Historically, Tujia ancestors were called "barbarians" or "barbarians". Before the Song Dynasty, Tujia people living in Wuling area, together with other ethnic minorities, were called "Wu Lingren" or "Wuxi people".

After the Song Dynasty, Tujia people were called "Tu Ding", "Tu Ren", "Tu Min" or "Tu Man" separately. After the reform, with the increase of Han immigrants, "Tu", "Ke" and "Miao" are often opposed in Wuling area to distinguish Tujia, Han and Miao.

As a clan name, "Tujia" appeared in a late period. The records of Xianfeng County in the Republic of China stated that "the home of Tusi descendants is Tujia, and the local Han immigrants are Hakka".

Tujia architecture:

There are four types of Tujia traditional houses: thatched houses, adobe houses, wooden frame houses and hanging houses. In addition, there are stone houses and caves.

The residential structure is divided into main rooms, wing rooms and eaves: there are three main rooms, with a hall in the middle and a "swallow mouth" in front; The two rooms in front of the two ends of the main house and perpendicular to the main house are wing rooms; Behind the main room is a cornice, also called cornice. A well-off family built a four-bedroom house, called the gatehouse in front and the patio in the middle.

Tujia folk houses are generally hatchbacks and hatchbacks, among which hatchbacks are diaojiao buildings. The foundation of the diaojiao building is lower than that of the main building. More than a dozen wooden columns are erected on the foundation, and the wooden columns are covered with boards (floors), with boards as the walls, usually two to three floors. There is a balcony in front of the diaojiao building and corridors on both sides.

Balcony and corridor columns are suspended, and there are cone-shaped carvings at the end of the suspended columns, which are called hanging melons. Balcony and corridor railings are mostly wooden strips. Rich families carve dragons and phoenixes on railings and elaborate carvings on windows and doors.

The eaves of the balcony are cornices and wings, and the eaves are sealed with long boards. Tujia Diaojiao Building in western Hubei is named Jiaolou because it has a balcony in front and cloisters on both sides, which form an angle with each other. Diaojiaolou, which integrates architecture, painting and sculpture, is an outstanding representative of Tujia architectural sculpture.