Unique Miao folk houses
The Miao folk houses have various forms and are quite distinctive. The design and construction not only adhere to tradition, but also require comfortable living. Construction is carried out in various places according to the geographical environment and existing materials. The Miao folk residences in Guizhou are generally divided into four types: "tree branch" style residence, "ganlan" style residence, "lantern stand" style residence, and "Han" style residence.
1. Strange architectural forms
Miao folk houses are not only a place for daily life, but also a place where national culture is concentrated. Daily life, production and labor, gatherings of relatives and friends, religious activities such as weaving, embroidery, breeding, weddings, funerals, sacrifices, etc. are all carried out here. Due to the long-term influence of these customary activities and natural conditions, the architectural structure has unique forms and strong applicability. The Miao folk houses in Guizhou are generally divided into the following types:
1. "Tree Branch" style house
The "Tree Branch" style house is a long horizontal building and is one of the oldest The residential form is characterized by simplicity, ease of construction, and adaptability to primitive living and production methods, such as slash-and-burn farming and random relocation. There are no tenons or mortises on the pillars and beams, and they are all tied and fixed with bamboo strips and rattan.
The "Tree Branch" house uses naturally growing miscellaneous trees, leaving the top branches when felling; some also use nails to fix two triangular wooden blocks on the top of the column and tie them with bamboo strips or rattan. , forming artificial tree branches. Three tree branches are arranged in a column. The middle row of tree branches is higher and the crossbars are used as beams. The left and right rows of tree branches are lower and the crossbars are used as eaves to form a herringbone roof truss. A number of slender wooden strips are tied to the horizontal beams to form a cantilevered roof. The roofs are covered with fir bark or thatch, and the walls are made of bamboo slices and thatch. The "Tree Rights" style residence is highly casual, and a one-bedroom and three-bedroom residence can be completed in one day.
Another kind of "tree branch" style house uses special wall panels to sandwich the tree right in the middle, pours in soil, uses wooden sticks to tamp and fill the soil, and then removes the wall panels. The height is increased layer by layer until the cornice. This form is commonly known as "dry base".
The Miao "tree right" style house is small in area, about 8 to 10 meters long and 4 to 6 meters deep. The interior is divided into three rooms with partition walls made of bamboo and thatch. In the middle is the main room, some of which contain ancestor shrines; one of the other two rooms is used as a kitchen, with a stove and a fire pit, mainly used for cooking and heating; the other is used as a bedroom, where adults and children live together. Livestock pens and toilets are usually built behind or on both sides of the house.
"Tree branch" style houses were popular in the Miaoyao area of ??southeastern Guizhou and northwest Guizhou in the early days of liberation, but few of them remain. Occasionally seen in backward and remote mountainous areas, they are usually used as livestock pens or piles of debris.
2. "Ganlan" style residences
"Ganlan" style residences are habitually called "stilt houses". The residences of the Miao, Dong, Tujia, Shui and other ethnic groups in Guizhou all have "gantang" style houses, and their forms and patterns are similar. It is a residential architectural form favored by all ethnic groups in Guizhou. This kind of building uses wood as the main raw material, and the roof is covered with green tiles, fir bark or thatch.
The Miao people’s “gantan” style houses have a unique style. Most of the Miao residences in the Taijiang, Leishan and Jianhe areas of southeastern Guizhou are built on the mountainside. They are excavated and filled on the hillside to form a two-layer flat land of excavation and filling.
The characteristic of "ganlan" style houses is that wooden piles are erected on the low-rise flat ground to make them suspended. The wooden piles are about 2 meters long. The high-rise building beams are all bucket-type structures, making them on the same floor as the high-rise floor. Under the bucket-type structure is the bottom floor of the house, which is separated by wooden boards, bamboo fences and tree strips to serve as a dormitory, livestock pens, toilets, etc.
The second floor of the "ganlan" style house is the main place where Miao people live and live. In the middle of the second floor is the main room. The front of the main room is recessed about 2 meters and is called "Tankou". There are railings and backrests on the outer edge, which is called "Beauty Lean". It is a place specifically for girls to embroider and rest. The main room has double doors, and the main hall is equipped with a shrine for the ancestors of the family. The two ends of the main room are divided into several rooms. One end is mainly used for bedrooms and guest rooms, and the other end is the kitchen, which is equipped with stoves, kitchen cabinets, pools (tanks), etc. The third floor of a house is usually the owner's storage room, where grain, seeds, sundries and various cured goods are piled. This kind of three-story "ganlan" style house has wooden stairs up and down. The stairs are located inside the house and have a cover.
