Liu Chengbai

01 · Lineage & Regional School

The fifth-generation bearer of Tujia diaojiaolou (stilt-house) building craftsmanship. At the age of 12 he began learning carpentry and the building techniques of the diaojiaolou from his father, Liu Xuetao, and his uncle, Liu Xueyin. He completed his apprenticeship and became independent at 18, and is a locally renowned master of diaojiaolou construction. Within the regional tradition and school record of Tujia Diaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship in Shizhutujiazuzizhi, Chongqing: The diaojiaolou stands on flat ground, while the suspended-leg half-side building is constructed on slopes with a greater incline, its rear half resting against the rock and its front half supported by wooden columns; the buildings are made of locally abundant timber. In the Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, diaojiaolou are very widely distributed, especially typical in the Qiyao Mountains area, the Fangdou Mountains area, and the old river-valley streets; locally they are also called "ganlan" (stilt dwelling), "thousand-columns-to-the-ground style," or "corner-turning building." In construction, local stone and timber materials are fully utilized, with flying eaves and upturned corners, interlocking dou brackets and tie beams, making them sturdy and earthquake-resistant. It has a long history, traceable to before the Eastern Han dynasty, with most examples built from the Southern Song dynasty to the 1930s and 1940s.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tujia ethnic group, born in July 1952 in Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing. National representative bearer of Tujia Diaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. The diaojiaolou he builds present a multi-angled, layered visual beauty; their conception is original, their functional zones strictly differentiated, and the joints among columns, purlins, tie beams, main beams, ridge purlins and rafters precisely executed. His skills are highly proficient: his knife work is smooth and rounded, his execution fine and delicate, his structures rigorous, and the result simple yet highly practical. He has long been devoted to diaojiaolou building craftsmanship and to training apprentices. He has carried out the construction and repair of diaojiaolou in Chongqing, Hubei and Guizhou, serving as designer, builder and technical adviser, and has left behind numerous diaojiaolou works. Within the documented technical tradition of Tujia Diaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship in Shizhutujiazuzizhi, Chongqing: The Chongqing diaojiaolou construction technique is a traditional building craft passed down in the main urban area of Chongqing and some of its districts and counties. The diaojiaolou is built according to local conditions, characterized mainly by its support columns hanging in the air without touching the ground. The slope is opened into upper and lower levels of house foundations; on the lower level longer columns are erected, and on the upper level shorter columns, so that the front half-room's floor is level with the rear half-room's ground, forming a half-side building. With wooden columns, wooden walls, and wooden floors, the buildings all stand on stone retaining walls several metres high, and the house frame is 6–7 metres tall. The outermost column of each row is cut off from top to bottom at the level of the upper foundation, forming a suspended-leg column—hence the name "diaojiaolou" (hanging-leg building). It is a wonder among ethnic architectural crafts and an excellent Tujia ethnic cultural heritage. The Tujia diaojiaolou construction craft is scientific, ingeniously conceived, and reasonably laid out. Tujia carpenters, with their wisdom and using tools in hand such as axes, saws, ink lines, and chisels, carefully build and combine scattered wooden columns, beams, and planks into sturdy buildings. The diaojiaolou has a central hall (tangwu), side rooms or a ground-level main room, a kitchen, and a fire pit; upstairs is the living quarters, and beneath the suspended-leg columns are livestock pens and wood sheds. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Split-level foundation cut into the slope": The slope is cut into two levels; longer posts below and shorter above bring the front floor level with the rear ground, making the half-house. "Cutting the stilt posts level": The outermost post of each row is cut down to the upper foundation, forming the stilt post from which the house takes its name. "A timber house on a stone plinth": Houses stand on stone plinths several metres high with frames of six to seven metres, timber posts, walls and floors, upturned eaves and bracketed joints for stability. "Hall, hearth and livestock under the stilts": A hall, side rooms or earth-shed rooms, kitchen and hearth occupy the house, with living quarters above and cattle sheds and firewood below the stilts.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Liu Chengbai was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Tujia Diaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship, with Shizhutujiazuzizhi, Chongqing as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Tujia Diaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship in Shizhutujiazuzizhi, Chongqing: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2011 (batch 3), with Shizhutujiazuzizhi, Chongqing as its declared area, and Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County Culture Shengtai Safeguarding Management Center as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Liu Chengbai · National Representative Bearer Archive