"Diaojiaolou Model Building" Topic

A diaojiaolou is an ancient Chinese architectural style that features a building that's constructed on stilts. This style is said to have originated with the hill people and mountain tribesmen of Northern China. This type of building made it possible to build houses on steep slopes. Some buildings even spanned mountain streams. Instead of using a well, the residents could drop a bucket with a line to the stream below.

Pictured above is a 25mm scale model of a diaojiaolou beyond the farmer's cottage.

Pictured below is a closer view. The diaojiaolou was supported by heavy poles. Although these buildings looked top heavy, they were actually quite sturdy. The space between the poles on the ground floor was often used to provide stalls for animals. Access to the house was via stairs.

Many of these buildings had balconies as well as multiple windows. I included a clothing line with this building to give it more of a domestic feel.

Most of these buildings were at least 2-3 stories tall. As you can see in this picture, different materials could be used in the building's construction. I crafted this model to include a 2nd floor that was partially built using simulated mud bricks.

I would imagine that a village of these buildings might be quite defensible if they were constructed so that there were overlapping fields of fire for defending bowmen. While each building was vulnerable to having its poles cut down, these poles were quite thick and the buildings were stable enough to survive the loss of a pole. If each building was constructed so that the ground floor was at least partially visible from a neighboring building, archers could keep a raiding party from axing or sawing the support poles.

If there were murder holes in the ceiling, I would imagine that boiling water could be heated to drop on the intruders below; though the supply of such water would necessarily be limited to whatever the occupants had already had in stock.

If the stairwells could be pulled up, each building would have been made all the more defensible.

Interesting, thanks.

Weren't they more common in southern China?

They're probably now more common in the South. Today many of these buildings may be found alongside rivers. Since Chinese history is full of stories about repeated flooding, it would have made since to use these building alongside rivers.

The fact remains that this architectural style originated in Northern China. As with my ancestors who fled the destruction of Chu by the invading Qin, there were a great many other refugees who fled during the Warring States period.

Although the fall of Chu ended Qin's war of unification, it did not make life any easier on the average citizen regardless of what kingdom that person had once been affiliated with.

Just as press gangs once roamed looking for healthy young men to conscript into the army, the citizenry was now at risk for being pulled from their homes to work on any number of Qin projects which included the Emperor's extensive tomb and surrounding necropolis where the terracotta soldiers were later found. Entire villages were also emptied to provide the workers needed for the construction of the Great Wall.

I hadn't thought that Chu was considered to be "northern".

Wouldn't heating be a challenge for the occupants of diaojiaolou in the north?

Anyway, it is interesting architecture!

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Heh-heh … nearly everywhere in China is "north" of Guangzhou which is where my ancestors settled after fleeing the Qin invasion. And yes, heating would have been a challenge.

The diaojiaolou style of building wasn't actually Chinese or at least it didn't start out that way. These buildings were first constructed by tribal hill peoples who were an ethnic minority.

The lost kingdom of Chu was located in what is now Hubei and Hunan Province. Chu also covered parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Shangdon provinces.

The name "Hubei" literally means north of the Lake which in this case is Lake Dongting. The provincial capitol is Wuhan (the city where the coronavirus outbreak began).

Yes, although Chu was one of the southernmost warring states.