Stilted building

Stilted building

Diaojiaolou, also known as "Diaojiaolou", is a traditional residence of Miao (Chongqing, Guizhou, etc.), Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Shui, Tujia, etc., especially in Southeast Chongqing, Northern Guangxi, Western Hunan, Western Hubei and Southeast Guizhou. Most of the Diaojiaolou were built close to the mountains and rivers. They were in the shape of a tiger. The best houses were "left green dragon, right white tiger, front rosefinch and back Xuanwu". Later, they paid attention to the orientation, either sitting West to east or sitting east to west. Stilted building is a kind of dry column building, but it is different from the general dry column. The stilts should all be suspended, so the stilted building is called semi stilt building.

Architectural style

In the past, stilts were usually covered with thatch or fir bark, but also with stone slabs. Nowadays, stilts in Western Hubei are mostly covered with mud tiles. The construction of stilted building is an important event in Tujia people's life.

The first step is to prepare all the wood. Tujia people call it "felling Green Mountain". They usually choose toon tree or purple tree. Toon and purple are auspicious because of the homonym "spring" and "son", meaning that spring is always big and children are prosperous;

The second step is to process the beam and column material, which is called "Jia Da Ma". On the beam, there are also eight trigrams, Tai Chi, lotus seeds and other patterns;

The third process is called "fan", that is, the processed beams and columns are connected with tenons to form a wooden fan;

The fourth step is to "erect the house and erect the column". The host chooses the auspicious day and asks all the neighbors to help him. Before he gets on the beam, he has to sacrifice the beam. Then all the people make concerted efforts to erect the rows of wooden fans. At this time, firecrackers are blaring and the neighbors send gifts to congratulate him.

After erecting the house's columns, the rafters are nailed, the tiles are covered, and the boards and walls are installed. Wealthy families also need to decorate the eaves to the sky on the roof, carve dragons and draw phoenixes under the corridor, and decorate the wooden balconies.

Architectural features

The most basic feature is that the main house is built on the ground. Except one side of the wing is connected with the main house, the other three sides are suspended and supported by columns. The stilted building has many advantages. The high hanging ground is not only ventilated and dry, but also can prevent poisonous snakes and wild animals. Diaojiaolou also has distinctive national characteristics. Elegant "Silk eaves" and broad "walking rails" make Diaojiaolou unique. This kind of stilted building is more successful than "railings" to get rid of the primitive, has a higher cultural level, known as the "living fossil" of Bachu culture.

Housing structure

The stilted building near the mountain is propped up with wooden columns on the flat ground and divided into upper and lower floors, which saves land and costs less; the upper floor is ventilated, dry and moisture-proof, which is a living room; the lower floor is used for livestock or for stacking sundries. The average house size is a four row three room house or six row five room house. The average family has five columns and two bicycles, five columns and four bicycles, while the large family has seven columns and four bicycles and four courtyard. In the structure of 4 rows of fans and 3 rooms, the middle is the main room, and the left and right sides are called Rao rooms, which are used for living and cooking. Raojian is divided into two parts with the central pillar as the boundary. The front part is used as the hot Kang, and the back part is used as the bedroom. On the stilted building, there is a curved Corridor around the building, which is also equipped with railings.

Some stilted buildings are three-story buildings, with the exception of roof tiles, all of which are made of fir. The roof columns are chiseled with big Chinese fir, and the columns are connected with different sizes of Chinese fir, which is very strong even without an iron nail. There are stilts around the house. The eaves of the building turn up like wings. The four walls of the house are grooved and densely inlaid with fir boards, so that the interior and exterior are coated with tung oil, which is clean and bright. The bottom floor is not suitable for people. It is used for raising poultry, placing farm tools and heavy objects. The second floor is a place for food and living, with bedrooms inside. Outsiders are generally not allowed to enter. Outside the bedroom is the main room, where there is a fire pool. The whole family will eat around the fire pool, which is spacious and convenient. Due to the windows, it is bright, well lit and well ventilated. Most of the family members do manual work and rest here. It is also a place to receive guests. On the other side of the main hall, there is a wide corridor connected with it. Outside the corridor, there is a half person high railing, and inside there is a large row of benches. The family often lives here to rest. During the festival, the mother also dresses up her daughter here. The third floor is airy and dry. It is very spacious. Apart from living outside, there are also small rooms for storing grain and goods.

Hanging foot form

There are various forms of stilted building, including the following types:

Single hanging type

This is the most common form. Some people call it "one head hanging" or "key head". Its feature is that only the wing room on one side of the main house is suspended, and the lower part is supported by wooden columns.

