*Article* **The Decorative Auspicious Elements of Traditional Bai Architecture in Shaxi Ancient Town, China**

**Hua Zhao 1, Zongsheng Huang 1,2,\*, Caijie Deng <sup>3</sup> and Yuxin Ren <sup>1</sup>**


**Abstract:** The lucky cultural characteristics of traditional architecture are of importance. It shows what makes a place unique and the spiritual and material goals people have there. It is thus vital to understand the lucky cultural characteristics of traditional villages. This paper attempts to explore the auspicious cultural attributes of the town. We are aiming to reveal the current status of cultural integration in Shaxi's ancient town so that we can find the problems arising from the development process. Moreover, the research subject is the lucky element of Shaxi Bai's traditional architecture. Lucky themes include lotuses, unicorns, phoenixes, etc. The research was qualitative and quantitative, so we begin by identifying the lucky elements. Then, we used methods for analysing diversity and complex networks to determine their diversity indices and network model indicators. These findings show the old town's diversified, lucky culture. However, Buddhist culture dominates the multicultural makeup. Furthermore, the native Bai culture is also conserved and preserved.

**Keywords:** lucky element diversity; lucky cultural characteristics; co-occurrence network; Shaxi ancient town; Bai traditional architecture; multicultural integration; indigenous culture
