Technical characteristics of Dong nationality's wooden structure construction technology

The Drum Tower is the center of the stockade, and nearby it is a stage and a sand pond, which constitutes the core circle of the Dong stockade. Closely surrounding the Drum Tower is the residential housing circle, followed by drying and storing grain, followed by Zhaimen, Pavilion and Wind and Rain Bridge.

Dong architects are all local Dong folk craftsmen, and Dong people are called catalpa craftsmen. When designing drum tower, wind and rain bridge and houses, they only rely on a traditional measuring ruler called craftsman's pole. The carpenter's pole is made of a bamboo, and its length is equivalent to the length of the pillar in the house. Scrape off the green husk, and carve the length and size of columns, melons, beams, purlins, Fang and other parts of a building on it with a ruler, bamboo pen and chisel. It is more convenient to use it horizontally than vertically.

Traditional Dong craftsmen also use a set of architectural symbols handed down from generation to generation. There are generally 26 symbols, but only 13 symbols are commonly used. These symbols, which are like Chinese characters but not like Chinese characters, can only be understood by Dong craftsmen. They are carved on craftsmen's poles and building components. This local architectural tool of the Dong nationality is a simple and easy-to-use tool. Simple as it is, it is unique. Dong Zhaimen is a dry wooden building, which Dong people call immortal. Generally, the gates of dozens to hundreds of Dong villages are relatively simple and not high, about 1.6 meters wide and about 3 meters high. A larger stockade needs to build a larger stockade gate and pay more attention to decoration. Village gates in Dong Township are similar in form and different in style. Zhaimen is divided into front, left and right doors or front, back, left and right doors. It depends on the size of the village and the number of passages.

In an open environment on all sides, Dong's Zhaimen actually has no defensive function. From the perspective of geomantic omen, Zhaimen has the functions of connecting Long Mai and communicating sound and gas. In addition, the more important function of Dongjia Zhaimen is its ritual function. Zhaimen is a unique cultural field of Dong people. Large-scale communication between villages actually started and ended here. Therefore, Zhaimen is not only a landmark, but also a ceremonial field and a veritable ceremonial gate. Drum Tower, also known as Luohan Tower, is a tower-shaped single-corner building with giant wood as its central pillar. It stands tall in the Dong village and becomes the spiritual symbol of the Dong family.

According to the Dong legend, the Drum Tower was built according to the appearance of the king of fir trees, and its overall outline is really like fir trees, which reflects the Dong people's concept of tree worship. There are four big columns in the Drum Tower, and benches between the columns surround the central fire pit. There is a big drum hanging on the roof, and the drum is the number of each big event. Besides octagon, there are hexagonal or square towers. Drum tower is connected by Chinese fir tenons, and the top columns are in the air, criss-crossing in rows and consistent from top to bottom. Using the lever principle, layer by layer support. Drum tower is an essential structure, without nails and riveting. Because of its compact and firm structure, it can last for hundreds of years. This fully shows the superb architectural skills of skilled craftsmen among the Dong people.

Drum Tower occupies the center of Dong Village because it is a sacred space. The sacredness of the Drum Tower first lies in its particularity in the sense of geomantic omen: when the Dong people built the village, the Drum Tower was endowed with the meaning of acupoints, just as the Dong people sang that the Drum Tower was built on the Dragon Nest. Not only that, it also has many levels of sacred significance.

Drum Tower is a big empty house. Except for the fire pit, bench and wooden drum, there is no furniture in it, and it is not used for any personal daily use. It is idle in ordinary days, and people can go in and out at will, and the idle state of the Drum Tower just shows that it maintains an alienated position from trivial and secular daily life. Officially speaking, it is not easy to use the amplifier, so the Drum Tower will always be officially opened at the moment of special affairs.

The front door of the Drum Tower is an entertainment place for the whole village on holidays. Whenever it is hot in summer, men, women and children come here to enjoy the cool, and in cold winter, they come here to surround the fire, sing and play the pipa and tell stories. Dong village has the custom of sitting in the Drum Tower. Especially during the Spring Festival, villages gather in Gulou Square to play Lusheng for fun. Or take traditional Dong folk stories as the theme, write and perform Dong operas and perform on stage. The residential buildings in Dong village are centered on the Drum Tower, which is spread out layer by layer to form a large or small building complex. Residential buildings are completely living spaces, with practicality as the fundamental consideration, so there are not as many decorations and complex structures as the Drum Tower or Fengyu Bridge. Dong people's residential buildings have gone through a long evolution process from the earliest marginal wooden nests, to the original shacks, to the public houses where family communes live, and finally to the dry-column wooden buildings that can be seen everywhere today.

From the perspective of large types, Dong people's residential buildings belong to typical dry-rail wooden structures in mountainous areas. The so-called dry fence building refers to piling and planting railings on the ground or in water. The houses built in this way are generally called dry fence buildings. Dry rail buildings are distributed all over the world, and the most practical functions of such buildings at first are waterproof, waterlogging-proof and waterproof.

Snakes, insects, wildlife, etc. The ethnic groups in southern China are mainly dry-fence houses. This is determined by many factors, such as topography, climatic conditions, ecological environment, forest resources, cultural heritage and so on.

Gan Lan-style wooden buildings are generally three-story buildings. The bottom layer is in contact with the ground, which is humid and vulnerable to insects and snakes. It is not suitable for living. It is used to place rice pebbles and pile up farm tools, firewood and livestock. The second floor is a residential area, with auxiliary spaces such as fire pit, bedroom, staircase and wide corridor, which is the main space for people's life. The third floor is generally used to store grain and some household appliances that are not commonly used, and it is basically a warehouse. Some people also use this floor as a bedroom for entertaining guests. The bedroom is a private space in the family. Visitors generally don't enter casually, but the host will regard it as a bedroom.

