Who has detailed information about caves in the Loess Plateau?

Cave dwelling is a product of the Loess Plateau and a symbol of farmers in northern Shaanxi. The deep culture of ancient yellow land was deposited here, and the people created cave art (folk art) in northern Shaanxi. In the past, a farmer worked hard all his life, and his basic wish was to build several caves. Owning a kiln and marrying a wife is considered a family business. Men dig in the yellow land, and women do housework and have children in caves. Small caves condense the unique customs of the yellow land.

The loess, which is as deep as 100 meters, extremely difficult to penetrate water and has strong honest and frank property, provides a good premise for the development of caves. At the same time, natural conditions such as dry climate, cold winter and less wood also create opportunities for the development and continuation of caves that are warm in winter and cool in summer, very economical and do not need wood. Due to the influence of natural environment, landform and local customs, caves have formed various forms. However, from the layout and structural form of the building, it can be divided into three forms: cliff type, sinking type and independent type.

The caves in Yan 'an, northern Shaanxi are mixed with cave-style flat-roofed houses. Cave dwelling is an organic combination of natural landscape and life landscape, which permeates people's love and attachment to the yellow land.

Cliff cave (cliff cave)

Cliff caves include mountain caves and ditch caves, which are often arranged in curves or broken lines and have harmonious and beautiful architectural artistic effects. When the height of the hillside allows, sometimes several terraced caves are arranged, similar to buildings.

Sinking cave (underground kiln)

Sinking caves are underground caves, mainly distributed in the loess plateau-areas where there are no slopes and ditch walls available. The practice of this kind of cave dwelling is: first dig a square pit on the spot, and then walk into the cave dwelling with four walls to form a quadrangle. On the flat land, people can only see the treetops of the courtyard, but not the houses.

Independent cave (ring kiln)

Independent cave dwelling is a kind of arched house covered with soil, including adobe arch cave dwelling and brick arch cave dwelling. This kind of cave does not need to rely on mountains and cliffs, and can be independent without losing the advantages of caves. It can be a single story or a building. If the upper layer is also a hoop kiln, it is called "kiln on kiln"; If the upper floor is a wooden house, it is called a "kiln house".

Cave fire prevention and sound insulation, warm in winter and cool in summer, not only saves land, but also saves labor and money. It is indeed a perfect architectural form adapted to local conditions.

Look at this again:

First of all, trace the source.

(A) the relationship between caves and farming culture

1, the emergence of caves and farming culture

Qingyang is located on the Loess Plateau in the east of Gansu Province, with a mild climate. In ancient times, it was called North and Longdong. It has a long history, and "the prosperity of Zhoudao began". This is the birthplace of farming culture in China, and farming culture and folk culture are even more colorful. Qingyang, with a long history, has a rich cultural background after a long period of accumulation. To understand the development of caves, it is necessary to trace back to the ancient farming period. The cave dwelling that has been baptized by thousands of years of wind and rain is like a mother, witnessing the changes of dynasties, watching the growth of her land and the development of farming culture, which has a deep trace of farming culture and the development of farming culture has also driven her development.

As early as 200,000 years ago, human beings had already thrived in Qingyang. Zhou people attached importance to agriculture. "Geography" has: "His people have the heritage of their ancestors, good crops, and work for their own enterprises. Therefore, it is well prepared to say that agriculture, mulberry and grain are well prepared. When the Xia Dynasty lost its position in Taikang, it only inherited its father Hou Ji. The political chaos in Taikang destroyed agricultural production, so he led his people to Qingyang and settled here. Instead of using his own skills in growing crops, he taught people to harvest crops at sunrise and rest at sunset. The Book of Songs in July depicts the scene of farming at that time.

From 1930s to Jutao and Gongliu, Zhou developed agricultural production and created Zhou's splendid culture. In Tongzhi, Gansu, Qingyang people's "bumper harvest and predecessors' heritage" is their advantage, while "Fu Tao's way of thinking and living" is their advantage, which provides a guarantee for themselves. The caves inhabited by primitive people are all natural, dark and damp without sunshine, and are often endangered by wild animals, which is very unfavorable to human survival and life is not guaranteed, so it is not conducive to development. When Ju Tao came to power, he was in charge of digging caves. The so-called "Fu Tao Tao Cave" is two kinds of caves dug by Zhou people according to different geographical conditions. Ancient kilns, like pottery, had caves, and people began to dig caves.