The architectural feature of the "ganlan" style house is that the entire house is fixed with tenons, mortises, rows and wooden tips without the need for a single iron nail. Each row of columns in a "ganlan" style house is divided into "three columns, two melons" and "five columns, four melons" according to the depth of the house. Columns are fixedly arranged with crossbars between them. The center column is the highest and lowers to the eaves columns on both sides in a herringbone shape. The magnitude of the decrease is determined by the speed of water flowing on the tile surface, commonly known as "water steps".
3. "Lantern Stand" Houses
"Lantern Stand" Houses may be a remnant of ancient well-dry houses. Because it is fixed with four slotted columns at the four corners of the house and eight parallel crossbars, it looks like a lantern, so it is called "lantern stand". The so-called "lantern stand" is made by splitting a number of wooden sticks into two halves, and cutting out the notches on both ends to match the notches of the upright pillars to form a tic-shaped structure. The wooden sticks are stacked layer by layer to form the four walls of the house. A column is erected between two opposite walls to support the roof beam. The top is built with slender wooden sticks to form a cantilevered roof and covered with fir bark and thatch. This kind of building is now rare and is mostly used for livestock pens.
4. "Han" style residence (bungalow)
This is a common Miao residence in Huangping, Kaili, Shibing and other places in southeastern Guizhou. This type of residence is a one-story bungalow with a rectangular or curved shape. The layout is usually three rooms, but a few have five to seven rooms. There is usually a main room in the middle, with a symmetrical number of rooms on the left and right. The door of the main hall is recessed with a pillar, which is called "Tunkou". There are no railings on the steps under the eaves. There are two doors in the hall, and there is a shrine and ancestral tablets in the middle of the hall. The main room has a high space without floors, and usually only has a ceiling. There are floors in the secondary rooms on both sides, but most of them are not inhabited and only store some dry goods and sundries. The secondary room is usually divided into front and back rooms. A fire pit is dug in the front room on the left side and a stove is built for heating and cooking. The remaining rooms are bedrooms, guest rooms and places for storing tools and sundries.
The livestock pens and toilets of "Han" style houses are built in the same house but are separated from the house. Most of them are built on both sides of the house's courtyard at right angles to the main house, making the entire house into a curved ruler shape.
"Han" style residential building materials are not limited, commonly used wood, stone, adobe, brick and wood mixed structures are also available.
2. Interesting house-building customs
Building a house is a very solemn event in the lives of the Miao people, and they are very particular about choosing a house foundation and a day. The Miao people generally live in villages, and their residences choose to be sheltered from the sun and facing the sun. Some choose to be surrounded by rolling peaks, some choose to be on the peaks backed by cliffs or on the mountainside surrounded by mountains, and some choose to be surrounded by pines and cypresses. Down or high up in the mountains. Wealthy families also specially invite Feng Shui masters to select bids for homesteads.
After choosing a homestead, it is crucial to choose a date. First of all, it is necessary to guess from the age and age of the elders: whether there are any zodiac signs that are in conflict with each other. If there is no restraint, it is a good omen. It is usually set in the autumn and winter of that year. The Miao family likes Chou, Hai, Ji, Wei, You, Mao and other days to be auspicious days. After the auspicious day was set, the owner invited a skilled carpenter to go up the mountain with wine, meat, fish, glutinous rice, incense paper, axes, saws, and rulers to select a lush, thick, and straight fir tree as the center pillar of the new house. , called "horse mounting". Before cutting down the tree, the master carpenter rubbed wine and meat from the roots of the fir tree as a sacrifice, and said: "Which tree is the biggest? Which tree is the tallest? This tree is the biggest! This tree is the tallest! There are nine arms and nine , as high as the sky, I will chop you down today and build a house that will last for ten thousand years." After reciting the auspicious words, the master carpenter chopped three axes on the tree and handed it to the master to chop three axes. Then give the ax to the helper to chop down the tree. The direction in which the tree falls is very particular. You must try to fall the tree towards the east to show good luck. The felled tree is then sawed, peeled, and planed according to the size of the center column, and then transported to the home. The carpenter also burns incense and candles, kills a chicken to honor Master Lu Ban, and carefully draws a medium-ink line on the capital of the pillar, which is called "famo" to signify the start of construction of the new house.
