Liang Village is a typical earthen settlement on the Loess Plateau of China. It is located in the middle of Pingyao County, Shanxi Province, 6 km southeast of Pingyao Ancient City (Fig. 5). There is a common popular saying: ‘Liang Village initially, then follows Pingyao Ancient City’, which shows that Liang Village has a longer history than Pingyao Ancient City. In June 2007, Liang Village was listed as a National Historical and Cultural Village.Footnote 2 In 2012, it was listed as a Chinese Traditional Village.Footnote 3
As mentioned above, the main empirical evidence for this study was obtained from a Sino-French workshopFootnote 4 in Liang Village from 2009 to 2010. In this workshop, which 4 teachers and 21 students participated in, the characteristics of the relationship between earth and water were deeply studied, and we obtained two important findings. First, the settlement had a strong characteristic of the combination of rich water and earth, which was very significant. Second, there was an evolution from the ‘coexistence of water and earth’ to the ‘disintegration of water and earth’, which corresponds to the village’s devolution from prosperity to decline.
3.1 ‘Coexistence of water and earth’
3.1.1 Settlement site selection: close to water on the Loess Plateau
Liang Village is located in the core area of the largest Loess Plateau in the world. The natural Huiji River and its tributaries pass through the village on the east and west sides, forming a regional landscape with interlaced sandy terraces and valleys. The ancestors of Liang Village made clever use of the relationship between water and earth and formed a spatial pattern of ‘living on the terrace and farming in the valley’ through generations of transformation. A higher terrace for living could not only provide a good place to defend but also prevent damage from floods. Moreover, it was convenient for villagers in the valley, which had a good irrigation system for agriculture (Figs. 6 and 7). Therefore, even in its period of increasing population, Liang Village did not sprawl continuously but selected another neighbouring terrace to build a new settlement on while leaving the valley as a natural space for water conservation and agriculture.
According to a historical study, the ancestors of Liang Village preferred to build houses by the cliffs on the east side of the tributary of the Huiji River, forming the initial Yaodongs.Footnote 5 Then, three settlement units, Donghe Bu (堡),Footnote 6 Xining Bu and Nanqian Bu, were built on the terrace. Next, it continued to expand on the flat area with the completion of Changtai Bu and Tianshun Bu. Finally, three settlement clusters were completed, and between them were the valleys with water and farmland (Fig. 8).
Clearly, the site selection of Liang Village took great advantage of water, especially the terrace that was close to the mainstream of the Huiji River. Subsequently, an abundant underground water source was found in the south of the village, which brought great benefits to agriculture, ultimately making Liang Village into a rich lotus root town.Footnote 7 Thus, a local folk song, Praise Local Products (《夸土产》) sings, ‘good rice in Yuanshen Temple and fine lotus roots in Liang Village’ (源祠的大米梁村的藕). With the advantage of water, Liang Village became rich because of the cultivation of ‘lotus roots’, and it formed a beautiful landscape and liveable space on the arid Loess Plateau.
Because of the lack of water in this arid region, the ancestors of Liang Village cherished the high-quality spring water source and were grateful for the liveable environment provided by nature. Thus, this spring water source was regarded as a god by villagers. To thank it, they named it ‘Shen Quan’ (神泉,means ‘sacred spring’), built a fence to protect the outlets of the spring, and even established a temple, ‘Yuanshen Temple’ (源神祠,means temple for the god of water), on the east side to sacrifice to the god of water. The Yuanshen Temple was located between the fields amid the stage and the wells, taking the natural mountains and water systems as its background, underscoring the history of the endless awe and prayers for water sources among the villagers (Figs. 7 and 9).
3.1.2 Water circulation system inside the earthen settlement: water storage and drainage
As a single-family group settlement, Liang Village formed a typical Confucian space, with the features of clan hierarchy, large family tradition and defence demand. These social features were all reflected in the spaces. The settlement used the ‘Bu’ walls (the village walls) as its strict development boundaries, with two gates on the north and south to safeguard the large family. The spatial layout was distinct, which distinguished the public, semipublic and private spaces, while the spaces at all levels were connected by the fishbone street network with primary and secondary relationships.
For a settlement on the terrace, water circulation was an important and challenging part of the liveable space in this region. By manipulating the microterrain, the problems of water provision and flood prevention were impressively resolved for such a closed earthen settlement in the arid Loess Plateau region.
First, the ancestors carefully built a rainwater storage system in the village. The rainwater collection port and passages were well preserved on the top of the ‘Bu’ walls. Fishbone streets and lanes with a certain slope also had water passages. Rainwater went through the streets, collected in the tanks under the central street, the lowest place in the village, and was stored for daily use. It was very important in dry seasons or in defensive situations. Even today, while the original wells and underground aquifers have dried up, this water collection system can still be used. This was the elastic mechanism that Liang villagers created in response to their arid climate (Fig. 10).
Meanwhile, due to the occasionally large amounts of rainwater, the above system was also very efficient for drainage. Liang Village Stage Square was not only very secluded in terms of the treatment of the microterrain in accordance with the relationship between the opera stage, stand and the square but also excellent at collecting rainwater and then draining it out of the square quickly via its natural slope (Fig. 11).
