Study Of The Historical Geography Of The Qing Dynasty In Southern Shaanxi Hall

A large number of assembly halls came into being in southern Shaanxi province during Qing dynasty. However, there are relatively few studies from academe on these assembly halls. My purpose is to research into the relations between the development of commerce as well as emigration and these architectures and also to discover the characters of their location, their layout, their form and their functions. The paper is an attempt to study the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province with correlative methods in historical geography. This article mainly consists of five parts as following:1. The general development situation of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province.On the base of having a clear knowledge of their environment and positions, I try to find out the reasons of the rise of these assembly halls. And two main factors have been detected, namely, the impact of great emigration and the development of economy as well as the prosperity of commerce during Ming-Qing dynasties.2. The features of architecture and layout of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province.The article is based on the statistics about the number of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province. On the one hand, I try to study the time of their coming into being, the character of their naming and their classification. On the other hand, I make great efforts to probe into the assembly halls in states and counties and the assembly halls in villages and towns along rivers. Particularly, there are plentiful assembly halls in Wafangdian, Shuhezhen, Longjuzhai, Manchuanguan and some other towns along rivers. And they reflects that it is the superiority in waterway traffic that accounts for the biggest proportion among all the factors which infunce the places choosing, but not the political factor or other factors.3. The functions of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province.These assembly halls are built to maintain the interests of the emigration and merchants. The following four aspects are main functions: rebering ancestors, holding a memorial ceremony of jin and keeping sentiment; protecting the behoof of the confraternity; making the tired be able to have a rest and the idle be joyful; offering help to folks from the native places. A lot of money is required when those functions are brought into effect and the financing is mostly obtained through some contribution and picking up taxation.4. The forms of layout and the characters of decoration of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province.Assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province have their unique style in layout and decoration as their positions are very special. Most of them are carriers where the native style and the factors ab extra are felicitously integrated, and also where the south styles and the north styles are comprised. The principle of position choosing is having the back to hills and facing to rivers. Azimuth of hills or rivers is the most important aspect which is taken into account when a position is chosen. Most assembly halls consist of main gate, mid-palace, sacrificing-palace and wing-rooms. Detail decoration is not only bold and unconstrained, magnificent from north but also graceful and restrained, elegant and beautiful from south.5. The cultural value and protecting measures of the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province.These assembly halls have their own cultural value and bear the weight of massive historical connotation and cultural value. They are also the signs of the continuing of history and play an important role in spreading civilization and exhibiting the culture of southern Shaanxi province. At the last, I try to study the actuality and protection of these assembly halls with the mule-tong assembly hall in Shanyang as an example.In a word, I hold that the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province have a close connection to the emigration and the development of commerce. It can be seen that the superiority in waterway traffic, especially Hanjiang river and Danjiang river, accounts for the biggest proportion from the analysis on layout. The integration of native culture and culture ab extra can be found in the aspects of functions, layout, decoration and so on. Therefore, the assembly halls in southern Shaanxi province have uniquely cultural value, and are worthy of being studied and protected.