society. Even if the literati met friends, they basically chose external occasions. So how did they distinguish themselves without leaving home? What about the wealthy family?

The function of the door

About the family status involved in \”Gate\”, ExceptIn addition to \”family status\”, there are also what we call \”well-matched\” and so on. We will find that when the ancients evaluated other people\’s money, they did not directly say that people were poor, but focused on the word \”family\”.

Therefore,The door is not only the entrance and exit of a home, connecting the outside society and one\’s own family, but it is also often a symbol of status.

Since it is the facade of a family, it naturally needs some decoration to make it consistent with its status. Therefore, the better the decoration in front of the door, the more it represents the prominent status of a person\’s family. Pedestrians passing by can naturally judge whether a family is rich or not through the \”door\”.

Therefore, the so-called\”There are three elephants in front of the door, there is no need to worry about wealth\” statement. This actually means that by looking at other people’s doorsteps, you can tell that they are a wealthy family that has no worries about food and clothing.

So what do these \”three images\” represent?

The door should match the household

We all know the meaning of the word \”well-matched\”, which means that the men and women have similar family backgrounds and are suitable for intermarriage. But this word does not come from nowhere, but is derived from two words: door

Mendang refers to the stone drum placed in front of the mansion door, also called Baogu stone. In the understanding of the ancients, Baogu stone can ward off evil spirits, so every household will place this kind of thing in front of the door.

However, there are many levels of placement of doors. Stone lions like the ones we can see today were only for the royal family or the government in ancient times. place. Even people from wealthy families have certain differences in their boulders. For example, the drum-holding stone for senior civil servants is a box-shaped lion, while the drum-holding stone lion is placed in front of the door of a senior military officer..

In ancient times, although merchants were rich, their status was not high. In some dynasties, merchants were not even allowed to be officials. Therefore, even if their family had a big business, the drum stone at the door must be removed. carvings, but Baogu Shi can still be made of stone.

Going down to the bottom are ordinary homes, and their drum-holding stones can only be replaced by wooden square door piers or common door pillow stones.

It can be seen that there is a lot of exquisiteness in the taste just from the skill.

For household pairs, it is even more obvious.

The door pair refers to the decoration of the lintel, that is, brick carving or wood carving.Door pairs are generally placed above or on both sides of the lintel. In the homes of military officers, they are cylindrical, while in the homes of civil servants, they are hexagonal square columns.

The red lanterns we see hanging high are hung on pairs of households. Generally speaking, the more pairs of households a family has, the more prominent the family will be, for example Officials above the fifth rank can have six household pairs, and the lower the rank, the fewer, at least two.

Moreover, the door pair and the household pair must appear at the same time. If there is a door match, there must be a household pair. Therefore, basically the presence of these two means that the family is not too poor. The higher the door and household pairings, the richer the family.

Scenes of people coming and going

Different from today\’s society where luxury homes are basically far away from urban areas, high-rise buildings in ancient times were Large households are basically gathered in cities. And the richer the family, the busier it will be in front of the door. This is not only for people to admire its majestic scene, but also for diners to search for it.

This involves what we call The word \”everywhere is crowded\”. Basically, the more dignified the home, the more people will visit it .

Although the ancients did not like to visit each other, not everyone lived a life that Lao Tzu called \”traffic on every street, chickens and dogs hear each other, and people do not interact with each other until they grow old and die.\” On the contrary, people will gather together because of various scenes.

We can also see from TV dramas that when someone in the court is promoted, the officials will not only congratulate them verbally, but will also go back and prepare a generous gift to send to the person or send it in person. This kind of social scene is very convenient. It can tell whether an official is popular or favored.

Of course, in addition to the congratulations between officials, in ancient times, no matter whether they were true masters or not, they all liked the situation of having peaches and plums all over the world. Teachers and students in ancient times Guanxi is not just a matter of cultural teaching, so the more distinguished a family is, the more disciples it has.

In addition to this, wealthy families will also give porridge during festivals or during times of famine, which also brings an endless stream of people to their doorsteps.

All signs indicate that,the more people there are at one’s door, This means that the household must be either rich or noble. After all, no one wants to enter the door of the poor, and the poor are also afraid of others entering their homes.

The ultimate in wealth: the horse-fastening stone and the horse-mounting stone

In addition to this, there is a more symbol of wealth.

Generally speaking, only officials of the second grade and above can use the Shangma Stone.Such an official title directly eliminated 99% of people in ancient times.

Shangma stones are stones placed on both sides of the gate for easy stepping. Generally speaking, they are in the shape of a corner or Step shape. These stones are often carved with moire patterns to distinguish them from ordinary stones.

Although the time when the Shuanma Stone was born is unreliable, whether it is a stake Both the body and the pile neck have rich stone carving patterns, such as barbata and curly grass on the pile body, and animal cloud patterns on the pile neck.

The top of the horse locking stone is basically in the shape of a character or animal, the most common one is the shape of a stone lion that we are familiar with. According to the setting of the door in the previous article, we can also infer that a carved sculpture can be placed in front of the door. The people with stone lions and horses in them are not only rich, but also very expensive.

Ending

The above \”three images\” are the wealth of the ancientsThe symbol of. But as time goes by, people have also enriched the \”three images\”. For example, in Feng Shui, the \”three images\” of belt water, bright hall, and dragon, bag and tiger are symbols of wealth.

No matter which interpretation is given, we can see that although the \”door\” has few strokes and can only play a role in connecting the inside and outside of the home, its actual hidden meanings are not few.