A Bibliometric Review of Chinese Traditional Defensive Settlement Heritage

Unlike residential settlements, Chinese traditional defensive settlements (CTDS) are fortress-shaped settlements built by forefathers to resist invasion and defend their homeland. What remains of these settlements today are not only unique defensive entities but also defensive spatial layouts and architectural techniques that reflect military defense strategies and spatial patterns of ancient Chinese society, resulting in a distinct cultural heritage. Using CiteSpace as a research tool and CNKI as a core database, this paper conducts a visual analysis and review of the research related to CTDS, aiming to accurately and intuitively elaborate on the literature distribution characteristics, collaborative characteristics, key issues, research trends, and research hotspots. We found that research on CTDS focuses on three key issues: the composition system and defense mode of northern defensive settlements, the architectural style and cultural characteristics of southern defensive dwellings, and the settlements’ heritage conservation and development planning; and research trends can be divided into three phases. We also propose five future research recommendations. This study helps to fill the gap in the bibliometric review of Chinese traditional defensive settlements, serves as a reference for future priority research directions, and provides a manual for heritage conservation and sustainable development of this special type of settlement.