Chaoshancuo: the spiritual sustenance of Ji Jiao people in Chaoshan

It seems that local houses have a hobby of keeping up with the royal family, and houses in Chaoshan also have the saying that "Chaozhou is the place where the palace rises". When I came to the local area, more people told me that the villagers in Chaoshan were originally relatives of the royal family and were demoted to this place. But their original tolerance can't be abandoned, so they built a house, which means they have to surrender to the world and be alone in the Peach Blossom Garden. Sounds interesting and they can't be tested.

As one of the three major ethnic groups in Guangdong Province, Chaoshan people are juxtaposed with Guangfu and Hakka. They belong to the Fulao nationality. They were formed by the integration of Fujian and Vietnam people who moved into this area since the Jin Dynasty and the Han people in the Central Plains. They are adventurous and good at doing business. They are called "Chinese Jews", together with Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants, they are called the three traditional business gangs in China. They pursue classical elegance and exquisite craftsmanship in their lives and look at their houses in Chaozhou.

Recently, a Chaoshan dialect film "Dad, I'll do it" is quite topical in Guangdong, and it was filmed in Jinzao Town, Chaoshan area. The Chaoshan characteristic building "Shanglugen" in the film is a highlight in the film. "Shanglugen" is one of the basic forms of Chaoshan folk houses, also known as climbing the lion and descending the double lakes. It is a form of three-way courtyard, named for its high back and low front, just like a tiger going down a mountain with a patio in the middle.

The basic form is also "four-quarter gold", which is a quadrilateral, named after a room shaped like "gold" at each corner. The back hall is dedicated to ancestors, and the elders live in "big rooms" on both sides. In the lobby, the younger generation and servants live in the "lower room". There are cloister halls around the patio, and some have two small rooms, which are used as kitchens or woodhouses, also called "Gezi". There is a side door to the outside between Gezai and the big room, which is called "Children's Gate" and takes many children and grandchildren in and out. Most of the other houses are developed with four cents as the basic unit. The ancestral temples and family temples in Chaoshan are expanded on the basis of four cents, which is similar to the architectural pattern in Beijing.

Chaozhou pays attention to the house facing south, the courtyard patio is in the middle, and the windows are only open to the inner courtyard. In feng shui, it is "gathering wealth". As the saying goes, "every family takes the patio as its wealth, and the house used to be a mountain." The courtyard is wide and narrow, and it is as rich as an enemy. " "Wealth" accumulates in the yard from the gate or from the sky, and then "sucks" into the house through the doors and windows of each room.

Architecturally speaking, Chaoshan area has low latitude, high sun angle, large radiant heat, high climate and humidity in the south, and stuffy indoor air, so the use of sun protection, sun shading and heat insulation for residential buildings is particularly important. In residential buildings, to achieve good natural ventilation effect, we must first have a good orientation, so as to obtain the conditions for air intake. When the orientation and ventilation conditions are already available, the ventilation effect in the house will depend on the plane layout. In the planning, the layout of halls, patios and passages is used to organize natural ventilation in Chaoshan residential buildings, which is very scientific.

The local people's love for Feng Shui is almost paranoid, so Feng Shui has flourished here for a long time. But this simple aesthetic is not so much superstition as Chaoshan people's obsession with the pattern and the perfect combination of folk beauty and human settlement science.

Chaozhou is close, Chaoshan people live together, and every family must have a temple. For hundreds of years, it has stood between the mountains and the water in Chaoshan Plain. Today, chapman still loves to go back to his hometown to build houses, and he must build houses according to the traditional pattern.

Chaoshan people's ultimate pursuit of beauty makes local houses more artistic in addition to practicality, and humanistic feelings are not in temples, but in the homes of ordinary people.

The roofs of Jieyang houses are mostly gray tiles, Chaozhou is generally black and gray, and the Huilai area in Chaoyang is red. The roofs of large-scale residential buildings are generally decorated with all kinds of beasts, precious jade trees and opera figures, or create an auspicious atmosphere of phoenix dancing and dragon dancing, or tell stories about people and gods, which is known as the world of "birds, feathers and flies". The renovation focuses on the gatehouse, roof and hall. Interior decoration buildings include wood carving and stone carving. The sculpture is exquisite and unique, with lacquer paintings and porcelain inlays. On the cornice paintings, flowers, birds, insects, fish, birds and beasts, stories of historical figures, etc. They are all painted, lifelike and lifelike, which makes the whole building full of literary atmosphere.

Roof buildings are most vulnerable to wind and rain erosion, and the shell ash materials commonly used in buildings are easy to age. Moreover, because of wind erosion, the aging in Chaoshan area is more prominent. According to the local characteristics of rich colored porcelain, the skilled craftsmen of Chaoshan ancestors invented various exquisite images with broken colored porcelain pieces, gypsum syrup and tung oil, and stuck them on the shape of clay blank. Although porcelain tiles have been beaten by wind and rain, they can last forever.