The largest independent and connected intermediary space is the wide corridor on the second floor, which is an important space in Dong folk houses. In the wide corridor, tools such as spinning machines and looms are often placed there for women to work. One end of the wide corridor is connected with the stairs, and the inside is connected with the fire pit and bedroom of the small family parallel to the corridor. Dong people's big wooden houses are usually the places where paternal families live. After the two brothers got married and got married, they had the custom of sharing rooms. Several small families live in the same wooden house, and the wide corridor is the public space of the paternal family composed of several small families.

Another feature of Dong folk houses is inverted pyramid, that is, the second floor is about 60 cm on the basis of the first floor, and the third floor is about 60 cm on the basis of the second floor, forming an inverted pyramid-shaped wooden structure with large top and small bottom. This is a way for Dong people to use space, and this way of occupying space is really a clever way to seize space. Wind and rain bridge, also known as covered bridge and pavilion bridge, is a long corridor built on a wooden cantilever flat bridge. There are many rivers and streams in the Dong area, and almost every village has wind and rain bridges, and some have more than one, which is the only way to enter the village. Wind and rain bridge can not only provide shelter for pedestrians, but also serve as the gate of stockade and the place where villagers travel and talk. During the festival, friends and relatives from outside the village come to meet, and the people in the village gather at the bridge head, dressed up to go out to greet them, sing Lu songs, propose a toast to the guests and compete in Lusheng dance, showing a strong national flavor. The location of Yufeng Bridge pays great attention to scenery and scenery, which can not only decorate great rivers and mountains, but also enjoy the surrounding beautiful scenery.

The largest and most famous wind and rain bridge is Chengyang Bridge in Ma 'anzhai, Sanjiang, Guangxi, which spans Linxi River.

It is 78 meters high, and there are two three piers on the fifth floor. The middle building is the tallest, with a hexagonal pavilion at the top and three square eaves at the bottom; The left and right seats are square with four eaves and pyramid roofs; The outermost two are rectangular, with four eaves and a rest peak. There is a long cornice under the bridge railing, which covers the four cantilever wooden beams under the bridge.

In the sense of daily life, Storm Bridge is much more practical than Drum Tower, but there are rich cultural metaphors besides practicality. Dong's wind and rain bridge is far more than a practical tool in the concept of Dong people. It is actually an element in the Dong people's cosmic schema.

In the concept of Dong people, Yufeng Bridge is a bridge of life to communicate Yin and Yang, and it is also a bridge to protect villages and collect wealth. Therefore, it has been generously carved and decorated, making it a magnificent building integrating pavilions, towers, corridors and bridges. Fengyu Bridge, a building that transcends practicality and aesthetics, is actually a cultural operation for Dong people to embody the concept of geomantic omen.

When the Dong people build wind and rain bridges, even the simplest and most unpretentious wind and rain bridges are mostly covered bridges with multiple eaves or at least two eaves, even short bridges. People even built several pavilions with multiple eaves at the top of the bridge corridor. This kind of bridge looks like a corridor with a drum tower. Like the Drum Tower, the most prominent ornament on the Storm Bridge is the dragon, and people also like to draw tattoos on the Storm Bridge. These complex forms are related to the many origins of Dong nationality and Yuerenlong culture.

Yufeng Bridge is also called Flower Bridge. These two names are very meaningful, and wind and rain symbolize that dragons can make trouble; Flowers are intuitive images of the shape of dragons. In terms of practical functions, these two names are also very appropriate. The wind and rain bridge is called the wind and rain bridge because it can avoid the wind and rain on the bridge. Huaqiao is called Huaqiao because it is beautiful and colorful.

Yufeng Bridge is indeed a building with great practical value. Dong likes to sit in the corridor of the bridge between work and travel. It has become a small public place where people chat, talk about crops, talk about the world, sing big songs and even set up shrines in the attic of the bridge. From this perspective, Storm Bridge is not only a place for people's daily life, but also a place for people's spiritual life. Another sacred building in Dong Village is Shatang. In the polytheistic belief system of Dong nationality, ancestor worship is its core. The idol worshipped by Dong ancestors is a woman-Sa, also known as Sa Sui, or Sama, which means the supreme holy grandmother, also known as the Virgin. She is an ancient heroine of the Dong nationality and is highly deified in the cultural context of the Dong nationality. Sacrifice to the Buddha is the most sacred and solemn belief activity of the Dong people.

Shadan, called Tangsa and Ransa by Dong people, is also called grandmother's shrine, which is a place where Shadan is sacrificed. Shadan has two forms: one is an altar made of some stones, surrounded by walls and without a roof; The other is a complete hall, which looks like a mountain temple and is surrounded by a wall. Shatang is mostly built on the edge of the Drum Tower and is integrated with the Drum Tower.

There is a half-open umbrella in the sand pond, and two iron pots are buried under the umbrella. There is a portrait of Xiao Mu in the pot, covered with red and green silk thread, with women's clothes beside it. The iron pot is supported by a small pile of stones, including Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai. Bury a little broken silver in each direction. These twelve places are the largest in the village area, so the altar is also called the field. There is also a wooden stool under the umbrella with five or seven teacups on it, and two thousand-year-old poplars are planted on both sides of the umbrella.