Guyuan Chuantongjianzhu Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The dwellings were mainly laid out as three-sided courtyard compounds, with the principal house a double-slope-roofed frame house facing south and the side rooms single-slope-roofed lean-to houses on the east and west sides. The Sanbian General-Command Office, the Regional Military Commander's Office and the Defence Circuit Office built in the Ming Dynasty became models of traditional architecture through the ages in Guyuan.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Guyuan lies at the foot of the Liupan Mountains in southern Ningxia on the northwestern Loess Plateau, at the centre of the junction of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia. It has a typical continental climate, dry with little rain, abundant sunshine and a large diurnal temperature range. Guyuan's natural environment is relatively harsh and its economy comparatively undeveloped, yet on this barren land people made use of the resource-rich loess to develop distinctive rammed-earth construction and earth-and-timber structural building techniques. Traditional Guyuan architecture uses earth, timber, brick, tile and straw as its main materials and adopts the traditional northern craftsman's methods; the building process includes site selection, breaking ground, making huaji (mud blocks), building walls, erecting the timber frame, laying tiles and applying mud plaster. The builders are a group of construction artisans led by carpenters and bringing together earth, brick and tile workers and other trades. Three to five courses of salt-resistant brick are laid at the base of the wall, above which the wall is built of huaji (earth blocks); coarse wheat straw is mixed into the loess to make a straw mud for building, and fine wheat straw and wheat husk are used for the finishing coat, which helps retain warmth and keep out the cold. Brick is used for the front pier and the rear eaves brackets, blue tiles are laid on the roof, and no ridge beasts are set on the ridge, which is made as a brick ridge or a combined brick-and-tile ridge. The courtyard wall is a rammed-earth wall, with a brick gatehouse or a 'boots and hat' gateway (a combination of a lower course of salt-resistant brick, a middle section of earth blocks and an upper section of decorative brickwork), giving the buildings an appearance that is plain, solid and simply proportioned. It is said that from the Qin and Han dynasties to the Northern Wei period the building clusters of Guyuan had already begun to take shape and the building craft had already become increasingly refined. The construction of Gaoping City under Emperor Wu of the Western Han brought traditional building craft to its zenith. Generation after generation of craftsmen, working in a distinctive natural environment and amid the interaction and clash of diverse cultures, passed the craft of traditional Guyuan architecture down through the generations by word of mouth and personal example between master and apprentice. Besides encompassing all kinds of specialist techniques and decorative arts in the building trade, the craft also carries cultural information from many fields, including geography, meteorology, medicine and philosophy.
Site choice and breaking ground
The first two stages; the site is chosen where loess is deep at the foot of the Liupan Mountains, so working the local soil shapes everything after.
Making adobe blocks (hujie)
Loess mixed with coarse wheat straw and a binding straw paste is beaten into adobe blocks, dried and used as the wall body; the straw and moisture decide frost resistance.
Salt-brick base and adobe wall body
Three to five courses of salt brick keep damp out at the base; above them adobe blocks with coarse straw are laid and finished with fine straw and awns for warmth.
Raising the timber frame
The main block is a north-facing double-pitch frame house; the side blocks are single-slope wing houses to east and west, completing the three-sided courtyard.
Laying tiles and forming the brick ridge
Grey tiles cover the roof with brickwork at the front and projecting eaves at the back; the ridge carries no beasts, only brick or brick-and-tile work.
Gateways built as boots and hats
Rammed earth walls enclose the yard; the gate is either a brick gatehouse or built boots-and-hats fashion, salt brick below, adobe in the middle, coping above.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The region's uniquely favourable loess resources and special climatic conditions provided the opportunity for the emergence and development of the traditional folk building craft. The craft of traditional Guyuan architecture absorbed and integrated Central Plains culture, Guanlong culture and Western Xia culture, forming a distinctive architectural character specific to the Liupan Mountain area.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The craft of traditional Guyuan architecture is a traditional building craft and cultural expression mainly distributed in the zone where Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia meet, with Guyuan City in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region as its core transmission area. The transmission lineage with clear records already extends over five generations. Inheritors actively pass on and disseminate the related skills by establishing transmission bases and exhibition rooms, setting up companies and construction teams, going into colleges and schools and founding labour training institutions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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