Chinese house construction is very particular. First of all, you need to look at Feng Shui, and then choose a good and auspicious day. There are fifty-six ethnic groups in China. The architecture of each ethnic group has significant differences. The buildings of different ethnic groups are integrated with local customs and culture, so just looking at the buildings, they feel that each has its own characteristics and unique style. Let’s take a look at the residential characteristics of the Buyi culture. You will be surprised!
Residential houses
Most of them are stilt-style buildings or half-buildings (the front half is a building from the front, and the back half is a bungalow when viewed from the back). Buyi areas such as Zhenning and Anshun in Guizhou are rich in high-quality stones, and there are also large flat stone slabs with basically uniform thickness that can be peeled off layer by layer. This flake stone is derived from sedimentary shale. The local Buyi people adapted to local conditions and used local materials to build slate houses with national characteristics.
Slate houses are built with stone strips or stone blocks, and the walls can be built up to five or six meters high; they are covered with stone slabs and paved in neat diamond shapes or scaled patterns with materials. The stone houses are not only impermeable Weathering the wind and rain, it is simple and beautiful, and the roof is as light as weight, making you live peacefully without being depressed. In short, except for the sandalwood rafters, which are made of wood, the rest are all made of stone. Even the tables, benches, stoves, bowls, mills, mills, troughs, jars, basins, etc. used daily in the home are all made of stone. Everything is simple and honest. This kind of house is warm in winter and cool in summer, moisture-proof and fire-proof, but has poor lighting.
Architecture
In Chengguan Town, where the county seat of Zhenning Buyi and Miao Autonomous County is located, most houses are built of stone, with dozens of three- and four-story stone buildings. Because the stone is light gray-white and becomes more crystal clear after processing, when you look at Zhenning during the day, the silver light shines; when you look at Zhenning on a moonlit night, it is covered with frost and snow. For this reason, it has the reputation of "Silver Zhenning" in ancient times and "Silver Zhenning" in popular culture. The stone buildings in this town have a long history of more than 600 years, so they can be called both solidified music and immortal epics.
Customs
The Buyi people have many things to pay attention to when building houses. First of all, you need to ask Mr. Yin and Yang to look at the "Feng Shui" and choose a place close to mountains and rivers for the homestead. It should not only have green mountains as its back, but also face the green peaks. The best backgrounds are "Crouching Lions Guarding", "Green Dragons Encircling Protection", "Noble Man's Mount" and other mountains; for mountains, choose "Two Dragons Grabbing Treasures", "Double Dragons Playing with Pearls", "Ten Thousand Horses Returning to Their Caches", and "Shou Xing". Gaozhao" and other forms. Fortunately, the Buyi area is mostly composed of limestone mountains, and such green mountains and green ridges are not difficult to find.
When building a house, you must choose an auspicious day. One month before the auspicious day, ask a carpenter to scrap materials to make the frame. On the auspicious day for erecting the house frame, worship Master Luban. After the house frame was erected, the father-in-law's family sent large beams with large flowers tied with red silk, and a band and lion dance team fired firecrackers to accompany them. When the beam is laid, singing, dancing, and banquets are held. The last step is to take the ancestral tablets and the kitchen god (charcoal fire) to the new home. The whole process of building a new house is filled with an atmosphere of joy and mutual help in Buyi villages.