Xiuxi Qiang Village, there are actually two places, one old and one new. Now the Qiang people live in Xinzhai, called Xinzhai, not far below Xinzhai, there is an old village.
The old village is said to have existed for thousands of years, but it was severely damaged by the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, so a new village was rebuilt not far from the old village. The new village and the old village stand tall separately, but watch over each other.
Last time I came to Puxi, I wanted to visit Laozhai, but there was an excavator under construction at the intersection leading to Laozhai, and I couldn't stop, so I missed it, and I always had some regrets in my heart.
On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, after participating in the Confucian Festival in Xinzhai, I passed by Laozhai, and although it rained and snowed, I couldn't help but plunge in.
Perhaps because the two villages are very close, Xiuxi Old Village feels not so dilapidated, or maybe it is difficult to live in the homeland, and some villagers often come back to see; Perhaps although the old village is not inhabited, the house can have some other uses. In front of a house, I heard the sound of crackling, and I was startled, but when I looked closer, I found that this yard was actually used by the owner to raise horses.
The damage of the old village of Xiuxi is small, and the overall appearance is still there, but it is a good sample to observe the houses of the Qiang village.
Qiang villages are generally populated by hundreds or dozens of families. For the sake of safety, life and convenience of farming and animal husbandry, it is mostly chosen in the river valley, half-mountainside, and high-level half-mountain area surrounded by mountains and rivers, built according to the danger, and followed the mountain situation, the height is staggered, and the shape is like a castle. According to legend, the ancestors of the Qiang people in Xiuxi Qiang Village were branches of the ancient Qiang Ranqiang tribe, who were warlike and combative, so the village construction occupied high mountains and deep valleys, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack. 2,000 years ago, there was a record in the "Later Han Shu Xianyi Biography": Ran Ji people, "living by the mountains, tired stones as a room, and the high one to more than ten zhang".
The representatives of the Qiang houses are the watchtowers and the Zhuangfang.
The Diaolou built for defense occupies an important place in the Qiang dwellings, and the Qiang language calls the Diaolou "Qiong Long". It is a military defense facility built to adapt to the living environment at that time, and forms a grand and strict defense system with residential buildings and villages.
The houses are flat-roofed houses made of stone chips, square in shape, most of them are 3 floors, and each floor is more than 3 meters high. The roof deck is a place for threshing, drying food, needlework, and games for children and the elderly; The third floor, called the "Hood", is used to pile up grain and sundries; The middle floor is inhabited, and the bottom floor is housed with livestock and farm tools.
There is a "small tower" on the roof, and white stones are placed on the small towers, which are the white stone gods worshiped by the Qiang people. The Qiang people are still white, and the white stone is the supreme divine object in the minds of the Qiang people, and it is the embodiment of the gods. Generally, there are five white stones at the four corners of the roof, symbolizing the gods of heaven, earth, mountain, mountain and tree, which are the blessings of life and the sustenance of spirit.
In order to defend against enemy aggression, all the roofs inside the Qiang village are connected to each other and extend in all directions, so that they can support each other in the event of enemy invasion. Some buildings also have street crossings (arcades) to facilitate transportation. Once the enemy enters the wall, it is like entering the Lost Soul Array.
The external spatial morphological characteristics of Qiang Zhuangfang are relatively unified, but the combination and division of internal space are varied, some are sunken caves, some are quadrangle courtyard patterns, different families, and various forms.
The Qiangzhai folk houses have exquisite architectural craftsmanship and unique ideas. The rich heritage, long history and long-term isolated life make these ancient Qiang villages well preserved and become the source of Chinese architecture.