Taxonomy of meanings for 房:　　

Additional information about 房

說文解字: 【房】，室在㫄也。从戶、方聲。 【符方切】

Criteria
• ROOM
  

  1. The general word for a room within a house is presumably shì 室, but note in traditional Chinese architecture many kinds of buildings may consist of exactly one room so that the distinction between house and room becomes blurred.

  2. Qin 寑 refers specifically to the bedroom.

  3. Xiāng 廂 refers to the the two rooms on the sides of the main room in the main building.

  4. Fáng 房 refers to a non-main room in a building.

  5. Táng 堂 refers to the (typically elevated) main sitting room or the main wing in any dwelling. See BUILDING.

• BUILDING
  

  1. The most general current word for a building of any kind is gōng 宮. Any gōng 宮 must have an outer wall other than the wall of the house itself. Moreover gōng 宮 may contain minor shì 室 "individual houses" and constitute a kind of traditional "clan condominium". In the Western Zhou and Chunqiu period gōng 宮 referred apparently both to the temples and living mansions of aristocracy: see XIANG 1997: 192; HUANG 1995: 993. During the Warring States, the word was mainly used for palaces of aristocracy and the ruler: see HUANG 1995: 993. After Qin times the word came to refer specifically to palaces. Reference to the outer wall of the gōng 宮 is in the HAOLING chapter of the MOZI. See HUANG 1995: 993. [ill.: HAYASHI 1976: 4-32]

  2. Shì 室 is any building, can be smaller than gōng 宮, need not have an outer surrounding wall. It seems that when inside gōng 宮, shǐ 室 was located behind the main hall táng 堂 : HUANG 1995: 994; ZHGD 1993: 99; ill.: HAYASHI 1976: 4-3. The term can also refer to the family or household: HUANG 1995: 994. See CLAN

  3. Fáng 房 refers to one of the wings on the sides of the main building shì 室, sometimes used as bedrooms. There may be many such xiāng fáng 廂房. [HUANG 1995: 995]

  4. Wū 屋 refers originally to the roof, but from Han times onwards this word can come to replace gōng 宮 in its archaic meanings "family complex of buildings with a surrounding wall". [Evidence is in the ZHOULI: HUANG 1995: 995]

  5. Táng 堂 refers to the hall which seems to serve mainly ceremonial and since the Warring States also political purposes. From Han times táng 堂 in its original meaning was replaced by diàn 殿. [HUANG 1995: 981 - 982; YANG 2000: 170 - 171.]

  6. Diàn 殿 is a large and tall hall, often for audiences, in the palace or in the temple. In this meaning the word came to use in the late Warring States, and in Han times it replaced the term táng 堂. [HUANG 1995: 983 - 984]

  7. Lóu 樓 refers to any building higher than two flooors. It was common in the Han period, and could serve various purposes. [ZHGD 1995: 98; SUN 1991: 186 - 189; ill.: SUN 1991: tab. 47]

  8. Què 闕 are the buildings on both sides of the gate. The oldest textual evidence comes from the Western Zhou (see XIANG 1997: 523), but què 闕 were most common in the Han. Originally, què 闕 were wooden constructions raised on platforms of rammed earth; in the Han period, they were often stone buildings. [HUANG 1995: 988 - 991; SUN 1991: 179 - 182; ill.: SUN 1991: tab. 45.]

  9. Guàn 觀 in the Chunqiu and Warring States referred to the building raised on a platform in front of the gate of the palace. In the Han, guàn 觀 was used as another term for què 闕; besides this, it also referred to other buildings raised on a terrace: HUANG 1995: 986 - 988]

  10. Shà 廈 refers to any high building.

  11. Láng 廊 perhaps refers to any building with column corridor; but textual evidence for Han and pre-Han period is scanty. [HUANG 1995: 1005]