Gables refer to the lateral external walls at both ends of the building, which is called "the head of a dustpan" in the local proverb. They are named after five elements: gold, wood, water, earth and fire. They have five different shapes and are inlaid with tiles of various colors, which has become the unique arts and crafts style of Chaoshan folk houses. The majestic and towering "Cuotou" is the conspicuous place of Chaoshan folk houses.

Calligraphy and painting are often done in front of the door. Whether it is an old tile house or a new building, a plaque will be embedded in the door to show the identity of the host family or pray for peace. For example, surnamed Zhang, the plaque is "the hometown of Qinghe" to show the family origin. Stone carvings on both sides read famous sayings such as "loyalty and filial piety spread thousands of miles, and poetry and books last forever". The entrance and exit are descendants' doors, and there are fire lanes on both sides. Look carefully at the cornice painting building, or hope that the home is safer. What the owner wants is the elegance of the articles, so as to reflect the status of himself and even the whole clan.

From gables to lintels, from courtyards to windowsills, painting, calligraphy, stone carving and wood carving are all integrated into it. Looking at it alone, it is not amazing, but it is dazzling. Don't lament its superb skills because of its architectural wonders, but there are holes in the boutique.

Chaoshan has always paid no attention to academic qualifications, but has never forgotten the original intention of poetry and calligraphy. Through the historical stories and calligraphy works carved by murals, they convey their philosophy of life and their requirements for future generations to be human beings.

If you ask the young people in Chaoshan, they may not be able to answer in detail what are "commercial land roots" and "four cents of gold", but most people still live, which may be the enduring charm of Chaoshan folk houses. Cave dwellings and yurts have become the demand of scenic spots, pretending to welcome tourists from all over the world. Chaoshan people still stubbornly live in their Chaozhou village, looking up at the sky, entering and leaving the children's door, endless, comfortable and poetic.

When it comes to architecture, we have to say that the former residence of Chen Cifu, a scenic spot in Chenghai, is a house built by wealthy overseas Chinese in Thailand, and it is known as the Small Forbidden City in Chaoshan. Located in Qianmei Village, Longdu Town, Chenghai District, Shantou City, Guangdong Province, it was built by overseas Chinese Chen Cifu. The architectural style is a combination of Chinese and western. The traditional "Hummer trailer" is a mixture of western-style foreign buildings, with pavilions, cloisters and flyovers scattered all over the place, and is known as "the first overseas Chinese in Lingnan". There are countless people who analyze this scenic spot in detail, so I won't go into details here.

Just to say one thing, once a tourist went to Qianmei Village and saw two golden phoenix trees with red flowers on the roadside. Under the huge canopy, there are rows of quaint Chaoshan dwellings, and the words "scholar" and "Langzhongdi" are written on the lintel, so it is unclear whether they are scenic spots or not. They are very confused. When they walked on until they saw the words "Shou Kang Li", they decided that this place was "Chen Cili". It can be seen that in the eyes of outsiders, the style of ordinary houses in Chaoshan can be used as a scenic spot.

If you visit the former residence of Chen Cifu, you will understand that the significance of the Forbidden City is by no means because of its luxury and grandeur. At the very least, it is not just the so-called "palace of the capital, home of the people in Chaoshan", just right. Chaoshan folk houses are more symbols and inheritances of traditional meanings, scrupulously following the rules handed down from generation to generation, but constantly absorbing the advantages of foreign cultures while copying Hummer trailer and Shanglugen, and integrating them into their own rooms for their own use. Seek the origin from tradition, seek classics from the west, and explore the art of life that conforms to the progress of the times. Chen Cifu's former residence was built at the beginning of last century. Ceramic tiles, floor tiles and other decorative materials have been widely used, all imported from abroad, and the combination of Chinese and western is exquisite. This is the case with ordinary houses in Chaoshan area, which not only absorbs the western decoration concept, but also has the exquisite craftsmanship of hipsters.

Chaoshan people have the courage to travel, not afraid of stormy waves, and have traveled abroad for hundreds of years, with footprints all over the world. Countless successful hipster businessmen, Qingming every year, tens of thousands of overseas Chinese return home to worship their ancestors, which is shocking. Many wealthy businessmen are willing to go back to their hometown to build a courtyard of their own, which is nothing more than the rural complex of "innocent girl's old forest, the pond misses the old garden". It is also the pride and sense of cultural identity that "I am from Chaoshan" is deeply engraved in the bones and blood, which makes them yearn for their hometown no matter how many generations have passed and where they are.

Architecture is a collection of technology and art. As a folk house, Chaozhou CuO first affirms its use value. When I was a child, I was the place where my parents lived, sheltering from the wind and rain. Leaving home when you grow up is the sustenance of homesickness, and there is not enough humanity for outsiders. Chaoshan people who integrate the way of managing their families into their lives have already surpassed the connotation of simple architecture, far from being comparable to the deteriorated commercial ancient city soaked in formalin. Compared with those ancient cities that have no soul and only empty shells for future generations to mourn, Chaoshan is undoubtedly individual and full of vitality. Today, with the overwhelming economic development in ancient towns around the world, if we want to see the unique Chaozhou CuO, we might as well think more about how to give life to the tradition.