A house that you can carry! Li Yang, a veteran artist, recreated "Zhu Longzi", which violated the exquisite craftsmanship for half a century.

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It was an unimaginable life for modern people. The stream was flooded, the whole family moved, and after tidying up their belongings, they had to carry the house together. How incredible it sounds to "carry the house". Even if you pull out the strength of the mountains and rivers, can the house still live once it is displaced?

Qingzu Snake makes Dashui Xi Nanliao ancestors carry Zi to walk the stream

"living away from water (suffering)" and "living along the river (domain)" have always been the appearance of ordinary people's life. On the south bank of the Zengwen River, today's Annan District of Tainan City, there were many settlements for reclamation. Residents rebuilt barren sandbars into farmland and used small rivers as irrigation ditches. The history of reclamation can be traced back to Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty.

As early as before Zeng Wenxi built a dike in 1938, nearby residents jokingly called it the "green snake" because its river was uncertain and flooded, like a blind serpent rushing everywhere, and flooding was everywhere it went. To live here, you need a suitable house. The ancestors used bamboo to build traditional houses without foundations, and Zhu Liongzi appeared one after another on the south bank of the Zengwen River, like a bamboo forest forming a coastal village.

Days of torrential rain in the autumn of 1928 caused the Zeng Wenxi to soar, and the green snake began to turn around, adding to the record of destroying his family and destroying the village.

"the flood is coming! The flood is coming! " The ancestors of the old village in Xinanliao rushed to tell each other, "Walk the stream!" Take the stream! Everybody run! "

Seeing that Xinanliao was about to be engulfed by the flood, the ancestors quickly pierced the dry mud used to guard against the wind on the walls of the bamboo cage, and then used stout bamboo to cross the gap. They worked together to carry the whole bamboo house to the south and moved to the present Xinanliao. Among them, 18 households moved to Xinjizhuang and took root again. As for the carrying bamboo cage, as long as the punctured wall is mended, you can continue to live.

This is the historical allusion of "carrying Zi to walk the stream", a period of "avoiding water" full of folk wisdom, in which modern people marvel at conforming to nature, mutual assistance in the countryside, and folk beliefs.

"carrying Zi Walking the Stream" led the people to return to the scene of history. 135 people carried several metric tons of bamboo dragons to experience the difficult life of their ancestors. (provided by the National Museum of Taiwan History) Li Yang, the last heir of the family shift, devoted his life to architecture.

Don't think that bamboo cage refers to a house like a "bamboo cage."cage" means "passing through" in Hokkien. it refers to a house made of bamboo pipes that cut holes through each other and build a structure. "ci" is not a "house" in Hokkienese, but a thatched roof. This kind of bamboo tube stands as beams and columns, and the bamboo cage covered with thatch is completely built without nails and iron wires. during this period, delicate construction methods, strict size requirements, and intelligent use of local materials are deeply admired by even modern architects.

It is just that to this day, there are few craftsmen who still have the craft of building bamboo cage. Among them, there is a family workshop in Shinjizhuang, which has covered bamboo cage exclusively since the Japanese era. relying on the joint efforts of father, son and brother, it once took only three days to build a bamboo cage, and one night, three construction sites were built at the same time. They walked through the glorious age of bamboo cage, and watched it enter the dusk and disappear on the horizon.

Today, Li Yang is the only one left in the last descendant. He is a grass craftsman registered by the Tainan Cultural Resources Bureau and the founder of the last bamboo cage in Taiwan (built in 2017 in conjunction with the exhibition of the National Museum of Taiwan History). I'm afraid there's no such record.

Li Yang, the craftsman, built the bamboo cage to restore the historical scene of "carrying it along the stream". (photography / Yang Yuyun) the management philosophy of old-school craftsmen

This year, 78-year-old Li Yang has studied the bamboo cage method with his father and brother since childhood. After graduating from elementary school, he formally joined the family work class to build bamboo cage to make a living. At first, his skill was not as good as that of the other apprentices. Li Yang felt angry. He said that he was a serious and determined person, and that he would do his best as long as he wanted to accomplish it. He gave himself half a year's time to "chisel from ear to ear, tie couplets, and weave couplets together when losing to others (no process can be lost to others)." at a young age, he soon became a capable assistant to his father and brother, and an indispensable capable person in his work class.

