Editing Chinese architecture (section)

=== Culture ===
The house was a space of culture that depicted the Chinese view of humanity. The house was a domestic domain, separated from the undomesticated world. The separation was commonly realized through walls and gates. Gates were first a physical barrier and second a notice board.

The home was where family rules could be enforced, dividing the upbringing of the inhabitants.

Women were often hidden away within the inner walls to perform domestic duties, while men would freely interact with the outside.

While brides entered an unknown and potentially hostile environment, the husband "never had to leave his parents or his home, he knew which lineage and which landscape he belonged to from the time he began to understand the world."<ref name="Bray" /> New brides were typically treated badly by senior household members. Junior brides might be treated like unpaid servants and forced to do unpleasant chores. Bray characterized marriage as the bride's descent into hell. "The analogy of the wedding process with death is made explicit: the bride describes herself as being prepared for death, and the wedding process as the crossing of the yellow river that is the boundary between this life and the next. She appeals for justice, citing the valuable and unrecognized contribution she has made to her family. Her language is bitter and unrestrained, and she even curses the matchmaker and her future husband's family. Such lamenting can take place only within her parents' household and must cease halfway on the road to her new home, when the invisible boundary has been crossed."<ref name="Bray" /> Women were fully accepted into a new home only after bearing a child.

The confinement of women was also a method of controlling their sexual lives. Confinement was used to prevent impregnation by an outsider who might  thereby claim a slice of the family's wealth. Bray claimed that wives were often represented as "gossiping troublemakers eager to stir up strife between otherwise devoted brothers, the root of family discord, requiring strict patriarchal control."<ref name="Bray" />

Husbands and wives did not stay in the same private room for long periods. During the day, men would go out or work in their studies, avoiding unnecessary contact with female relatives. Women were generally confined to the inner perimeter. When leaving the inner perimeter, they must cover their face with a veil or a sleeve. Conversely, men were not usually permitted to enter the inner perimeter, providing women some control over their daily experience.