The world's wonderful folk dwellings - Hakka Wailong House

The style and form of Hakka residential architecture have different changes in different historical periods and different regions, such as Yuanzhai, Weilong House, Walking Horse Building, Quadrangular Tower, etc. But the most representative of them is the Wai Long House. Hakka Wailong House and Beijing's "Courtyard", Shaanxi's "Cave", Guangxi's "Pole Railing" and Yunnan's "One Seal" are collectively known as the five traditional residential building forms with the most local customs in China, and are known as one of the five major characteristics of Chinese residential architecture by Chinese and foreign architectural circles. According to historians, this kind of residential building is very similar to the type of aristocratic compound in the Central Plains, which has its historical origins. The Hakka ancestors were originally Han people in the Central Plains, and moved south to the mountainous areas at the junction of Jiangxi, Guangdong and Fujian due to wars and famines. After the Hakka ancestors moved south and settled in Lingnan, they not only spread the advanced farming technology of the Central Plains, but also maintained the original traditional style of building houses.

The Wailong House began in the Tang and Song dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Hakka people adopt the most advanced combination of beam-lifting and bucket-piercing techniques in the Central Plains Han building technology, and choose hilly areas or slopes to build the Weilong House, with the main structure of "one entry, three halls, two compartments and one enclosure". Most of their settlements are in remote, remote mountainous areas, and in order to prevent the harassment of thieves and the exclusion of locals, barracks-style dwellings were built in two forms: first: brick and tile structures. 2: Special adobe structure: mix lime in the soil, use glutinous rice and egg white as viscosity, use bamboo slices and wooden strips as muscles and bones, and ram up the earthen building with a wall thickness of 1 meter and a height of more than 15 meters.

The ordinary Wai Long House covers an area of 8 acres and 10 acres, and the area of the Da Wai Dragon House is more than 30 acres, and it often takes five years, ten years, or even longer to build a complete Wai Long House. A Wai Long House is a huge fortress of the Hakka people. There are many bedrooms, kitchens, large and small halls, wells, pigsties, chicken coops, toilets, warehouses and other living facilities in the house, forming a self-sufficient and self-satisfied social group.

Regardless of the size of the Wailong House, there must be a piece of Heping and a half-moon-shaped pond in front of the gate, which is used for drying grain, enjoying the shade and other activities, and the pond has the functions of water storage, fish farming, fire prevention, drought prevention, etc.

Within the gate, it is divided into three halls, the left and right are divided into two compartments or four compartments, commonly known as the horizontal house, which extends backwards, at the end of the left and right horizontal houses, build the wall-shaped house, surround the main house, the small more than a dozen rooms, the large more than 20 rooms, the middle one is the "dragon hall", so it is called the "Wai Long" house. Small dragon houses generally have only one or two dragons, while large dragon houses have four, five or even six dragons, and there is a 6-dragon house in Hualuodun, Xingning, Meizhou, Guangdong. The common feature of the enclosed house in the building is to take the north and south meridians as the central axis, the east and west sides are symmetrical, the front is low and the back is high, the main and secondary are distinct, the location is orderly, the layout is regular, the pond in front of the house and the "Wai Long" behind the main hall are combined into a whole, and dozens or hundreds of living units are set up in the hall and patio as the center, which is suitable for dozens of people, more than 100 people or hundreds of people to live together in a house, and there is also a study room and a martial arts training hall to pay attention to, which is breathtaking.

Hakka walled houses can be roughly divided into 15 types, among which the dragon-style walled houses, castle-style walled buildings and four-corner towers are the most local characteristics.

1. Square enclosure

There are many forms of square enclosures, such as the western Fujian-style square tulou and the square watchtower in northern Guangdong, etc. The square enclosure is divided into square and rectangular. "Fujian-style square earth building" refers to the rammed earth wall with several layers of height around the surrounding area, each floor in the enclosure is mostly a wooden structure of the corridor type housing, the center forms a rectangular inner courtyard of the rammed earth building, it is closed to the outside, open to the inside, the huge appearance, like a solid earth fort. This kind of square enclosure is sporadically distributed in Raoping, Jiaoling, Tai Po and Fengshun in Guangdong, which are adjacent to western Fujian.

Second, the circular enclosure

The circular enclosure is like a "flying saucer falling from the sky and mushrooms emerging from the ground", which is really a miracle. This kind of ring-shaped tulou is also called "village". The circular layout and tall and magnificent momentum can be called the wonder of the world's residential buildings. There are two kinds of internal structures of circular tulou: corridor type and unit type. The diameter of the tulou ranges from tens of meters to hundreds of meters. Like the square tulou, the round tulou is distributed in the area of Tai Po, Raoping, Jiaoling and Fengshun in eastern Guangdong adjacent to western Fujian, and the building structure in the tulou is mostly unit housing.

