Introduction Diaojiaolou, also called "diaolou", is a traditional residence of the Miao, Zhuang, Buyi, Dong, Shui, Tujia and other ethnic groups. There are also many Diaojiaolou in Western Hunan, Western Hubei and Guizhou. Most of the Diaojiao Towers were built according to the situation of the mountain, in the shape of a tiger sitting on it, with "Green Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, Suzaku in the front, and Xuanwu in the back" as the best room. Later, people paid attention to the orientation, either sitting west to east, or sitting east to west. The hanging turret is a stilt-style building, but it is different from the stilts generally referred to. The stilts should all be suspended, so the hanging turret is called a semi-stilt building. ? In the past, the hanging turrets were usually covered with thatch or fir bark, and some were also covered with stone slabs. Nowadays, the hanging turrets in western Hubei are mostly covered with mud tiles. The construction of the Diaojiao Tower is a major event in the lives of the Tujia people. The first step is to prepare all the wood. The Tujia people call it "cutting the green mountains". They usually choose chun trees or purple trees. chun and purple are auspicious because they are homophonic for "spring" and "zi", which means spring is always big and descendants are prosperous; the second step It is the processing of beams and column materials, which is called "building large codes". Patterns such as Bagua, Tai Chi diagrams, lotus seeds and so on are also painted on the beams; the third process is called "fan fan", which is to put the processed beams and columns into Connect the tenons and arrange the wooden fans; the fourth step is to "erect the strong pillars of the house". The owner chooses an auspicious day and asks the villagers to help. Before erecting the beams, they must sacrifice the beams, and then everyone works together to erect the rows of wooden fans. , at this time, firecrackers were blasting, and neighbors sent gifts to congratulate. After erecting the strong pillars of the house, it is time to nail the rafter corners, cover the tiles, and install the board walls. Wealthy families would also decorate their roofs with sky-high eaves, carve dragons and phoenixes under the corridors, and decorate the wooden railings of their balconies.
[Edit this paragraph] Features The most basic feature is that the main house is built on the ground. Except for one side of the side room that is connected to the ground and is connected to the main house, the other three sides are suspended and supported by pillars. There are many advantages to building on stilts. The elevated floor is ventilated and dry, and can protect against poisonous snakes and wild beasts. Debris can also be stored under the floor. The Diaolou also has distinctive ethnic characteristics. The elegant "silk eaves" and wide "walking rails" make the Diaojiao Tower unique. This type of stilted building has been more successful in getting rid of primitiveness than "railing" and has a higher cultural level. It is called the "living fossil" of Bachu culture.
[Edit this paragraph] The structure of the hanging turret built against the mountain is supported by wooden pillars on the flat ground. It is divided into two floors, saving land and being cheaper to build. The upper floor is ventilated, dry and moisture-proof, and is the living room; the lower floor is It is a pen for pigs and cattle or used to pile up debris. The average house size is a house with 4 rows of fans and 3 rooms or a house with 6 rows of fans and 5 rooms. A medium-sized house has 5 pillars and 2 bays, or 5 pillars and 4 bays. A large family has 7 pillars, 4 bays and a courtyard with a courtyard. For a 3-room structure with 4 rows of fans, the main room is in the middle, and the left and right rooms are called rooms, which are used for living and cooking. The room is divided into two halves with the central pillar as the boundary, with a fire kang in the front and a bedroom in the back. There is a curved corridor on the stilted building that goes around the building, and the curved corridor is also equipped with railings. Some stilted buildings are three-story buildings. Except for the roof tiles, the top and bottom are entirely made of fir wood. The pillars of the house are drilled out of large fir trees, and fir trees of different sizes are connected diagonally between the pillars. Although they do not require a single iron nail, they are still very strong. There are also hanging towers around the house, and the eaves of the buildings are turned upward as if they are about to take flight. The four walls of the house are made of fir boards with grooves and close-fitting, and the inside and outside are painted with tung oil to make it clean and bright. The bottom floor is not suitable for human habitation and is used to raise poultry and store farm tools and heavy objects. The second floor is the place for eating and living, with bedrooms inside, and outsiders are generally not allowed inside. Outside the bedroom is the main room, where there is a firepit. The family eats around the firepit. It is spacious and convenient. Because there are windows, it is bright, well-lit and ventilated. Family members often do handwork and rest here, and it is also a place to receive guests. There is a wide corridor connected to it on the other side of the hall. There is a half-person-high railing outside the corridor and a large row of benches inside. The family often rests here and mothers dress up their daughters here during festivals. The third floor is ventilated, dry and very spacious. In addition to being used as a living room, it also has small rooms for food storage and storage.
