Conflict,fortification,and settlement patterns: A study of the vernacular villages in Guangdong,South China

Abstract

This study explores the defensive characteristics of vernacular fortified villages preserved within Guangdong province in South China. Based on field investigations that cover 1,592 townships, the planning layout, architectural design, and relevant special structures of various fortified villages were analysed and illustrated. In this way, the distribution patterns of the villages were exhibited, and their natural and social mechanisms of formation were thus revealed. Results show that the full utilization of the natural environment and organic integration with artificial defence facilities, as well as the adaption to the local culture, were the main concerns surrounding the construction of fortified villages.

Keywords

fortification vernacular villages architectures Guangdong province

I. Introduction

As a part of a war defence system, a settlement is a critical facility to guarantee the safety of a particular social group during social conflicts. How to defend against theft, looting, aggression, and even war by hostile forces through reasonable fortification becomes the key factor that influences settlement construction. According to historians, archaeologists, architects, and anthropologists, significant differences exist in the ways that settlements are fortified due to their varying levels, scales, and functions, in addition to regional disparities in the natural environment, social culture, technological levels,¹ and so on. Thus far, existing studies mainly focus on large ancient cities, military fortresses, and important buildings,² while the defence concepts and physical forms of smaller vernacular villages remain insufficiently understood. Only a few scholars discuss this topic to a certain extent in places such as Europe, West Africa, and East Asia. For example, based on his excellent research of city fortification,³ Huang K’uan-chung extends his work to rural areas and discusses in detail the local defensive organizations in the southern Song Dynasty.⁴ Chen Chunsheng explains the formation of vernacular fortified villages by tracing back to the banditry and turmoil in the social environment in the Hanjiang River basin of Guangdong province in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.⁵

Guangdong is a major province in the south of China. Within its territory, a large number of rural settlements built in the Ming and Qing dynasties are preserved, and many of them are still in use today. We find through long-term investigations that these villages usually have strong defensive characteristics; however, the construction methods of their fortifications differ significantly. Accordingly, we argue that the vernacular fortified villages in Guangdong were formed as a result of spontaneous construction by their residents under the turbulent social environment when the official political and military power was insufficient to maintain regional stability. It reflects a type of bottom-up construction logic and is the expression of the basic appeal for survival. Meanwhile, the way that these villages are fortified shows full consideration to the utilization of the natural environment and the inheritance of its social culture, which distinctly indicates the internal logic of their morphological diversity and regionality. Thus, this article explores, in particular, the defence characteristics of vernacular fortified villages that are preserved within Guangdong province in South China. The fortification types and spatial distribution patterns of the villages are exhibited. Their defence concepts and facilities, which are reflected in the villages’ planning layout, architectural design, and relevant special structures, are analysed. Consequently, their natural and social forming mechanisms are revealed.

II. Methodology and data

In Chinese history, the construction of defensive facilities for urban settlements was strictly controlled by the government; thus, rules had to be followed, and relatively unified physical forms were presented. These rules were specially recorded in many ancient books, such as Zhou Li·Kaogong Ji⁶ in the Warring States Period, Chou Hai Tu Bian⁷ in the Ming Dynasty, and so on. Some ancient military records, for example, De’an Shoucheng Lu,⁸ also reflect the characteristics of city defence. These documents provide convenience for the study of fortified urban settlements. However, the fortification of vernacular villages is a bottom-up behaviour beyond the intervention of the official forces. Their construction was less restrained and relied more on local traditions and experiences; thus, they presented diverse forms. However, due to the lack of official historical records, the study of vernacular fortified villages requires a greater field search for materials, and this is where the difficulty and the charm lies.

The large number of remains of vernacular fortified villages in Guangdong provides abundant materials for this study. In order to better analyse and display its diversity, a methodology that combines a spatial distribution and a case study is adopted. First, with Arcmap as the working platform, a high-resolution satellite image that covers the entire territory of Guangdong was used as the base map, and the spatial boundaries of 1,748 township units in the province were superimposed. Next, the defence types of villages identifiable via satellite image within each unit, such as the planning layout and architectural plane, were labelled.

Afterwards, large-scale field investigations were performed⁹ to determine the accuracy of the spatial distributions and defence types of various fortified villages. The investigations of this project began in March 2013 and lasted four years.¹⁰ In 2013, a preliminary investigation was conducted with the aim of verifying the rationality of the classification of fortified villages. On this basis, some adjustments were made to form the current classification system. Next, broader township-by-township investigations were conducted. As a matter of fact, the number of townships verified by the research group reached 1,592, with a coverage of up to 90 per cent, which greatly contributed to improving the reliability of the spatial distribution features of the fortified villages. At the same time, our researchers found considerable precious historical documents and village defence remains during investigations, which provided vivid materials for the detailed analysis.