3. Half-moon-shaped enclosure

The half-moon-shaped enclosure is mainly distributed in Tai Po and Raoping in Guangdong Province on the border with western Fujian. Raoyang, Shangrao, and Shangshan in Raoping have the largest number, followed by Taoyuan in Tai Po, and there are also sporadic distribution in the eastern part of Meixian. Half-moon-shaped enclosure building, the shape is similar to the back enclosure of the Weilong-style enclosure house in Xingning and Meixian areas, some overlap in two or three half-moon shapes, two floors high, the first floor is a unit-type house, and there is a roadway ranging from a few meters wide to more than ten meters between the enclosure and the enclosure. The half-moon-shaped enclosure building in eastern Guangdong is mostly seen in a single enclosure, and there is a two-hall or three-hall ancestral shrine in the middle of the half-moon-shaped inner ring square, and there are Heping and ponds in front as usual. There is also an empty half-moon-shaped enclosure in the ring, which is used as a space for drying things and holding activities.

Fourth, the oval enclosure

According to the investigation of Mr. Huang Chongyue and Mr. Yang Yaolin of the Shenzhen Museum, six Hakka enclosures were found. Compared with the round tulou of the "Fujian and Western-style" corridor house structure, the Taihua Building in Raoping Raoyang Lanshe Village has changed in appearance. Xingning Huangpi Shi's Zhongshan Ancestral Hall, Luogang Liu's Hengfeng Building and Dapu Huliao Huang's Zhongxiandi, although the shape is oval (Zhongshan Ancestral Hall is "crab-shaped"), but its materials, building structure and "Fujian-Western" round earth building are very different, and the plane layout is close to the Wailong-style walled house.

5. Octagonal enclosure

The octagonal enclosure is a complex of square and circular tulou, and its construction method, materials and building structure are the closest to the circular tulou, and its construction is much more difficult. This kind of angular building does not have advantages compared with square and round tulou in terms of living area and comfort and convenience. This may be related to Feng Shui. Only two octagonal tulous have been found in Raoping, Guangdong, and the Huang residents in the Daoyun Building in Nanlian Village, Sanrao, speak Chaoshan, but they identify as Hakka ancestors.

Sixth, the dragon style enclosure house

The distribution of Weilong-style enclosed houses is centered on Xingning and Meixian, which are the hinterland of Hakka settlement, and radiates to the surrounding areas, spreading to the Dongjiang River basin and the Shenzhen area around the Pearl River estuary. The Weilong-style walled house is the largest number of Hakka houses in Guangdong, with a magnificent scale, integrating traditional etiquette, ethical concepts, yin and yang five elements, feng shui geography, philosophical thoughts, and architectural art.

There is a part of the dragon type enclosure house, for the need of defense, in the outer horizontal house before and after the construction of watchtowers, watchtowers are often higher than the hall house one floor, so it is also called "four corner towers" or with four watchtowers of the dragon type enclosure house. The number of enclosures depends on factors such as the development status of the family and the location of the terrain.

7. Quadrangular towers and other corner towers

The four-cornered towers distributed in the northeast of Guangdong have a relationship with the "Fujian-Western-style" square tulou and the "Tuweizi" in southern Jiangxi, which highlights its defensive function.

The main feature of the quadrangular tower is the square (more precisely, rectangular) walled house, with watchtowers added to the four corners. The shape and internal structure of the quadrangular tower are varied, and the eastern and northern parts of Guangdong have their own characteristics.

The four corners of northern Guangdong and Heyuan are more varied, in addition to the decoration of the top of the watchtowers is in the shape of various pot ears, there are two watchtowers, four watchtowers, six watchtowers or eight watchtowers and a watchtower.

8. Horizontal enclosure of the hall

The basic structure of the hall horizontal enclosure house is two halls (halls) or three halls on the central axis, and the maximum is up to five halls, and the horizontal houses are added on both sides. This traditional house style is called "Fudi style" by the Hakka people in eastern Guangdong, and "Wufeng Building" in Fujian. This kind of house has strong adaptability to the terrain and is more suitable for the customs and lifestyles of people living together and living together for several generations, so it is widely distributed and numerous. The main difference between it and the Wailong-style enclosure house is that there is no flower head and Wailong in the back, highlighting the plane structure and characteristics of Hakka houses: maintaining the characteristics of the combination of courtyard houses and palace-style structures in the Central Plains, that is, halls, patios, heavenly streets, Heping, ponds and other supporting facilities become one, which is both complete and practical.

Nine, the bar type enclosure

The bar-type enclosure is a relatively simple type of Hakka dwelling, because of its longitudinal arrangement, the mountain flowers face forward, so it is called the bar-type enclosure, and it is named because the longitudinal horizontal house is like the lever on both sides of the sedan chair. The bar-type enclosure has a minimum of two bars and a maximum of eight bars. In the bar-type enclosure, the hall is sandwiched between the bars, which obviously exaggerates the "bar", shrinks the "hall", and raises the height of the "bar". However, in terms of floor plan, the hall still has the role of determining the orientation, and it must be facing the main door.