[Edit this paragraph] There are many forms of stilted buildings, and the types are as follows: Single-suspended type: This is the most common form, and some people call it "one-suspended" or "single-suspended". Keyhead". Its characteristic is that only the side rooms on one side of the main house are suspended in the air, supported by wooden pillars below. Double-suspended type: also known as "double-headed crane" or "zuojikou", it is a development of the single-suspended type, that is, there are suspended wing rooms at both ends of the main room. Single-suspended and double-suspended types are not determined by geographical differences. They mainly depend on economic conditions and family needs. Single-suspended and double-suspended types are often located in the same place. Siheshui type: This form of stilted building is developed on the basis of the double-suspension type. Its characteristic is that the upper parts of the stilted building at both ends of the main house are connected together to form a courtyard. The main door is at the downstairs of the two-bedroom house. After entering the main door of this kind of courtyard house, you have to go up a few stone steps to enter the main house. Two-room hanging type: This form is developed on the basis of single hanging and double hanging, that is, adding another layer to the general stilted building. Suitable for both single and double cranes. Flat-ground hoisting type, this form of stilt building is also developed on the basis of single hoisting. There are both single hoisting and double hoisting. Its main feature is that it is built in a flat dam. According to the terrain, there is no need for hanging feet, but the wing room is lifted up and supported by wooden pillars. The ground where the supporting wooden pillars are placed is flush with the ground of the main house, so that the side rooms are higher than the main house.
[Edit this paragraph] Legend: It is said that the ancestors of the Tujia people moved to western Hubei because their hometown was hit by floods. At that time, western Hubei had towering ancient trees, thick thorns, and jackals, tigers and leopards everywhere. The "dog paw sheds" built by the Tujia ancestors were often attacked by wild beasts.
For the sake of safety, people burn twig fires and bury bamboo sections inside. The light of the fire and the sound of firecrackers scare away the attacking beasts, but they are still often threatened by venomous snakes and centipedes. Later, a Tujia old man came up with a way: he asked the young men to use the ready-made big trees as scaffolding, bundle the wood, then lay the wild bamboo strips, then build the scaffolding on the top and cover it with a canopy, and built various large and small buildings. You can eat and sleep on it, and you are no longer afraid of attacks by poisonous snakes and beasts. This method of building "sky housing" has spread to more people, and they have all built "sky housing" according to this method. . Later, this kind of "housing in the sky" evolved into the current stilt house.
[Edit this paragraph] Cultural connotation Diaojiaolou has rich cultural connotation. In addition to the Tujia folk residential architecture that pays attention to the veins of dragons, is built according to the situation and the deification of human beings and gods, there are also very outstanding The concept of space cosmization. The Diaojiaolou of the Tujia people are not only unilaterally in the embrace of the universe and nature, but the universe is also in the embrace of the universe and nature. This concept of space that accommodates the universe is very obvious in the Tujia people's beam-raising ceremony song: "One step forward, look at the treasure beam, a round of Tai Chi is in the center, and the one yuan line begins to show auspiciousness. Two steps forward, I am filled with joy, 'Qiankun' two The words are on both sides, and the sun and moon will be in pairs for eternity..." The "cosmos" and "sun and moon" here represent the universe. In a sense, the Tujia Diaojiao House becomes closer and more intimate to the universe subjectively, making houses, people and the universe integrated and inseparable.