III. Defence demands in a turbulent society – the formation of fortified villages in Guangdong province

As the southernmost province in mainland China, Guangdong is located between 20°13′~25°31′ N and 109°39′~117°19′ E, facing the sea to the south and having mountainous areas to the north. It has long been a frontier far from the administrative centre. In Chinese history, once the central dynasty was in turmoil, the immigrants would migrate southward as far as Guangdong to take refuge. These foreign populations had broken the inherent local balance of the human–land relationship. The competition for resources intensified the conflict between the immigrants and aborigines and thus triggered social disputes. Moreover, Guangdong had a long coastline where piracy historically ran rampant. When the official military power was too weak to control the rising chaos, coastal villages were seriously threatened. Therefore, the village residents in Guangdong had long suffered from the forces that emanated from both the sea and the mountains. Especially after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the defence demand of the villages was constantly strengthened, and the spontaneous construction of defence facilities gradually became a guarantee for survival. This inevitably led to the construction of vernacular fortified villages.

Threats from the sea

With a coastline of more than 3,300 km and over 750 islands along the coasts, the geographical location of Guangdong not only brings abundant marine resources and transport advantages to the villages in these coastal areas, but it also directly exposes them to threats from the ocean; the most typical threat was pirate invasions. Since the late Ming Dynasty, pirate forces in China continued to grow. Guangdong became one of the most rampant piracy areas among China’s coastal regions.¹¹ At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the South China Sea pirates had reached a scale of 70,000 people and over 800 ships.¹² In the 10th year of Jiaqing (AD 1805), the chiefs of seven major pirate groups signed the Treaty on Armed Marine Forces to establish an alliance of pirates.¹³ Under double attack from the Qing government and the combined British–Portuguese fleet, they still refused to surrender.¹⁴ This indicates that they had grown sufficiently powerful to rival the dynasty. Aside from sea vessels, the main targets of these pirates were coastal villages. Based on the reports of the East India Company’s senior officials, pirates invaded, burned, and looted numerous villages and left ruins on both sides of the Pearl River from Guangzhou to Macau.¹⁵

Meanwhile, some specific policies, which were implemented by the Qing government to eliminate the links between coastal residents and some ‘reactionary’ forces at sea, seriously affected the living conditions of coastal residents. In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Qing government issued a ban of private maritime trade between merchant vessels.¹⁶ Afterwards, the government even ordered all residents of the coastal areas to migrate towards the mainland by 25 km, and it burnt down all the coastal village houses within the clearance area.¹⁷ These policies caused the villagers to abandon the fishery and salt industries. The countryside became barren and devoid of former coastal residents. Consequently, some of the refugees ‘ganged up and became pirates’, and in some areas, even ‘half of the residents became pirates’.¹⁸ This led to a chaotic situation that blurred the distinction between civilians and bandits. As a result, constructing solid defence facilities became a crucial matter that concerned the safety of coastal residents, and it provided a manifestation of the militarization of rural society in Guangdong.

Threats from the mountains

During several major immigration booms in Chinese history, Guangdong was a main destination of immigrants from the north. The number of these immigrants was overwhelmingly larger than the aborigines,¹⁹ and they thus became the main population of Guangdong, which subverted the local population pattern. During the population flow, privileged groups tended to occupy the plains, which had better agricultural resources, while the later immigrants or vulnerable aborigines were forced to retreat to the mountainous areas where there were harsher conditions, which triggered and intensified the conflicts between aborigines and immigrants. When the resource-carrying capacity was reached or a natural disaster was encountered, fierce fights between the mountain and plain residents were inevitably sparked due to a competition for survival resources.

According to the records in the literature, large-scale armed conflicts occurred frequently throughout the history of Guangdong, and these peaked during the last years of the Qing Dynasty.²⁰ For example, conflicts persisted between local aborigines and Hakkas²¹ in the ‘Siyi Area’²² for as long as 14 years during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods (AD 1854-1867). These conflicts caused one hundred thousand casualties and the substantial destruction of villages.²³ Since this type of battle was often a mass action between ethnic groups, the need for overall village fortification was higher than for ordinary safeguards against theft and wildlife. This led to the construction of solid defensive facilities such as walled villages and earthen buildings, which currently constitute an important part of the cultural heritage of Guangdong province.

IV. Adaptation to the natural and human environment – the diversity of the morphology of fortified villages in Guangdong province

Different from urban settlements, the fortification of vernacular villages has its own logic of generation. Ensuring the security of villages is the fundamental purpose of fortification; therefore, the defence facilities should be sufficiently strong and reliable. However, the defence of villages could not simply copy the practice of cities and towns, because the construction standards of cities and towns was higher and need to be built with significant economic and human costs, which is neither feasible nor necessary for smaller villages. This means that the fortification of vernacular villages needed to be more economical and applicable. A vernacular village that combines with natural mountains, rivers, and other geographical features to skilfully make them as integral parts of the defence system and to cooperate with the construction of artificial defence facilities provides an effective way to solve this problem. Actually, the natural geographical environment and landscape pattern of Guangdong varies; it combines village fortification with the unique environment in different regions that would inevitably lead to diverse physical forms with regional characteristics. Moreover, the population composition of Guangdong is relatively complex, and there are cultural differences among different ethnic groups, which are reflected in the social and economic foundation, organizational structure, cognitive level, and other aspects. Accordingly, the construction of village fortification should be adapted to these traditional characteristics rather than breaking the inherent social order. This will also lead to different physical forms. Therefore, it can be considered that Guangdong’s special natural environment and complex population composition are the fundamental reasons for the diversity of its fortified villages.

