Ganqing Traditional Residential Geography Research

Traditional residence refers to the folk architecture which is built in traditional way with regional or national characteristics,for the single household or the big family with the same last name to live in.With the change of rural traditional production mode and the promotion of new rural construction as well as the simple application of new building materials and styles,the regional characteristics and national characteristics of traditional folk houses gradually disappear,and the convergence of dwellings gradually replaced the difference,which caused the situation of’ Millennium village".As a witness of historical vicissitudes,traditional dwellings bear the cultural memory of nationality,which is of great significance to study Chinese traditional architectural culture and the life customs of different nationalities.Strengthening the research of traditional residential geography can provide a useful reference for the protection of traditional villages and new rural construction today.Gansu-qinghai area is located in the intersection of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau,loessplateau and inner Mongolia plateau with complex landforms and ethnic diversity,and the type of traditional dwellings also presents diversification.In the past,the research,from the perspective of architecture,folklore,Fine Arts,takes the existing typical dwellings as a case study,while the type and geographical distribution of the whole area is not clear.This dissertation focuses on the traditional folk houses in Gansu-qinghai area from Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China,including Hexi,central Gansu,Gannan,Longnan,Hehuang,Qaidam,south Qinghai.In the research methods,firstly,the dissertation,with the help of historical documents,contemporary literature and survey data and combined with the research methods of architecture,geography,folklore,sociology,restores the traditional houses in each district one by one from the perspective of historical geography through literature analysis and field investigation.Secondly,through qualitative and quantitative analysis,thestructure characteristics,distribution type and influencing factors of the traditional folk dwellings in different regions are discussed.Thirdly,According to the elements of building materials,architectural form,roof form and living subject,the residential types with the Meso and macro are extracted,which is divided into the traditional folk culture district according to geographical division principle,and the causes and influencing factors are discussed.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)During the historical period,the main dwellings in gansu-qinghai area have four basic types:counting room,blockhouse,cave and itaya.Counting room is the main residential form of the nomadic people,with the minority from nomadic to settlement,counting room and various houses coexist.The blockhouse was developed by the"qianglou" of the Han dynasty,shaped like a fort,with a strong defense function,and mainly distributed in the banma,Yushu and other places in the south Qinghai plateau.The Bailong river basin in Longnan is where the Qiang people lived,and there are"qianglou" similar to the shape of blockhouse in Dangchang,Wudu and ZhouQu.The cave dwelling is mainly distributed in the east of Gansu province,and Liupan mountain is a humanistic dividing line between cave dwellings and houses.In the west part of Longshan and the upper reaches of the Wei river,the early trees were flourishing,and the residents were built.During the Wei,Jin,southern and northern dynasties,the earthen wall began to appear.In the late Ming dynasty,civil tile-roofed house began to become the local main residence.(2)For the gansu-qinghai area was once a strategically-imported spot that plunged the inland dynasties and the minorities in the northwest into war.For defensive purposes,a huge amount of bulwark-villages in Hexi,Hehuang,Longzhong,Longdong and and other places were constructed at the call of the authorities and became interconnected as a supra-village group.However,these bulwark-villages gradually lost their defensive use and were transformed into walled-villages or fell into disuse with the advent of the unified dynasties.During the Republic of China,villagers again built bulwark-villages as temporary residences in response to the insecurity in local areas.The traditional folk houses also were influenced by bulwark-villages.In Hexi area to the west of Jiayuguan Pass,for instance,tall,thick earthen walls were erected,and watch-towers like dun and turrets were constructed shaped like bulwark-villages.The Zhuangke folk residences in eastern Qinghai were,too,an altered from of bulwark-villages.In some places of Longdong,Longnan and Longzhong,small tall buildings were usually constructed at the side of the gate to the house,performing a defensive role as watch-towers.(3)The construction of traditional dwellings is often influenced by the natural environment,building materials and technology,social environment,immigration and other factors,generally following the principle of"adjust measures to local conditions due to the material tool",different people use natural conditions as far as possible to create a suitable habitat for themselves.The migration and communication of the people can cause the spread of cultural characteristics,which affects the shape and architectural characteristics of the houses.In Gansu-qinghai area,with the ethnic distribution pattern of "large mixed,small compact",the external characteristics of traditional folk houses in the same region show a great similarity.However,due to the influence of historical culture,architectural folk,living habits and religious beliefs,the folk houses in different ethnic groups are different in the construction process,internal layout and decorative style,forming a unique style of residence.(4)The researchtaking building material and shape as the main classification index,divides the traditional single dwellings in gansu-qinghai area into four basic residential types of cave,soil,blockhouse and counting room.Besides,the caves can be divided into backer kiln,cave and hoop;The houses can be divided into civil bungalow,Civil stone tile,Soil plank roof,Civil thatched houses,Civil and tile-roofed house;Blockhouse is divided into stone blockhouse and qianglou;The counting room are divided into tents,Ger and yurt.On this basis,it can continue to be subdivided,but the index of the residential type classification is difficult to unified,and with the increase of""the types of dwellings,there will be overlapping superimposed area.thus,the distribution boundary of all types of dwellings will become increasingly blurred.The last wecould be divided into farming cave androom pleasant traditional dwellings and nomadic counting room two regions.