[Edit this paragraph] Diaojiao building is a traditional Miao building. It is an ancient architectural form unique to southern China. People live upstairs and the downstairs is elevated. It is considered by modern architects to be the best ecological building form. . Diaojiaolou is a unique architectural feature in Miao Township. It is built in rows and stacks on mountains and rivers. The formation of stilted buildings has both historical and natural reasons. According to architects, Miao stilted buildings are a unique creation of stilt-style buildings in mountainous conditions. From a historical perspective, the architectural culture of the Miao people can be traced back to ancient times. The Jiuli Tribe Group, where the Miao ancestor Chi You belongs, originated in the area around Taihu Lake. They participated in the creation of the Hemudu Culture and Liangzhu Culture in the area around Taihu Lake. Archaeological discoveries of the Hemudu Culture and Liangzhu Culture have confirmed that the dwellings of the Miao ancestors were ganlan-style buildings. ? These stilted wooden buildings, full of Miao artistic imagery, provide the Miao people with eternal passion for life in their difficult lives. The foundation for building a stilted wooden building must be to dig the slope into two floors; each floor is more than 6 feet deep and the area of ??each floor is about 100 square meters. The difference between the upper and lower floors is about 4 feet, and the mountain wall and outer mountain between the layers are built with stones to form a barrier. When building a house, the front row of floor-to-ceiling pillars are placed on the lower foundation. The outermost floor-free pillars are level with the floor slabs of the upper floor that protrude from the foundation, forming suspended stilts. The space between the upper and lower foundations becomes the bottom floor of the stilted building. This is the so-called "unequal balance" characteristic of stilted buildings. The stilted building adopts a bucket-type structure, with each row of pillars ranging from 5 to 7. Melons or canons are used to connect the pillars to form a solid network structure. The center pillar must be made of maple, because maple is the life totem tree of the Miao people and a sacred tree symbolizing the souls of ancestors. According to tradition, the shrine of the ancestral Holy Spirit should be placed at the foot of the center column on the second floor. The Miao people believe that the holy spirit of their ancestors can shelter them day and night in the stilted building, so that the whole family can prosper and everyone can be healthy and safe. The siding of the building is encapsulated with planed fir boards. The window lattice of each room is made of wooden strips forming different patterns. Each door has a single door, except for the main door, which has two doors. Wealthy families also carve dragon and phoenix reliefs on their doors. Above the gate, there are two wooden carvings of door dang installed at both ends, and the other end of the door dang is shaped into a horn, commonly known as "door hammer". Most stilted buildings have a suspended corridor on the second floor foundation, which serves as the entrance to the door. The suspended corridor outside the main room is equipped with a unique S-shaped curved railing chair, which is called "Ghab? It gets its name from its outward display of grace. In fact, "Gaxi" is also used as a multi-functional balcony for the family to take a break after a hard day's work, enjoy the cool weather and view the scenery, tell the story of the Miao mythology and migration history, and sing "Miao Ancient Songs" and "Gabaifu Song". A stilted building is generally based on three bays with four vertical posts or three bays with two side buildings. It is generally divided into three floors. The bottom floor is used as a pen for livestock and poultry, as well as for storing farm tools and sundries. The middle floor is occupied by people, and the main room is in the middle. The pillars on both sides of the main room should be added with columns, and the floor slabs should be thickened; because this is the main activity space of the family, and it is also a place for banquet guests to sing and dance. A few families have shrines with ancestors’ holy spirits on the wall facing the door. Sacred family ancestor worship activities are carried out in the main room. Under normal circumstances, the left and right side rooms are used as bedrooms and guest rooms. The third floor is mostly used for storing grain and seeds. It is a warehouse for the family. If there is a large population, it can also be used as a bedroom for people. The kitchen is placed in the side building. The space of the building is divided and combined, with the room where the ancestral Holy Spirit Shrine is located as the core, and then extends and radiates outwards. When family members live in such a spatial combination, they are invisibly condensed by the spatial gravity of the main room where the ancestors' holy spirit resides, thus enhancing the affinity for family unity. The traditional Miao religion of ancestor worship is fully and perfectly reflected in the residential architecture of Diaojiaolou.
[Edit this paragraph] Dong Diaojiao House Diaojiao House is a residential building with strong Dong characteristics.