Vertical blocking: mountains and settlement defence

Mountainous areas, with remote, secluded, and precipitous features, were considered to have stronger natural defences than the plains, which offer an environmental basis for the site selection and layout of settlement fortifications. The steep slopes and hard rocks can form a vertical barrier. Thus, skilfully integrating the terrain elements into settlement construction can immensely enhance the defensive performance of settlements.

Hidden villages in the mountains. This type of village primarily comprises natural villages scattered deep in mountainous regions. They are usually small in size and are hidden in closed basins. In general, detecting the presence of these villages is difficult, as they are covered by dense jungle and are accessible only by hidden roads. The residents of these villages are mainly impoverished individuals who rely on local farming for survival and without the accumulation of wealth. These small villages are generally not the targets of bandits, as the expected gains from pillaging them are too small, and the cost is too high. For this type of village, defence needs are mostly satisfied by simply relying on the cover of the mountains and forests (Figure 1(a)).

Villages built on remote mountains with a high altitude and low accessibility. This type of village primarily comprises the mountain strongholds of ethnic minorities. Due to their weak ethnic power, some minority tribes were expelled to live in the harsh mountains.²⁴ The ancient Yao villages in northern Guangdong are a typical example.²⁵ The Yaos have built many mountain villages with both residential and defensive functions by taking advantage of the unique local karst landforms, such as cliffs, dense forests, rocky caves, and other natural conditions. In particular, these Yao villages are usually built on steep mountain slopes, with buildings distributed in layers along the contour lines to form the rows of a well-arranged settlement layout.²⁶ Nangang village, the largest and oldest Yao stronghold in China, is the most typical example. It was built on a mountain slope with an altitude of 655-753 m. To enter the stronghold from the foot of the mountain, one must clear three stone gates and walls. The surrounding karst caves have become the fortification points of Yao villages. Invading the stronghold is incredibly difficult, as the road to it is rugged and filled with danger (Figure 1(b)).

Integrating terrain elements into the construction of the village defence system. This type of village is primarily a stronghold in low-altitude mountainous areas. Depending on their original purposes, they can be classified into military fortresses, folk cottages, bandits’ dens, and temporary shelters.²⁷ The key point of constructing such stockaded villages is that they are ‘easy to defend but difficult to attack’, where the gates and walls are built by fully using the mountain terrain or are integrated with the fortifications by directly using the cliffs as walls. The Peng stronghold in Yingde city is a typical defensive mountain settlement. The houses in the village are stacked from the bottom to the top along the mountain. The bulwark and the steep mountain wall are integrated and together, constitute rugged fortifications (Figure 1(c)).

Figure 1.

Fortified villages that rely on mountain topology. (a) Madong village: Located in a karst landform region, the village is surrounded by mountains on all sides with a small flatland in the front for farming, which thus forms a self-sufficient and secluded living unit. (b) Nangang village: There are dangerous mountain cliffs around the village. The forest and karst caves nearby can be used for concealment and ambushing. Gentle slopes and passages behind the village can serve as retreats. These make it a unique example of the effective use of topography. (c) Peng Stronghold: A fortified fortress built by the local Peng clan to resist bandit intrusions. The dwellings are distributed in layers that spiral up from the mountain foot to the top. There is only one stone-stepped road on the side of the mountain through the village with one small gate on each layer, while the other three sides are all cliffs. A small river that runs at the foot of the mountain serves for both defence and living.

Horizontal blocking: water and settlement defence

As a commonly used defensive element, water is extensively present among fortified settlements around the world. Its prominent form is the ‘moat’, that is, a trench dug around the outer wall and filled with water to block horizontal accessibility to the settlement. Similar defensive ideas are reflected in the vernacular villages of Guangdong, especially along coastal areas and in riverside plains.

According to Figure 2, of the 1,748 township units, a total of 201 towns include the defensive form of a ‘village surrounded by water’. These villages are distributed mainly in the estuarine deltas of the Xijiang, Tanjiang, and Hanjiang Rivers and along both banks of their main streams.²⁸ These regions are mainly alluvial plains, where rivers and pools are densely distributed. Such a landform is tactfully used by diverting the water around the village to thus establish a horizontal fortification.

1. Villages enclosed by dike-ponds. This type of village is mainly distributed along the lower reaches of the Xijiang, the largest river in Guangdong. The land within this region is relatively low-lying, and this is where diked fields have historically been located.²⁹ Represented by a production model of orchard-based fishponds,³⁰ the villages are scattered randomly throughout the ponds. As if floating above the water, the villages are accessible only through the narrow pond bases. Under such circumstances, invading forces lack sufficient space to assemble and can only be arranged linearly so that a powerful attack can hardly be organized, while the village’s counterattack ability is strengthened (Figure 2(a)).

