Pankangjiyi
01 · Historical Records
The people of the Northeast who live along the rivers, mountains and forests have had the custom of living on the kang from ancient times to the present, and the craft of building kangs has been handed down to this day through oral instruction and personal example from generation to generation.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Huanren kang-building craft is a heated-brick-bed (kang) making skill mainly transmitted in Huanren Manchu Autonomous County, Benxi City, Liaoning Province. The kang is the most important indoor feature of dwellings in the Northeast and is also very widespread in North China. It serves the function of the bed in southern dwellings, but adds indoor heating that a bed does not provide. The Northeast is the region of China at the highest latitude and with the coldest climate. It has a continental monsoon climate, with dry and windy springs, hot and rainy summers, cool and mostly clear autumns and long, cold winters, and a long annual frost period. This particular geographical environment and climate mean that rural residents of the Northeast cannot do without the kang in any of the four seasons, and kangs are usually built when a house is constructed; the kang-building craft and kang culture came into being accordingly. The Huanren kang is a structure built of stone slabs and yellow clay, with smoke flues for burning firewood inside it; when firewood is burned, the smoke is discharged smoothly while the residual heat of the fire is retained. Whether the smoke is drawn smoothly and whether the kang surface spreads heat evenly and fully are therefore important standards by which the skill of a kang builder is judged, and the construction of the stove, the kang body and the chimney is likewise the key to the craft. Stoves include the square stove, the mother-and-child stove and the brother stove; an iron cauldron is set on top and firewood is burned below. The dwellings of the Manchu people of the Northeast generally have kangs around the room, so the kang body is built against the wall, the chimney is connected to the kang through an opening, and the part extending along the wall to the outside is often several feet above the eaves. In addition, to help the kang radiate heat, the yellow clay must be used with a suitable viscosity and trowelled smooth and flat, and the stones must be laid so as to draw smoke smoothly and distribute heat evenly; this is another key to the craft of building kangs. There are many kinds of heated kangs in the Northeast: suspended kangs and flat kangs, ground kangs, round kangs, square kangs and long kangs, as well as single-sided kangs, facing kangs and the 'ten-thousand-character' kang. These varied kangs make up the distinctive dwelling customs of the Northeast. The earliest surviving kang site in Huanren was found at Wangyi Gully, Shengjia Street, Beidianzi Village, Beidianzi Township, and dates from the Warring States period to the early Western Han. The Da Jin Guo Zhi records that among the peoples of the Northeast 'they surround the house with earthen platforms, make fire beneath them, and live and sleep on top of them; this is called a kang'. so as to take its warmth. In the Northeast the kang is not only a place for warmth and rest; eating, entertaining guests, games and many other activities are also mostly carried out on the kang. The kang carries the memories of generation after generation and their attachment to their native soil, and is an inseparable part of the life and emotions of the people of the Northeast.
Building the stove
The kang only heats if joined to a stove; square, mother-and-child and brother stoves carry an iron pot above and fire below, and the flue opening sets the kang's direction.
Building the kang body from stone slabs and clay
Stone slabs and yellow clay form the body with flues inside; the fire's smoke must leave cleanly and leave its heat behind, which is the basic method here.
Kang along the wall and the flue above the eaves
As Manchu rooms ring the room with kang, the structure is built against the wall and its flue runs outward to rise several feet above the eaves.
Floating the surface and laying the stones
The clay's viscosity must suit and the floating must be flat, while the stones are laid so smoke runs freely and heat spreads evenly.
Choosing the kang form
Kangs come in hanging, flat and sunken forms, round, square and long shapes, and one-sided, facing and swastika layouts that suit the Manchu ring-around-the-room plan.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Huanren Manchu Autonomous County is the core area for the collective transmission of the kang-building craft. The bearers of the craft are mainly the masons who build dwellings, and kangs are mostly completed together with the main construction work when a house is built; the transmission lineage appears as two parallel branches, each with four generations. Locally the kang body is built of stone slabs and yellow clay with smoke flues for burning firewood inside, and the chimney runs along the wall and extends several feet beyond the eaves, interlocking with the Manchu dwelling layout in which kangs ring the room against the walls. Whether the kang surface spreads heat evenly and whether the smoke is drawn smoothly are still the main criteria locally for judging a kang builder's craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
'To this day, the kang remains an important component of the dwellings of the Northeast. The inheritors of the kang-building craft are mainly the masons who build dwellings. At present Huanren Manchu Autonomous County is the core area for the collective transmission of the craft. Of the county's population of 300,000, more than 300 folk artisans have mastered the kang-building craft, and there are two verifiable transmission lineages, each with four generations of inheritors. The Huanren kang-building craft displays the wisdom and creativity with which the people of the Northeast have responded to their living conditions, used local materials and made rational use of resources, and it possesses high historical, cultural and social value.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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