?The residences of the mountain-dwelling Dong people are mostly small two- or three-story buildings with verandahs. Downstairs, they place stone buckets, pile firewood and sundries, and raise livestock. There are people living upstairs. The first half of the upstairs is full of light and is a place for the family to rest or do manual work; the back half is a room with a "fire pit", which is the seat of the "ancestors" and is also used for heating and cooking. There are bedrooms on the third floor. Generally, each family lives in one house. There are also villages, such as Miaojiang, Bajiang, and Linxi in Sanjiang County, Guangxi, where many ethnic groups live together. The houses of the same family are connected together with corridors and eaves, so that they can communicate with each other and celebrate festivals. Here, a banquet is held to receive guests. Pingba Dong people, such as Tianzhu, Xinhuang, and Lianjiang areas in Rongjiang County, mostly have two-story houses, with people living downstairs and food and sundries stored upstairs. There is a "shrine" in the main room, with bedrooms and kitchens on both sides. The pig and cattle pens are behind the side rooms of the house. ? The housing of the Dong people in Datong, Hunan Province, still retains the characteristics of the Baiyue nationality's "ganlan" style architecture. Most of them are dry-lantern wooden buildings with more than three rooms. The ground floor is a miscellaneous house for raising pigs and cattle, and people live upstairs. The buildings have corridors extending out and decorated with railings. There are fixed benches beside the railings for people to rest. They are commonly known as "stilted buildings". This kind of wooden building, some of which are as high as five or six stories, has a strict structure and does not allow the use of a single nail. It is all jointed with mortise and tenon, which shows the superb construction craftsmanship of the Dong people. ? Indoor layout, there is a firepit on the second floor, which is a place for cooking and entertaining guests. They also retained the ancient custom of the Yue people of "squatting while sitting" and used short tables for eating and drinking. There are original wooden stools to sit on, and high tables and chairs are hard to find. When cooking, firewood must be put in from the west. Because it is said that the west is the place where the Dong people originated, and fire was brought by ancestors from the west. ?The Dong people are a nation that loves beauty. They like to make the environment very beautiful. For example, they like to carve the pillars of their houses into the form of bamboo, and they like to decorate their wooden buildings with corridors and carved railings. The well in the village likes to be covered with a small house built with carved bluestone slabs, and some red, white and black flower fish are placed in the well. There are ancient trees in front of and behind the village for shade. Even when the roads in the village are paved with bluestone or pebbles, people always build them into various patterns, which is very beautiful, so it is called "Flower Street". Therefore, entering Dong Township is like entering a gallery.
[Edit this paragraph] Tujia Diaojiao House When arriving in Zhangjiajie, everyone wants to see the Tujia Diaojiao House. Due to the policy of stationing troops and suppressing the Tujia people in successive dynasties, the Tujia people were driven into the deep mountains and old forests, and their living conditions were very harsh. "Old Tang Book" said: "The country is full of miasma, and the mountains have poisonous weeds and sand-belly snakes. People live side by side in the building, and climbing up the ladder is a barrack." In addition, there is little farmland and little land, so the Tujia people have to live on the cliffs and steep slopes. Upgrade the stilted building. ? Most of the Tujia stilted buildings are made of wood. In the early days, the chieftain king strictly prohibited the Tujia people from buying tiles. They were only allowed to add fir bark and thatch, which was called "Only horses are allowed to be bought, and tiles are not allowed to be sold." It was not until the 13th year of Yongzheng's reign in the Qing Dynasty that Gaiwa was built. Generally, it has four doors and three bays arranged horizontally, with three columns and six cavalry or five columns and six cavalry. In the middle is the main room, which houses the shrines of ancestors of past dynasties and is the core of family sacrifices. According to the topography, the buildings are divided into half-section cranes, half-side cranes, two-hand cart two-wing cranes, key head cranes, curved ruler cranes, waterside cranes, and cross-gorge and hole cranes. Rich people have carved beams and painted buildings, high eaves and corners, winding stone steps, and the poetry of a castle in the air. The artistic conception of the painting. Tujia Diaojiaolou