2. Villages enclosed by dredging and connecting rivers. This type of fortified village is widely distributed near the estuaries of major rivers.³¹ Its main feature is to use the dense river networks on the plains to surround the village with water through appropriate dredging, excavation, and drainage. Figure 2(b) illustrates the idea of a fortification for villages on both sides of a river in the Rongjiang Plain. We can see that water channels are dredged to connect the trunk stream and the tributaries by which an ‘island’ is created and the village’s defensive performance is strengthened (Figure 2(b)).

3. Village located on small hills surrounded by water. This type of village is generally located in the transition zones between mountains and plains. The landforms in such areas are mostly low and hilly with gentle slopes. Vulnerable to flooding by nearby rivers, the village sites are often situated on small hills with higher elevations. The lower terrain below the hills originally comprised flood passages, which later formed a surrounding pond that separates the villages from the external world. This classic defence style combines the vertical and horizontal natural environments. Licha village in Zhaoqing city is a typical hill village surrounded by water. Generally, it is circular in shape, wherein the houses are arranged in an annular progressively rising pattern that corresponds to terrain elevation. The lower periphery of the village is surrounded by a pond that exceeds 12,000 m² in area, which provides a preferable defence (Figure 2(c)).

4. Village enclosed by artificial trenches. This type of village is generally planned by using a sound strategy, and its trenches mimic an ancient moat. In fact, the trenches can greatly enhance the defence performance of villages when combined with the construction of other facilities. For example, in the Guicun village fort in Dongguan city, a water fence nearly 400 m long and 18 m wide was excavated around the village, with a narrow drawbridge on the south side (currently a cement bridge) as the only passage. The bridge can be raised to add further difficulty during emergency invasions (Figure 2(d)).

Figure 2.

Villages fortified with surrounding waters. (a) Villages surrounded by dike-ponds: The pictures show Gulao Town (built in 1394) in Heshan county. People built dikes on alluvial flats on the Xijiang riverside and excavated fishponds within the dike, between which small mounds and lanes were formed to plant mulberry and sugarcane, and houses were also built. Therefore, water villages are formed with both defensive and productive functions. (b) Villages surrounded by rivers: In the case above, V1-V7 represent seven small villages. The river on the west side of V3 is a tributary introduced directly from the Rongjiang River. From this tributary, a small sub-branch is introduced from west to east, on both sides of which V2-V6 are located. Every village draws water from the nearest stream to enclose itself and forms an island-like plot. (c) Villages on a hill surrounded by water: The picture above shows Licha village (built during the Southern Song Dynasty). Located in a frequently flooded, low-lying area, the villagers built their houses on a slightly raised hill surrounded by ponds. The houses are distributed in circular layers. In the outermost ring, there are approximately 90 houses that constitute an approximately 1-km-long defensive fence. There are 10 gatehouses, and the roads form a radiating roadway network that centres on the top of the hill. (d) Village enclosed by artificial trenches: The case above shows Guicun village in Dongguan city. The village is surrounded by a 400-m long and 18-m wide artificial trench, with a 6-m high, 0.6-m thick wall to enhance defence. A narrow drawbridge is the only entrance to the village. It is rumoured that there is an ancient well in the village that leads beyond the water fence.

Construction of walled villages

Integrating the natural environment into a fortification system constitutes the first line of defence, while the construction of villages represents an artificial safeguarding method. Actually, the core defence concept of the villages in Guangdong is to build tall, thick, enclosing walls or surrounding buildings to thus ensure the safety of the internal houses. In Figure 3, we see that the ‘walled village’ formation is widely distributed in Guangdong, which covers nearly 20 per cent of the provincial territory. Concentrated particularly in eastern and northern Guangdong, where the conflicts between aborigines and immigrants were historically fierce, the ‘walled village’ almost became a classic model of village construction.

1. Fortification by constructing a wall around the village. Due to their limited size and economic capabilities, most villages are unable to build fortifications consistent with the criteria of official military fortresses. The rational choice is to build well-performing and durable defensive facilities in an economical and simple manner. Therefore, surrounding villages by simply constructing a solid, enclosed wall as a general fortification is undoubtedly effective. First, a wall is a vertical defensive element that spatially blocks defenders from attackers. Physically, an attacker cannot break in horizontally as long as the wall is sufficiently solid. Second, the wall can cooperate effectively with other defensive elements. For example, a moat can be set up to prevent the enemy from approaching the wall.³² A ‘jar wall’ can be created to prevent the direct exposure of the gate to the enemy and to concentrate fire on the invader.³³ The outermost layer of residential buildings inside the wall can be connected together to comprise another line of defence, which forms a narrow lane between the wall to trap the invader.³⁴ Finally, constructing a wall is relatively easy, economically adaptable, and can become widely popularized. As a result, most of the defensive villages in Guangdong have adopted wall fortifications, and Xinzhai village in Shanwei city is a typical example (Figure 3(a)).

