Qing Dynasty Yipin Shangshu Wang Youdun (1692-1758), a native of Xiuning, Anhui. Yongzheng became a jinshi in the second year, and was promoted to the rank of official Shangshu during the Qianlong period. He was loyal to the court, sensitive and prudent in his handling of affairs, and diligent in his official duties. It was also a filial piety, who invited the beijing heavenly craftsmen to serve his mother, and summoned local skilled craftsmen, and spent six years before and after to build a building, called "Wufeng Lou", also known as "Filial Piety Building".
300 years later, we saw this building in The Old Street of Quexi, a craftsman town in Shangraoling Mountain, Jiangxi. Why is it called "WufengLou"? The wing corners of the cornices above the gate tower are called Suzaku, which are called phoenixes by the people, and the five pairs of wing corners such as the phoenix spread their wings, intending that the family talent will emerge.
The "Wufeng Tower" was originally a palace building, first seen in the Tang Dynasty, and was used by Huipai buildings for the construction of ancestral hall gate towers during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are about a dozen "Five Phoenix Towers" across the country, and the main gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Noon Gate, is also known as the "Five Phoenix Towers", and the more famous ones are the "Five Phoenix Towers" in Changzhi, Shanxi, which was built in the Yuan Dynasty.
Originally in Xiuning, this "Five Phoenix Building" is a five-into-four patio, which belongs to the five-entry courtyard. As the first official residence in Jiangnan, this "WufengLou" is the only well-preserved Huipai building with the highest level in East China.
"Dafudi" refers to the private residence of civilian officials, that is, the door of "Scholar-Doctor". The exquisite skills of wood carving in the three sculptures of Huipai architecture ,"stone carving, brick carving, and wood carving" are vividly expressed here.
In addition to the "Five Phoenix Building", there is also an ancient opera building with a history of hundreds of years, which is the relic of the "Five Phoenix Building" of the first official hall in Jiangnan. The ancient opera stage is represented by the unique Hui school architectural characteristics of the "Four Waters Returning to the Hall", the wing angle forms a light and lively Xieshan style shape, and the horse head is the traditional roof of Huizhou.
This ancient opera building is built on a grand scale, with exquisite materials, exquisite brick and wood stone carvings, and a majestic shape.
The straight beams and columns, splicing mortise and tenons, and the cornice bucket arches show the fineness of the Huipai architecture. It is not an exaggeration to call it a cultural heritage that has been forgotten in the folk.
This huizhou ancient archway, engraved with the four characters of "filial piety to virtue", well reflects the folk customs and family style of the archway at that time. Huizhou Ancient Archway is a unique building of the door-hole style and monumentality, derived from the Lingxing Gate. Huizhou originally had more than a thousand arches, which should be one of them.
It is also a fortunate thing that these ancient Huizhou buildings can be well preserved here. At present, the "Wufeng Building" has become the town building of this old street, and the scenic spot, including these main buildings, does not charge tickets.
Xiuning, Anhui is one of the six counties of Ancient Huizhou (Shexian County, Yixian County, Xiuning, Qimen, Jixi, Wuyuan), from which the Tunxi District of Huangshan City is located. The straight-line distance between Xiuning and Shangrao in Jiangxi is more than 100 kilometers, and the highway can be directly reached.