Research On The Defensiveness Of Traditional Villages In The South Of Yongzhou

In recent years,most of the architectural studies on traditional villages have focused on the village form,space,dwellings,decoration,etc.The research on cultural and spiritual characteristics is inadequate.For example,architectural defense systems has not attracted enough attention and defensiveness was typically only briefly mentioned as one of the features of the architecture.As a psychological accumulation,defensive consciousness has been influencing the layout and spatial form of the villages with the development of Chinese architecture for thousands of years.Yongzhou area is located at the junction of Hunan and Guangxi provinces.During the Ming and Qing Dynasties,social turmoil and banditry flourished.Yongzhou is also a multi-ethnic area.In addition to the Han,there are 48 ethnic minorities such as Yao and Zhuang,with a complex ethnic composition.Under such social and historical conditions,the traditional villages of Yongzhou show obvious defensive characteristics.The research object of this thesis is the defense system of the traditional villages in southern Yongzhou.The content is mainly divided into four parts: first,we reviewed the existing research literatures and defined the research concept;secondly,we analyzed the overview of the Yongzhou area and the reasons for the formation of the defense awareness;thirdly,we elaborated on the hierarchies of the defense system and the construction of defense units of the traditional villages in the southern area of Yongzhou;lastly,we analyzed the existing problems of the traditional villages and proposed suggestions based on the situation,and at the same time reflected on the enlightenment of village defense to modern settlements.The first part introduces the motivation,research significance,research content,research methods and theoretical basis of studying the defensiveness of villages in the southern area of Yongzhou.In the second part,the reasons for the defensiveness of the villages in southern Yongzhou were analyzed from the perspective of geographical environment,humanistic thoughts and external social factors.In terms of geographical factors,the southern area of Yongzhou is known as the "Nanshan Thoroughfare".It has been a hot military battleground for governors since ancient times,along with its complicated topography and geomorphology.In terms of humanistic thought,there is a strong sense of "settlement" and strong clan blood relationship.For example,many villages are the Shan-surnamed villages developed from the same clan.The Han people advocate Confucianism and Taoism while the Yao people believe in Panhu;from the perspective of external social factors,the historical population migration,the Ming Dynasty’s "Wei Suo military" system,the Yao people’s revolt,banditry and peasant uprisings are all important contributions for these defensive characteristics.In the third part the structure of the defense system of the villages in the southern area of Yongzhou were systematically elaborated from the perspectives of the macroscopic village spatial layout,the meso-level street organization,the microscopic individual construction of residential buildings as well as the spirit and consciousness aspects.From the perspective of building types,we analyzed the wall,gate tower,night watch house(closed chamber),clan gate tower,lane way gate,street building and blockhouse in the village level as well as the door,window,wall and staircase structure of single residential houses.Finally,it analyzes the current situation and problems of the defense construction of traditional villages in southern Yongzhou,and puts forward protective measures.