2. Fortification by enclosing houses. Forming an enclosed village by directly using surrounding houses is a common layout pattern among vernacular fortification villages in Guangdong. Compared with the construction of an independent wall, an enclosure that uses houses can reduce defence works. It is more cost-effective, and the preferable defence ability is guaranteed. Most outer walls of the houses in such villages are high and thick, and sturdy materials are used to enhance defensive performance. It is worth noting that the ‘villages walled with houses’ were built by directly adding a layer of defensive houses at the village periphery, while the interior of the villages maintained the original texture. The result is a rich diversity of physical forms of ‘villages walled with houses’ in various locations in Guangdong. For instance, ‘checkerboard walled villages’ are common on the Chaoshan Plain and in Fogang county of eastern Guangdong, while in the Shaoguan and Yingde areas of northern Guangdong, ‘villages walled with rows of houses’ are prevalent. In addition, some regions also include a number of freestyle walled villages of various shapes.³⁵ Due to space limitations, the morphological characteristics of various types of ‘villages walled with houses’ are summarized in Figure 3(b) to (d).

Figure 3.

Types of walled villages in Guangdong. (a) Walled villages: Walled villages are mainly distributed in the Chaoshan Plain of eastern Guangdong. The case above is Xinzhai village (built in 1691) in Shanwei city. The general plan of the village was round, surrounded by a 5-m-high and 400-m-long outer wall that is trapezoidal in cross-section. The bottom of the wall is paved with stones approximately 1 m in thickness, and the upper part is tamped with compact earth. The houses inside are enclosed annularly parallel to the wall and form an over 2-m-wide laneway as a second line of defence. (b) Walled village with an inner checkerboard configuration: These villages are mainly distributed on the eastern Guangdong coasts and in the shallow mountainous areas in central Guangdong. The interior of the village comprises small, independent houses arranged in an orderly pattern along vertical and horizontal lanes in a checkerboard pattern. The periphery of the village is enclosed by one or multiple layers of houses. The photo shows Fanhe village in Huizhou city. (c) Walled village with inner row houses: These villages are mainly distributed in the mountainous areas in northern Guangdong. The interior of the villages is arranged in several rows, while the exterior is enclosed by one or multiple layers of houses. The case here is Shiqiaotang village in Fogang county. (d) Freestyle walled village: Freestyle walled villages are mainly distributed in the southern and northern regions of Guangdong. The general layout of these villages conforms to the topography to form a flexible but strongly defensive walled plan. The case shown is Huxinba village in Wengyuan county.

V. Defence characteristics at the building level

Mountainous areas: earthen buildings

The earthen building is known as the most distinctive defensive architecture in Guangdong.³⁶ In terms of spatial distribution, earthen buildings spread primarily in the mountainous areas of eastern and northern Guangdong and correspond to the distribution of Hakka ethnic groups.³⁷ The enclosed nature of earthen buildings is their main morphological feature. First, earthen buildings have few doorways, and there are generally no windows on the outer wall below the third story.³⁸ In the upper stories, small windows are opened for observation and shooting purposes and are convenient for curtailing the invasion of enemies with weapons such as bombs, guns, bows, and arrows. Second, earthen buildings are significantly higher than other ordinary dwellings. Their outer enclosures are usually three to four stories tall, and some can even reach five or six stories. Raising the height of the periphery not only adds difficulty in climbing for enemies but also facilitates lookouts by the villagers. Moreover, earthen buildings can also psychologically intimidate and shock hostile forces. In addition, many earthen buildings also drew on the practice of military defence to build turrets, casemates, ring corridors, and so on, thereby effectively enhancing the buildings’ overall defensive performance.

Rigorous defence is the main functional feature of earthen buildings. To cope with a possible prolonged siege, earthen buildings must be able to maintain lives enclosed for a certain length of time.³⁹ Thus, these buildings should have many wells and sufficient space to store provisions for wartime needs. In general, the ground floor is used as a kitchen, utility room, livestock shelter, and so on, given its poor ventilation and lighting conditions. Meanwhile, special storage rooms are arranged on the second floor and above to store grain and other dry provisions. There are further suggestions that the wall materials of earthen buildings were also used for grain storage. For example, the wall surface of Yanyi Wei in Shixing county is brushed with glutinous rice flour, brown sugar, and egg white powder, which can be peeled off, cooked, and eaten during a prolonged siege. Another example is a false wall constructed with bricks made of rice flour in Guanxi Xinwei.

Depending on their shape, earthen buildings in Guangdong can be classified into several types, namely, circular earthen buildings, square earthen buildings, and Lung Wai housing.

1. Circular earthen buildings are distributed mainly in Meizhou and Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong. They are large in size, with diameters that generally exceed 50 m and reach a maximum of 150 m. Comprising one or several rings of concentric circular buildings, the buildings in the outer ring are taller and play a major defensive role, while the buildings in the inner rings are smaller, with mostly one or two stories. The central section is usually a plaza, which may also have been an ancestral hall (Figure 4(a)).

2. Square earthen buildings are larger in number and are spread mainly in the northern and central Guangdong cities of Shaoguan, Heyuan, and Huizhou. They vary in size from 800 m² to nearly 3,000 m² in floor area. The logic of their construction is to surround the exterior of the hall housing⁴⁰ with tall square buildings for purposes of defence. Consequently, the central axis of the hall housing retains the function of an ancestral hall, with dwellings on both sides. Large numbers of storage rooms and ammunition depots are set up inside the buildings, similar to the circular earthen buildings (Figure 4(b)).