In this way, while building bamboo cage, he also followed the evolution of the times and studied cement brick house construction. after leaving the army, Li Yang first went back to work in his own shift, and then set up his own door and worked as a contractor in the bamboo construction farm on Kaohsiung Road. the first job is to build a factory in Longchang Feed Farm. Because of the conscientiousness and quality of his work, Li Yang's shift slowly gained a reputation.

"I am lucky to be a trader," Li Yang said proudly. He recalls that at that time his quotation was NT $800 more per ping than others, and he had the pride of "those who are willing to take the bait, but those who do not want to be friends." The price is high because he uses solid materials and accurate construction methods, and he will only contract the work he can do, and will never subcontract the case to anyone else.

"Dad Ruan taught me to rely on conscience to do physiology," says Li Yang. If the owner of the completed case thinks that the extra NT $800 is not worth it, he is absolutely willing to "give it back at the price." Of course, there is no precedent for paying compensation in the construction projects he has handled in his life. in fact, he is full of pride, pride and self-confidence are written in the wrinkles on his face and the rough palms like bark, which are the life savings of old-school craftsmen.

When it comes to his craftsmanship, Li Yang is full of confidence. (photography / Yang Yuyun) Don't forget all your time in your life

Since the 1960s ○, the light and shockproof bamboo cage, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, has become out of date, and people have taken the construction of brick houses as an indicator of progress. Zhulongzi, which has been eliminated by the market, has not seen a newly completed house for half a century, and even several old houses, such as the two bamboo houses owned by Li Yang, were destroyed and collapsed more than a decade ago, turning into dust.

In 2016, the National Museum of Taiwan History invited Li Yang to build a 26-ping bamboo cage in an ancient way for the purpose of holding a special exhibition entitled "carrying the Rivers: the scenery and Nature of the Taijiang River." Half a century of craftsmanship has been put down, do you remember the old craftsman? The museum staff can't help but feel this kind of anxiety. "I don't have to worry about it," he said. after the start, the world will remember it as soon as it takes time. " Li said proudly.

Although we have not seen first-hand how the ancient construction method built a bamboo house from scratch, from the models in the bamboo cage house and the Xinanliao Heritage Museum in Xinjizhuang, and listening carefully to the old craftsman's words from scratch, we can still deeply appreciate the wisdom of ancient craftsmanship.

The bamboo cage built by Li Yangxing is currently placed on the vacant lot of Li's family in Xinjizhuang (Photo / Yang Yuyun)

Li Yang took a hundred-year-old book, "A Picture of the size of the 24 Hilltops," and carefully flipped through the mottled and fragmented paper. the notes recorded words and figures as obscure as the book of heaven, all related to the hilltop, character direction, and size. Li Yang said that in order to build Zhulongzi, it is necessary to know the owner's birthday, and in line with the numerology principle of the five elements, after determining the size of the Sanhe, it is necessary to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth before construction can be started on a good day.

The construction process of bamboo cage is quite fixed, and the most important thing is to determine the height and depth of the house according to the "Heavenly Father and Earth hexagram", and then measure and cut each bamboo pipe according to the size of the middle spine in accordance with the Heavenly Father hexagram. The whole side is assembled, and the four walls are first completed and then embedded with each other according to the holes and tenons of the bamboo pipe, forming a square.

The next step is the roof process, in which couplets (beams) are tied to columns with yellow vines, followed by corner wood, then covered with bamboo mats made of bamboo, then covered with thatched grass and fitted with eaves. Li Yang stressed that the thatch had better be uprooted and not cut, because the root entanglement can have an anti-skid effect, and the thatch on the roof can last longer.