Cave-dwelling Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
In the ninth year of the Shaoxing reign of the Southern Song (1139), Zheng Gangzhong's "Record of the Road and Distances of the Western Campaign" (Xizheng Daoli Ji) states: "West of Xingyang, all are earthen hills, and most people dwell in caves." Shaanxian County has a great many surviving pit-courtyard (dikeng yuan) dwellings from the Ming and Qing periods; before the 1980s, 95% of the residences here were pit courtyards, numbering in the tens of thousands.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The pit courtyard (dikeng yuan) is a form of dwelling created on flat land with a deep loess layer: one digs downward about six meters to form a rectangular deep pit, then excavates cave dwellings (yaodong) in the four walls for people to live in; it belongs to a "subtractive" building mode, a negative architectural form. Shaanxian County lies in the Shaanxi–Shanxi–Henan triangular region; within it are three great loess-terrace plains with uniform, continuously extending soil, situated on high open ground with convenient drainage—the prerequisite conditions for the emergence and construction of pit courtyards. The pit courtyard formed very early; the semi-subterranean dwellings of the Yangshao culture period are considered its prototype. "At first it is like digging a well, three zhang deep, then one breaks through to the side." The construction craft of Shaanxian pit courtyards mainly comprises the following steps: 1. Site selection and courtyard squaring: a geomancer surveys the terrain and, per the requirements of "a backing behind and a step to push against in front" and "higher above, lower below," determines the dwelling type; following the principle that "the temple is straight but the courtyard is not," the orientation is slightly off, and the length and width dimensions contain the number five (earth). 2. Pit sinking and cave cutting: rough-excavated by hand and then finely trimmed and cleaned, forming an "inlaid-bucket" (qiandou) style courtyard well; the cave openings take a "scooping-hands" (chaoshou) parabolic shape, "higher in front and lower behind," "wider in front and narrower behind." 3. Edge finishing and yard rolling: using brick and tile to line and back the arch mouths, cave legs, and horse-blocking walls; the eave construction includes "one lift, two teeth, three runs, four scoops, five clasps"; outside the horse-blocking wall, a stone roller compacts and levels the yard slope. 4. Installation and plastering: installation must be "crouching door, upward window"; the cave walls and cliff faces are plastered in layers with wheat-straw mud. 5. Drainage and kang building: near the latrine, a percolation pit 80 cm in diameter and 6 m deep is dug for drainage; inside the cave, the kang (heated bed) connects with the stove, the earthen-brick bedding layer follows "stove three, kang four," and the kang dimensions contain the number seven (wife).
Site reading and setting the courtyard
A geomancer reads the terrain, sets the type and turns the orientation slightly off axis, with dimensions containing five.
Excavating the court and driving the chambers
After coarse digging the pit is finished by hand into an inset courtyard, with parabolic chamber mouths higher at the front than the back.
Edging and compacting the yard
Brick and tile facing the chamber mouths, piers and retaining wall, with graded eaves and a stone roller to level the yard.
Fitting and plastering
Doors and windows are fitted to a set rule and the walls are plastered in layers with straw-clay, each course dried before the next.
Drainage and the kang
A soak pit is dug near the latrine, the kang and stove are linked, and fixed dimensions rule their layout.
Wang Sihu and the building trade
A fifth-batch national inheritor, Wang Sihu has taken apprentices since the early 1980s who now build and maintain yaodang professionally.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Shaanxian lies at the juncture of the three provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan; its three great loess-terrace plains have uniform, continuously extending soil, and because of their high open terrain they do not pool water—only with both of these conditions present did a dwelling dug six meters downward become possible; the cave-dwelling traditions of surrounding areas, though early, never reached the scale of tens of thousands. Evidence exists in both documents and physical remains: the "Record of the Road and Distances of the Western Campaign" (Xizheng Daoli Ji) by Zheng Gangzhong in the ninth year of the Shaoxing reign of the Southern Song (1139) records that west of Xingyang all are earthen hills and most people dwell in caves, while the locally preserved pit courtyards, before the 1980s, accounted for over 95% of dwellings, totaling tens of thousands; in form, the semi-subterranean dwellings of the Yangshao culture can be regarded as its prototype. The exactness of the construction modular rules stands in contrast to the tolerance of this terrain: the length and width dimensions contain the number five (earth), the kang dimensions contain the number seven (wife), and the discourses on dispelling evil and choosing auspicious days tie numbers to human affairs, while the inlaid-bucket courtyard well and scooping-hands cave forms show that this line of practice was long since fixed.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Cave-dwelling Building Craftsmanship · Cave-dwelling Building Craftsmanship · Cave-dwelling Building Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The modular rules and essential techniques of pit-courtyard construction embody the unity of folk character and scientific rationality, with important research value; the environmental load is minimal and livability is strong, reflecting the people-centered requirement. Wang Sihu (from the official records of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1950, a native of Shaanxian County, Henan Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage for the cave-dwelling construction craft (pit-courtyard construction craft). Artisan of pit-courtyard construction. Over many years he has gained a thorough familiarity with the various construction techniques, related data, and folk customs of pit courtyards, and his execution is exceedingly practiced. Beginning in the early 1980s he took on apprentices; several people successively studied with him professionally and have all become local folk craftsmen for pit-courtyard building and repair.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Hecheng 05-2873
- Wang Sihu 05-2874
- Li Maozheng 05-2875
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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