3. Lung Wai houses are numerous, concentrated in distribution, and typical representatives of Meizhou’s vernacular residences. This type of house is formed by surrounding the back of the hall housing with one to six or seven layers of arc-shaped ‘dragon(s)’.⁴¹ Despite the weakened enclosure of such houses compared to the circular and square earthen buildings, the arc-shaped ‘dragon(s)’ at the back and the pond and enclosed gate tower in the front provide certain defences (Figure 4(c)).

Figure 4.

Types of earthen buildings in Guangdong. (a) Circular earthen buildings: These buildings are mainly distributed in Meizhou and Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong. Shown here is Hua’e Building (built in 1608). It covers an area of 2,289 m² with three linked rings of consecutive houses. The outermost ring has three floors and is 11.9 m tall, with no windows in the first and second floors, while gun ports can be found on the third floor. The outer wall of the building was constructed by using large stones in the 2-m-thick foundation and rammed with earth in the upper part. The building has only one entrance, and the centre is a public circular courtyard. (b) Square earthen buildings: Square earthen buildings are mainly distributed in northern and central Guangdong, such as Shaoguan, Heyuan, and Huizhou. Shown here is Qianguang Building (built in 1917). With an axisymmetric rectangular plan that covers an area of 2,700 m², the building has three floors and is 15.2 m tall, with turrets at the four corners. A rectangular enclosed space inside the gate forms a second line of defence. The interior is in the traditional layout of a three-hall building, with wells, granaries, kitchens, and other facilities inside. (c) Lung Wai houses: These houses are primarily distributed in Meizhou in eastern Guangdong. Shown here is Pan’an Wei (built in 1895) in a layout of two halls, four rows on the side, and two round ‘dragons’ in the back, with turrets at the four corners and a sunning ground, a Fengshui pond, and an entrance building in the front. The outer wall, with either exposed or concealed gun ports in it, was made of rammed earth and reinforced by granite blocks at the corners.

Coastal areas: watchtowers

Significantly different from the mountainous areas in eastern and northern Guangdong where a farming-based, socioeconomic system was employed, the coastal areas had a developed commercial economy, where small families became the basic unit of social organization.⁴² Correspondingly, different from the large-family-based walled villages, enclosed strongholds, and earthen buildings in the mountainous areas, the invasion of outsiders was resisted by building watchtowers in the coastal areas.

The watchtower, which comes from the turret in the ancient circumvallation, refers to a multi-story tower-like building that stands on flatland and mainly serves as a defence and as a residence.⁴³ Watchtowers are generally tall with thick walls in which tiny openings are designed for observing and shooting. In addition, there is also substantial storage space, with kitchens and living rooms inside the towers for long-term living in special situations of prolonged defence.

Such watchtowers are widespread throughout Guangdong’s coastal areas.⁴⁴ Some inland cities such as Zhaoqing and Yunfu have even been influenced by watchtower culture because of convenient transportation on the Xijiang River. Figure 5 shows that the majority (62 per cent) of watchtowers are distributed within 50 km and 91 per cent are distributed within 100 km of the coastline, which indicates that the watchtower is a common and important defence facility among the villages in coastal areas.

Figure 5.

Defensive buildings in Guangdong. Distributed mainly in the coastal areas of Guangdong, watchtowers were significantly influenced by the architectural culture brought back by the Chinese who travelled overseas. In coastal villages, normal residence buildings were constructed according to Chinese traditions, while the watchtowers, in contrast, were built in a Western style. This is reflected particularly in the decorations and details of the architecture façades. (a) Public tower – Tianlu Tower: This tower was built by funds raised by villagers in 1925. The building is made of concrete, is 21 m tall, and has seven floors. There are 29 rooms on the first to the fifth floor, and each room was occupied by one fundraiser. The sixth floor is a public place, and the seventh is a lookout pavilion. (b) Private living tower – Ruishi Tower: This tower was built by a Chinese American, Huang Bixiu, in 1921. It is a nine-floored tower of reinforced concrete, with Western-style exterior decorations and interior Chinese decorations. (c) Watchtower – Fangs Lighthouse: Built in 1920 with concrete, it is 18.43 m high. The middle and lower parts of the tower are solidly closed and have only tiny windows, and the upper part is an open-arched loggia. Defence forces from nearby villages were stationed here to watch and guard the main paths.

Watchtowers can be classified into three types depending on their builders and users. The first type is the public tower, which was built with funds raised from all villagers or several households. Each household occupies one or several rooms that were temporarily used when preventing bandit attacks. Due to its collective funding nature, the construction of this type of tower is generally economical and has simple decorations. The second type is the private living tower, most of which are built behind the village. These watchtowers were funded and exclusively owned by wealthy individuals. Private living towers generally occupy a larger area, with complete living facilities and rich decorations that reflect the householder’s aesthetic taste. They often serve as a village’s landmark architecture. The third type is the specific watchtower primarily used for observing and detecting bandits. This type of watchtower is generally built in front of the village or on the hills and riverbanks outside the village; they stand tall and offer wide vistas. They are often equipped with searchlights, alarms, and other facilities used for the joint defence among several nearby villages (Figure 5(a)-(c)).