10. Castle-style enclosure

Castle-style enclosure, the outer wall is rammed with "Sanhe soil" or blue brick masonry, which is a major feature of Hakka dwellings in the Dongjiang River Basin and Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and is a complex of hall-horizontal enclosures, enclosures and four-cornered buildings, and absorbs the advantages of Cantonese dwellings to develop. In the plane layout, the main structure of Xingmei Hakka dwellings, horizontal houses, Heping, Yuechi and Zhuandoumen is retained, and it is surrounded by two-story surrounding buildings. On the basis of retaining the watchtowers at the four corners, some enclosure towers are added to the center of the rear enclosure, and the watchtower is the highest point of the whole building. Around the top floor of the building, a corridor is built "Walking Horse Building".

11. Walled villages

Surrounding a village is to enclose a village with a fence or wall, so some people call it "village". The deep ditch and high fortification of the surrounding village are impregnable, obviously out of the need for defense. The distribution of Hakka walled villages is mainly at the critical point or miscellaneous place between the Hakka people and the Chaoshan people or the Cantonese people. There are many examples in northern Guangdong, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

Some of the Hakka walled villages are square in shape, and some are irregular in circles. Some of the houses in the enclosure are arranged in an orderly manner, and some are more messy. In addition, the houses in the walled village are single-room, hall-horizontal houses and units, and there are also rooms with partition walls built in the middle to become suites or "back-to-back" front and back doors, which are in various forms. The village of Fengshun Jianqiaowei in eastern Guangdong is surrounded by water on all sides, and there are independent halls and horizontal houses in the enclosure.

Twelve, watchtower

In eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, Heyuan, Huiyang, Shenzhen and Hong Kong and other areas to see the Hakka watchtower, most of them are combined with the walled building, the dragon house or the "bucket gallery house", and most of them are quadrangular towers. Only in the north of Guangdong Shixing and other areas can be seen independent of the existence of large watchtowers, the building covers an area of 200 ~ 400 square meters, there are four or five floors high. There are patios and wells (a few without patios) in the watchtowers, and some also have ancestral (god) halls. Each floor is a corridor-style studio with wooden floors and corridors. The exterior walls are made of large pebbles and blue bricks, and are more than 1 meter thick, making them particularly strong. There is only one gate in the whole building, with a stone door frame, four or five barriers such as iron wooden doors, wooden bars, and iron grilles, and there is a fireproof water tank on the door, which is really solid. A village can build several watchtowers that are horns of each other to protect the safety of the whole village. In case of bandits or war, the villagers will help the old and the young to enter the watchtower. This is also a must in the Hakka architectural culture of northern Guangdong.

13. A combination of Chinese and Western style enclosures

The construction of the Chinese and Western style walled buildings is relatively late, the earliest in the late Qing Dynasty, but most of them are products after the twenties and thirties of the 20th century. The Hakka wanderers who wandered abroad did business and became rich abroad, did not forget their homeland, cherished the traditional life of the nation, and built houses in the fields after returning to their hometowns. They are influenced by the cultural ideas of Nanyang countries and Western cultures, and adopt the traditional plane layout of the dragon house or the hall horizontal house, with slight changes in some parts, such as some house styles will turn the arc-shaped dragon and flower head part into a long strip, straight line, horizontally like a pillow, the local people call it "pillow house", such as Meixian Nanhua Youlu, Wanqiu Building, Lianfang Building, etc. The doors, windows, halls, and Western-style decorations, especially the addition of balconies, make the ancient and deep traditional buildings glow with a fresh breath.

14. Free-style enclosure

The so-called freestyle refers to a type of Hakka house form that has no obvious layout rules. The owner of the house starts from his own subjective wishes, and combines financial resources and land use to build a building that is comfortable to live in, beautiful in appearance, and in line with the concept of yin and yang and five elements in traditional Hakka folk house feng shui.

15. Hakka enclosures in Hong Kong

The main forms of Hakka enclosures in Hong Kong include hall houses, bar houses, concave row houses, castle-style enclosures and Chinese-Western enclosures.

The North New Territories District, where the Hakka people live more intensively, as well as Tai Ki Ling, Pat Heung and Pat Heung, which are more concentrated, are the most common types of terraced houses with bar houses and concave shapes. The bar house is miniaturized, and only the horizontal bar and parallel bar are seen. The horizontal bar type is built at a distance of a few meters from the front eaves wall and the front eaves wall to build a wall of the same height as the front eaves wall, enclosing the front yard, and opening the side door to enter and exit. Concave terraced houses are most widely distributed in the northern New Territories. The so-called "concave row house" is a multi-unit "lock house" that is connected.

-- The information is taken from the Internet