2. Neanderthals' habits in production and life have not changed so far.

Qingyang people are hardworking and simple, and people who have been to Qingyang will have this experience. They still work silently in Qingyang, and thousands of years of habits continue on them.

In agricultural activities, seasons and production techniques have been passed down. Although the agricultural activities in Qingyang today have made unparalleled progress compared with those in ancient times, they still inherit and develop the activities of the previous week in some aspects. In July, there are descriptions of jujube picking in August, rice harvesting in September, grain storage in October, melon picking in July and gourd picking in August, all of which are the same as today's farming time. The custom of sending rice to the fields during busy farming hours, building gardens in September (that is, planting fields in spring and summer and building fields in autumn and winter), weaving doors with firewood and tying crops with thatched ropes has continued to this day.

It has also been passed down in the development of domestic livestock, and the development of agricultural production cannot be separated from the breeding and reproduction of livestock. After Zhou people arrived in Beijiang, they began to raise pigs and gradually turned wild boar into livestock. There is a saying in Gong Liu that a pigsty should be put in it. "July" has "private conversation in prison; The term "sacrifice pig" refers to keeping the pig for yourself and giving the big pig to the public. Since Gong Liu advocated raising pigs at home, raising pigs later became a symbol of the family. The development of agriculture has promoted the development of cattle, donkeys and sheep. Up to now, Qingyang donkeys and premature cows are well-known both inside and outside the province. Raising sheep is almost the main family business of the people in the north. Every year, the activities of killing lambs, offering sacrifices to mountain gods and celebrating harvest in beginning of winter have existed since ancient times.

Today's economic forest planting is inherited from the Zhou Zu period, and the economic forest planting in Qingyang area has a long history, which is not only various, but also has considerable economic benefits. A considerable number of economic forest varieties came from the planting and cultivation of Zhou Xianmin. Such as mulberry, plum, peach, pear and jujube. As far back as Xuanyuan Huangdi era, Huangdi ordered Lei Zu, the concubine of Yuan Xiling, to plant mulberry and raise silkworms. Lei Zu taught people to plant a lot of mulberry and raise silkworms and weave silks. At the beginning of the week, Qingyang area vigorously developed mulberry planting and sericulture. In July, there are poems such as "Women hold a reed, follow it and seek soft mulberry" and "Silkworm Moon Mulberry". Every year 1 month to March, they start pruning mulberry trees and cut off high branches so that people can climb short branches to pick young mulberry trees. So mulberry is a native tree species in Qingyang City. From the first week to the present, Qingyang people have had the habit of sericulture for thousands of years. In the July poem "Full of Depression and Drinking in June", depression is plum and the fruit is sweet and sour. Grafting plum branches on apricot and peach branches can produce sweeter plums than apricot and peach branches. Gong Liu brought back many excellent peach, pear and jujube trees when he went to the Western Regions. These tree species later became the dominant economic forest species in ancient land, and they are also local famous products in Qingyang city today.

Belief taboos are still reflected in modern times. In primitive times, people's knowledge was not enough to explain many things, so they feared nature and worshipped their ancestors. When the curator of the original museum we interviewed in Ningxian told us about the taboo of cave dwelling, Qingyang people had to sacrifice to the land god (called the country locally) when digging caves, and invited Mr. Yin and Yang to settle down with grain when they were haunted, which was also a custom among modern people. When they dig caves, they must invite Mr. Yin Yang. When we interviewed Grandpa Zhang in Chengguan Town, Zhenyuan County, he pointed to a mountain opposite their home and told us that the direction of the cave should be leeward and sunny, and the mountain should be realistic (that is, the entrance of the cave should face the real mountain, not the ravine), so as to make the home safe and well-off. There is a land god in Grandpa Zhang's family, who will worship whenever there is a holiday. These are all handed down from ancestors. No one remembers how long it has been, except that it has existed since parents' parents, and now it has become a habit.

(2) The relationship between paper-cutting, shadow play and caves.

