What are the characteristics of Hakka folk houses that show the charm of traditional culture?

China has a vast territory and a long history. The colorful houses such as quadrangles, dragon houses, Shikumen, yurts, caves and bamboo houses have long been known to the world, but the Hakka earth building hidden in the mountains in Yongding, Fujian is little known. Among the traditional houses in China, the Hakka earth buildings in Yongding are unique, with more than 8,000 square, round, octagonal and oval earth buildings. They are large in scale, beautiful in shape, scientific and practical, and have their own characteristics, which constitute a wonderful world.

The caste social characteristics and architectural characteristics of Tulou folk houses are closely related to the history of Hakka people. Hakkas, originally Han Chinese in the Central Plains, were forced to move south due to war, famine and other reasons. By the Southern Song Dynasty, they had traveled to Wan Li for nearly a thousand years and formed a Hakka clan in the border area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. In the process of being forced to leave their homes and migrate, they have experienced many hardships, and they all have a deep understanding. Whether they are displaced after a long journey, or they are new to a strange place, many difficulties must be solved by their own solidarity and Qi Xin's concerted efforts. Therefore, wherever they go, their surnames always live together. In this way, the unique architectural form of Hakka dwellings-tulou was formed.

Because most Hakkas live in remote mountainous areas or Mishan, at that time, not only building materials were scarce, wolves, tigers and leopards were noisy, but also they were afraid of local people's harassment, so Hakkas created a "defensive" castle-style building house-Tulou.

There are more than 8,000 large square and round earth buildings in Yongding County, while there are only 360 round ones. The largest circular building is 82m in diameter, and the smallest is Rusheng Building in Hongkeng Village, with a diameter of17m. The oldest is the "Chengqi Building" in Gaoding Village, which was built in A.D. 1790. At most, there were more than 80 families and more than 600 people living in the building. The most magnificent and representative building is the Sincere Building in Hongkeng Village.

Tulou was square at first, with palace style, mansion style and different postures. It is not only strange, but also full of mystery, solid and firm. Accumulate food and raise livestock in the building; If there is a well and you need to guard against the enemy, you just need to close the gate and keep a few young people guarding it. Tulou is like a solid fortress, and women, children, old and young can sit back and relax. Because the square earth building is directional, the corner is dark, and the ventilation and lighting are different, Hakka people have designed a round earth building with good ventilation and lighting, which has no beginning and no end.

Tulou is made of local materials and rammed with local clay sand. Every layer 10cm thick in the wall is covered with bamboo strips as wallboard, which plays a mutually reinforcing role. It is convenient to build and low in cost.

The miracle of tulou group fully embodies the collective strength and superb wisdom of Hakkas, and also shines with the brilliance of Chinese excellent culture. Since the reform and opening up, Yongding tulou has attracted more and more attention from the world. The Sincere Building, located in Hongkeng Village, Hukeng Town, Yongding County, is world-famous and known as a pearl in the history of human civilization.

Visiting all kinds of buildings is often the highlight of tourism, from imperial palaces to ordinary houses, from the Great Wall of Wan Li to pavilions, every building has its inexhaustible exquisiteness and beauty. But in western Fujian, I saw the most shocking residential building-Hakka earth building, whose appearance can be compared with the grand arena of ancient Rome, which makes people wonder whether the design of many modern gymnasiums has been influenced by it. Tulou is known as the unique mythical residential building in the world because of its unique shape, great momentum, moisture-proof and earthquake-resistant advantages.

The origin of Hakka

To really understand tulou, we have to start with Hakka culture. In addition to the unique subtropical scenery, Hakka culture is the most distinctive and mysterious in this beautiful southern garden of Fujian.

Fujian is the birthplace of China's ancient Yue culture. According to legend, at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, due to the constant campaign in the Central Plains, some Han people in the Yellow River valley moved south to cross the river to Jiangxi, Fujian and northern Guangdong to avoid war. They are called "Hakkas" to distinguish them from the original local residents. Hakkas have interpreted their unique culture in the long historical process.

Fujian Hakka culture is concentrated in western Fujian, with Changting as the center. The word "Hakka" probably represents the incomprehensible Hakka dialect, the Hakka earth building and countless Hakka ancestral temples.

