On the vast land of China there are still some ancient Villages scattered

which were formed under some specific historical situations.Due to the limitations such as geographical and transport factors

these ancient villages have been little affected by the construction boom outside

keeping the original shape

architectural style and even the plain and simple customs until now.During the course of location selection and village formation

the traditional culture of the villagers has been embodied into the substantial system of the village and has become the important part of the village culture.The study on the ancient village-the prototype of city inhabitation-will contribute to understanding the trace of city development

that is

the concept of city planning and designing transforms from the functionalism to humanism approach.It is endowed with further cultural connotation promoting the continuous development of the city. In this paper

the external form of traditional culture in the ancient villages were inquired into from four aspects:the thought of "gendu"(farming and study) culture

the idea of village defense

the concept of "lishui" culture and the notion of "fengshui" culture.