[Edit this paragraph] Yao Diaojiao House Yao Diaojiao House is deep in Nanling, and you can see such a unique landscape everywhere: between the blue sky and clear water, hidden among the mountains, each one is unique. The wooden building is located close to the mountain, creating a flat space for human living in the steep mountainous area. This is the Diaojiaolou, a residential building of the Yao people. The Yao people are a mountainous ethnic group, and their residences are often built close to mountains and rivers. Their representative works are stilt houses where humans and nature live in harmony. The Yao people mostly live in mountainous areas and there is very little flat land for building houses, so they choose a place with a gentler slope. Half of the land is leveled, and the other half is supported by fir pillars of different lengths according to the mountain topography, and the wooden planks are laid out. Combine it with the excavated house site into a flat whole, and then build a house on this whole. The climate in the mountainous area is humid, rainy and hot, so ventilation is required to avoid moisture and wild beasts. The Yao family's stilted houses are "skillful in borrowing, and exquisite in body." The Yao people strengthened the architectural character based on practicality and environmental characteristics, freely selected a location with convenient firewood and water, and beautiful scenery, and used dozens of fir trees as the footings. , built a wooden building known as "Thousand Feet Landing". The entire wooden building is made of fir wood as pillars, beams, walls, doors, windows, and floors, and fir bark as the roof. There is no oil, no paint, no pretense, everything is natural, simple and unpretentious, or Golden Rooster is independent on the ridge, or connected to form a village in front of the slope, or is surrounded by mountains and water, or is hidden and strange. It is in various shapes, with free layout and romantic mood. More importantly, it is warm in winter and cool in summer, neither dry nor damp, and the air is fresh. It is the best place for Yaoshan people to live. These stilted buildings appear in front of you in a scattered, hazy and hidden way, like a piece of elegant and beautiful music, like a simple and honest Yao family man, like a quiet and shy Yao family daughter, blending into the embrace of nature. It infects people with the beauty of harmony, unity and integrated connotation. I remember that aestheticians and artists in the 19th century all unanimously called architecture "solidified music." If our country's various cultural landscapes with long history are regarded as a rich and majestic symphony, then I think this Yao family Diaojiaolou is rooted in the Nanling Mountains, spanning the ages, and has been hidden for a long time. It sings pastoral songs, moonlight songs, and lullabies in a deep and solemn way. Behind the light melody, there are powerful and beautiful stories, so it has been sung for thousands of years and remains standing.
No wonder so many literati, experts and scholars from ancient to modern times came to visit the Diaojiaolou with endless pleasure, and left countless poems, paintings, beautiful articles and music for it. Wang Mengyi, a painter from the Yao ethnic group who was born and raised here, has had an indissoluble bond with Diaojiaolou throughout his life. The stilted building in his works is as quiet as a virgin and as beautiful as a fairyland. Reading it seems like there is life flowing through it. In his famous works "Bianzhai" and "Frost Morning", the Diaojiaolou exudes unique artistic charm on his drawing paper and has been recognized by experts at home and abroad. I think that the painter may also be one of the close friends of this Diaojiaolou. The cultural and artistic charm of the Diaojiaolou itself aroused infinite creative inspiration and potential in the artist's heart, so he wrote vividly. Of course, with the development of production and social progress, the new generation of Yao people now have new pursuits. They yearn for the city, go out of the mountains, and integrate into the ranks of modern civilized urban residents. The stilted buildings where their ancestors have lived for generations, So he was ignored. When I walk into Yaoshan Mountain, I often feel such a scene. Among the modern brick buildings that have sprung up from the ground, there are always a few shabby stilted buildings, silently watching in the slanting wind and autumn rain, hidden in the sky. A bit unsustainable and unsteady. So I couldn't help feeling sour in my heart; I must know that that wooden house is a trace of history, a story of the past! You can imagine that it must have been a warm home back then. Family members depended on each other for life. Generation after generation, sowing in spring and harvesting in autumn, living hard. How many glorious or dim, ordinary or strange lives left their first footprints here? . Even though the owner of the house is old, he often recalls that difficult but warm life. His turbid eyes often stare at the crying life, and a smile gradually appears in his wrinkles. That is his own hope. They have been eroded by the ups and downs of life and are as old as a stilted building that has gone through vicissitudes of life. However, who can deny their entrepreneurial history that has been eroded and turned yellow by time? Who can forget that lullaby filled with tears and joy? There is the blood and soul of the Yao people. In the vast land of China, our ancestors have left behind many great works of architectural art. According to relevant experts, outstanding buildings like the Yao Diaojiao Building are the Chinese traditional architecture with the longest history and the most adaptability in the world. It is a strong and distinctive architectural system that people should be aware of. It is true that the aesthetic value of Diaojiaolou should be a kind of historical depth and depth, and it should be the continuation and extension of ancient and modern times. Without its existence, there would be no development of aesthetic ideas of Yao architecture today. What it leaves to future generations is the evolution of human civilization. The footprints are the eternal national spiritual temperament.
