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Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard Zhang

Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism

2022 Volume 4 Issue 1: 1-19 Original Article

Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard

Donia Zhang

Neoland School of Chinese Culture, Canada

Corresponding author: Donia Zhang, 11211 Yonge Street, Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.
L4S 0E9 Email: doniazhang@neolandschool.com

Citation: Zhang D, 2022, Pingyao Historic City and Qiao Family Courtyard. Journal of
Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, 4(1): 47. http://dx.doi.org/10.36922/jcau.v4i1.47

ABSTRACT

Historic cities all over the world are facing challenges on how to best preserve their architectural
heritage. We need good examples to follow. This study explores the historic city of Pingyao in China’s
Shanxi Province, and the Qiao Family Courtyard in Qiaojiapu Village of Qi County nearby. Pingyao is
a representative of northern Chinese city planning and vernacular architecture during the Ming (1368‒
1644) and Qing (1644‒1911) dynasties, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Qiao
Family Courtyard is famous not only because of its majestic architectural compound and exquisite
craftsmanship, but also it embodies the unique style of Chinese residential architecture in the Qing
dynasty. Zhang Yimou’s 1991 film “Raise the Red Lantern” was shot here. Hu Mei’s 2006 TV series
“Qiao’s Grand Courtyard” based on the business history of the family have made the compound
internationally acclaimed. From an architectural and urbanist perspective, this paper examines what has
made Pingyao Historic City and the Qiao Family Courtyard resilient and responsible. The findings
reveal, among other things that, Confucian ethics of honesty, trustworthiness, and righteousness were
the backbone accounting for the robust success of Shanxi merchants who held deep-rooted cultural
values, and who conducted their businesses accordingly.

Keywords: Courtyard house; Vernacular architecture; Historic preservation; Chinese urbanism;
Chinese architecture; Chinese culture

Copyright: © 2022 Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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