Jiang Jintang invited Mr. Feng Shui to inspect the site selection, and finally chose Niujiliang Xiangyang Mountain Bay as the base of Jiang's manor, and broke ground at 187 1
Because Jiang Jintang is old, weak and overworked. When his son took charge of the family business, he entrusted the construction of the manor to Jiang Yaozu.
Jiang Yaozu hired famous craftsmen such as Ma Mingjun, Wang Baogui and Li Fengfei from dongxiang county. Ordinary craftsmen are mainly farmers in the village. At ordinary times, dozens of people work with food as their wages, plus manual delivery of food, which consumes thousands of stones of food a year.
Before the manor was built, the builders cut cliffs and mountains first, then dug wells and built walls, and built them layer by layer from bottom to top.
Jiang Yaozu is not only intelligent and broad-minded, but also frequents the famous houses and rich rooms in Jinzhong during the construction process, drawing on the excellent architectural characteristics of various places and designing and building together with the masters invited by himself. For this reason, all the arrangements of the manor are ingenious, and the traditional cave structure in the loess plateau of northern Shaanxi is skillfully integrated with the quadrangle model in Beijing and Jinzhong, and gradually a building complex with cave quadrangles as the main body is formed.
At the same time, Jiang Yaozu also consulted famous craftsmen and experts from all over the country, and designed a courtyard with a front wall and three floors, which was constructed in an orderly way from bottom to top year after year. After a long period of 16, about 200,000 people were employed and finally completed in 1886.
This manor is mainly made of stone buildings, no matter the laying of walls, culverts and arch kilns, the laying of roads, steps and courtyards, the placement of stone basins, stone kang railings, stone beds and stone warehouses, or the meticulous carving of stone lions at the door, the stone carvings, stone troughs, stone fish waterways, stone main pipes and horse nails at the door have reached a superb level.
Its water mill brick carving figures, cranes, deer, pine and bamboo, floating flowers and plants, and modeling ornaments are all lifelike. Wood carving, painted flowers, window sash and plaque are also well matched with the main body.
The champion adopts Beijing quadrangle structure, combined with the characteristics of caves in northern Shaanxi. It is magnificent and integrates practicality and artistry. Its ingenious design, rigorous construction, reasonable layout, seamless and compact, strict external defense, convenient communication in the hospital, warm in winter and cool in summer, and comfortable living. It is a shining example of cave architecture in the western plateau, a concentrated display of stone carving, brick carving and wood carving, and the skills of folk craftsmen in northern Shaanxi have been highly exerted here.
The greatest achievement of Jiang Yaozu's life is to build this big manor that costs tens of thousands of stones. Because this manor was built as the private residence of the Chiang family, everyone called it Chiang Manor.
In the decades after the completion of the manor, this house was mainly occupied by Jiang Yaozu and his descendants.
Cave dwelling house