[Edit this paragraph] Tujia Architecture - Diaojiaolou Diaojiaolou architecture is the embodiment of the wisdom of the Tujia people. ? Diaojiaolou is the place where Tujia people live. Most of them are built according to the mountain situation, in the shape of a tiger sitting on it, or a triple courtyard. Pay attention to the orientation, either sitting west to east, or sitting east to west. The main house is divided into three rooms, five rooms and seven rooms. Large and medium-sized houses are mostly five or seven bays long, while small houses are generally three bays long. Their structures include 3 columns and 2 melons, 5 columns and 4 melons, and 7 columns and 6 melons. The middle room is called the "main room", which is used for worshiping ancestors, welcoming guests, and conducting weddings and funerals. The left and right rooms on both sides of the main room are the "living rooms", which are divided into two small rooms at the front and back with the central pillar as the boundary. The front small room is used as the fire room, with a 2-burner or 3-burner stove. There is a fire stall in front of the stove. Between the fire shop and the stove is a 3-foot-square fire pit, surrounded by 3- to 5-inch bluestone slabs. There is a "tripod" in the middle of the fire pit, which is used to hold tripods and pots when cooking and cooking. Above the fire pit, at a height of about 1 person, is a wooden kang frame suspended from upstairs, for baking bacon, kang-dried tofu and other foods. The back small room is used as a bedroom, and the bedrooms have floors to prevent moisture. The parents live in the big inside (on the left), and the daughter-in-law lives in the small inside (on the right). The brothers live separately, with the elder brother living in the big inside and the younger brother living in the small inside. , my parents lived in the "snatching room" behind the shrine in the main room. ? No matter the size of the house, there is a sky tower. The sky tower is divided into two types: board building and strip building. Above the bedrooms is a plank floor, a floor made of wooden planks, where various items and cabinets for food can be placed. Bedrooms can also be arranged; above the fire room is a strip floor, which is paved with bamboo strips with gaps for storing grain sticks. , melons, and the smoke generated by the fire in the fire room can be smoothly discharged through the gap. In front of the main house, there are stilted buildings for the wing rooms on the left and right sides, and behind the buildings there are pig pens and toilets. When building a wooden building on stilts, it is important to have bright legs (that is, the pillars must be straight and long), and the roof must be cornice-shaped and angular. The stilted building is often three-story. The downstairs is used for making mills, grinding mills and stacking firewood; the middle building is used for stacking grain and farm tools; the upper floor is the girl's building, where Tujia girls embroider, paper-cut, make hemp, make shoes, and read and write. There are wooden corridors around the middle building and the upper floor, which are used to dry clothes. During the harvest season, corn cobs are often threaded into long strings, or soybeans, peanuts, etc. pulled from the fields are tied into handles. Hanging in the corridor to cool down. In order to prevent thieves, walls were built around the house with stones and mud. In front of the main house is the courtyard dam. There is a splayed gate facing the wall on the left side of the courtyard dam. Bamboo, fruit trees and landscape trees are mostly planted around the house. ?However, it is unlucky not to plant mulberries in the front and peaches in the back because they are homophones for "mourning" and "escape". ? The art of carving on the windows of Tujia stilted buildings is an important indicator of the level of architectural craftsmanship. There are various carving techniques such as relief and hollow carving. The carving techniques are delicate and the connotations are rich and colorful. Some symbolize status, some pray for good luck, some express farming, some reflect life, some educate descendants, and some record customs. Birds and beasts, flowers, birds, insects and fish, singing and dancing competitions, myths and legends are all lifelike and profound.
