Distribution characteristics of four types of housing in China

Huaihe River is the dividing line between north and south of China. Just as China's agricultural culture is divided into two systems, the ancient residential culture in China can also be divided into two systems, namely, the dry column architecture in the south and the cave architecture in the north. Zhang Hua, a native of A Jin, once said, "South Vietnam lives in a nest, and North Shuo lives in a cave to avoid cold and heat."

Let's take a look at the traditional architectural pattern in the south. In the south, in the eyes of word makers, Ganlan architecture is unique and fully represents the characteristics of southern culture, so it is used to represent the south. From the glyph analysis, in order to shelter from the wind and rain, the roofs of ancient Ganlan buildings were all covered with thatch, and in order to prevent the wind and grass from falling, there were "thousands of trees" across the roof, which is still well preserved in the culture of southwest ethnic minorities. The "thousand-wood" decoration of the ridges of some ancient buildings in Japan can also be regarded as the remains of the ancient thousand-wood frame. Judging from the shape of the word "South" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the earliest dry fence-style building was built according to trees, so in the center of the word, there is a tree from top to bottom, which is similar to "page, ... building blocks according to trees, so it is called dry fence. The size of dry fence depends on the number of people in his family." The records are basically the same. Gan Lan-style ancient buildings seem to be inhabited only above, but not used below. However, most Gan Lan-style buildings are inhabited above and livestock are raised below.

China drywall building has a long history. As early as the Neolithic Age, people had already thought of nesting in order to avoid wild animals. In the Neolithic cultural sites in Zhejiang, Hubei, Yunnan and other places, there are pillar holes or wooden stakes belonging to dry column buildings. At Hemudu Neolithic Cultural Site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, there are thousands of rows of wooden stakes, beams and floors, all developed on the basis of primitive nesting.

Gan Lan architecture has two advantages: First, it has a defensive function. Han Feizi once said: "In ancient times, there were few people and many beasts, and the people were invincible. There are saints, wooden nests, to avoid the harm of the crowd, and the people are pleased to be the king of the world, called the nest family. " Zhou Qufei, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, also expressed the same meaning in "A Generation Beyond the Ridge": "To test the reason, there are many tigers and wolves in the land, so it is not as safe as people and animals." In other words, the dry fence building is an idea based on the need of defense. In this way, people can not only be high above and avoid the attack of wild animals, but also livestock can live under the protection of people. In Guangxi, there is also a dry-fence building built in a pond. The dry fence is connected to the land by a wooden bridge. Presumably, its original idea was also related to defense. Imagine if you turn a part of the bridge into a suspension bridge, what else can you dive into? Of course, there is another advantage. There are many fish in ponds in southwest China, and human excrement is the main feed for fish. If a dry fence is built on the pond, human excrement can be directly fed to the fish, which not only solves the feed problem, but also cleans the environment. This is a clever idea. In Japan, the toilet is also written as "Chuanjia", which means a hut by the river. It also reflects the custom of building toilets on water in ancient Japan. There is a song in the 16th volume of Ye Wan Collection, an ancient Japanese poetry collection, which scolds a woman and says that she is like a fish that eats shit. It can be seen that Japan also has a tradition of building dry fences on the water surface and feeding fish with manure. No wonder we say that Baiyue people in southern China and Japan are of the same origin. Second, it has a sanitary function. The emergence of dry column buildings is also due to the need of hygiene. From Oracle Bone Inscriptions, we can know that the incidence of skin diseases in ancient people was very high, both in north and south. The reason is that the south is hot and humid, and the north is wet and cold because of caves. In order to solve this problem, the south invented the dry fence building, while the north invented the kang. The biggest feature of Ganlan building is that it reduces people's chances of touching wet ground, thus reducing the incidence of skin diseases. Gan Lan-style architecture can be divided into three types: full-story Gan Lan-style architecture, half-story Gan Lan-style architecture and multi-story Gan Lan-style architecture.

The whole residential dry fence building refers to the dry fence building with high columns, such as the bamboo building of the Dai nationality. The Dai bamboo building in Xishuangbanna is divided into two floors, with people living in the upper floor and no walls in the lower floor. Used for placing looms, rice mortars, stacking all kinds of sundries and raising all kinds of livestock. The living surface of this kind of overhead fence is generally about 2 meters from the ground to stay away from the wet ground to the maximum extent.

The overhead floor of a half-story residential building, also known as the diaojiao building, is an overhead building built on a secondary platform or slope. Widely distributed in Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and other ethnic minority areas. It is the most common living type among Miao, Zhuang, Shui, Dong and Tujia nationalities. The biggest feature of this kind of building is that it is built on a slope. One side close to the mountain is built on the ground, and the other side is supported by pillars, so it is called "Diaojiaolou". The biggest feature of this kind of building is its strong adaptability to terrain changes, which can be adjusted arbitrarily in several directions such as horizontal space and vertical space, and can cope with various complex terrain. "Landing in thousands of feet" is another kind of Ganlan architecture, which is very popular among the charming people in Nujiang Grand Canyon. The biggest feature of the "thousands of feet" dry fence building is to plant wooden columns in the room to erect the floor. Although the diameter of these columns is not large, they are closely spaced and arranged in an orderly way, which balances the pressure of people on the floor and plays a supporting role in the floor. Because these pillars are buried deep underground, they are called "landing thousands of feet".

