Wuzhouchuantong Residential Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Zhuge Village in Lanxi City, Zhejiang Province, now has more than two hundred Ming and Qing dynasty residences; the earliest building there was constructed around the tenth year of the Zhizheng era of the Yuan dynasty (1350). The earliest buildings of Yuyuan Village in Wuyi County date from the Southern Song dynasty, and 130 Ming and Qing residences survive there. The Lu Residence in Dongyang is a large residential complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a floor area of about 17,000 square meters; its famous Suyong Hall was built during the Yongle era of the Ming dynasty. Zhengzhai Town in Pujiang County is an ancient town where the Zheng clan lived together; it was first built in the early Northern Song dynasty and covers an area of about 5,000 square meters. The ancient architectural complex of Yuyuan Village is located 20 kilometers southwest of the county seat of Wuyi County, Zhejiang Province. The village was first built in the Southern Song dynasty and, through planned construction in successive dynasties, developed to its present scale. The village still contains two Yuan dynasty bridges and more than 130 Ming and Qing residences. Building types include ancestral halls, temples, shops, private schools, academies, flower halls, dwellings, stages, bridges, and ancient tombs, among others. The Yu clan of Yuyuan Village passed down a scholarly tradition for generations, combining farming with study; during the Ming and Qing dynasties the clan produced a total of 68 presented scholars (jinshi) and recommended scholars (juren).
02 · Core Techniques & Process
These buildings, with their long history, ingenious layout, and exquisite decoration, fully demonstrate a high level of construction craftsmanship. Wuzhou traditional residences give priority in their design to perfect integration with the surrounding natural environment. Most dwellings are built beside mountains and waters, shaded at the back and facing the sun, amid rising hillocks, with streams and rivers winding through. Some building plans follow the traditional left-right symmetrical form, with lanes and alleys crisscrossing; others adopt an eight-trigram (bagua) layout radiating outward from the center. Building types include ancestral halls, screen walls, memorial archways, stone bridges, halls, shops, schools, stages, granaries, kitchens, and bedrooms, among others — complete in function, and comfortable and convenient to live in. The ancestral hall is the core building of traditional residences in central Zhejiang. It is not only a place for worshipping ancestors but also where clan members gather to discuss affairs and where elders instruct the young; its architectural layout fully reflects the profound influence of Confucian ethical culture. The decorative arts of Wuzhou traditional residences are highly diverse, taking forms such as stone carving, wood carving, brick carving, and painted decoration. Wood carving is applied extensively to beams and purlins, bracket sets, sparrow braces, main doors, and window lattice patterns; the Lu Residence in Dongyang is the most typical example in this respect. Village dwellings generally take the form of grey bricks, grey walls, and horse-head gables on the roofs; some residences, such as the Lu Residence, have stone lions flanking the entrance, inspiring a sense of majesty and solemnity. The ancient buildings of the whole village fall into three large quarters — Shangzhai, Xiazhai, and Qianzhai — covering an area of 34,000 square meters. The ancient buildings of Yuyuan Village are most distinctive for their public architecture, among which the Yu Clan Ancestral Hall is the general ancestral hall of the whole village — grand in scale, carefully constructed, and completely preserved. Other ancient buildings — such as the Family Instructions Pavilion for the enlightenment of young children, the Yi'an Hall for the study of teenagers, the Elderly Care Pavilion for the support of the aged, the Canghua Hall for villagers' entertainment, the Tanglou Hall for holding celebrations, and the Cave Lord Temple for praying for and interpreting dreams, along with inns, pharmacies, and workshops — each have their own character. The clan placed great emphasis on the education of its members: most residences contain studies and schoolrooms, and the village also has two specially built private schools. In addition, a large number of murals are preserved in the ancient buildings of Yuyuan Village; with broad subject matter and fluid brushwork, they express the villagers' aspiration toward an ideal life.
The three quarters of the village
The historic buildings occupy three quarters of some 34,000 square metres, grouped by terrain but not cut off from each other.
The Yu clan ancestral hall
The Yu ancestral hall serves the whole village, large, carefully built and well preserved, standing on the central axis.
The family-instruction loft and the reading hall
Rooms are allocated by life stage: a loft for early instruction, a hall for study, one for the elderly, one for entertainment, one for weddings and a temple for prayers.
Theatre stages, studies and private schools
The village contains shrines, shops, private schools, studies, halls, dwellings, stages, bridges and tombs, with reading rooms inside most houses.
Wall paintings and their subjects
Many wall paintings survive with broad subjects and fluent brushwork, painted together with the rooms they adorn.
Two Yuan-dynasty bridges
Two Yuan-dynasty bridges survive alongside over a hundred Ming and Qing dwellings, showing that crossings preceded the houses.
Scholarship and the farming-reading ideal
The Yu family produced sixty-eight jinshi and juren between the Ming and Qing, and studies became a standard part of village construction.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Jinhua region in central Zhejiang Province was known in ancient times as 'Wuzhou', and its traditional residences are distributed mainly in Dongyang, Lanxi, Wuyi, and Pujiang.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Wuzhouchuantong Residential Building Craftsmanship · Wuzhouchuantong Residential Building Craftsmanship · Wuzhouchuantong Residential Building Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Among the traditional residences of Wuzhou, Zhuge Village in Lanxi, the Lu Residence in Dongyang, and the Zheng family town in Pujiang are all Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level, while Yuyuan Village in Wuyi is a historical and cultural protected area of Zhejiang Province. The ancient architectural complex of Yuyuan Village has been called a 'dictionary of residential architecture in the Jiangnan water-country region'. It is the crystallization of the wisdom and hard work of successive generations of the Yu clan of Wuyi, and a material expression of the Yu clan spirit, possessing research value in architecture, folklore, social and cultural history, and other fields.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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