There are two unique forms of Chinese residential architecture: caves are mainly distributed in the Loess Plateau area, which are built by using the characteristics of loess, which have the advantages of warm in winter and cool in summer, windproof and earthquake-resistant. Hakka tulou is mainly distributed in the southeast coastal area, which is a symbol of the Hakka people living together, with the functions of safety and defense, fire and moisture prevention.
Caves on the Loess Plateau
According to the research of ancient architects, more than 4,000 years ago, the Han people on the Loess Plateau in northwest China had the custom of "digging caves and dwelling", and until today, cave-style houses are still widely distributed in the provinces and autonomous regions in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, with a population of more than 40 million.
The cave is a product of the Loess Plateau and a symbol of the peasants of northern Shaanxi. Here, the ancient loess deep culture was deposited, and the people who lived on the Loess Plateau for generations created the cave art of northern Shaanxi in the past, and the farmers worked hard all their lives, and their greatest wish was to build a few caves. Because of the kiln, marrying a wife can be regarded as starting a family. Men dig in the loess, and women do housework and raise children in the earthen caves, and the small caves condense the different customs of the loess.
There are three types of caves: earthen kiln, brick kiln and stone kiln. The earthen kiln is the most primitive and has a history of thousands of years. The walls and roof of the entire cave are covered with earth. It is artificially cut a section of the cliff wall on the natural vertical cliff or on the steep slope according to the topography, and then excavated, and the interior is arched, with door openings, passages, houses, etc.
Brick kilns are generally made of clay to make bricks, and then built into caves on the soft loess. The brick laying in the front of the cave is called a brick kiln, and the stone laying is called a stone kiln. In the old days, poor families mostly lived in earthen kilns. Brick kilns and stone kilns can only be built by wealthy families.
The cave is generally built on the south-facing slope, facing the sun, backed by the mountain, facing the open area, and there are few trees to shade it, which is very suitable for living and living. The cave was not built, but dug out. There are two ways to excavate: one is to choose a piece of flat land, dig a square pit with a length and width of more than ten meters and a depth of eight meters, and make a yard at the bottom of the square pit. Then dig three arch kilns in each of the four walls of the square pit, the kiln in the southeast corner communicates with the ground to make the arch hole of the kiln for people's use, and the rest is used as a bedroom or kitchen. In the middle of the courtyard, dig a seepage well pit and build a low wall along the perimeter, and it becomes a courtyard courtyard that is windproof and rainproof, warm in winter and cool in summer. The whole village pit is connected to the pit, and the household is connected to the household, and the cave in the western part of Henan belongs to this kind.
The other is to split the hill and cut the slope, open a piece of flat land to make a yard, and then dig many case holes in the newly opened hillside, and the yard in front is also fenced with a wall, and a grinding plate is often set up in the yard to crush grain, coarse salt, process rice noodles, etc. Most of the caves in Shaanxi and Shanxi belong to this kind.
There is a pot and a stove on one side of the cave, and one end of the kang is connected to the stove, and because the flue of the stove fire passes through the bottom of the pit, it is very warm in winter. The three walls around the kang are generally pasted with some paper or collage paintings with patterns, which the people of northern Shaanxi call "kang weizi". This kang bib is a practical decoration that can avoid direct contact between the bedding on the pit and the rough wall, and can also keep it clean. In order to beautify the living room, many people paint on the kang enclosure, which is the folk art with a long history in northern Shaanxi.
The loess on the Loess Plateau is one or two hundred meters deep, which is not only extremely difficult to seep water, but also has strong uprightness, which provides a good premise for the appearance of caves. At the same time, the local climate is dry and rainless, the winter is cold, and there is little wood, which also creates an opportunity for the development and continuation of the caves that are warm in winter and cool in summer, very economical, and do not need wood.
The cave is a typical residential building of the northern Han nationality with local materials, and the cave has the advantages that other architectural forms are difficult to replace: first, it is solid, it can withstand hundreds of thousands of years of wind and rain without collapsing, it is said that the earthen kiln where the famous general Xue Rengui lived in the Tang Dynasty more than a thousand years ago has been well preserved; Second, the cave can promote good health, because the temperature and relative humidity of the cave are stable; Third, the loess at the top of the kiln is more than two meters thick, warm in winter and cool in summer.
Hakka tulou on the southeast coast
"Tulou", also known as "walled house", is the residence of Hakka people in Guangdong, Fujian and other places. The Hakka people were Han people who migrated from the Yellow River valley in the early 4th and early 12th centuries AD, and they came to a foreign land and had to live together in order to survive. This form satisfies the needs of the patriarch of the feudal family to control and manage the clansmen, and facilitates the maintenance of internal unity and mutual help. Yongding, Fujian Province is the birthplace and center of this kind of tulou. There are four types of tulou, which are round, square, mansion and comprehensive, and their common feature is that they are large in scale and complete in facilities. They are like "mushrooms growing underground", located at the foot of the mountain shaded by green trees, forming a unique cultural landscape.
Like the round large earth building Chengqi Building, which was built in the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, it once lived in 80 households with more than 600 people. The main building materials of tulou are local loess, sand, wood and a small amount of bricks and tiles. Loess and sand are used to build walls, which are the most important load-bearing parts of tulou. When building the wall, first mix an appropriate amount of glutinous rice and honey into the loess and sand and gravel to increase the viscosity of the soil, and then put the reconciled soil in the middle of the inner and outer "wall panels", and finally tamp it. The tulou built with this wall is very sturdy, and the Chengqi Building is still standing majestically after more than 300 years of wind and rain.
In order to strengthen the family concept of the whole family, the designer of the tulou highlighted the ancestral hall, the symbol of the family, in the architectural layout of the tulou, and built the ancestral hall in the center of the tulou. The ancestral hall, also known as the "family temple", is a place where the whole family worships and worships their ancestors. During the New Year's holidays, the whole clan brings offerings to worship their ancestors, in addition, men marry wives, women marry, and old people pass away...Whether it is the major event of the whole clan or the major event of each small family, it must be held in the ancestral hall. It is precisely this strong clan concept that has brought together hundreds of people and dozens of families in the whole clan and lived together in harmony for generations.
Tulou not only has the functions of gathering ethnic groups, safety defense, wind and earthquake resistance, fire and moisture prevention, warm in winter and cool in summer, but also has rich Hakka cultural connotation. As a wonder of the world and a mysterious ancient castle in the East, Tulou vividly and comprehensively displays the humanistic history of the Hakka people, and the spirit of perseverance, pioneering spirit, patriotism and mutual assistance of the Hakka people, which is a symbol of Hakka culture and an encyclopedia that can never be finished. As a huge monolithic building, the tulou is shocking, its large volume can be called the largest dwelling, and its bizarre shape and construction method are increasingly attracting the attention of Chinese and foreign architectural experts.