Huaiyuan building

Huaiyuan building

Huaiyuan building is a traditional Chinese residential building. Huaiyuanlou is located in the east of Kanxia village, Meilin Town, Nanjing County, Fujian Province, 54 kilometers away from Nanjing County. Built in 1905-1909, it is a double ring round earth building with the most exquisite construction technology and the best protection. It can be regarded as a masterpiece of traditional residential architecture. In May 2006, it was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit.

Historical evolution

The declaration of huaiyuanlou in Fujian for world heritage has been accepted by the United Nations. However, the origin of Tulou is still a "mystery of the century". Most people think that "the Central Plains built Tulou in order to avoid war and live together" and "Tulou is the crystallization of Hakka culture".

Zeng Wuyue, a 73 year old expert on earth buildings in Zhangzhou, believes that the yuantulou in Fujian originated in the middle and lower reaches of Jiulongjiang River and adjacent areas, and was the product of Zhangzhou ancestors' resistance to Japanese invaders. Tulou was created by Zhangzhou people in the lower reaches of Jiulongjiang River and adjacent areas in the Ming Dynasty in the bloody struggle against Japanese pirates. It first appeared in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. This can be confirmed by many historical materials.

In 1527, there was no record of "Tulou" in Longxi County annals written by Liu Tianshu, the magistrate of Longxi County. However, in 1623, Haicheng county annals recorded a poem "Ode to Tulou" written by Jinshi in 1556, the magistrate of Lianzhou, Guangdong Province, and Huang Wenhao, a native of Haicheng Before that, the proper term "Tulou" did not appear in all the historical records.

In the first year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1573), "Zhangzhou Fu Zhi" recorded: "Zhangzhou Tubao old fashion less Since the 40th anniversary of Jiajing, bandits have sprung up everywhere, and civil groups have built earth fences and earth buildings, especially in coastal areas. " It also lists the number of earth fortresses and earth buildings in Longxi, Zhangpu, Zhaoan and Haicheng. This is the first time that the term "Tulou" appeared in official documents. At that time, there were no records about Tulou in Pinghe, Longyan and Zhangping, which belonged to Zhangzhou Prefecture. It can be seen that Tulou was only distributed on both sides of the lower reaches of Jiulong River in Jiajing period.

In the year of Qiyuan (1621-1627), Chen Tianding, a Jinshi of Longxi, wrote to Shi bangyao, the magistrate of Zhangzhou, in his book "Beixi Jisheng", saying that at that time "fireworks were dense and buildings and fortresses were facing each other", and villages below Longling (now Huafeng town of Hua'an County) were "building fortresses on mountains", which shows that there were many buildings and fortresses in the middle and lower reaches of Jiulongjiang River at that time. Today, tuzhai yuanlou is still preserved in Tianbao, Shangping, Xiandu and other places in the middle and lower reaches of Jiulongjiang River from Jiajing of Ming Dynasty to early Qing Dynasty, which is an example.

The reason why Tulou first appeared in the lower reaches of the Jiulong River was due to the self-defense measures taken by the people to deal with the sudden Japanese invasion. At that time, the Japanese pirates landed from the sea and moved rapidly to the mainland along the Jiulong River. The officers and soldiers were caught off guard and were unable to protect themselves. The people had to rely on their own strength to build earth forts and earth buildings to resist. This can be seen from the time when Huang Wenhao wrote "Ode to earth building".

Huang Wenhao was elected in the 34th year of Jiajing (1555) and became the first scholar the next year. It was in the same year of Jiajing Bingchen that the Japanese pirates began to harass Zhangzhou on a large scale. At that time, the people competed to build buildings and forts. Huang Wenhao can be regarded as a historical witness of the birth of Tulou.

This song "Ode to earth buildings" truly records the reason for the birth of earth buildings, "relying on mountains for the city, cutting wood for soldiers", refers to the geographical environment and the reason for building earth buildings, "connecting empty buildings and crossing layers", which shows that the low hall in Southern Fujian has been difficult to resist the invasion of Japanese invaders, and only multi-storey buildings can protect lives.

"Zhangpu County annals" written by Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty also clearly pointed out: "most of the earth fortresses were built in the Ming Dynasty. The people suffered from sparing thieves and Japanese pirates, so the powerful people led the people to build the fortresses according to the danger, so as to prevent the thieves from harming their ears." The prototype of Tulou is the official coastal defense Acropolis. Huaiyuan building in Nanjing was founded by overseas Chinese in 1904. There are more than 260 earthen buildings in Zhongzhong town of Longyan. It is the most densely populated area of Fujian earthen buildings. It was also built by "tobacco merchants" in Qing Dynasty. Due to the dense number of earth buildings in Nanjing and Yongding, they are magnificent.

Architectural features

The biggest feature of Huaiyuan building is that it is a double ring round building. The big ring is the same as other earth buildings. The small ring is the unique school of Huaiyuan building. It is usually a place for the descendants of Jane family to study. It is also a ancestral hall to sacrifice their ancestors and a place for important activities of the people. It is named "Si Shi Shi Shi Shi", and the two couplets are "Si Tang". It is a treasure to pray for the tourists, but it is also a place to think about morality "Children and grandchildren"

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The characteristic of Tulou is that it takes two or three years to complete the construction. The larger one even needs the hard work of several generations of craftsmen for ten years. The timber used must be 300-500 cubic meters. Because the wall is thick at the bottom and narrow at the top, it is solid and firm. The performance of "three proofs" (windproof, waterproof and shockproof) is good, and some of them can also prevent fire (the three ring wall is three fire sealing walls), especially its extraordinary anti-seismic ability is amazing.