"Embroidery, shadow play, paper-cutting, Longdong Yangko and Longdong Love" are the five unique folk arts in Qingyang. Our investigation activities mainly focus on the relationship between paper-cutting, sachet and shadow play and Qingyang Cave, and the expression of cave culture cannot be separated from these arts. Mr. Cao Huanrong, a folk artist, has been engaged in Qingyang art research for many years. He told us that paper-cutting, sachets and caves are inevitably related. Qingyang people use their wisdom to learn paper-cutting from the shadow of caves, and the sachet comes from paper-cutting. These are inevitably related to caves. It is precisely because Zhou Zu dug caves here and provided a stable environment for people that people can fully develop agriculture and improve their living standards. Due to the continuous development of the economy, people have become rich.

Second, the way of cave excavation.

Ancient caves belong to earth buildings in architecture, which are characterized by harmonious coexistence between man and nature, simple and easy maintenance, material saving, durability, warm in winter and cool in summer. But is his digging really as simple as we thought?

Although in recent years, with the continuous development of economy, many people abandoned kilns and few people built kilns, we can find that the width of single-hole caves is generally between 3.3 and 3.7 meters, the height is between 3.7 and 4 meters, and the intersection point is between 0.3 and 0.4 meters. The depth is1.7m to1.9m, the horizontal pile height is1.8m to 2m, and the arch height is1.7m to1.8m.

Although I didn't have the honor to see the construction process of the cave, I stumbled across the cave under construction and learned that modern caves were basically renovated on the basis of ancestors. We know their excavation methods from their workshops and materials.

The first is to dig the foundation: after the orientation of the cave is determined, start digging the foundation. Cave refers to the foundation, which is the first type of cave you dig. If there is a ditch in front of the door, you can dig up the soil and push it into the ditch with a luggage cart, which is convenient and labor-saving. If you want to dig a pit yard, the poor family or terrain is not conducive to mechanical construction, and you have to rely entirely on manpower to carry baskets one by one, which is very hard. In the past, when people cultivated Zhuangzi, they only used the slack season and rainy days to dig and transport soil, and they got up early and carried it in the dark. During the squeezing time before and after meals, you can bear the weight once, the skin on your shoulders peels off again and again, and the cocoons on your hands grind up layer by layer; Often young and old are not idle; This generation can't finish it, and the next generation will continue to do it. After digging the general shape of the foundation, the surface must be repaired and leveled, which is called "cliff scraping surface" by the locals. If the scraper has good eyesight, skill, hand strength and strength, it can scrape wonderful patterns on loess.

The second is to hit the cave. After digging the foundation and scraping the cliff surface, the kiln began to open. Kiln drilling is to dig out the shape of the cave and carry the soil away. You can't rush into the cave, because the soil is full of water and it is easy to collapse. After the cave is completed, there will be a countersunk kiln, or a "mining kiln" or a "grinding kiln". Pick out the arch from the top of the kiln, scrape the edge of the kiln and scrape it flat, so that the kiln is completed. After the cave is dried, loess and chopped wheat straw and mud are used in the mud kiln. The mud in the mud kiln is only reinforced with dry soil, and the plane made of mud is smooth and flat. Wet soil and muddy adhesion are not easy to use. The mud kiln has at least two layers of mud, one layer of coarse mud, one layer of fine mud and three layers of mud. If you live for a long time in the future, the kiln wall will be black and muddy again.

The third step is to tie gables and install doors and windows. After the kiln mud is finished, the gables, doors and windows are tied with earth pendants. Generally, the high window is installed on the door, and the low window is installed side by side with the door, with one door and two windows. A kang is set in the door by the window, and a chimney is erected against the wall outside the door. The kang by the window is for smoking quickly, which is beneficial to the cave environment and health. It is also good for women to do needlework on the hot kang.

After these steps of excavation and arrangement, the cave was basically dug.

The caves dug by people have unique life value and cultural connotation. It is more durable. There are hundreds or even thousands of caves in the area. It is also circulated among the people: there are caves that do not leak for a hundred years, and there is no house that does not leak for a hundred years. "

The vault structure of the cave conforms to the mechanical principle, and the roof pressure is divided into two parts, which are divided into two sides. The center of gravity is stable and the components are balanced, which has strong stability. In order to live in peace of mind, wooden burdens are often used to support the kiln roof in caves. After several generations of wind and rain, it has changed its owner several times and has not lost its residential value.

