Miaozhaidiaojiaolou Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The construction craft of the stilt houses of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village descends from the ganlan (stilt-house) architecture of the "nest-dwelling southerners" of the Hemudu culture of 7,000 years ago, and has been adapted over the course of historical change to the requirements of the living environment.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village lies within Xijiang Town, at the foot of the Leigong Mountains in the northeast of Leishan County, Guizhou Province, on the bank of the Baishui River; it comprises four administrative villages — Pingzhai, Dongyin, Yangpai, and Nangui — and ten natural settlements. The dwellings here are of timber construction, using not a single nail or rivet; the house frames are joined by mortise-and-tenon joints and follow the contours of the terrain, giving the architecture a distinctive style and forming the unique landscape of the Miao village stilt houses. The house-building masters of Xijiang determine the appropriate building plan according to the terrain and the owner's needs, using axes, chisels, saws, and planes together with ink pots and ink lines, and erect the stilt houses on slopes and steep banks of 30 to 70 degrees. This architecture is based chiefly on the column-and-tie (chuandou) timber frame, and takes its name from the front eave columns that hang suspended (diao jiao, "hanging feet"). Stilt houses generally have three storeys; four frames form three bays, five frames four bays, and six frames five bays, and the houses follow the mountain in irregular tiers, arranged row upon row like scales. Stilt houses have the advantages of simplicity, sturdiness, and damp resistance, and can also save farmland and building materials. The construction of stilt houses imposes certain requirements on the geology and the timber, and once built the tasks of guarding against landslides and fire are onerous. Reduced to process steps, the sequence for building a stilt house is roughly six stages: fixing the foundation, dividing the bays, setting the columns, raising the beams, installing the walls, and laying the roof. The first step is fixing the foundation and dividing the bays. The house-building masters of Xijiang determine the appropriate building plan according to the terrain and the owner's needs, snapping ink lines to fix the column positions, and deciding on the 30-to-70-degree slopes and steep banks which columns hang suspended and which rest on the ground. The second step is setting the columns and threading the purlins. This architecture is based chiefly on the column-and-tie timber frame, and takes its name from the front eave columns that hang suspended; the frames are joined by mortise-and-tenon joints without a single nail or rivet, and the junctions between columns and purlins must be repeatedly checked for squareness — the slightest deviation requires the whole frame to be reassembled. The third step is determining the number of frames and storeys. Stilt houses generally have three storeys; four frames form three bays, five frames four bays, and six frames five bays, with the number of storeys and bays determined by the household's population and means; the houses follow the mountain in irregular tiers, row upon row, and it is rows of them falling across the slopeside that give Qianhu Miao Village its scale. The fourth step is the walls and the roof. The plank walls are installed in staggered courses following the mountain's contours, and the roof is covered with small gray tiles or bark, with a steep pitch to aid drainage. Stilt houses have the advantages of simplicity, sturdiness, and damp resistance, and can also save farmland and building materials, but once built the tasks of guarding against landslides and fire are onerous. The fifth step is maintenance. Although the elevated ground floor escapes the damp of the ground, the relationship between the column feet and the slope must still be inspected every year, and the density of the village houses makes fire prevention a responsibility shared by every household. The stilt houses of Xijiang, together with their accompanying construction customs, together constitute the Miao stilt-house architectural culture; this heritage is of the greatest value for studying the evolution of Xijiang Miao society and the science of architecture.
Setting out the base and striking the lines
On slopes of thirty to seventy degrees the carpenter decides the plan, then uses an ink line to fix post positions; a bad base can never be remedied later.
Raising the front row on stilts
Named for its stilted front row: the front posts never enter the ground but stand clear of the slope, keeping the house dry without levelling the hill.
Raising posts and threading beams
The frame is post-and-beam with mortise and tenon joints, no nails at all; each post is set to the slope before the beams are threaded and the frame locks itself.
Choosing bays and storeys
Three storeys are the norm, built as four-bay by three-room, five-bay by four-room or six-bay by five-room frames set tier by tier down the slope.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
With the development of society and changes in people's ideas about dwelling, young people in Xijiang are no longer willing to live in stilt houses and have no interest in learning the related construction craft, so that stilt-house builders lack successors.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The stilt houses of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village, together with their related construction customs, form the Miao stilt-house architectural culture, which is of the greatest value for research on the civilizing progress of Xijiang Miao society and on the science of architecture. Accordingly, both the continuation of the stilt-house construction craft and culture of Xijiang Qianhu Miao Village and the physical protection of the houses face extremely severe challenges, and require attention and support from the relevant quarters.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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