VI. Related facilities and their structures

Walls

Walls are the most direct and critical defence facility for both villages and houses, and their defensive performance is manifested in height, thickness, firmness, and so on. According to the investigation data, the total thickness of outer walls in Guangdong’s fortified villages and houses ranges from 0.4 to 4 m, with a thickness of approximately 0.6 m being common. Thick walls are usually cavity walls (sandwich walls) filled with various auxiliary materials. Walls are generally over 4 m in height, with some reaching over 15 m. The cross-sections of the walls are mostly trapezoidal and larger at the base, which gives them a certain stability. Meanwhile, the bottom and corners of the walls are usually made of solid stone, whereas the middle and upper layers are made of bricks and rammed earth, which reflects a certain awareness of ancient wall mechanics.

The wall materials, such as brick, stone, earth, wood, and concrete, used by the vernacular fortified villages differs according to the location of the villages and the historical period in which they were built. Overall, earthen and stone buildings are common among earlier-built villages in mountainous areas, while brick and concrete buildings are prevalent in slightly later-built villages in coastal regions. In addition, there is also a popular method for enhancing a wall’s sturdiness throughout Guangdong, the so-called ‘Sanhetu’ wall. This type of wall is formed by using rammed raw soil and pebbles as the main materials, and these are mixed with adhesives such as lime, fine sand, brown sugar, and glutinous rice paste, after which the walls are filled with mud, bamboo ribs, wood strips, and rubble. Incredibly strong and durable, they are the most frequently used wall type for fortifying villages and houses (Figure 6(a)).

Figure 6.

Defensive buildings in Guangdong. (a) Wall: The wall of Shizhai village is approximately 700 m in circumference and 10 m in height. Its foundation is made of stones, and the upper part is filled with soil. The wall is 4 m wide and is divided into inner and outer walls above the foundation between which a 2-m-wide hidden corridor is embedded. The exterior wall is equipped with gun holes and portholes. (b) Gatehouse: In Shuangfeng village, a gatehouse is designed in front of the wall; thus, a closed rectangular space is formed to avoid the direct exposure of the gate to the enemy. Moreover, ‘I’-shaped loopholes are set up in both the gatehouse and the turret to concentrate fire on the invading forces. (c) Gate: The gate of Yongcheng village has four successive doors (covered with timber, iron, stone, and timber). There is a water leak at the top of the door frame to prevent a fire attack in wartime. Reserved holes of the small room in the village gate are used to lower the bolts and extra gates to reinforce the gate. (d) Turret: The turrets of Shuang Fengzhai are set up in all directions. The southeast turret covers an area of 52.8 m², the building area is 211.9 m², and the height is 14.2 m. The plane is slightly square and is approximately 7-m wide and 8-m long. The wall is built by layer contraction so that the foundation is solid. (e) Hidden Corridor: In Shuangfeng village, a corridor is built with a height of 8.4 m. It is supported by columns on one side, and the other side is embedded in the wall. Through the corridor, turrets are connected, and the portholes in the outer wall can be fully used; battle information can also be timely delivered. (f) Gun port: The cross-section of gun ports is generally a combination of square and trapezoid shapes. In addition, the mouth outside is small, while the inner mouth is large. The outer frame is generally 290-350 mm high and 90-185 mm wide, which shows an ‘I’ shape. The number, size, and location of the gun ports on turrets and outer walls are not uniform according to the varying characteristics of the buildings.

Gates

A gate, as a weak point of settlement defence, is a crucial aspect of concern in enhancing the defensibility of vernacular villages. The first issue is the number of gates. For a village, when it has fewer gates, its enclosure is higher and its defensibility is better. Thus, designing a single gate is the safest option for small, fortified villages or buildings. It is only rational to increase the number of gates when a village reaches a certain scale.⁴⁵

Second, setting up a gatehouse is a common and effective practice. Numerous villages built towering buildings made of large stones and pebbles at the gates to increase the doorway’s depth and to greatly strengthen the gate’s sturdiness. Meanwhile, the towering gatehouses themselves can be used as a fortification for stacking weapons, observing enemies, and counterattacking invaders (Figure 6(b)).

Furthermore, some villages established small barbicans outside the gates by borrowing the practice from ancient Chinese cities. Specifically, a certain space is left outside the village to build a wall to enclose the village gate. When the enemy breaks through the first wall, they can only reach the barbican. The defensive forces inside the village can concentrate fire on the enemies in the barbican, as it cannot hold large numbers of people due to space constraints.

Finally, the structural design of gates in Guangdong’s fortified villages is quite complicated. Types include iron panel gates, ironclad wooden gates, stone sluice gates, wooden sluice gates, iron palings, wooden palings, wooden panel gates, and so on. Many villages also use a combination of multiple gates, sometimes up to five or six. In most cases, there are special bolts on the back of the gates (Figure 6(c)).

