| Shaded Sections—Buildings. |
|---|
| White Sections—Courtyards. |
| The house faces South. |
| No. 1. Chao Pi. | Spirit Wall. Built to protect the main entrance from the malign influence of evil spirits: these move most easily in a straight line and find difficulty in turning corners, therefore a wall before the Great Gate is an effective defence. |
| No. 2. Ta Mên. | Great Gate. |
| No. 3. Mên Fang. | Gate-keeper's Room. |
| No. 4. Ting Tzŭ Lang. | Covered passage leading from the Reception Hall to the Great Gate and opening on the street. |
| No. 5. Lang. | Covered passage-way. |
| No. 6. T'ing. | Reception Hall. |
| No. 7. Lang. | Covered passage-way. |
| No. 8. T'ing. | Inner Reception Hall. |
| No. 9. Ch'ih. | A stone-paved courtyard. It has no roof and is raised in the centre. On great occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, and so on, it can be roofed and floored, thus being made a part of the house. Trees and flowers are not planted in this court, but are set about in pots. |
| No. 10. T'ing. | A courtyard. In this second courtyard, to which steps lead down, trees and flowers are planted, making of it an inner garden.
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| No. 11. Tso Ma Loa. | Running Horse Two-Story Apartments. This is the Kuei so often spoken of, the Women's Apartments. It is a building in which the rooms surround a courtyard, and are connected by verandahs running round the court upstairs and down. The space in the centre is known as T'ien Ching or Heaven's Well. There are eighteen rooms in the upper story, and eighteen in the lower. The wife uses the front rooms; the daughters, the back. |
| No. 12. Hou T'ing. | Back Court. It is bounded by a "flower wall," or brick trellis, through which flowers can twine, and is used by the inmates of the Kuei as a garden. |
| No. 13. Nü Hsia Fang. | Women's Lower House. A house for the women servants. As in the house for men servants, No. 18, the floor is actually on a lower level than those of the master's apartments. |
| No. 14. Fo Lou. | Buddhist Two-Story Apartments. In the upper story, images of Buddhas, and of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, are kept. As a rule, it is locked, and only people who have washed carefully and put on clean clothes may enter. |
| No. 15. Tsê Shih. | Side Inner Apartment. In this house, poor relations may live. The concubines who do not enter the Kuei except on invitation also live here. Guests do not go further into the house than to the wall bounding this building on the South. |
| No. 16. Tung Hua T'ing. | Eastern Flower Hall. |
| No. 17. Tui T'ing. | Opposite Hall. This and No. 16 are used for theatrical entertainments. The guests are seated in No. 16, facing South, and the stage faces North in No. 17. A cloth covering is stretched over the courtyard, and a wall divides the two T'ing from the rest of the house.
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| No. 18. Nan Hsia Fang. | Men's Lower House. A house for men servants divided as far as possible from the quarters of the women servants, also placed conveniently near the Great Gate where guests enter. |
| No. 19. Ta Shu Fang. | Great Book Room. This room is used as a library and study, and in it the teacher instructs the sons of the family. |
| No. 20. Hsi Hua T'ing. | Western Flower Hall. Here guests are entertained at meals. Flower gardens are placed on either side, and also walls which prevent either the study or the women's rooms from being seen from it. |
| No. 21. Tsê Shih. | Side Inner Apartment. A building used by the ladies of the house as a study or boudoir, where they embroider, paint, or write. The light is very good, whereas in the Kuei, on account of most of the windows opening on the court ("Heaven's Well"), it is apt to be poor. |
| No. 22. Ch'u Fang. | Kitchen. This is placed conveniently near to No. 20, where the men of the family dine, and No. 21, the dining-room of the ladies. |
| No. 23. Ch'ü Lang. | Passage-of-Many-Turnings. The superstitious belief in regard to the difficulty experienced by evil spirits in going round sharp corners governs the planning of this strangely shaped passage. |
| No. 24. Shu Chai. | "Books Reverenced." The study, or students' room.
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| No. 25. Hsien. | A Side-room or Pavilion. This is a long, low, outdoor passage, where guests sit and amuse themselves. |
| No. 26. Ma Fang. | Stable. The stable is placed as far as possible from the house. The horses, however, are kept saddled near the Great Gate for a large part of the day, in order to be in readiness should they be needed. |
| No. 27. Hua Yüan. | Flower Garden. The gardens are arranged with hills, water, and rockeries, to look as much like natural scenes as possible. |
| No. 28. Ssŭ So. | Privy. |