The climate-responsive features of traditional Chinese vernacular residences are deeply intertwined with aesthetics, culture, traditions, regional characteristics, lifestyle, and residents’ behaviors. These aspects, influenced by cli-mate responsiveness but extending beyond mere physical comfort, are de-fined as coincidental values in this paper. While focusing solely on physical comfort and energy savings may lead to monotonous designs and a loss of regional identity, research into coincidental values fosters better integration of function and form, strengthens socio-cultural connections, and enhances the diversity and uniqueness of regional characteristics. In this paper, we identify four key elements to unfold the creation of coincidental values: the local climate characteristics that the residences respond to, the coincidental effects resulting from these climate influences, the building components used for climate response, and the operations applied to these components for climate adaptivity. We extracted and classified these four elements from a total of 250 vernacular residence cases across China, regardless of region. The relationships among these four elements are analyzed and discussed to form a series of typologies and to clarify the mechanisms behind the creation of coincidental values in vernacular residences. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the climate-responsive features in traditional Chinese vernacular residences and provide insights for improved green building design and sustainable rural construction in China.