Historically, Tujia ancestors were called "barbarians" or "barbarians". Before the Song Dynasty, Tujia people living in Wuling area, together with other ethnic minorities, were called "Wuling Man" or "Wuxi Man".

After the Song Dynasty, Tujia people were individually called "Tu Ding", "Tu Ren", "Tu Min" or "Tu Man". After the reform, with the increase of Han immigrants, "Tu", "Ke" and "Miao" are often opposed to each other to distinguish Tujia, Han and Miao in Wuling area.

As a clan name, "Tujia" appeared in a later period. The Records of Xianfeng County in the Republic of China called the "home of the Tusi descendants" Tujia "and the local Han immigrants" Hakka ".

Tujia architecture:

There are four types of traditional houses of Tujia nationality: thatched houses, adobe houses, wooden frame board houses and hanging houses. Besides, there are stone board houses and caves.

Residential structures are divided into main rooms, wing rooms and eaves: there are three main rooms, with a hall in the middle and a "swallow mouth" in front; The two rooms in front of the two ends of the main house and perpendicular to the main house are wing rooms; Behind the main room is the cornice, also known as the cornice. A well-off family built a four-bedroom house, which was called a gatehouse in front and a patio in the middle.

Tujia people's residence is generally a hatchback, but also a hatchback, of which the hatchback is a diaojiao building. The foundation of the diaojiao building is lower than that of the main building, and more than a dozen wooden columns are erected on the foundation, and wooden boards (floors) are laid on the wooden columns, with wooden boards as the walls, generally two to three floors. There is a balcony in front of the diaojiao building and corridors on both sides.

Balcony and corridor columns are suspended, and there are conical carvings at the end of the suspended columns, which are called hanging melons. Balcony and corridor railings are mostly made up of wooden strips. Rich families carve dragons and phoenixes on the railings and carve fine carvings on windows and doors.

The eaves of the balcony are cornices and wings, and the eaves are sealed with long planks. The diaojiao building of Tujia nationality in western Hubei is named the corner diaojiao building because it has a balcony in front and corridors on both sides, which form a corner with each other. Diaojiaolou, which integrates architecture, painting and sculpture, is an outstanding representative of Tujia architectural sculpture.