However, with the development of economy, more and more caves are abandoned, and few people dig caves. It has become a trend that less and less people will know about this mining method. But I still hope that when these caves exist and someone digs them, I will keep some materials. I hope this spirit can be passed on, so that we China people can understand our culture and love it.

Third, the types of caves.

Longdong Loess Plateau is the deepest loess place in the world, and Qingyang is located in the typical Longdong Loess Plateau, where there are the most populated and dense caves. The dense layers of caves have been described as: like caves in the clouds, like pearls embedded in the Loess Plateau.

By the Zhou Dynasty, earth caves were all over the valley. The Book of Songs is called "Fu Tao Tao Cave". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the types of caves increased, and each cave had a clear division of labor. There are dark villages, bright villages and quadrangle villages. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, small castles appeared, and a group of caves or heatable adobe sleeping platforms were surrounded by tall earth walls to defend against the shortage of soldiers and thieves, commonly known as fortresses.

In the construction of caves, the front of the village is generally 9 meters high and the length is 17 to 23 meters. The hole head is scraped into patterns such as water waves, and three to five holes are dug in the front, or one to three holes can be dug in the side according to the terrain. The front soil is a flat land. Generally, walls are built on three sides, and gates and gatehouses are built. Cave dwellings are generally four meters high, eight to ten feet wide and three feet deep. The main cave on the front is slightly higher than other caves, and it is used as the main hall where the elders live. There are doors and windows on the wall of the kiln mouth, usually three caves or two windows. The window near the kiln top is called skylight. There is a heatable adobe sleeping platform on the back wall of the kiln, which is next to the gable and the kiln wall, leaving a heatable adobe sleeping platform entrance. "Burning firewood ignites the adobe sleeping platform, and the kiln is warm and harmonious. The main kiln is sitting on the adobe sleeping platform, which is refreshing." Cave architecture generally takes a mountain-shaped orientation, which means that it is dry if it is wet, high if it is low, and yang if it is yin.

There are many kinds of caves in Qingyang, which can be divided into more than ten kinds, but according to the main categories, there are three kinds, namely, Zhuang Ming kiln, earth pit kiln and hoop kiln.

Zhuang Ming Kiln, also known as Nha Trang Kiln, is usually located on the hillside and beside the ditch. Make use of the cliff potential, first flatten the cliff surface, and then build a village to dig a kiln. "Fu Tao" in "Fu Tao Cave" refers to Zhuang Ming Kiln, which has three kilns, five kilns and more than five kilns. There is a thousand-year-old cave in Waxie Township, Ning County, which covers an area of 200 square meters and has five windows, which can accommodate hundreds of people. In Dong Zhiyuan, Cao Shengyuan and other plains, some people use hutongs to build villages. Because the cliff is not high, they have to dig a few meters down and then dig the kiln, which often forms three sides high and one side low. This kind of Zhuangzi is called half bright and half dark village.

Pit kiln: This kind of kiln is built on a large depression in the plain. First, dig a rectangular pit on the flat ground, which is usually five to eight meters deep, and the four sides of the pit are cut into cliff faces. Then, dig caves on four sides of the cliff, and build a long slope path or inclined hole on one side, which goes straight to the original surface as a sidewalk. The "cave dwelling" in "Fu Tao cave dwelling" is this kind of pit village. This cave is actually a basement, and the characteristics of "warm in winter and cool in summer" are more obvious.

Ring kiln: Generally, the ring kiln is built with soil embryo and wheat straw yellow mud, and the top of the kiln is arched. The top of the kiln is filled with double slopes, polished with wheat straw mud, and pressed with short rafters before and after. The rich also cover the ceiling with blue tiles, which looks like a studio from a distance and a kiln from a distance. A cave with a rectangular or square stone hoop is called a stone hoop kiln.

There are many kinds of caves in Qingyang according to their uses. Dig a small cave in the upper part between the front of the main kiln or the front of the cliff in Zhuangzi, and repair the stairs, which can overlook and be used for anti-theft. It is called a high kiln. Dig a small cave on one side of the kiln, which is mostly used to store valuables or food, and it is called rotary kiln. Residential caves have different names for different purposes, such as guest house kiln, stove kiln, sheep kiln, middle kiln, firewood kiln, grain kiln, well kiln, grinding kiln, car kiln and so on.