Mainly distributed in eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, Dongjiang River basin and Shenzhen and Hong Kong around the Pearl River Estuary, it is a precious historical and cultural heritage with rich connotations and colorful forms. Hakka enclosed houses in Guangdong and Hong Kong can be roughly divided into 15 types, among which the dragon enclosed houses, castle enclosed houses and quadrangular buildings have the most local characteristics.
I. Square enclosed building
There are many forms of square enclosed buildings, such as square earth buildings in western Fujian and square watchtowers in northern Guangdong. Square enclosures can be divided into squares and rectangles. "Minxi-style square earth building" refers to a corridor-style house with several floors of rammed earth walls surrounded by wooden structures, and a rectangular inner courtyard rammed earth building is formed in the center. It is closed to the outside and open to the inside, and its huge appearance is like a solid earth fort. This kind of square enclosure is scattered in Raoping, Jiaoling, Tai Po and Fengshun, Guangdong, which are adjacent to western Fujian.
Second, the circular enclosure
The circular enclosure is like "flying saucers falling from the sky and mushrooms popping out of the ground", which is really ingenious. This kind of circular earth building is also called "Zhai". The circular layout, tall and magnificent momentum can be called the wonders of the world's residential buildings. The internal structure of circular earth building has two types: corridor type and unit type. The diameter of tulou varies from tens of meters to hundreds of meters. Round earth buildings, like square earth buildings, are distributed in the areas of Tai Po, Raoping, Jiaoling and Fengshun in eastern Guangdong, which are adjacent to western Fujian. Most of the houses in the earth buildings are unit houses.
The circular enclosure is like "flying saucers falling from the sky and mushrooms popping out of the ground", which is really ingenious. This kind of circular earth building is also called "Zhai". The circular layout, tall and magnificent momentum can be called the wonders of the world's residential buildings. The internal structure of circular earth building has two types: corridor type and unit type. The diameter of tulou varies from tens of meters to hundreds of meters. Round earth buildings, like square earth buildings, are distributed in the areas of Tai Po, Raoping, Jiaoling and Fengshun in eastern Guangdong, which are adjacent to western Fujian. Most of the houses in the earth buildings are unit houses.
3. Half-moon enclosure
Half-moon-shaped enclosed buildings are mainly distributed in Tai Po, Raoping and other places in Guangdong, which border with western Fujian. Raoyang, Shangrao and Shangshan in Raoping have the largest number, followed by Taoyuan in Tai Po and sporadic distribution in the east of Meixian County. Half-moon-shaped enclosed buildings are similar in appearance to the back walls of dragon-shaped enclosed houses in Xingning and Meixian areas. Some of them are overlapped by two or three half-moons, and the first floor is a unit house. There are lanes ranging from several meters to more than ten meters wide between them. Half-moon-shaped enclosed buildings in eastern Guangdong are mostly single-walled. There are two or three ancestral halls in the middle of the half-moon inner ring square, and there are paddy fields and ponds in front as usual. There is also an empty half-moon enclosure in the ring, and the open space is used as a space for drying things and holding activities.
Iv. Oval enclosure
According to the investigation of Huang Chongyue and Yang Yaolin in Shenzhen Museum, six oval Hakka enclosed buildings were found. Taihua Building in Raoyang Lanshe Village, Raoping, has changed in appearance compared with the round earth building with "Minxi-style" corridor structure. The Huangpi Shishi Zhongshan Gongci in Xingning, the Liuhengfeng Building in Luogang and the Huangshizhongxiandi in Huliao, Tai Po are oval in shape (the Zhongshan Gongci is crab-shaped), but their materials and architectural structure are quite different from those of the round earth building in western Fujian, and their plane layout is close to that of the enclosed dragon house.
V. Octagonal enclosed building
The octagonal enclosure is a complex of square and round earth buildings, and its construction method, materials and structure are the closest to those of round earth buildings, but its construction is much more difficult. Compared with square and round earth buildings, this angular building has no advantages in terms of living area, comfort and convenience. This may be related to feng shui. Only two octagonal earth buildings were found in Raoping, Guangdong Province. Among them, Huang residents in Daoyun Building of Nanlian Village in Sanrao spoke Chaoshan dialect, but they agreed that their ancestors were Hakkas.
