Cheng, the paved yard
The levelled ground before and behind the house, where grain is dried, tables are set and the pig contest is held.
Pronunciation chéng｜Houses and settlement｜One entry in the Chaoshan glossary
What it means
Level ground paved before or behind a house, in flagstone or in concrete. It is not an appendage of the courtyard but the village’s shared working surface: grain goes out to dry on it, tables are set on it, a stage is put up on it, a troupe falls in on it.
The one before an ancestral hall is the hall’s cheng, the one before a temple the temple’s cheng, and when anything happens in the village people walk to the cheng. The surface is built for flatness and drainage, a little high in the middle with a channel at the edge. Grain is spread thin and turned often; for a banquet the size is measured, and whoever runs the feast knows how many tables a cheng will take.
How it is used
For the pig contest the frames are carried onto the cheng before the hall and set out in rows; a procession forms up on the cheng before it sets off; for a banquet the eight-sided tables fill it.
Words easily confused
A cheng is open ground; a sky well is the small patch the roofs enclose. One is outside the house, the other inside it, and it is the sky well that brings the light and takes the water.
Read next: Houses and settlements: plan, layout and material.
Same group: cuo, the house, ancestral hall, the pig contest.
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Last revised: 3 November 2026