3.1.3 Architecture treatment: local earthen material and protection against rain
Limited by local conditions, traditional buildings were made of local materials, such as earth and bricks, which had the unique effect of warming in winter and cooling in summer and reflected the unique local characteristics and a typical vernacular architecture. There were three main types of local buildings, almost all of which used earth as the main building material. The first was Yaodong, which leaned against mountains and made use of earth directly. The second was the independent Yaodong, which could be built widely on flat ground, the upper layer of which was covered with earth. The third type was a brick house, the walls of which were mostly adobe with a roof with a thick earthen layer. To protect this earthen layer from rainwater, tiles were used to drain water quickly (Fig. 12). Except for the residential buildings, other architectural elements in the settlement, such as the gate and the ‘Bu’ walls, were mainly built of earth and were also treated in detail to make rainwater flow quickly and prevent erosion.
Accordingly, historic Liang Village obviously reached a ‘dynamic balance’ by addressing the relationship between ‘earth’ and ‘water’. On the one hand, ‘earth’ was widely used as the main material in construction; on the other hand, ‘water’ was smartly treated as a fluid element to bring vitality to this relatively stable and conservative earthen settlement.
3.2 ‘Disintegration of water and earth’
3.2.1 Rural environment: water source exhaustion and farmland degradation
The increases in population caused greater demands on agricultural production, especially during the Great Leap Forward (1957–1960).Footnote 8 Villages drilled wells in a radical way to obtain water for irrigation, which not only caused the rapid decline in the groundwater level but also caused irreversible destruction to the groundwater layer and eventually caused the drying up of water sources. Meanwhile, the construction of the reservoir to the north of the village accelerated the drying of the river. This further caused the valley north of the village, which attached the rivers, to gradually shrink, and the fertile cultivated land was also gradually degraded. Finally, the landscape of the rivers and valleys surrounding the village was weakened (Fig. 13).
Due to the exhaustion of the water sources, people’s worship of nature also disappeared; therefore, the Yuanshen Temple, which was divine in history, became unimportant. In the 1970s, the spring water source was renamed the Hongqi Well (red flag well), and a mechanical pump was built next to it. In the 1980s, a motorway passed through the Yuanshen Temple and separated the temple into two parts: the opera stage on the north of the road and the other part on the opposite side. The spirit and space of this sacred historic site were completely destroyed. The internal space of the temple was used as a primary school for a period and was later abandoned. Unfortunately, the temple was also heavily damaged in the 2021 flood in Shanxi (Fig. 14).
3.2.2 Settlement form: urban sprawl and modern infrastructure intervention
With the increase in population, the five traditional ‘Bu’ walls could no longer accommodate all of the people, so it was inevitable to create new living space. However, in the twentieth century, due to improved productivity, the ability to transform nature also increased. Therefore, the villagers abandoned the traditional method of site selection and chose to sprawl adjacent to the old section, which was obviously more convenient.
Similarly, in the new settlement construction, due to the collapse of traditional family concepts and the reduction in defence needs, the traditional urban form, with a strict boundary and a grading structure, was replaced by a more open, efficient and homogenous space. However, with the breaking of the spatial hierarchy, the subtle terrain differences also disappeared. Thus, the village had to rely on a sewer system to drain water, not the natural topography.
Meanwhile, people’s worship of water also changed in a subtle way. There were two causes. First, the ideology changed; nature worship was thought to be a feudalistic superstition that should be abandoned amid the New Culture MovementFootnote 9 in China in the 1910s and 1920s. Second, the development of technology, especially the popularity of tap water, rendered the relationship between people and nature increasingly indistinct. Thus, the traditional rainwater collecting system was deemed unimportant.
3.2.3 Earthen building: loss of function and threat from water vapour
Whether it was a public building or a residential building, a lack of functions further fostered the destruction of earthen building quality. Most buildings have faced obvious problems such as humidity, weathering, roof leakage, damage to wood components, settlement and deformation. Moreover, with the development of building materials and technology, as well as the improvement of economies and living demands, concrete and ceramic tiles have replaced bricks and earth and have become increasingly popular. In contrast, a large number of traditional architectural spaces have been abandoned, and various pathologies have emerged as a result.
For earthen materials, the greatest threat has come from water vapour, which has caused cracks, spalling, ravines, flooding and other common pathologies due to rainfall and humidity. Regarding the wall on the south side of Xining Bu in Liang Village, for example, after years of erosion, the drainage system was especially destroyed, and the wall was seriously damaged. There were thus many structural pathologies, such as structural cracks, destructive gullies, overturning and settlement, and more surface pathologies, such as microcracks, spalling, scouring gullies, alkalisation and plaster loss, in the wall (Figs. 15, 16 and 17).
Therefore, various spiritual and physical transitions fundamentally caused Liang Village to shift from emphasising the ‘coexistence of water and earth’ to allowing the ‘disintegration of water and earth’. Thus, the loss of ‘water’ directly caused the deterioration of the ecological environment and the frangibility of the ecosystem. Since ‘water’ was incredibly significant as a kind of conditioner in the ecosystem, thus the loss of ‘water’ not only made the environment no longer flexible but also eroded the vitality of the earthen settlement.