Six, dragon enclosure.
The distribution of dragon-style enclosed houses centers on Xingning and Meixian, the hinterland of Hakka settlements, and radiates to the surrounding areas, spreading to Dongjiang River Basin and Shenzhen area around the Pearl River Estuary. The dragon-enclosed house is the largest and grand-scale Hakka residential building in Guangdong, which integrates traditional etiquette, ethics, yin and yang, geomantic geography, philosophy and architectural art.
The main body of the dragon enclosure is the hall. The so-called hall, that is, the central axis building is a square hall, with at least two halls, usually three halls. The halls are separated by patios, with the upper open hall as the ancestral hall, and the nave as the parliamentary hall. The lower open hall is a rectangular hall with a small depth. There are lining temples on both sides of the hall, which are generally separated by lanes into the Ming room, the second room, the tip room and the end room. There are horizontal houses on both sides of the hall, and a half-moon enclosure is built at the back to connect the horizontal houses, with flower heads in the half-moon. There are two horizontal dragons surrounded by one dragon, four horizontal dragons surrounded by two dragons, and the largest one is ten horizontal dragons surrounded by five dragons. The dragon-enclosed houses are mostly built on the mountain, with the front low and the back high, highlighting the central axis of the hall, which is spectacular. In front of the door is the Wo Ping, with a low illuminated wall and a half-moon pond. The dragon enclosure is round as a whole, just like the Tai Chi diagram of Yin and Yang, which has the meaning of a round place.
Some dragon-enclosed houses are built in front of and behind the outer horizontal houses for defense, and the towers are often one floor higher than the main rooms, so they are also called "four-corner buildings" or dragon-enclosed houses with four towers. The number of enclosed dragon houses depends on factors such as the development of the family and the location of the terrain. Generally, there is only one enclosure when it is first built, and it will continue to increase later.
Seven, four corners and other turrets
The Sijiaolou, which is located in the northeast of Guangdong, has a close relationship with the square tulou in western Fujian and the Tuweizi in southern Jiangxi, which highlights its defensive function.
The main feature of the quadrangle building is the addition of watchtowers at the four corners of the square (more accurately, rectangular) enclosure. The shape and internal structure of the quadrangle building are changeable, and the two places in eastern Guangdong and northern Guangdong have their own characteristics.
Generally, the central axis of the four-corner building in eastern Guangdong is a hall, with three halls in the majority. The left and right horizontal houses are connected with the outer wall of the upper hall to form a circle. The four corners are built one to two floors higher than the horizontal houses and the hall, that is, two to three floors of watchtowers, which protrude from the eaves wall for more than one meter. There are three doors on the front, the middle (hall) is the gate (main entrance), and the horizontal houses on the left and right sides are the small doors (side doors). The layout of the front door is the same as that of the enclosed dragon house, and as usual, there are wo Ping, front retaining wall and half-moon pond. There are "turning doors" at both ends of Heping. Some four-corner buildings don't have a hall in the middle, forming a large space, surrounded by bars and houses. This layout is conducive to defense. For example, Xingning Gangbei "hides from the world". According to local legend, whenever there is war or bandits, residents of nearby villages move into the building to avoid sticking to it.
The four-corner towers in northern Guangdong and Heyuan are more varied. Except for the decorative shapes of the towers, there are those with two towers, four towers, six towers or eight towers and one watchtower.
Eight, hall horizontal enclosed house
The basic structure of the hall-horizontal enclosure is two halls (halls) or three halls on the central axis, with five halls at most, and horizontal houses on both sides. This traditional house style is called "mansion style" by Hakkas in eastern Guangdong and "Wufenglou" by Fujian. This kind of residence has strong adaptability to the terrain, and is more suitable for people's customs and lifestyles of living together and living under the same roof for generations, so it is widely distributed and has a large number. The main difference between it and the dragon enclosure is that there is no flower head and dragon enclosure at the back, which highlights the plane structure and characteristics of Hakka folk houses: maintaining the combination characteristics of quadrangles and halls in the Central Plains, that is, the hall, patio, Tianjie, Heping and pond are integrated into one, which is both complete and practical.
