The “Clay Palm” Houses of the Yi Ethnic Minority
By GUO ZHIDONG
The ancient Chengzi Village in Luxi County of Yunnan Province has the best preserved group of Clay Palm Houses in China and a history going back over 500 years.
The tuzhang houses or, literally, the clay palm houses, of the Yi ethnic minority are located in the central and southeastern parts of Yunnan Province. The traditional dwelling of the Yi people is mainly built of adobes,which makes it warm in winter and cool in summer, and is strong and durable. The roofs of neighboring households are linked together, a reflection of local people's harmonious coexistence. It is of great value in the history of folk houses.
IN central and southeastern Yunnan, there is a very distinctive kind of folk house - the clay palm house of the Yi ethnic minority. Clay palm houses use abode as the main building material. Their recorded history can be traced back to the Han Dynasty(206 BC - AD 220), when the Yi people created simple and plain folk houses according to the local climate,topography, and other natural factors.
Over the course of its long history, this kind of folk house has undergone continuous improvements. In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), two-story houses began to appear. In the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), the clay palm houses of officials adopted the courtyard layout and decorative art of the Han culture, forming a unique architectural style.
The houses are usually located along mountains in rows after rows, which look magnificent. Seen from a distance, the house groups are quite orderly. These yellow houses stand end to end, radiating a golden light under the sunset against the blue sky, white clouds, and green mountains and waters. A poetic image thus comes into being, which has become the subject matter of countless artists' creative works.
The main building material of those houses is clay,supplemented by wood and stone, which is sourced from local natural resources. While building a house,craftsmen first use large blocks of stone to build a wall foundation, usually a foot or two high on the chosen site to keep the house stable. The stones used are a specialty of the local mountains, both easily available and cheap. In the middle and on the roof of the house, pine poles are erected as pillars to support the beams. Then people fix the plywood on the base of the wall, fill fine-textured clay into the plywood and tamp it, and in this way, the walls come into being layer by layer.
It is worth mentioning that the roofs of adjacent houses are reachable by a ladder, making it convenient for villagers to get in touch with each other.Some houses are of the same height, to make it even more convenient. The roofs are normally shared for drying crops during the harvest season. People help each other in this and more ways； they have lived in harmony with affection for each other for generations. This architectural form reflects simple and cordial local customs.
Local children play in Chengzi Village of Luxi County,Yunnan Province.
The roof of the clay palm house is flat, and serves as a crop-drying field. As the Yi people live in mountainous areas where there is less flat land, the roof of each house is used as a piece of artificial flat land,which not only saves the land, but also increases the space for storage and drying. In autumn, the harvest season, on the flat and broad roofs, people dry their loofah, pumpkin, corn, pepper, sorghum, and other crops. These colorful crops make the world vibrant,highlighting the charming rural life during harvest season.
The house owners also pay great attention to adornments, especially those at the door entrance and eaves. The door lintel is carved with flowers,birds and other animals. Some will hang gourds over the gate or on the beam for good luck.
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The house normally has three or five rooms. Some are bungalows, and others have two floors. The number of rooms is often determined by the financial condition of the house owner. In the middle of the bungalow there is a room for daily activities of family members, which is also the place where the owner receives guests. The rest are bedrooms and storage rooms. In the main room there is a fireplace for cooking, heating, and lighting. The fireplace is the center of family life. After working all day, the old and young of a family often gather around it to talk about their daily lives, tell stories, and share the happiness together. Yi people believe that fire is closely related to the fortune of the family.
传统的二胡演奏重视独奏能力而忽视合奏能力，导致演奏者在合奏时，只重视个人发挥，缺乏合奏意识。因此在新形势下开展二胡的多元合奏训练，提高团队合作意识，对二胡合奏的演出效果来说是非常必要的。
As the clay used to build the wall has high density and strong viscosity, it normally becomes very strong after it dries. At this time, logs are put up on the walls to serve as the main beams of the house. When building the roofs, a board is first put on the main beam. On top of that straw, pine needles, and wellpounded clay are carefully laid. In this way, the roof becomes both waterproof and fireproof, making living under it warm in winter and cool in summer. As compacted clay is very strong, the clay palm houses are normally habitable for a few decades to even a century or more.
模糊综合评价是多重目标决策的一种情形，主要用于模糊环境，通过对事物影响因素进行模糊关系方程匀速，针对一定的目的对事物做出综合评价. 模糊综合评判的过程包括综合考虑各种属性，建立被评判对象的因素集；建立评判集；进行单因素评判；为不同因素赋权值，根据权值和单因素评判结果得出综合评判结果[9].
研究表明[5]，早期肠内营养护理配合胰岛素可以有效改善患者营养状况和控制血糖，而本文通过研究发现，观察组ALB、TP、HB、血糖水平均优于对照组，且不良反应发生率8.82%低于对照组的20.58%。考虑是因为，早期肠内营养可以在为患者提高充足的能量的同时，不加重患者心肺负担，利于控制脑水肿。且肠内营养与人体生理状态一致，利于维持肠道结构和功能的完整性。而在肠内营养的基础上予以胰岛素泵，更利于胰岛素发挥作用，维持血糖稳定，减轻炎症反应。
In addition to being used for drying, the roof is also the main activity area for local residents. During the evening when people are not busy, young men and women chat with each other, dance, and sing folk songs together on the roof. On every important festival, on a wedding day, or during other events, the roof becomes a spacious place for feasting. People set tables on their roofs, cover them with pine needles, and treat their guests for three days.Villagers gather together to drink and play games in a jubilant atmosphere. The children also enjoy playing on the flat roofs.
Chengzi Village:
As time goes by, the clay palm house has gradually faded out of people's lives. Today, more than 1,000 such houses are still preserved in ancient Chengzi Village of Luxi County, Yunnan Province. Chengzi is divided into three parts:Small Dragon Tree, Middle Camp, and Small Camp. The first part was the oldest with a history of more than 270 years. In the most primitive style, here, the clay palm houses have no courtyard nor windows, and are made of compacted earth.
With the increase of its population, the village expanded to the middle and small camps, and the architectural style also changed with the entry of Han culture and the Han construction technology. As a result, patios and windows appeared to facilitate lighting； Han-style door heads, sloping roofs, and other architectural components also came into being. But still, after absorbing elements of Han architecture, most of the dwellings still maintain the characteristics of traditional Yi culture in the construction of the roof and outer walls,a perfect combination of Han and Yi construction techniques. They can be regarded as a “living fossil” in the history of folk architecture culture and construction technology.
Transportation: Take the Lu'a Special Tourism Line from the East Station of the Kunming Bus Station to Luxi Bus Station, and then take a bus to Chengzi Village. Luxi County is about 25 kilometers from Chengzi. A car can also be rented to travel there.
GUO ZHIDONG is a researcher of traditional culture at the No.93 Courtyard Museum.
标签：Clay论文; Palm论文; Houses论文; of论文; The论文; Yi论文; Ethnic论文; Minority论文; The论文; the No.93 Courtyard Museum论文;