Shaanxi Traditional Residential Geography Research

Traditional residence is built in traditional way,using traditional materialsmainly in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China.As a kind of cultural landscape and cultural image,the relationship between traditional residence and geographical environment is very close.In Shaanxi province,Regardless of the natural geographical environment and social environment,the regional differences are very obvious.Shaanxi traditional residenceconsist of cave dwellings,courtyards,tile-roofed houses,timbered adobes,slabstone houses,bamboo houses,cottages,stilted houses and so on.Taking Shaanxi traditional residence as the research object,this paper intends to probe into their regional differentiation and formation mechanism being cultural landscape from an interdisciplinary perspective of architecture,history,geography folklore etc.The main contents are as follows:1.The area where the Great Wall traverses northern part of Loess Plateau in Shaanxi is a sandy area.The features traditional residence are tile-roofed houses with adobes and masonry caves.The rest part of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi features cave dwellings.And the settlements are sited at the sunny and open sides of hills,valleys and river banks where cave dwellings in escarpments prevail.But there are still some tile-roofed houses bricks and adobes,and adobe caves on the top of escarpments.Along the Central Shaanxi Plain,narrow courtyards prevail in alluvial areas on the south bankof Weihe River.While in alluvial areas on thenorthbank,both pitted courtyards and narrow courtyards are commonly found on the rainfed uplands.Narrow courtyards,pitted courtyards,constructed caves and caves in the escarpments coexist on the rainfed uplands close to Beishan mountain chain.Tile-roofed houses are typical farm houseswidely spread on plain areas,mountainous terrains and hilly lands in Southern Shaanxi.2.In Taibai County,Fengxian County etc.situated in Qinling Mountains,and the mountainous areas of Zhouzhi County,Huxian County,Lantian County etc.,courtyardsretainlong and narrow yards,far-reaching eaves and walls mostly whitewashed.In Hanzhong Basin,Ankang Basin,Shangdan Basin etc.,courtyardsare typical dwellings.At the placesnear the mountain and by the river liestilted buildings and tower buildings.In counties of Ningqiang,Xixiang,Zhenba,Nanzheng,Langao,Zhenping among Daba mountains the bodies of which are formed with limestones,slabstone houses are commonly seen,and the number of them is significantly greater than that among Qinling Mountains.The natural geographical environment plays afundamentalpart in the formation of Shaanxi traditional residence.3.The plane layout of traditional residence is largely determined bythe terrain:flat areasfeature courtyards which occupy a large piece of land.While in mountainous or hilly areas,people prefer to build houses which don't occupy(much)farmland.Therefore,the layouts of the dwellings appear in line,L-shapeor U-shape.In the meantime,climate elements such as sunshine duration,rain,temperature,dryness,etc.also,to some extent,determine the layouts,facades,roofing,wall construction,types of building materials of the dwellings.For example,most traditional residences to the north of Qinling Mountains are built with saddle roof.While most traditional residences to the south of Qinling Mountains are built with suspension roof of light and thin mortar beds and far-reaching eaves.The courtyards in northern Shaanxi are spacious,and the west and east wings are built at an appropriate spacing from the principal room so that its lighting would not be blocked.But in Central Shaanxi Plain,courtyardswith narrow yards are prevalent because the walls could produce large areas of shade.The courtyards in southern Shaanxi are built with long narrow or square dooryardswhich take full advantage of the "chimney effect".The traditional residences areequipped with windows that are largerthan those of houses built in Central Shaanxi Plain and southern Shaanxi,and they have better access to daylight.When it comes to building materials for the traditional residence,it is the widely accepted rule to exploit the materials from where they live.And the natural building material of immature soil is widely used in building caves in escarpments,pitted courtyards,adobe caves and tile-roofed houses.They turn out to be of energy conservation and environmental protection.The rocky areas andvalley terrace abound with stones which can be easily exploited.Therefore,there are numerous stone caves and some slabstone houses to the north of QinlingMountains;and slabstone houses prevail to the south of Qinling Mountains.It is also the fact that the same physic-geographical environment may be home to different types of traditional residence,and different regions may also be homes tothe same type of traditional dwelling.4.Economic environment directly determines the quality of the building materials used for the traditional residence and the degree of their decoration fineness.And the production methods and life style are also reflected in the layout,space utilization,and the arrangement of production and living facilities.5.The site selection and construction of traditional residence are based on certain beliefs and taboos.Moreover,the layout and space utilization reflects the traditional social etiquette system whichlays emphasis on the view that masters are superior to the servants and seniority deserve respect from the juniority.In fact migrants have strengthened the exchange of residential culture among different regions.When one type of dwellings is introduced to another place,it will be adjusted to the new natural geographical environment and social cultural environment.6.Shaanxi traditional residential culture region consists of the traditional residential culture region on the Loess Plateau and the traditional residential culture region inQinling-Bashan Mountains.Traditional residential culture region on the Loess Plateau can be divided into traditional residential culture sub-region byadobe and masonry cavesand courtyards along both sides of the Great Wall,traditional residential culture sub-region by cavesin escarpments on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi,and traditional residential culture sub-region bynarrowand pitted courtyardsin Central Shaanxi Plain.The traditional residential culture region in Qinling-Bashan Mountains can be divided into the traditional residential culture sub-region by the tile-roofed houses and slabstone houses among Qinling Mountains,the traditional residential culture sub-region bycourtyards in Han RiverValley,and traditional residential culture sub-region bytile-roofed houses and slabstone housesamong Daba Mountains.The division of the traditional residential culture in Shaanxi is significantly influenced by geographical boundaries administrative boundaries.The key reason lies in the fundamental role of the natural geographical environment played in the formation of traditional residence.