Double hanging type

Also known as "double head hanging" or "cuojikou", it is the development of single hanging type, that is, there are wing rooms hanging out at both ends of the main room. Single hanging and double hanging are not formed according to different regions. They mainly depend on economic conditions and family needs. Single hanging and double hanging often coexist in one place.

Quadrupole

This form of stilted building is developed on the basis of double hanging, which is characterized by connecting the upper part of the stilted building at the two ends of the main house into one, forming a quadrangle. The downstairs of the hatchback room is the gate. After entering the gate, this kind of courtyard has to go up a few stone steps to get into the main room.

Two room crane

This form is developed on the basis of single crane and double crane, that is, adding another floor to the general hanging foot building. Both single and double cranes are applicable.

Flat lifting type

This form of stilted building is also developed on the basis of single crane, single crane and double crane. Its main feature is that it is built in a flat dam. According to the terrain, there is no need to hang feet, but the wing room is lifted up and supported by wooden columns. The floor of the supporting wooden column is flush with the floor of the main house, so that the wing room is higher than the main house.

Diaolou culture

The beauty of Diaojiaolou

Walking into Wuling Mountain, if you pay a little attention to it, you will find that on the lush hillside, the clear riverside, or the edge of the dam, which is made by Tujia people, all decorate this stilted building. These stilted buildings are like crystal stars scattered in the vast landscape. When the stilted buildings continue to appear in Wuling mountains, these beautiful natural landscapes immediately become humanistic landscapes, and the silent land for thousands of years immediately becomes vivid. Just like singing and dancing for this nation, if there is no Diaojiaolou, the land will be bleak, and the nation will lose a lot of vitality. Therefore, Diaojiaolou is always the star that decorates the life of Tujia people. The stilted buildings scattered in the mountains are as rich and colorful as Tujia folk songs. They can be combined into a small town or a stockade. There are also many single stilted buildings. Whether it's a group of stilted buildings or a single family courtyard, they are all located in a place with excellent scenery, surrounded by luxuriant forests and bamboo trees, small bridges and flowing water. Even many groups of stilted buildings are hidden in ancient trees and bamboos, just like landscape paintings. It has the artistic conception of "deep mountain, people don't feel it, the whole village lives in the painting".

legend

It is said that the ancestors of Tujia people moved to Western Hubei because of the flood in their hometown. At that time, the ancient trees, thorns, wolves, tigers and leopards were everywhere in Western Hubei. The "dog paw shed" built by Tujia people is often attacked by beasts. In order to be safe, people set fire to the stumps of trees, in which bamboo was buried. The fire light and the sound of firecrackers scared away the wild animals, but they were often threatened by poisonous snakes and centipedes. Later, an old Tujia man came up with a way: he asked the young men to use the ready-made big trees as shelves, bundle wood, lay wild bamboo strips, build shelves on the top, cover the canopy, build large and small air houses, eat and sleep on them, and never fear the attack of poisonous snakes and beasts. This way of building "air houses" has spread to more people They all built "air houses" according to this method. Later, this kind of "air housing" has evolved into today's stilted building.

Culture

When a large number of geographical features and cultural memories carried on the traditional buildings are mercilessly erased by the reinforced concrete modern buildings, it is difficult for us to judge the geographical and cultural area of a place by observing the buildings in the past. However, Diaojiaolou, an ancient stilted building, is still widely used by the southwest minority people, including Miao people. Architecture, as the largest carrier of human civilization, is a shortcut to understand a national cultural system.

Diaojiaolou is an ancient building in Southwest China. The most primitive prototype is a kind of dry column residence. When the memory of human beings is still in the vague primitive era, the stilted building created by you Chao has stepped on the historical stage as the oldest folk house. It stands near the water and is built close to the mountains. It collects the aura of green mountains and waters and integrates with nature. Diaojiaolou is a small jasper in the architectural complex, small and exquisite, elegant and dignified, showing the great beauty of nature in the simplicity. It is a place where people forget the vulgarity, exuding the purity of life, without a trace of noise and flashiness. If you are on the scene, the worldly troubles will disappear, and the troubled mind will be released. If you are disgusted with the luxury and impetuosity of big cities, you should personally experience the wonderful state of "harmony between man and nature" presented by the stilted building.

Boating in the flowing river and appreciating the scattered and row upon row of stilted buildings on both sides of the Strait, everyone will feel inexplicably moved. This is a masterpiece created by the harmonious coexistence of human and nature. Time has given her rich humanistic connotation and strong historical atmosphere. The moral of Diaojiaolou net comes from here. Here you will not be chased by time, will not let the wound left by thinking swallow up happiness.

Chinese PinYin : Diao Jiao Lou