The modeling feature of the hall-horizontal enclosure is that the open hall, veranda and patio on the central axis form a trinity of hall and well space, and there are balanced and symmetrical wing rooms on the left and right. No matter whether it is the central axis or the horizontal house, the basic composition is "four frames and three rooms", and the horizontal house is even and symmetrical. The shape of the whole building is low in the front and high in the back, highlighting the central axis, and the hall is high and the horizontal house is low. Because the overall structure is high and low, the roof tiles are scattered layer by layer, and the roof tiles are stacked, usually five times. The eaves of the roof tiles are like five phoenix wings, so some people call them "Five Phoenix Tower".
Nine, bar enclosure
Bar-type enclosure is a relatively simple type of Hakka residence. It is called bar-type enclosure because of its longitudinal arrangement and mountain flowers facing forward. It is also named because the horizontal houses in a row are like levers on both sides of a sedan chair. Bar-type enclosure has at least two bars and as many as eight bars. In the bar enclosure, the hall is sandwiched between bars, which obviously exaggerates the bar, narrows the hall and raises the height of the bar. However, in the plane layout, the hall still has the function of determining the orientation, and it must be facing the gate.
There are some differences in the construction principles between the bar enclosure and the dragon enclosure. The dragon enclosure is to build a hall first, then a horizontal house and a dragon enclosure, which continues to expand outward with the prosperity of the family. The construction principle of the bar house is that, according to the economic conditions, the simplest and practical bar house should be built first, and the ancestral hall should be built after the economic conditions permit. Another factor is influenced and restricted by geomantic geography. Mr. Feng Shui calculated and built houses according to Yin and Yang and five elements. For example, the "Niujiao House" of Qiu Dafu in Meixian White House was originally a six-bar house. According to the mountain shape, a dragon was built at the end of the side bar house. The dragon was only half enclosed, but it was not surrounded. And circular wells were dug on both sides of the back eaves wall of the hall to symbolize the bull's eye, which became the "Niujiao House". Bar-type enclosed buildings are widely distributed in Meixian and Tai Po in eastern Guangdong, but also sporadically distributed in other areas. Most of the bar-type enclosed buildings in Hong Kong have changed in form and are small and exquisite.
X. Castle-style enclosure
Castle-style enclosure, the external wall of which is rammed with "concrete" or built with blue bricks, is a major feature of Hakka houses in Dongjiang Valley and Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It is a combination of hall-style enclosure, dragon-style enclosure and quadrangle building, and it has been developed by absorbing the advantages of Guangfu houses. In the plane layout, the main structures of Xingmei Hakka residence, such as hall, horizontal house, Heping, Yuechi and Zhuan Doumen, are retained, and are surrounded by two-story enclosed buildings. On the basis of retaining the four-corner watchtower, some enclosed buildings add a "watchtower" in the center of the back enclosure, which is the highest point of the whole building. A corridor "Zouma Building" was built around the top floor of the enclosed building.
The exterior decoration of the enclosure has two major features: first, a parapet is built on the surrounding eaves, and the eaves are made of blue bricks for several layers of water chestnut teeth; Second, the top sides of the watchtower and watchtower (mountain flowers) are mostly made into "pot ears" and decorated with heads. The architectural form of the internal structure has changed greatly. Around the enclosed building (called inverted seat in the front row) are two-story or three-story unit houses, which are low inside and high outside, usually one hall, two rooms, one patio and two corridors. Most of the main rooms and horizontal rooms are two-storey unit rooms. The main entrance building occupies a unit, and the entrance through the hall is Tianjie, which separates the enclosed building from the main hall and the horizontal house. Some gates are built with imitation archway buildings with gray plastic patterns and stone carvings on them.
Xi. Weichun Village
Enclosing a village is to surround a village with a building or a wall, so some people call it a "village". The walled village is deep and high, and it is impregnable, obviously because of the need of defense. The distribution of Hakka villages is mainly at the critical point or mixed place between Hakka people and Chaoshan people or Guangfu people. There are many examples in northern Guangdong, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
The Hakka villages in Shenzhen are not only influenced by Guangfu villages, but also retain the tradition of Hakka houses. The main feature is that the houses in rows and columns are surrounded by enclosed buildings or walls, with a square plane and watchtowers at the four corners. Most of the houses in the enclosure are unit houses, with a bucket corridor or a "big head" (one hall and one room). A village with a single surname has a ancestral hall on the central axis, while a village with multiple surnames has its own ancestral hall. There are wo ping and ponds at the gate, which is one of the main differences from Guangfu Weicun.
