A house you can carry on your shoulders! Master craftsman Li Yang recreates the "bamboo cage ci" by hand, a masterful craft shining again after half a century
That was a life modern people cannot imagine: when the creek flooded, the whole family moved, and after packing up their belongings and valuables, they still had to carry the house along with them. "Carrying the house on your shoulders" sounds so incredible. Even with the strength to move mountains, once a house is shifted, can it still be lived in?
The blind snake brings the great flood: the ancestors of Xinanliao carried their ci along the creek
"Living to avoid floods" and "living by following the waterways" have always been the way of ordinary people's lives. On the south bank of the Zengwen River, which is today's Annan District in Tainan, there were once many reclamation settlements. Residents turned barren sandbars into farmland and used small channels as irrigation ditches. The history of this migration and reclamation can be traced back to the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty.
Long before the levee was built along the Zengwen River in 1938, nearby residents jokingly called it the "blind snake," because its channel was unpredictable and floods were constant, like a giant blind snake crashing around everywhere, and wherever it went, flooding spread. Living here required a suitable kind of dwelling. The ancestors chose bamboo to put up traditional houses one after another with no foundation, and the bamboo cage ci (pronounced ci) sprang up along the south bank of the Zengwen River, like clumps of bamboo forming villages along the shore.
In the autumn of 1928, days of heavy rain caused the Zengwen River to surge, and the blind snake began to thrash and writhe in all directions, adding yet another record of homes destroyed and villages wiped out.
"The flood is here! The flood is here!" the ancestors of the old village of Xinanliao shouted as they ran to spread the word. "The creek is coming! The creek is coming! Everyone run!"
Seeing that Xinanliao was about to be swallowed by the flood, the ancestors quickly poked holes in the dried mud on the walls of the bamboo cage ci that had been used for windproofing, then pushed sturdy bamboo poles through the gaps. Together they lifted the entire bamboo house and carried it south to what is now Xinanliao, while 18 households among them moved on to Xinjizhuang and put down roots again. As for the bamboo cage ci they carried over, as long as the broken walls were patched up, people could keep living in it.
This is the historical tale of "carrying the ci along the creek," a story of "avoiding the water" full of folk wisdom. Its harmony with nature, mutual aid among neighbors, and folk beliefs all leave modern people amazed.
The last heir of a family work crew: Li Yang made construction his life's work
Do not think that bamboo cage ci means a house like a "bamboo cage." "Cage" means "to pass through" in Southern Min, referring to a house made by chiseling holes in bamboo tubes so they pass through one another, building a framework, and then assembling it. "Ci" is not the Southern Min word for "house," but refers to a thatch-covered roof. This kind of bamboo cage ci, with bamboo tubes set up as beams and columns and thatch covering the roof, was built entirely without nails or wire. Its delicate construction methods, strict dimensional requirements, and wise use of local materials are admired even by modern architects.
But today, only a handful of craftsmen still retain the skill of building bamboo cage ci. Among them, Xinjizhuang had a family work crew that had specialized in building bamboo cage ci since the Japanese era. Working together as fathers, sons, and brothers, they once built a bamboo cage ci in just three days, and once raised beams to start work at three building sites in one night according to auspicious times. They lived through the glorious age of bamboo cage ci and also watched it enter its twilight and vanish from the horizon.
Now, only one last heir remains: Li Yang. He is a thatched ci craft master registered by the Tainan City Cultural Affairs Bureau and the builder of Taiwan's last bamboo cage ci (built in 2017 in cooperation with an exhibition invitation from the National Museum of Taiwan History). Such a record will likely never be repeated.
The business philosophy of an old-school craftsman
Li Yang, now 78 years old, learned bamboo cage ci techniques from his father and brothers since childhood. After graduating from elementary school, he formally joined the family work crew and made his living building bamboo cage ci. At first his skills were not as good as those of the other apprentices, but Li Yang did not get discouraged. He said he is a diligent and determined person, and that anything he wants to accomplish, he will give his all to do. He gave himself half a year: "Chiseling the holes, tying the beams, weaving the bamboo strips, none of it can lose to others." At a young age he quickly became a capable helper to his father and brothers and an indispensable talent in the crew.
