Meizhou Hakka Dragon House and Its Relationship with Geographical Environment

Wai Lung House is a typical Hakka residential building with the characteristics of the Central Plains, which is distributed in all counties (cities, districts) of the city and generally has a history of 200-300 years or even 500-600 years.

The Hakka culture connotation of Weilongwu is very rich. From architectural style to folk customs, the history of Hakka culture is displayed everywhere. It is an important symbol of Hakka culture. It has been praised by many experts at home and abroad as the Oriental Pearl, the wonderful work of the world's residential architecture and an endless encyclopedia. It has begun to declare the Hakka dragon enclosure as a world cultural heritage.

The overall layout of the enclosure is a big garden, and in the overall shape, the enclosure is a Taiji diagram.

The first half of the paddock is a half-moon pool, and the second half is a half-moon building.

The joint of the two halves is separated by a rectangular open space, which is compacted and paved with concrete. It is called "Peace" (or Tang Di), and it is a place for residents to exercise or dry their clothes.

At the junction of "Heping" and the pond, a high or low stone wall is built with lime and pebbles. The short one is called "Wall Ridge" and the tall one is called "Zhao Qiang".

Half Moon Lake is mainly used for stocking fish and shrimp, watering vegetable fields, storing water for drought prevention and fire prevention. It is not only a natural fertilizer warehouse, but also a natural sewage purification pool.

Weilongwu

The second half of the building is the square main building in the middle.

There are "three buildings and two horizontal buildings" and an enclosure; There are "three floors and four horizontal" and two surrounding floors.

The smallest enclosure construction area is several thousand square meters, and the largest is tens of thousands of square meters.

Some Dalongwu have hundreds of households and hundreds of people.

Generally speaking, "three buildings and two horizontal buildings" are the majority of an enclosure.

There are three dragon houses and two transverse walls, including upper hall, middle hall and lower hall. There is a patio between the hall and the hall, which is separated by wooden screens and can be opened and closed as needed.

There are north and south halls, upper and lower corridors, toilets, reception rooms, wing rooms, study rooms and living rooms. Around the hall, strewn at random have send, primary and secondary.

The building structure is low at the front and high at the back, which is beneficial to lighting, ventilation, drainage and sewage discharge.

The main house-the outer layer of the horizontal house is a half-moon enclosure, some are one enclosure and some are two enclosures, hence the name enclosure.

The arc-shaped fence guards the main room, forming a defensive barrier. Generally, the windows in the paddock are relatively small, which are natural observation holes and shooting holes, so it is convenient to use martial arts such as bows and arrows, soil guns and soil guns to fight against invading enemies.

In fact, the architectural design of Longwu has a lot to do with the situation of Hakkas at that time.

Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Hakkas have migrated from the Central Plains to the south, mostly living in remote mountainous areas, and have been excluded and bullied by local people. In order to unite to resist aggression and survive, they had to live in groups and build a defensive castle-like house-Dragon House to resist the intrusion of bandits and locals.

There is also a solid multi-layer "turret" in Longwei, which can be used to store food and forage, and can also shoot invading enemies from the commanding heights.

If bandits come to harass and rob, as long as the gate and half the door are closed, the villagers will carry weapons into the dragon circle and turret to fight.

Hakka traditional houses, represented by earth buildings, dragon houses and palace houses, have various types and styles.

However, their firmness, safety, closeness and family settlement are their outstanding characteristics.

Now the round and square earth buildings in Fujian and Guangdong have a history of 200-300 years or even 500-600 years.

They have been washed away by wind and rain, attacked by strong earthquakes and typhoons, and are safe and sound so far, standing proudly in the mountains.

Such a solid residence cannot be separated from careful site selection, scientific design, materials and construction methods.

Now only from the earth building building materials and construction methods to do some explanation.

The wall of tulou is thicker under the wall and thinner on the top, and some of them are as high as 1.5 meters.

When tamping, first dig a deep and large wall ditch at the foundation of the wall, tamp it, bury it with stones as the foundation, and then build it with stones and mortar.

Then tamp the wall with sandwich panels.

The raw material of the earth wall is mainly local clay red soil, mixed with appropriate amount of pebbles and lime, repeatedly pounded and stirred evenly to make the so-called "cooked soil".

Some key parts should be mixed with appropriate amount of glutinous rice and brown sugar to increase their viscosity.

When tamping, Chinese fir branches or bamboo pieces should be buried in the middle of the earth wall as "wall bones" to increase its tension.

In this way, after repeated ramming, a steel-concrete earth wall was built, and a layer of lime was coated outside to prevent wind and rain erosion, so it was strong and abnormal, with good wind and earthquake resistance.

According to Yongding County Records, a major earthquake occurred in 19 18, which rattled for 20 minutes during the day and continued to vibrate at night, but the earth building was intact.

Historically, Hakkas originally came from the Central Plains. After they moved south to the mountainous area at the junction of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, in order to prevent the looting of indigenous people and bandits and the attack of wild animals, the earth buildings and enclosed houses they built were heavily guarded and very safe.

For example, like an ancient castle, there are no outward windows on the first and second floors, or only stone windows as slender as gun holes. On the third and fourth floors, each room has large windows facing outward, which is not only conducive to lighting and air circulation, but also a loophole for observing the enemy's situation and shooting outward.

The doorframe and doorsill of the Tulou gate are all stones, and the door panel is about 10 cm thick.

Some doors were dug obliquely, and several openings were embedded with bamboo tubes. If bandits attack the door, they can shoot it down and pour boiling water.

Some tulou doors are also equipped with fire-proof water tanks and sinks. If the invading enemy sets fire to the door, just press the switch and water will flow down the door to put out the fire and protect the door.

Earth buildings are inherently strong and abnormal, but just in case, some earth buildings are rammed on the sandwich wall.

In case the external wall is blown open by gunfire, the earth building is still supported by the sandwich wall and is safe and sound.

There are all kinds of living facilities in the earth building: the deep well in the patio is the water source when it is besieged, and there are equipment for processing water, water and other foods in the building.

All this made the bandits unable to attack for a long time.

As for the towering "four-point gold" of the four-corner tower, attracting bandits is even more daunting.