The name and characteristics of the building of the Miao people

The name of the Hmong's building is called "hammock".

The Hmong's footstools are built on slopes, and the ground is cut into a "factory"-shaped platform, which is supported by long wooden pillars, and a section of the platform is equipped with a square and beams according to the height of the platform, which are parallel to the platform. The low seven or eight meters, 13 or 14 meters high, covering an area of 12 or 13 square meters. In addition to a small number of roof with cedar bark cover, most of the cover green tile, smooth and tight, generous and neat.

Hanging-foot buildings are generally four rows of three for a block, some in addition to the main house, but also took one or two "partial building". Each row of wooden columns generally 9, that is, five columns four melon. Each wooden building, generally divided into three layers, the upper layer of grain storage, the middle layer of people, the lower layer of the foot of the fence into a circle, for stacking debris or livestock. People live on the first floor, next to a wooden ladder connected to the upper floor and the lower floor, the floor has a corridor access, about 1 meter wide. The hall is a room for welcoming guests, and the rooms on both sides are divided into two or three small rooms for bedrooms or kitchens. The rooms are spacious and bright, with symmetrical doors and windows. Some Miao families also have fire pits in the side rooms, where they burn fires to keep warm in winter. There is a big door in front of the chancel, with two doors and a window on each side. Under the front gable of the center hall, there is a back railing, which is called "Beauty Leaning".

The footstools are the traditional buildings of the Miao people, an ancient form of architecture unique to southern China, with people living upstairs and elevated floors downstairs, which is considered by modern architects as the best form of ecological architecture. The footstools are the architectural masterpiece of the Miao countryside, which are built on the hillside and alongside the water, lined up (zhì) than, and stacked on top of each other.

There are historical and natural reasons for the formation of footstools. According to architects, the Miao footstools are the characteristic creation of dry-fence buildings in mountainous conditions, belonging to the dry-fence buildings with wooden frames in a hermetic style with pierced buckets and picket beams. From the historical point of view, the architectural culture of the Miao can be traced back to the ancient times. Zhao (zhào) began to ring the Taihu Lake area of the Miao ancestors Chi (chī) You in the Jiu Li tribal group, they participated in the ring of the Taihu Lake area Hemudu culture and Liangzhu culture creation. Hemudu culture and Liangzhu (zhǔ) culture of archaeological discoveries confirmed that the Miao ancestors of the residential is dry bar type building.

These hanging wooden buildings, full of Miao artistic imagery, provide an eternal passion for life to the hard life of the Miao people.

The foundation for the construction of the hanging-foot wooden buildings must be dug into the slope into the upper and lower levels; the depth of each level is more than 6 feet, and the area of each level is about 100 square meters. The difference between the upper and lower layers is about 4 feet, and the mountain wall between the layers and the outer layer of the mountain is made of stone to protect the can. When the house is built, the front row of flooring pillars are set aside on the lower foundation, and the outermost non-flooring pillars are leveled with the floor slabs sticking out of the upper foundation, forming a suspended foot, and the space between the upper and lower foundations becomes the ground floor of the footstools, which is the so-called "sky is flat and the ground is not flat" characteristic of the footstools. The hanging-footed buildings adopt the bucket structure, with 5 to 7 pillars in each row, and the pillars are connected by melons or square pillars to form a solid network structure. The center column must be made of maple wood, because the maple tree is the totem tree of life of the Hmong people, a sacred tree symbolizing the souls of the ancestors.

According to tradition, the shrine of the ancestor's holy spirit is to be located at the foot of the center post on the second floor. The Miao people believe that the ancestral spirit in the hammock building day and night shade, the family can be prosperous, everyone can be healthy and safe. The walls of the building are made of sliced cedar boards. The window panes of each room are made of wooden strips and are arranged in different shapes and patterns. Each room has a single door, except for the main door of the main hall, which has two doors. Wealthy people also carved dragons and phoenixes in relief on the gate. Above the main door, there are two wooden carvings installed at both ends of the door when the other end of the door when the bull's horn, commonly known as the "door hammer".

Most of the hammock buildings have an overhanging corridor outside the foundation of the second floor, which serves as a passageway to the main door. Hall outside the suspended corridor, the installation of a unique s-shaped curved rail chair, called "ga interest" (ghab xil), the folk have a beautiful name called "beauty leaning", this is because the girls are often picking flowers and embroidery, to show the outside of the name of the style. In fact, "Ga Xi" is also used as a multi-functional lanai for the family to take a rest after a hard day's work, to cool off and watch the scenery, to tell and pass on the myths and migratory history of the Miao people, as well as to sing the "ancient song of the Miao people" and the "Ga Baifu song".

The footstools are generally based on three four-room post or three two-bay mansion, generally divided into three floors, the ground floor are used as pens for livestock and poultry, as well as for shelving farm implements and other things. The middle layer of people, the center for the hall, the hall on both sides of the post to add columns, floor thickening; because this is the main activity of the family space, but also banquets guests singing and dancing place. There are a few families who place a shrine to the Holy Spirit of the Ancestors on the wall facing the main door. Sacred family ancestor worship activities take place in the hall, and generally, the left and right side rooms are used as bedrooms and guest rooms. The third floor is mostly used for semi-storage of grain and seeds, and is the family's storehouse; if the population is large, it is also fitted with partitioned off bedrooms for occupants. The kitchen is placed in the side building. The spatial division of the building is organized with the room where the shrine of the Holy Spirit of the Ancestors is located as the core, and then extends and radiates outwards. When family members live in such a spatial combination, they are invariably united by the spatial gravitational pull of the hall where the ancestral shrine is located, thus enhancing the affinity for family unity. Ancestor worship of the traditional religion of the Miao people is fully and perfectly embodied in the residential architecture of the hammock.