While building bamboo cage ci, he also followed the march of the times and learned concrete and brick house construction. After being discharged from military service, Li Yang first returned to work in his family's crew, and later struck out on his own, working as a contractor at a construction site in Luzhu, Kaohsiung. His first job was building the factory for Longchang Feed Mill. Because his work was diligent and high in quality, Li Yang's crew gradually made a name for itself.
"Everyone who gives me work is blessed," Li Yang said proudly. He recalled that back then he insisted on quoting 800 yuan more per ping than others, doing business with the bold spirit of "those who are willing will bite, and those who are not are still friends." The price was higher because he used solid materials and accurate methods, and because he would only take on work he could do himself and would never subcontract a project to others.
"My dad taught me that in business you must rely on conscience," Li Yang said. If after completion the client felt that the extra 800 yuan was not worth it, he would absolutely be willing to "return it at the quoted price." Of course, in all the construction projects he handled in his life, there had never yet been a case of him having to pay money back. He spoke calmly, but inwardly he was full of pride. That pride and confidence were written all over the wrinkles on his face and between his rough, bark-like palms, the life savings of an old-school craftsman.
With skill in hand, never forget it for life
From the 1960s onward, the bamboo cage ci, warm in winter and cool in summer, light and earthquake-resistant, came to be seen as outdated, and people regarded building brick houses as a sign of progress. Eliminated by the market, the bamboo cage ci had not seen a newly built house for half a century. Even the few old houses that remained, such as the two bamboo cage ci of Li Yang's own family, collapsed and were destroyed more than a decade ago, turning to dust.
In 2016, in order to hold the special exhibition "Carrying the ci along the creek: Taijiang's landscape and nature," the National Museum of Taiwan History invited Li Yang to build a bamboo cage ci of 26 ping using traditional methods for use in the exhibition activities. After half a century of setting the craft aside, would the old master still remember it? The museum staff could not help but worry. "I told them, don't worry, once you have completed your apprenticeship, you will remember the craft for a lifetime," Li Yang said with spirit.
Although we could not personally see how that ancient method built a bamboo house from nothing, from the physical bamboo cage ci placed in Xinjizhuang and the model in the Xinanliao Cultural Museum, and by listening carefully to the old craftsman tell the story from the beginning, we can still deeply appreciate the wisdom of the ancient craft.
Li Yang took out a book said to be a hundred years old, the Essential Illustrated Chart of the Twenty-Four Mountain Peaks with Matching Dimensions, and carefully leafed through its mottled, crumbling pages. The notes recorded obscure text and numbers like a heavenly book, all related to mountain peaks, character orientations, and dimensions. Li Yang said that to build a bamboo cage ci, one must know the owner's birth date and eight characters, and in accordance with the fate principles of the mutual generation and overcoming of the five elements, determine the dimensions of the three harmonies, and only then, after offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, choose an auspicious day to begin construction.
The construction process of a bamboo cage ci is fairly fixed. The most important thing is to determine the height and depth of the house according to the "Hexagram of the Heavenly Father and Earthly Mother," then use the central ridge column dimensions that match the Hexagram of the Heavenly Father to measure and cut each bamboo tube in order. Then, separately, mark the hole positions, chisel the holes for the mortises, and assemble each whole side. After finishing the four walls first, the bamboo tubes are fitted into one another by their mortises and tenons to become a cube.
Next comes the roof process. The beams are tied to the columns with yellow rattan, then the corner timbers are installed, then bamboo matting woven from Fu bamboo is laid on top, and finally thatch is used as covering and eave boards are installed. Li Yang stressed that the thatch is best pulled up by the roots, not cut, because the intertwining root systems create an anti-slip effect, allowing the thatch on the roof to last longer.
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