After the new house is built, it is necessary to put up the beams. In building a house, raising the beams is regarded as a grand event. The selection of beams is also very particular. Generally, fir, chun, catalpa, etc. are used. This type of tree is very regenerative. After the main tree is cut down, many new branches will sprout from the roots in the next year, indicating prosperity. The local custom is that the beams are delivered by Uncle Lang. On the day when the beams are put on, Uncle Lang's family chops the beams, makes them into rough pieces, wraps them in red cloth, and asks someone to carry them to the owner's house. The owner prepares firecrackers and goes to the village to welcome the beams.
After the beams are carried to the owner's house, the master carpenter then performs detailed processing according to the dimensions. Set the time, set up the beam-raising stairs, and prepare to go up the beam. When the beams are being raised, the song of beams is also sung. At the beginning of the beams, the master carpenter sings in the main room of the new house: "As soon as we enter the main room, the master invites me to come to the beams. Step by step on the ladder, I climb up to the new house, which is bright and bright. In the fairy peach hall If you have many problems, your family will be rich and popular for thousands of years. If you take one step up, your descendants will be strong. If you take three steps up, your family will be wealthy. If you go up four steps, your family will be the number one scholar. If you take five steps up, your five sons will be successful. If you go up six steps, your livestock will be prosperous. "After the beams were put on, the host would scatter several baskets of colorful cakes made of glutinous rice from the beams. Adults and children rushed in to grab the cakes, and the whole hall was filled with joy.
Installing a shrine in a new house is also a very serious matter. When installing a shrine, the requirements should be higher than the door frame. As the saying goes, "If the shrine is higher than the door of the main house, the descendants will be born at their own door. If the shrine is lower than the entrance of the house, prosperity and wealth will come." Go outside."
Installing a door on a new house is also very particular. On an auspicious day, the carpenter installs the door, and relatives and friends come to congratulate it. The respected elders in the village have to wear new clothes, new shoes and new headbands. And prepare a plate with rice, on which are placed coins, silverware and colorful silk threads, as well as a set of new clothes for adults and children, which is called "wealth plate" locally. The most distinctive type of Miao residential architecture is the "stilted building", which is generally divided into a curved corridor style stilted building and a half-sided stilted building. This kind of wooden building is moisture-proof, clean, cool and ventilated. It usually has three floors. The lower floor is piled with debris to contain livestock; the middle floor has balconies, railings and corridors for living; the upper floor stores grain, supplies and dry goods. Walking into the Miaojia wooden building in summer, you will feel cool and refreshing, and the host's warm hospitality will make the guests feel at home.
The daily life of the Miao people is related to the structure of the house. The middle room is slightly wider than the secondary rooms on both sides, and is usually divided into two rooms, front and rear. The front room is wide and serves as the main room. It is a place where the whole family eats, warms, and entertains guests. A shrine is installed. In the past, a square bucket-shaped fire pit was usually installed in the center of the main room, with iron tripods installed inside the pit to keep the fire going all year round. Place a bracket or hook above the fire pit to place food and hang things. Gujiao is placed at the foot of the center pillar on the left side of the hall for worship. Some even set up a small bamboo stick beside the center pillar as a "longevity tree".
When worshiping ancestors, just pour a few drops of wine and pinch some meat on the side of the fire kang or outside the door. The small room at the back of the main room is reserved for elderly men, and married sons or daughters-in-law are not allowed to live there. The left and right rooms are divided into two rooms, the front and rear. The front room on the left is the son's bedroom or guest room, and the back room is the parents' bedroom or Kangdang. The pig and cattle pens and toilets are at the foot of the building or near the house.
The above-mentioned residential buildings can still be seen in Taijiang, Jianhe, Leishan, Huangping and other areas.
(Pan Guohua, Associate Researcher, Huangping Cultural Bureau, Guizhou Province)