Relationship Of Xiang Xi Tujia Traditional Settlement Spacial Form And Farming Space Radius

Xiangxi region, a minority community since ancient times, is said to be place of residence of the ancient ba people`s descendants, one of whose branch is Tujia, lived on the border of Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, and Guizhou. Tujia people at the same time is the only one of all national minorities in China to live in inland rather than frontier, which is first identified by the famous ethnologist, anthropologist Pan Guangdan in 1956.The terrain of Xiangxi, known as “mountains with lakes and fields”, is mainly mountain land. In order to accommodate the topographical conditions, Tujia ancestors creatively form characteristic settlements landscape which leans to mountains and lakes. However the study of Tujia settlements in western Hunan in the past most began from single body and emphasize the research of craft and technology, ignoring the formation and development of overall shape and analyzing in the angle of folk-custom and culture even if the overall shape wasn`t ignored. As soon as the author concerned, settlements is the production of the first division of labor in society. Agriculture makes it possible for ancient people to settle down and finish hunting life. Then as a result, traditional settlements is the live point of the farmers in rural areas. And it is the land that is the most related to agriculture for land is the most important object of labor for farmers. That is to say, farmers` agricultural productive activity is adhere to the land and most of them is finished in the field. Therefore, this article attempts to analyze the relationship between traditional settlements` spacial form and the farming radius of it, reflecting their spacial relationship clearly, scientifically and intuitively in the way of diagram and resource allocation chart of settlements.Tujia distributes mainly in northern countries of western Hunan. Tujia royal court----Old Imperial City, whose traditional settlement is preserved well, is just locates in Yongshun. Among the characteristic stockaded villages announced by Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, Yongshun account for nearly half. So Yongshun, as a place preserved Tujia culture perfectly, becomes the important object of the study in this article. We hope the research of these traditional settlements could explain and predict the formation and development of some settlement phenomenon and be beneficial to protection and promotion of traditional settlements in the future.