Page 27 - JCAU-5-4

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Spatial morphology of cohesive village

Changyuan Village, Chao Lake, Anhui province Hou Family Village, Jiangxi province Zhou Family Village, Leizhou Peninsula
Figure 8. The cohesive village spatial form of isomorphism in three places. Source: Google Earth

in the front of the cohesive and “nine dragons toward a with those of military hamlet and migrant hamlet. The
pearl” villages have a curved shape near the residential two villages share many coincidences in terms of their
side, which is very different from the common half-moon genesis, which are more like artificially created. The
shape of fengshui ponds in general migrant villages, where research found that immigrant ancestors of Jiangxi origin
the part near the residential side is straight (Zhang do appear in the typical cohesive villages. For example, the
et al.,2019). ancestor of the Zhou Family Village in Suixi County, Zhou
Fu, a native of Ji’an, Jiangxi, is a descendant of the Song’s
In terms of social environment, the “nine dragons
toward a pearl” villages were built by Jiangxi people Prime Minister called Zhou Bida, who came to Leizhou in
1275 during the Southern Song dynasty (1127 – 1279) as
mainly in the Chao Lake area during the Ming dynasty a governor of the local army. There are also cases where
(1368–1644) government-led immigration reclamation the ancestors of Jiangxi immigrants were mistakenly
movement. The villages’ size is consistent with those of recorded as immigrants from Putian, Fujian province .
2
the military hamlet and migrant hamlet which were for At the same time, historical texts confirm the existence
storing the farming tools at the time, with intermediate of temples unique to Jiangxi in the history of the Leizhou
distributions. The “nine dragons toward a pearl” type is
an ancient and widely adopted village planning model, 2
spread by Jiangxi immigrants to the northern shore of “Xuwen County Local History” recorded that
Jiayang Gao family originated in Putian, Fujian, but
Chao Lake. Although the northern part of Chao Lake according to the “surname” and “Gao’s genealogy,”
lacks surface runoff, the West Huang Mountain, 8 km the Gao family in the present Leizhou Peninsula
from the shoreline, is subject to annual flash floods, so the area was mainly divided into two branches: north
immigrants built the large water conservancy reservoir and south. The ancestor of the South Branch,
Xujiaba to hold the water for irrigation. It is evident that Gao Liandeng, was originally from Yeru Village,
Jiangxi immigrants have a wealth of technical experience Qingjiang County, Linjiang Prefecture, Jiangxi
in the modification and utilization of water resources Province, and came to Leizhou to serve in the
(Zhang, 2010). Ming dynasty, and then stayed in Gao Shan Village,
Leizhou. Gao Han, the distant ancestor of the
The study found that the immigrant population and North Branch was Governor Pingzhang (vice Prime
garrison soldiers on the Leizhou Peninsula were organized minister) in the Song dynasty, originally from Yeru
by the government to carry out large water conservation Village, Qingjiang County, Jiangxi Province, and
projects, such as dike reclamation from the Tang (618 – 907) later settled in Anhai, Jinjiang, Fujian Province.
and Song (960 – 1279) dynasties. Especially in the Ming His descendant, Gao Shiyi, participated in Zhu
dynasty (1368 – 1644), on the basis of the Song-Yuan Dai Yuanzhang’s Volunteer Army at the end of the Yuan
Gong Dike and He Gong Dike that had been built, the Telv dynasty or in the early Ming dynasty (1388) in the
21st year of Hongwu in Leiyang serving for the
ponds, Xihu Canal, and other water conservancy facilities thousand-household bureau. His son, Gao Yu, was
were continuously improved, and the North-South Dike transferred to Stone City (now Lianjiang) in the 5th
and its matching sluice gates were built to resist typhoons, year of the Ming dynasty (1440) and became the
salty tides, and irrigate fields (Zhang, 2010). The cohesive founding father of the Lianjiang Gao clan (Jiang &
villages are evenly distributed, and their size is consistent Fang, 2008).

Volume 5 Issue 4 (2023) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1224