Although the styles of the above three kinds of dry fence buildings are different, they all have the function of moisture-proof, which reflects some similarities and differences in the functionality of southern buildings.

2. Types of basement buildings

After introducing the primitive architecture in the south, let's take a look at the primitive architecture in the north. The Book of Changes said: "In ancient times, people lived in caves and in the wild. Later saints easily took them to palaces, built buildings and waited for the storm." This passage records the basic form of primitive dwellings in the north-caves, and also records the evolution of northern dwellings, that is, the transformation from caves to palaces.

The so-called "cave dwelling" refers to an ancient and unique architectural form that digs holes underground and lives in it. Shan Hai Jing. "Wild West Classic" contains: "The Queen Mother of the West, with tiger teeth and leopard tail, lives in a cave." This may be the earliest cave custom record in the north. Biography of the Eastern Han Dynasty also recorded the ancient country of Su Shen (located in the northeast of China today) as follows: "The Drum Tower is also the ancient country of Su Shen. ..... Between the mountains and forests, the rustic is extremely cold, and it is often a cave, and the depth is more expensive, so everyone is connected by nine ladders. It is good to raise dolphins, eat their meat and skin them. In winter, dolphin cream is applied to the body, with a thickness of a few minutes to keep out the cold. Summer is naked before and after. The people in his family are smelly and unclean. They use the toilet in the middle and live there. " In fact, this architectural form is not unique, and it is also quite common among other primitive nationalities in the north.

According to archaeological documents, caves have many forms. In the very cold north, caves have to be dug deep, "everyone is connected by nine ladders"; In the colder northern regions, it is necessary to dig shallow, build with tree trunks, cover with weeds, and finally press them into the shape of graves. Yangshao Cultural Site in Xi 'an Banpo, China is located in a warmer geographical location, and most of the buildings found here are semi-cave buildings. Its typical practice is to dig a shallow hole of 50-80 cm, fill all the wooden pillars around the hole, and then coat it with grass mud, and a simple half-hole building is completed.

Shuowen said, "A point is also a chamber of earth" and "A point is also a chamber of earth." It's all about this building model. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, the words related to residence are mostly "caves", which reflects the connection between early architectural culture and caves in China. For example, besides the exit, there is a ventilation hole in the crypt, which is the earliest "window", so the word "window" comes from "hole". For example, the word "poor" also comes from the cave, because there is only one entrance to the cave, and there is no "way out" if you go further inside, so the word "poor" has an end meaning. For example, the word "embarrassed" also comes from the "cave", which shows that the caves in primitive society are already very narrow, and people feel embarrassed, depressed and sleepy as soon as they enter the cave. From the perspective of Banpo culture, there is a pit in the center of the semi-crypt house, which is also a cave of course, so the ancient word "stove" is written as "stove" from "cave". Although Banpo site also has surface buildings, the shapes are very simple, and the walls are made of wood and grass mud. When the real ground building appeared in Shang Dynasty, its symbol should be the extensive use of plate building methods.

The loess plateau in North China and Northwest China has deep soil layers, strong uprightness and low water content. After years of rain erosion, gullies and cliffs are formed, which is beneficial to cave excavation. For a long time, people have dug holes on the spot, forming a unique living space. The biggest advantages of caves are warm in winter and cool in summer, convenient construction, material saving, low cost and simple economy. Therefore, it is widely used, forming several large cave areas such as northern Shaanxi, Longdong, western Henan and Jinzhong, where more than 70% people still live in caves. According to different geographical conditions such as mountains, rivers and terraces, people here choose places with abundant sunshine, near water, labor-saving and solid land to dig caves. The cross section of the cave needs a certain height to dig. It usually takes at least two feet. The number of caves is not doubled, but three, six and nine. The distance between kilns is more than ten feet, so that the wall can support the weight of the whole kiln roof. In addition, the arch-shaped roof is also beneficial to the bearing capacity of the upper part of the roof. In Longdong, the courtyard with caves is called "Zhuangzi". According to the different structures, Zhuangzi can be divided into two categories: Zhuang Ming with a wide view and cliffs. First, dig a huge square pit vertically, and then dig several caves horizontally.

3. Types of house-style buildings

During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the method of plate building was widely used to build walls. The so-called "slab construction" refers to a construction method of erecting two rows of parallel wooden stakes on the ground, placing slabs in the piles, filling the slabs, tamping them layer by layer, and finally removing the slab columns. It is said that Fu Shuo, the famous king of Shang Dynasty, was originally a craftsman who built city walls for people, and was later discovered and reused by Wu Ding. The excavation of the ruins of the Shang Dynasty shows that the statement that there was a plate-like building in Wuding can be established.

