The horse-head wall of Huizhou buildings is a fire wall rising above the roof, stepped up in layers. In villages where houses stand close together, it serves against wind and fire, and its lines read like a sketch in ink.
In the Hongzhi years of the Ming, He Xin, prefect of Huizhou, had households grouped in fives to build fire walls above the roofs together, and the horse-head wall became widespread in Huizhou.
In the Ming and Qing, Huizhou merchants who returned home built houses and ancestral halls, and white walls and dark tiles with stepped horse-head walls became the settled style of Huizhou architecture.
White Walls and Horse-head Gables is the class in the chapter on Architecture on Huizhou-style buildings, marked by white walls, dark tiles and stepped horse-head walls. The horse-head wall rises above the roof, serving against wind and fire, and its lines read like a sketch in ink.