Turrets and corridors

The corners of many square-walled villages and earthen buildings have towering turrets also known as casemates, which are the highest points of the entire architectural complex. During special periods, the turrets are often assigned special guards to observe the situation outside the wall, which also constitutes an effective counterattack on the invading enemies who are at the foot of the wall or on the roof. In some villages, cannons are built in the middle of the outer wall, and the raised parts resemble a long equine face. Some of the cannons are built suspended at the top of the corners, with the aims of extending the shooting range and solving the problem of blind angles (Figure 6(d)). Commonly, there are ‘wall embedded corridors’ that connect the four turrets. A concealed corridor embedded in the interior of the outer wall connects various defence facilities by utilizing the top of the thick wall. This is also locally called the ‘horse running corridor’. Due to the barrier provided by the walls and the lookout and shooting holes, not only is a protective bunker formed but also enemies can be effectively counterattacked by using long-range weapons. The entire corridor can also be lined up and coordinated to form an impregnable line of defence together with the four turrets (Figure 6(e)).

Gun ports

Most of the traditional villages and houses in Guangdong are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when the use of guns, cannons, and gunpowder became popular following the transition from cold to hot weapons. Thus, how to accommodate new weapons became an important issue in the design of defensive buildings. We find during our investigation that many villages and houses have small loopholes in their outer walls. These loopholes are located mainly in the higher parts of turrets, hidden corridors, and walls, which leave no dead angles between their orientations. Some of the outer walls are also equipped with a protruding platform to repel enemies downwards. The loophole frames are mostly made of solid granite, and the holes contract gradually from the inside out to conceal observers and shooters. The shape of the ports depends on the type of weapon, for example, some are shaped like a cross or vase, some are small and circular for handmade guns (generally with long barrels), some are narrow and long for bows and arrows, and some are large and round formed by removing bricks or chiselling rock for handmade cannons. Especially notable are the diverse ornamental patterns of gun ports, such as windmills, the sun, flowers, plants, coins, and swastikas, which reflect the regional culture and aesthetic interest of the Cantonese people and their longing for peace.⁴⁶

VII. Conclusion and discussion

In the course of Guangdong’s history, village residents were constantly threatened by invasions from the mountains and the sea, while official forces were insufficient in destroying or curtailing these civilian plunders and battles. Confronting this turbulent social environment, numerous defensive villages were built spontaneously. From the site selection to the planning layout and from the architectural form to the detailed structure, the defence of vernacular villages in Guangdong encompasses an entire set of concepts and is reflected distinctly in their systematic construction in practice.

A full utilization of the natural environment and its organic integration with artificial fortifications is the basic defence concept adopted by vernacular villages. In coastal areas with dense water networks, people utilize water by excavating ponds, dredging rivers, surrounding hills with water, and so on, to form horizontal barriers. In mountainous regions, people establish village sites in hidden mountain forests or high-altitude hills according to the topography or use cliffs as village walls for fortification to form a vertical defence. For areas with severe social conflicts, walled villages, high-rise earthen buildings, and watchtowers are built to ensure the safety of residents’ lives and property. The combination of natural and artificial fortifications is a rational choice in the construction of vernacular fortified villages, as it helps to improve defensive performance while ensuring economic affordability.

Meanwhile, village fortifications must be adapted to their inherent culture. That is, the construction of defence facilities should not break the villages’ cultural inertia. Therefore, we can see that the ‘checkerboard walled village’, ‘row housing walled village’, ‘freestyle walled village’, ‘square earthen building’, ‘circular earthen building’, ‘Lung Wai houses’, and so on are merely additions of external walls or enclosing houses according to the common forms of local villages and houses. Not only fulfilling the people’s needs for defence, this adaptation also enables the preservation of the indigenous culture inherent in the physical form of villages and houses. This can be recognized as a compromising and pragmatic strategy adopted by the residents under pressure to survive.

Of particular interest are the similarities in the fortification methods of vernacular villages in Guangdong to the fortification methods in other countries and regions around the world. For example, elements such as moats, enclosure buildings, turrets, and bunkers are commonly seen in different parts of the world. This suggests that fortification ideas and technologies share a global commonality from the perspective of settlement defence, while their differences are mainly reflected in how they correspond to the natural and cultural environments among various regions. This article provides a meaningful framework for the global comparative study of fortification settlements. Moreover, the materials and outcomes of this study provide some examples and information from China.

Footnotes

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Programme of China (Grant number: 2017YFC0702402), Scientific Research Programme of Guangzhou (Grant number: 201804020017) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 51878283).

Notes

Author biographies

Jin Tao is an Associate Professor of the school of architecture, South China University of Technology, and a research fellow of the State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science. His main research field is the morphology of traditional settlements and buildings.

Xiaolan Zhuo is a PHD candidate of the school of architecture, South China University of Technology. Her research interest is the culture of traditional village and dwellings.

Qiaohua Qin is a PHD candidate of the school of architecture, South China University of Technology. Her research interest is the culture of traditional village and dwellings.

Dawei Xiao is a Professor of the school of architecture, South China University of Technology, and the director of State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Building Science. He has made great achievements in the field of Chinese ancient architecture research.

Shawei Zhang is a Lecturer of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Her research field is the landscape of traditional settlement.

Huashuai Chen is a Research Fellow of Duke University Medical Center. His research field is the health measurement of rural China.