Almost all the earth buildings have been tested by the earthquake of different degrees and are safe. Even if a good earth building experiences an earthquake, there is only one crack between the buildings. Because the thickness of the lower part of the round building wall is 1.2 meters, it is slightly inclined inward when it extends upward, in the shape of a ladder, with strong centripetal force. Over the past 70 years, it has been miraculously and naturally closed, leaving only a 12 cm wide crack.

Another feature of Tulou architecture is that the structure is extremely standard, and the room size is consistent. Most of the earth buildings have only one gate for entrance and exit. There is a patio in the building, which can store more than half a year's grain. It is like a strong castle, which is easy to guard against theft and bandits (in the old days, Hakka people were often attacked by bandits, so they built high walls to prevent accidents). Because the wall is higher and thicker, it can not only keep damp and warm, but also keep warm and cool. When Hakkas build earth buildings, they build chimneys into earth walls to keep the kitchen clean from black smoke pollution.

The construction of Tulou is also a manifestation of Hakkas' belief in Fengshui in the old days. Superstitious view that the road has "Lu Sha", the stream has "Xi Sha", and the exit has "Ao Sha". When building fanglou, they thought that one corner of the building would encounter "evil spirit", so they engraved the words "Taishan shigandang" on the corner stone to avoid evil spirits, or painted eight trigrams and written characters on the board on the corner nail to "control evil spirit". It is said that "Sha Qi" can slide away, so in order to avoid "Sha", most of the earth buildings after the Qing Dynasty were round buildings. On the whole, it is obvious that the earth building is practical.

Tulou is not only distinctive in architectural style, most of the names of Tulou are meaningful and meaningful. As a proud architectural form of Hakkas in Fujian Province, Tulou also incorporates human factors, which can be called the epitome of the combination of heaven, earth and human. Dozens of families and hundreds of people live on the same floor, reflecting the Hakkas' family tradition of living together in harmony. Therefore, a history of Tulou is a rural family history. The descendants of Tulou often can tell the origin of the family without genealogy.

In addition, local materials are used to build tall buildings with the most common earth materials, which turns the ordinary into magic. It also reflects the ingenuity of the Hakkas in the process of conquering nature. After the 1960s, the traditional Tulou has been basically stopped. Now there are hundreds of Tulou with different shapes preserved in the West and south of Fujian, among which Yongding County and Nanjing County have the largest number, with more than 100 Tulou of different sizes. In Yongding, Tulou is concentrated in Hukeng, Guzhu and other small towns, with 54 Tulou in Hukeng alone; in Nanjing, Shuyang, Meilin and other towns are more. Most of the earth buildings are well preserved and still inhabited. It coexists with the common dwellings, which makes pangran Tulou stand out from the rest of the world.

Architectural pattern

The foundation of Huaiyuan building is made of huge cobblestone and concrete. The whole building has four floors, 14.5 meters high, 34 rooms on each floor and 136 rooms in total. Because of its unique rammed earth formula and superb ramming skills, the exterior wall of Huaiyuan building has been smooth without spalling, and it has also withstood the damage caused by the earthquake

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The structure of Huaiyuan building is very standard. The size of each room is the same. Each house has four floors. The first floor is for cooking, the second floor is for storing food, and the third and fourth floors are for people. There is a well in the building, which can store grain for more than half a year. It is like a strong castle, easy to guard against theft and bandits

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Huaiyuan building is a "Si Shi Shi Shi room", which is a delicate and elegant "four frame three room" upper and lower hall building, covering an area of 190 square meters. The interior is carved with beams and painted buildings, simple and natural, couplets and horizontal plaques, and full of scholarly atmosphere. The horizontal tablet hanging on the hall is engraved with the big character "Si Shi Shi". There are couplets on the columns on both sides. The first couplet is "Si Tang Zhen opens his ears and eyes for the purpose of sightseeing" and the second couplet is "Si Shi is not too narrow, but only for the children and grandchildren of moral education".

In the upper hall, there are couplets: "books are the courage of heroes in the world, goodness is the root of wealth in the world", "good deeds in the world are loyal and filial, and the world is good at reading and cultivating". In the outer gate building, there is also a couplet "reading books, teaching children to seek a distant future, courting their descendants and celebrating their elders", which reads "poetry hall".

Huaiyuan building is a round earth building with double rings. It was built in 1909 and faces south. It covers an area of 1384.7 square meters with 34 rooms on each floor and a total of 136 rooms. There is a couplet on the door of the building, which reads: "with the help of above dedun, we can build up zunzuxun in order to cultivate humanity by virtue of the beautiful scenery of the mountain and the water.". The most eye-catching feature of Huaiyuan building lies in the ancestral hall at the core of the inner courtyard, which is the place where the family children study.

In the upper hall, there is a couplet "book for heaven"

Chinese PinYin : Huai Yuan Lou