Architecture Culture of Hunan

Architecture Culture

DATE:20-05-2011

Ancient architectures are a combination of ancient engineering and art, as well as the crystal of Chinese people’s wit. Hunan abounds in ancient architectures, and shrines, bridges, academies, pavilions & platforms and towers, and such architectures can be seen everywhere. A good many ancient architectures have national and religious features, and their ingenuous configuration and novel techniques make them have high artistic value. The typical buildings in Hunan are Yueyang Tower, ancient architecture complex in the large temple of South Sacred Mountain, as well as temples and towers in the whole province.
Yueyang Tower
Yueyang Tower stands at the western gate of Yueyang City with majestic demeanor and a spectacular sight, and it is a world-famous tower. Yueyang Tower, together with Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan and Pavilion of King Teng in Nanchang, are called the Three Famous Towers in South China. Its main building was established in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, with a height of 18.72 meters, and it is of pure wood structure with four columns, three storeys and overhanging eaves. Its top is covered with a yellow colored glaze helm roof, and it is the biggest existing helm-roof architecture in China. The honey-comb bucket arch under the helm top is of Hunan’s regional style. The whole building is of high value in aspects of architecture, esthetics, mechanics and technology. Standing on the top of the tower and overlooking the distant scenery, you will find that the whole Dongting Lake comes into your view, and the scene of “the water and the sky blend in one color, and the wonders of natural beauty are boundless”.
Ancient Buildings in the Hengshan Mountain
The South Sacred Mountain is the scenic spot where the ancient architectures are most intensive, and it has eight key cultural relics under the province’s protection. The Large Temple in South Sacred Mountain is the biggest temple in Hunan Province, and the temple have nine courtyards, Namely, Lingxing Gate, Panlong Pavilion, Zhengchuan Gate, Yubei Pavilion, Jiaying Gate, Yushu Tower, Main Hall, Sleeping Palace, and the Northern Backdoor. Four sides of the temple are surrounded by red walls, lofty turrets and overhanging eaves. In the east, there are eight Taoist temples, and in the west there are eight Buddhist temples. Its stone sculpture, woodcarving and colored drawings are very delicate and graceful. There are hundreds of stone tablets here, and a couple of famous calligraphers have left their beautiful writings on the inscriptions. Over thousands of years, the large temple in the South Sacred Mountain has always been treated as a Holy Land by monks and secular devotees as well as a treasure house of arts by the mass visitors. In addition to the Large Temple, South Scared Mountain is also famous for its Zhusheng Hall, Fuyan Temple, Nantai Temple, Hall of Scriptures Collection, Zhurong Hall and Huangting Temple.
Confucian Temple
Confucian Temple is the place where Confucius was worshiped in the ancient time, and most of such temples disperse over cities and towns. In Hunan Province there are eight famous Confucian Temples, namely, Yueyang Confucian Temple, Liuyang Confucian Temple, Xiangyin Confucian Temple, Lixian Confucian Temple, Ningyuan Confucian Temple, Yongzhou Confucian Temple, Fenghuang Confucian Temple and Xintian Confucian Temple. Yueyang Confucian Temple’s decorative color paintings are very delicate and beautiful. Ningyuan Confucian Temple’s stone sculptures are lifelike with various characteristics.
Ancient pagodas
Over 30 ancient pagodas can be used for tourism activities, and most of such pagodas have large scales and unique style. Now they usually stand near cities, having experienced thousands of years of vicissitudes of life. Taking steps along the stairs to get on the top of a pagoda, you will command a view of distant scenes. Yueyang Cishi pagoda, Hengyang Laiyan Pagoda, Lixian Huawasi pagoda, Guiyang East Pagoda, Yongzhou Huilong Pagoda, Qiyang Wenchang Pagoda and Yuanjiang Lingyun Pagoda are all famous.
Residents in Western Hunan Province
The ancient architectures with nationalistic styles include drum-towers, kiosks and rain & wind bridges of Dong ethnic group and Tusi City of Tujia ethnic group. The Huilong Bridge in Tongdao County is a cultural relic under the state’s protection, and it was established in the Qing Dynasty and spans over the Pingtan River. It is rebuilt in 1931, it is 62.4 meters in length, and it features grey tiles and double eaves. It is of cedar construction. On the ridge cap stand three three-eave tripods, and the ridge cap is decorated with clay sculptures of birds which can make sounds with wind, and it is a typical architecture of Dong ethnic group.
Stilted Building
Diaojiaolou in stockaded villages set off one another in green trees and verdant bamboos, and they form beautiful landscapes one by one with the natural scenery. In some parts in the Xiangxi Prefecture towns face rivers, and in most of such towns Diaojiaolou houses are built. For example, such houses in Tonghe Street in Jishou, the valleys along Tuojiang River in Fenghuang, the ancient town named Wangcun, Remote City in Chadong, and Xiche River in Longshan have attracted a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists.
Stilted buildings are a kind of distinctive architectures in the western Hunan Province, and most of them are built along rivers, and some of them are built by hills. They are constructed with wood and they are hanging above the ground, and they are supported by long wood columns at their bottoms. Along rivers, they look like houses hanging above water, so they get such a name.
Stilted buildings have corridors along the periphery, and the handrails are decorated with lattices. Columns and bars are engraved with dragons, phoenixes, magpies and flowers, etc. As the story goes, it is constructed in this way because in the past the water levels of rivers here differ from each other greatly in different periods of a year, in order to adapt to this change, the people push-up and support the houses on the bank with long wood columns, and in this way when the water level rises the houses will not be submerged, and when the water level is lower, the long house corners will come out, forming a unique landscape. Wood is the cheapest constructional material here, so Diaojiaolou houses are constructed with wood.
A stilted house usually consists of two storeys, and floorslabs are laid up on the upper floor, while the wallboards are polished with oil paint. Windows are made on the walls exposed to the sun and wind, and most of them are made in house-owners’ sitting rooms or guest bedrooms, or the places of making brocade. Most of lower storey of Diaojiaolou houses are used as granaries to store foodstuff or storing furniture, farm tools or are used as firewood houses. Corridors outside the buildings are places where the women make embroidery, picking yarn, making brocade, drying yarn and cooling clothes. Diaojiao houses of Miao ethnic group are different from those of Tujia ethnic group, as their ladders are usually placed indoor, while those of Diaojiao houses of Tujia ethnic group are placed outside the houses.