| Abstract: | "China's deep-rooted family culture and the resulting family spirit is one of the basic characteristics of Chinese society that differs from western society," said by Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong. German sociologist Max Weber defi nes Chinese society as "family structure society"1]. And sociologist Fei Zhengqing believes that the villages in China are organized by families. In sociological studies, the traditional villages are divided into three types: single-clan villages with only one dominating family, main-clan villages which are mainly composed of several families, and multi-clan villages where some coequal families live together2]. The authors believe that traditional villages are organized social communities with kinship as a link. They are products of the family system. There is a close connection between a village's family composition and its space construction. Single-clan village is an introverted spatial organization mode entirely based on kinship, ancestral hall is located in the center and the whole spatial structure grows toward it. Main-clan village is a decentralized family aggregate based on the ties of blood as well as region. And the organization of its village space depends on temples and pavilions where families enshrine and worship ancestors and gods. It owns obvious features of collage and collaboration. M ulticlan village is a collaborative and extroverted complex spatial system led by relationship of colleagues, where large public buildings are taken as the core to organize commercial activities. Its form is similar to the form of small towns. Taking sociological term "family" as the starting point and cases of national historic cultural villages including Hong Village, Zhuge Village, Zoumatang Village, Suzhuang Village and Guoyu Village into further study, this article analyses the correlation between kinship composition and spatial form of villages, tries to reveal the essential structure of traditional space of villages and to provide a new perspective on spatial study as well as basis for preservation of traditional villages. |