There are two versions of edition science, one is a long version, which is called "zai" in ancient times; One is the simplified version, which was called "Shen" in ancient times. The long version is a sandwich version used on both sides of the wall when building a wall, and the short version is a version blocked at both ends of the wall. The fine classification of wall panels is enough to explain the development of board building industry in Yin and Shang Dynasties. This primitive printing method is still very popular among ethnic minorities in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. Its biggest feature is that it is warm in winter and cool in summer, and each wall has strong integrity, firmness and firmness. The disadvantage is that each wall is completed independently in the process of plate construction, so there is no organic connection between walls, and the seismic capacity is poor.

In ancient times, after a house was built, it was necessary to paint the earth wall. In ancient times, it was called "Qi", which originally meant the plasterer's trowel. People who do this kind of work are called "people". When painting the wall, it is required that the wall is solid and flat, so that painting will have a good effect. In The Analects of Confucius Gongye Chang, Confucius saw Zaiyu sleeping during the day and refused to study hard. He said, "Rotten wood can't be carved, nor can the wall of dung be carved." From this, we can also see the basic requirements of the ancients for painting the wall-the wall is not compacted, and it will fall off when touched and cannot be painted. The appearance of house-style architecture made crypt-style architecture gradually withdraw from the historical stage. In words, it is "rice" that replaces the "hole" on the side. The "meter" and "□" written by Oracle Bone Inscriptions are side images of printed houses, representing the arrival of a new era in the construction industry. The appearance of words such as "home", "house", "house", "security" and "clan" can all be regarded as the influence of house-style architecture on writing. During the Qin and Han dynasties, printing was also popular in court buildings, and large bricks were mainly used for decoration and bedding. House-style architecture has many advantages, such as good ventilation and lighting, and convenient access. In order to further solve the problem of keeping out the cold in winter, the heatable adobe sleeping platform was also invented in the north.

4. Tent building type

Tent architecture is a living form created by nomadic people in northern China according to the characteristics of nomadic culture, which is very suitable for nomadic production. The essence of nomadic culture is to take livestock as a special intermediary form, establish a special relationship between people and plants, and jointly form a food chain based on plants, with livestock as the intermediary and people as the highest consumption level. In order to make this food chain sustainable, people must move regularly in exchange for the time needed for plant systems to repair themselves. The final result of this way of life will inevitably lead to the nomadic people's mobile lifestyle of "living on weeds". They choose gullies sheltered from the wind and sunny or flat beaches with higher terrain as winter pastures or summer pastures, and choose hillsides as spring and autumn pastures between winter pastures and summer pastures. In this way, they graze on the pasture all year round according to the fixed migration time and route, strictly according to the divided seasons, catch up with the herd, and eat it piece by piece like farmers harvest crops, no matter what depressions, flat beaches, hillsides or canyons, never let a grass beach be abandoned. Living on vegetation brings a lot of convenience to nomadic production, but it also brings too much inconvenience to nomadic life. In order to adapt to this wandering nomadic life, people invented movable houses-tents.

Tents are also called "domes" and "vaults" in history. Because they are most commonly used by Mongols, they are also called "yurts". This is a mobile residential building, with wooden frame and iron fence inside and felt outside, tied with wool rope. The structure of yurts is very simple, and there are generally only a few kinds of walls, rafters, door frames, doors, domes, blankets, lining blankets, wool ropes and so on. Wall-weaving refers to a movable fence composed of hundreds of thin wooden sticks interwoven with each other. Its main function is to support the circular space of the yurt. The size of the yurt is determined by the number of wooden sticks that make up the wall. Medium-sized yurts need 5-6 pieces of wall, and large yurts need 9- 12 pieces. Vertical wall is an important part of building yurts. Whether the yurt is firm and smooth depends on the binding of the wall. The raft is a support extending from the wall of the yurt to the top of the yurt, which is used to support the weight of the top of the yurt. A yurt usually needs 60 such rafters. The door of yurt consists of three parts: door frame, inner door leaf and outer door leaf. It is about1.2m high and 0.8m wide. The door was painted with red and yellow with national characteristics. Usually there is a dome at the top of the yurt, which is both a flue and a window. At the same time, in the era when there is no clock, the sunlight injected through the dome also has the function of telling the time. When building a yurt, the first task is to select the site, then put the stove mat in the center of the selected address, and then install the door in the corresponding position. After the door is installed, expand the wall from both sides of the door, fasten it with a rope, and make it round after repeated adjustment. Then tighten the upper and lower ropes and tie both ends of the rope to the door frames on both sides of the door respectively. Then, ask a tall man to stand in the middle and hold the dome of the tent high. Everyone will quickly insert all the rafters into the mortises on the dome, and the other end of the rafters will be placed on the upper end of the wall. Next, lining the felt, enclosing the outer felt, covering the outer felt, and tying the outer felt tightly with wool rope, a beautiful yurt was built. Although this kind of mobile residence is called "Mongolian yurt", in fact its users are far more than Mongols. Ewenki and Daur in the northeast, Kazak in the northwest and nomadic people in Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet also use this kind of building, which is called "Mongolian yurt".