Folk houses refer to dwellings built for the common people. The need for a place to live is one of the most fundamental needs of human existence and the earliest surviving examples of architecture are dwellings. Wherever there are humans, there are housing problems that need to be solved. Common dwellings are, by number alone, the most popular structures. Taking an overall view of the history of folk dwellings in China, one must start from earliest times and the ways people built houses. One must also take a comprehensive look at archaeological excavations and artifacts, legends, and documents.   

Early humans who lived in caves deep underground gradually moved closer to the surface; the houses they made were partially underground with wood frames and mud walls. Early humans who lived in trees, on the other hand, moved down closer to the ground and lived in stilt houses. In a hunting and farming society, early humans gradually moved closer to one another and formed settlements. Single dwellings were aggregated into villages. In recent years, archaeologists have excavated numerous large scale settlements from this time period: the Banpo village site in Xi’an, and the Jiangzhai site in Lintong (both in Shaanxi province). Jiangzhai is the site of Yangshao culture which dates back five thousand years. At the site were five large houses facing inward toward a central plaza and each large house was surrounded by smaller houses—archaeologists interpreted this as a sign of a matriarchal society.

Dwellings from the Xia (ca. 2100–ca. 1600 BCE) and Shang (ca. 1600–ca. 1100 BCE) dynasties were unearthed at two famous sites in Henan province, Erlitou in Yanshi, and Yinxu (Yin ruins), respectively. However, because most of the structures unearthed were either palace ruins or tombs, archaeologists can surmise that ordinary people still lived in caves during this time. Stilt houses were excavated at Shi’erqiao (Twelve Bridges) in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Later, during the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1100–256 BCE), square-shaped houses became the norm. These houses had a bilateral symmetry where the main hall in the front and the living quarters in the back were built along a central axis. The first rectangular courtyard in China, excavated at Fengchu village in Fufeng, Shaanxi province, was not an ordinary residence. It does show, however, that the use of courtyards in architecture was quite mature by the late Zhou.   

No dwellings from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) have been found so far, although there are many architectural terms such as “gate,” “wall,” “door,” “window,” “family school,” “middle-courtyard,” “room,” and “bedroom” have been found recorded in documents. The precision of the mortise and tenon joints used in the construction of the inner and outer coffins excavated from burial sites are almost the same as those used in modern times.     

During the long course of history, folk houses were influenced by many factors—the different levels of development in various periods, the different ethnic groups, and the different natural conditions in various regions. These factors can be grouped into two major categories: social and natural factors. As a result of these factors not all dwellings developed in the same manner.

Social factors include social awareness, ethnic differences, religious beliefs, and customs. To understand how “social awareness” can be a factor, one needs to understand that traditional China was long dominated by a patriarchal clan system, and societal stability was propped up by the Ruist theory of morality and ethics. This theory advocated that seniors be given precedence over juniors, that men enjoy a higher status than women, that families form the basic unit and that several generations living under one roof was an ideal. The patriarchal system and respect for seniority had a profound influence on the layout of the living space, the structure of the dwelling, and the size of the rooms. As a typical dwelling style in northern China, the rectangular courtyard can best convey the traditional concept of respect for seniority and differentiation between one’s own people and outsiders. It does this because it emphasizes the multi-generational family unit living together and by “awarding” living space within the house based on status (older over younger, male over female, etc.).

Natural factors mainly refer to location, topography, geomorphology, climate, and material resources. For example, the loess plateau in northwestern China has little rainfall and few trees, thus the locals adapt to local circumstances by constructing their dwellings in man-made caves called yaodong.