There are many advantages to building on stilts. The elevated floor is ventilated and dry, and can protect against poisonous snakes and wild beasts. Debris can also be stored under the floor. The Diaolou has distinctive national characteristics. The elegant "silk eaves" and wide "walking rails" make the Diaojiao Tower unique. This type of stilted building has been more successful in getting rid of primitiveness than "railing" and has a higher cultural level. It is called the "living fossil" of Bachu culture. The Yinjiang River is now well preserved, and the representative ones include the Tujia stilted buildings in Langxi and Heshui areas. When arriving in Zhangjiajie, everyone wants to see the Tujia Diaojiaolou. Tujia people like to live in groups and live in stilt houses. Most of the houses built are of wooden structure, with small green tiles, lattice windows, suspended eaves, wooden railings and handrails, and horse-drawn corners, which are antique. Most homes have a small courtyard, with a fence in front of the courtyard, a bamboo fence behind the courtyard, bluestone paving the road, planing wooden boards to decorate the house, and bright pine trees. The family leads a peaceful pastoral life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Kang's house has three pillars and four chess pieces as its main house, while wealthy families have five pillars and eight chess pieces, as well as a compound with seven pillars, twelve chess pieces and a "four-in-one patio". There are wing rooms or corner buildings on both sides. There are main houses with single corner buildings and main houses with double corner buildings. The middle of the main room is called the hall, and there is a shrine on the wall directly above it, which is a place for worshiping ancestors and entertaining guests. The left and right rooms on both sides of the main room are called the human room, and the human room is divided into two rooms with the central pillar as the boundary. The bedroom in the back is occupied by people, and the one in the front is called the fire hall. There is a fire pit in the fire hall with a tripod inside, which is used for cooking, stir-frying, and hot water. It is a place for the family to eat, stay warm, and rest. Guests also sit by the fire pit when they come. A wooden frame is hung on the heated kang, which is used for curing meat or baking real objects. ? Due to the policy of stationing troops and suppressing the Tujia people in successive dynasties, the Tujia people were driven into the deep mountains and old forests. Their living conditions were very harsh. The "Old Book of Tang Dynasty" said: "The country is full of miasma, the mountains have poisonous weeds and sand vipers, and there are no people." To live in a building, climb the stairs to build a stilt." In addition to the lack of land, the Tujia people had no choice but to build stilted buildings on the steep slopes of the cliffs. Earlier, the chieftain king strictly prohibited the native people from building tiles, and only allowed them to build cedar bark and thatch, saying "Only horses are allowed to be bought, but tiles are not allowed to be built." It was not until the 13th year of Yongzheng's reign in the Qing Dynasty that "reform the land and return it to the local people". Generally, it has four doors and three bays arranged horizontally, with three columns and six cavalry or five columns and six cavalry. In the middle is the main room, which houses the shrines of ancestors of past dynasties and is the core of family sacrifices. According to the topography, the buildings are divided into half-section cranes, half-side cranes, double-hand cart two-wing cranes, key-end cranes, curved ruler cranes, waterside cranes, and cross-gorge cranes. Rich people have carved beams and painted buildings, high eaves and twisted stone steps, and there are poems about castles in the air. The artistic conception of the painting. Wang Chengdong, a famous Tujia poet, wrote: "The mountains and rivers are wonderful all over the world, and the wine villages and songs are all beautiful." Spending a night sleeping on a stilted building, dreaming for ten years can be a romantic experience. ? Now, if you want to watch the Tujia Diaojiaolou and folk custom performances in Zhangjiajie, the best places are the Tujia Museum - Tujia Customs Garden and Xiuhua Mountain Museum.