Some Hakka villages are square and some are irregular round. Some houses in the enclosure are arranged orderly and some are messy. In addition, there are single-room houses, horizontal houses and unit houses in the village, and a room with a partition wall in the middle has become a suite or "back-to-back" front and back doors in various forms. The village around Fengshun Bridge in eastern Guangdong is surrounded by water, surrounded by independent horizontal houses.
XII. Diaolou
Hakka watchtowers seen in eastern Guangdong, northern Guangdong, Heyuan, Huiyang, Shenzhen and Hong Kong are mostly combined with enclosed buildings, dragon houses or "corridor houses", and most of them are quadrangular buildings. Only in Shixing and other areas in northern Guangdong can we see large-scale towers that exist independently. The building covers an area of 200 ~ 400 square meters and has four or five floors. There are patios and wells in the diaolou (few have no patios), and some also have ancestral halls. Each floor is a corridor-style single room with wooden floor and corridor. The outer wall is built with pebbles and blue bricks, with a thickness of more than 1 m, which is particularly strong. There is only one gate in the whole building, with a stone door frame, four or five barriers such as iron wooden doors, wooden bars and iron bars, and a fire-proof sink on the door, which is really impregnable. A village can build several towers with horns to protect the safety of the whole village. In case of bandits or war, the villagers will help the old and bring the young into the watchtower. This is also a must in Hakka architectural culture in northern Guangdong.
Thirteen, Chinese and Western style enclosure
The architectural age of the Chinese-Western style enclosure was relatively late, and it was the earliest in the late Qing Dynasty, but most of them were products after the 1920s and 1930s. Hakka wanderers who wander overseas become rich by doing business abroad, never forget their homeland, cherish the traditional life of the nation, and build a house in their hometown. Influenced by the cultural ideas of Southeast Asian countries and the West, they adopted the traditional layout of the dragon enclosure or the hall horizontal house, and made some slight changes. For example, some houses changed the arc dragon enclosure and flower head into long strips and straight lines, which were placed horizontally like pillows. Locals called them "pillow houses", such as Nanhua Youlu, Wanqiu Building and Lianfang Building in Meixian County. Windows, doors, halls and western-style decoration, especially the addition of balconies, make the ancient and deep traditional buildings glow with fresh breath.
14. Freestyle enclosed houses
The so-called freestyle refers to a kind of Hakka residential form with no obvious layout law. According to the owner's subjective desire, combined with the financial resources and land use, the building is comfortable to live in, beautiful in appearance and in line with the concept of Yin-Yang and Five Elements in the geomantic omen of Hakka traditional houses.
15. Hakka enclosed houses in Hong Kong
The main forms of Hakka enclosed houses in Hong Kong are hall horizontal houses, bar houses, concave row houses, castle enclosed houses and Chinese and Western enclosed houses.
Bar houses and concave row houses are the most common in North New Territories, Daqiling, Baxiang and Baxiang in Yuen Long, where Hakkas live in concentrated communities. There are only two types of bars: horizontal bar and parallel bars. In the horizontal bar type, a fence with the same height as the front cornice wall is built several meters away from the front cornice wall, forming a front yard and opening a side door to enter and exit. Concave row houses are most widely distributed in North New Territories. The so-called "concave row houses" are formed by connecting multiple units of "lock houses".
Luowu in Chai Wan is a typical Doulang house which absorbed the living culture of Guangfu and had an earlier age (Kangxi period in Qing Dynasty).
Yinhuaju in Yuen Long, Lingmeizhuang and Yang Jiacun were built in the late Qing Dynasty, and they are typical Guangdong-style horizontal houses.
The three houses built by the Chen family in Tsuen Wan during the reign of Qing Qianlong have a special form, and their plane layout is a form between the horizontal house of the hall and the castle-style enclosure.
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