The first time I saw Hakka tulou.

Tulou is a collective building built with soil as the wall, which is round, semi-circular, square, quadrilateral, pentagonal, chair-shaped and dustpan-shaped. , and each has its own characteristics, of which the round one is the most eye-catching, and the locals call it round building or round village.

Tulou is a collective building, and its biggest feature lies in its large shape. No matter from a distance or in front of us, the earth building is shocking with its huge single building, and its volume is the largest among the residential buildings. The most common round building in the earth building we visited is about 50 meters in diameter and three or four stories high. There are more than 100 houses, which can accommodate 30 to 40 families and 200 to 300 people. The Dayuan Building can reach 70-80 meters in diameter, with five or six floors and four or five hundred houses, which can accommodate seven or eight hundred people. Earth buildings and residential buildings reflect the folk customs of Hakka people living in compact communities.

From the research of history and architecture, the architectural style of tulou is a self-defense living style for national security. At that time, under the situation of Japanese invasion and civil war every year, Hakkas who moved their families traveled thousands of miles to other places and chose an architectural way conducive to family reunion and defense against war. Descendants of the same ancestor form an independent society in a tulou, with honor and disgrace. Therefore, restraint from the outside and cohesion from the inside are probably the most appropriate induction of tulou.

The circular building is the most distinctive building in the local earth building. Generally speaking, it starts from a center and spreads out layer by layer according to different radii, just like water waves in a lake, which is very spectacular. Its center is family ancestral temple, followed by ancestral halls, verandahs and people living in the outermost ring. The whole earth building is about the same size, with an area of about 10 square meter. On the same staircase, families have almost no secrets.

There are many types of earth buildings, one of which is the system of upper, middle and lower halls arranged in depth along the central axis. This kind of earth building, the lower hall is generally the entrance and exit, placed in the front; The nave is in the center, which is a place for family gatherings and welcoming guests. Shangtang is the innermost place where ancestral tablets are enshrined.

In addition to the unique structure, the window sill, porch and cornice inside the earth building are also extremely gorgeous and exquisite, which is really a wonderful work in China residential buildings.

The layout of Hakka earth buildings in Yongding is reasonable, which is very similar to the ancient residential buildings in the Yellow River Basin. From the external environment, it is important to choose a place that is away from light and near water as a building site to facilitate life and production. Most construction sites face south, with running water on the left, roads on the right, ponds in front and hills behind; Don't go against the trend, sit north to south, avoid being high before and low after, and avoid facing the pit (avoid rushing); If the building is located in a higher place behind the mountain, then build the building higher or a little farther away from the mountain, which can not only prevent wind and moisture, but also make the building and the mountain configuration harmonious. We not only choose the construction site according to the above three aspects, but also make good use of special areas such as sloping fields and terraces to build all kinds of earth buildings, and even develop them into rugged earth buildings in mountainous areas with distinct levels and spectacular architectural features, such as Yongding ancient bamboo and Chuxi earth buildings. These stresses are undoubtedly closely related to geography, ecology, landscape, architecture, ethics and aesthetics, in other words, to the traditional culture of the Central Plains.

From the perspective of tulou itself, the layout of Yongding Hakka tulou has the following three characteristics:

(1) The central axis is clear, especially the palace enclosed house, Wufeng building, mansion square building and square building. The main hall, the main building and the gate are all built on the central axis, and the horizontal houses and ancillary buildings are distributed on the left and right sides, and the overall symmetry on both sides is extremely strict. The same is true for circular buildings, where the gate, nave and patio are all placed on the central axis.

(2) Take the hall as the core. This building has a hall and a main hall. Organize the courtyard with the hall as the center and combine groups with the courtyard as the center. Even for circular buildings, the position of the main hall is very prominent.

(3) The corridor runs through the whole building and extends in all directions. However, there are few isolated earth buildings like Qing Ji Building in Yongding and even Hakka areas.

The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, this architectural technology was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. On June 5, 2007, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that Xu Songsheng of Longyan City, Fujian Province was the representative inheritor of this cultural heritage project, and was included in the list of 226 representative inheritors of the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.