Cave Building Technology (dikengyuan Building Technology)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: cave building skills (dikengyuan building skills)

Applicant: Shaanxi county, Henan Province

Item No.: 963

Project No.: VIII - 180

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Henan Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Shaanxi county, Henan Province

Protected by: Sanmenxia Shanzhou Cultural Center

Brief introduction of cave Building Technology (dikengyuan Building Technology)

Applicant: Shaanxi county, Henan Province

Dikengyuan is a kind of folk house form for people to live in, which is excavated about 6 meters down on the flat ground with deep loess layer to form a rectangular deep pit, and then cut caves on the four walls. It is a negative architectural form created by subtraction. Shaanxi county is located in the triangle of Qin, Jin and Henan, with three loess terraced plains. The soil quality is uniform, continuous extension, high open and convenient drainage, which is the prerequisite for the emergence and construction of dikengyuan.

Dikengyuan was formed very early, and the semi cave style dwellings in Yangshao culture period are considered to be its embryonic form. In 1139, the ninth year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zheng Gangzhong wrote the record of the western expedition to Daoli: "from the west of Xingyang, there are all earth mountains, and most people live in caves." "If you dig a well at the beginning, it will be three feet deep, that is to say, it will pass by." Shaanxi county has a large number of remains of dikengyuan in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Before the 1980s, 95% of the dwellings here were dikengyuan, with 10000 dwellings.

The construction techniques of Shanxian dikeng courtyard mainly include the following processes:

1. Xiangdi and Fangyuan: the geomancy engineer will survey the terrain and determine the house type according to the requirements of "back to front", "up high and down low"; according to the principle of "the temple is upright and the courtyard is not upright", the orientation is slightly deviated, and the length and width include five (soil). 2. Lower courtyard and kiln: after manual rough excavation and finishing, the "embedded bucket" patio is formed; the kiln entrance is in the shape of "hand copied" parabola, "high in the front and low in the back", "wide in the front and narrow in the back". 3. Trimming and grinding yard: brick, tile mounting, lining, kiln leg, horse blocking wall, etc. the construction of overhanging eaves includes "one pulling, two teeth, three running, four copying and five buckles"; the outside of horse blocking wall is compacted with stone to find the slope. 4. Installation and painting: the installation should be "flapping the door and facing the window"; the kiln wall and cliff surface should be painted with wheat straw mud layer by layer. 5. Drainage and Kang building: build a seepage pit with a diameter of 80 cm and a depth of 6 m near the toilet to drain water; connect the Kang and stove in the kiln, the adobe cushion is "three stove and four Kang", and the Kang size includes "seven" (wife).

The modular system and technical essentials of dikengyuan construction reflect the unity of folk custom and science, which has important research value; the environmental load is small, and the livability is strong, which reflects the people-oriented requirements.