What is the structure of a kiln on the Loess Plateau like?

When we talk about kiln caves, we will think of the loess plateau style of the clay door face, wooden structure doors and windows, snow-white window paper with colorful window flowers, one or two gourds climbing on the top of the door in front of the window, and strings of chili peppers hanging by the door. Here, precipitated by the ancient, deep loess civilization.

The kiln-cave dwelling is a very ancient way of living, that is, in the loess cliff area to dig horizontal caves as living room. Because it has the advantages of easy construction, low cost, warm in winter and cool in summer, not destroying the ecology, and not occupying the good land, although there are shortcomings in lighting and ventilation, but in the northern loess area with little rain, but still for the people used to live in the form of folk dwellings. At present, China's kiln dwellings are roughly concentrated in five areas, namely, Jinzhong, western Henan, Longdong, northern Shaanxi and northwestern Hebei.

The loess, which is one to two hundred meters deep, extremely difficult to seep water, and has a strong uprightness, provides a good premise for the development of kiln caves. At the same time, the dry climate with little rain, cold winters, less wood and other natural conditions, but also for the warm winter and cool summer, very economical, do not need wood kiln, creating an opportunity for the development and continuation. Due to the influence of the natural environment, geomorphological features and local terroir, kilns take various forms. Generally speaking, kilns can be categorized into three types: the cliff kiln, the flat kiln, and the imprisoned kiln.

By the cliff kiln that is the use of natural soil wall dug out of the coupon top horizontal cave, can be single hole, can be more holes, can also be combined with the ground housing to form a courtyard; flat kiln that is dug down in the flat earth deep pit, so that the formation of artificial soil wall, and then in the bottom of the pit in all directions of the soil wall deep excavation of the kiln, the kiln is more popular in Henan Gongxian, Sanmenxia, Lingbao, and Gansu Qingyang, Shanxi, Pinglu area. Imprisoned kiln for the independent kiln built on the ground with masonry or adobe according to the coupon, the coupon on the top of the soil made into a flat-roofed room, to dry grain, more popular in western Shanxi and northern Shaanxi.

The kilns are generally built on the south-facing slopes, facing the sun, with their backs to the mountains, facing the open area, with few trees to shade them, making them very suitable for living. A yard kiln generally repair 3 or 5 holes, the kiln for the kiln, some divided into the front and back kiln, some 1 into 3 open, from the outside to see 4 holes of the kiln each open the portal, walk inside you can find they have a small tunnel-type door interoperability top semi-circular, so that the kiln space will be increased. The walls of the kiln are generally coated with lime, making them look white and dry. Inside the kiln, there are pots and stoves on one side of the kiln, and at one end of the kang there are stoves attached to the kang, which keep the kang warm in winter because the flue from the stoves passes through the bottom of the kang. The three walls around the kang are usually covered with patterned paper or collages, which people on the Loess Plateau generally call kangwizi. They are practical decorations that prevent the bedding on the kang from rubbing against the rough walls and keep it clean. In order to beautify the living room, many people paint on the kangwaizi. This is a folk art with a long history in northern Shaanxi -- kangwai painting.

The form of kangwai painting has a set of fixed program: that is, the upper and lower two groups of sidewalks are arranged in accordance with certain specifications to form the main frame, and the middle is arranged at equal distances with various kinds of paintings. The sidewalk patterns are the essence of kangwai paintings, and there are a great variety of them, most of which are made of repeated and continuous patterns with auspicious symbols, such as the jade belt side, the bamboo joint side, the ice, bamboo and plum side, the scrolling book side, the 10,000 character side, the lion rolling embroidered ball side, the crane life side, the blessing side, and the gold, jade and full house side....... or simple, or novel, or simple, or fine, or plane unfolding, or three-dimensional projection, or intense Or three-dimensional, or convex, or strong and bright, or calm and disorientation, can be described as a hundred colors, a hundred kinds of beauty. The painting space, also called "pool", is the eye-catching place of kangwai paintings, and the content of the performance is extremely rich, including characters, flowers and birds, landscapes and sceneries; and the performance methods are diverse, including heavy coloring of brush strokes, ink and ink writing, woodblock prints, month-plate paintings and decorative pastel paintings. The Chinese painting industry is very diverse, with a wide range of expression techniques.