“门当户对”的说法与由来 The Chinese Doorway and its References

“门当”（mén dāng），旧时官宦人家钉在大门上方的2个或4,6,8和9个小木桩。

字典 - Dictionary 

The two red wooded pins at top of the door way ( 门当)

The two round（圆） stone drums (石鼓) at both side of the doorway

The stones may also be square（方） in shape

Round （圆）- Warrior （武官）/ Square（方） - Magistrate（文官）

三品官以下的门上有两个门当，三品官门上有四个门当，二品官六个，一品官八个就到顶了，只有皇帝才能有九个，九鼎之尊也是这个道理。由于在北京的都是7品以上（包括7品），所以有2个门当是7－5品的官，而有4个门当的是4－1品的大员。

Meaning of the Wooden Pins: 2 pins represent  below or in 3rd grades position, 4 pins represent above 3rd grade position in the government, 6 pins - 2nd grade, 8 - pins is 1st grade and the emperor has 9 pins. In Beijing, most of the government servants are 7th grade and above so 2 pins represent 7th - 5th grades and 4 pins refer to 4th - 1st grade government servants. Nowaday the newer ones are decorative pieces.

旁的两个石雕，方型的是“文官”而园形的是“武官”。

Meaning of the stone drums: Round symobolises that a warrior or general once lived here, the square one symbolises that a governor or magistrate once lived here.

门当（mén dāng） 起初不是指门上方的小木桩，而是门口的小石墩，这种小石墩分两种，一种是带小石狮子的，一般为武官家庭，一种不带小石狮子的（或者小石墩为印章模样），一般为文官家庭。而户对，则是指门上方的小木桩。

There are also different variation to the explanation of “门当”。 At first, they refer to the two stone structure at the sides, the ones with little lion were warriors or generals and those without are the magistrates. And the wooden pins were refered to as “户对”。

“户对”（hù duì），即这种置于门楣上的圆形小木桩或或门楣双侧的砖雕、木雕，范例的有圆形短柱，短柱长一尺左右，与地面平行，与门楣垂直，由于它位于门户之上，且取双数，有的两个一对，有的四个两对，故名“户对”。“户对”为什么要用短圆柱形呢？因为它代表了人们生殖崇拜中重男丁的观念，意在祈求人气旺盛、香火永续。

“户对”，These are round pillars of either wood or stone with carving situated on both sides above of the doorways. They are rounded to represent the traditional believes of a male dominated families, thus the family line will continues down the generation.

有“户对”的宅院，必须有“门当”，这是建筑学上的和谐美学原理。因此，“门当”、“户对”常常同呼并称。后成了社会观念中男女婚嫁衡量条件的常用语。

自古所说的“门当户对”(mén dāng hù duì) 就是从这里来的。

When a family of 4 wooden pins marries a family of 4 wooden pins, they are a perfect match “门当户对”。

PS: I'm still trying to gather more material to confirm these findings. Hope this is of interest to some of you. There are many more such representation of the Chinese households and status of the family which I hope to read up on and to compile for future references.

Its very difficult to literally translate what I've found, I'm still fine tunning the passage, I did it really quickly because its almost 6am. I have a major project to take care at the moment. This time out relaxes me a little.

Notes:

“门当户对”(mén dāng hù duì)

“门当”（mén dāng）

“户对”（hù duì）

字典 - Dictionary : Please check the pronounciation of the chinese characters in this site.