Main Buildings and Annexes: Front, Rear, Chains and Corners

Defining features

An annex substantially smaller than the main building stands behind it. The defining relationship is rearward placement, not necessarily a direct connection.

How to recognize it

Record the separation, junction and use from the main building toward the rear. Include property boundaries where a separate road or courtyard lies between them.

A rear annex two meters away with independent drainage is clearly a separate rear building. One pressed against a rear window requires further checking of light and ventilation. Both should not be reduced to the same vague description.

Common confusions

This differs from a chain of several rear rooms. A historical reference to small rear buildings does not make Shiqi and Tingsang unconditional synonyms.

Folklore and sources

The name appears in modern lists, but an early page confirming its exact characters and full explanation has not been verified. Do not invent a story about broken contracts from the name.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Inspect rear windows, maintenance space and drainage outlets. Where obstruction is real, consider changes to use or openings; removal still requires structural and ownership grounds.

Defining features

A small building stands at each end of the main house, placing smaller masses before and behind the larger central one.

How to recognize it

Use the site plan to establish that both annexes are at the front and rear, and record connections. One on each side instead belongs to a side-wing relationship.

If the front annex is a gatehouse and the rear one a store, record their uses and connections separately before checking entry and drainage. Symmetrical numbers do not imply identical effects on use.

Common confusions

This concerns small buildings at both ends, not a tall gate pavilion dominating the hall. Boundaries must remain explicit if the front and rear buildings belong to separate compounds.

Folklore and sources

The modern label metaphorically describes the two annexes. It does not mean roofs physically collide, and its fortune claims do not establish causation.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Check whether the front annex constricts entry and the rear one blocks drainage. Preserve maintenance and escape routes; symmetry alone does not justify further additions.

Defining features

Several small rooms extend consecutively behind the main building, creating a long front-to-back chain of annexes.

How to recognize it

Trace each room’s depth, connecting doors and structural joints from the main rear wall. Merely noting many rooms behind the house does not establish the arrangement.

If three stores connect one after another behind the main house, draw the longest access route. Independent side doors would produce different circulation despite an identical spatial sequence; real openings must be recorded.

Common confusions

This differs from Tanqi, which spreads laterally along the rear. For scattered detached outbuildings, preserve the measured layout rather than forcing a chain.

Folklore and sources

The Dandan label is a visual analogy for linked masses. Modern lists provide no basis for asserting that the layout necessarily increases family burdens.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Long rear chains may lengthen routes. Check room lighting, exits and drainage; never close a passage merely to symbolically interrupt the form.

Defining features

Several small rooms connect across the back of the main house, spreading sideways along its rear wall rather than extending one after another into the distance.

How to recognize it

Check the row in a rear elevation and plan. Record how each roof drains and whether it obstructs an existing door or window.

If three rear rooms drain differently, with the outer roofs shedding outward and the middle toward the main wall, record each route. A generic rear-annex label could conceal a leak confined to the middle junction.

Common confusions

The distinction from Dandan is lateral rather than longitudinal extension. Transverse is relative to the main house, not necessarily east-west on a map.

Folklore and sources

The sighing name invokes human emotion. Rear-building shape cannot determine residents’ mood and has no demonstrated medical meaning.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Prioritize roof runoff and waterproofing of the original wall while preserving openings and maintenance access. Do not remove a useful annex merely because of its name.

Defining features

A smaller detached building or annex stands before the main house within the principal view from the entrance and forecourt.

How to recognize it

Record its offset and distance from the main door and state its use. Gatehouses, guard rooms and abandoned sheds should not be judged identically by size.

A gatehouse placed to the side of the approach, leaving a clear route, differs from a small building blocking the only entrance. Plotting doors and access paths is more useful than merely noting a building in the forecourt.

Common confusions

This can overlap with the front-building form of Gugua. Overlapping names should not be added together as multiple risks.

Folklore and sources

The name carries a traditional association with depletion. A front building does not demonstrate loss of wealth; the current reference is a modern catalog description.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Where access is genuinely obstructed, improve routes, lighting or openings. Necessary alterations should follow actual management and structural conditions.

Defining features

Small buildings stand before the main house or on its front sides facing it. This is the front-building form, not a waterside pavilion.

How to recognize it

Mark each opening direction on a plan and distinguish one directly facing building from two side-facing buildings. Do not infer a fixed count from the name.

Two front-side gatehouses opening onto the courtyard fall within this observation. A single pavilion over water instead belongs to the waterside form; its shared Gugua name does not justify reusing the small-building illustration.

Common confusions

The same catalog also calls a pavilion before the house Gugua, so this form needs its front-building qualifier. Do not confuse it with a solitary tall tower.

Folklore and sources

The historical name is pejorative but cannot establish marital or family circumstances from a layout. Preserve different meanings under the same name rather than merging them.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Assess courtyard dimensions, mutual shading and privacy. Furniture, curtains or opening use may help; residents’ family situation is not a criterion for evaluating the plan.

Defining features

Smaller building masses occupy the four corners of the main house, forming projecting architectural nodes around the principal volume.

How to recognize it

Confirm whether all four corners or only some have annexes and record connections. The overhead outline should correspond to actual walls and roofs.

For four corner rooms, note which were original and which were added. Four projecting eaves without enclosed space are a roof form, not four rooms that may be invented to fit the label.

Common confusions

This differs from two wings attached only at the rear. Corner canopies are not necessarily rooms, so a roof projection alone is insufficient.

Folklore and sources

The exposed-feet name is a bodily analogy. It offers no basis for predicting litigation, illness or financial outcomes.

Traditional responses and practical improvements

Inspect new-to-old connections, waterproofing and maintenance access at corners. Normal functioning does not require filling courtyard corners or adding walls to regularize the outline.