Environmental adaptation of traditional Chinese settlement patterns and its landscape gene mapping

Abstract

Traditional Chinese villages are a successful example of active adaptation and effective use and protection of the environment. Traditional Chinese settlement landscapes form under the influence of geographical environments and environment-friendly ideas and have specific regional identities. Core factors of these residential areas can be considered cultural landscape genes. Based on this, this paper used gene analysis to identify traditional Chinese habitat patterns and decipher their environmental significance and cultural connotations. The results show that: Living patterns can be divided into six categories: ‘north-sitting or south-facing’, ‘Yin and Yang harmony’, ‘mountain-backed or water-facing’, ‘square-surrounded’, ‘psychological induction’, and ‘site-specific’ modes. These patterns correspond to the laws of orientation: Yin and Yang, mountain and water, security, auspiciousness, and synthesis, respectively. In their process of formation and development, traditional Chinese living patterns were deeply influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophical ideas of ‘Yin and Yang’, ‘the living earth’, ‘unity of heaven and human’, and ‘harmony between human and earth’. This study utilised the logical framework of gene identification, decoding, and expression to examine the characteristics and values of residential landscapes in traditional Chinese settlement patterns, and extracted the genome map of settlement pattern from a cross-regional perspective. This study has important implications for the construction of green habitats.