Huangshan Travel Guide

Anhui Guide >> Huangshan City >> Shexian County

Shexian Ancient County

Located at the southern foot of Mt. Huangshan and on the upper reaches of the Xin'anjiang River, Shexian is an ancient cultural county under jurisdiction of Huangshan City. It was a cultural center during the Sui (581-618) and Tang dynasties, and became a commercial center during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

As an ancient cultural center, it gave birth to many cultural schools, such as the Xin'an School in painting, the Xin'an School in medicine, the Hui School in architecture, and the Hui School in woodblock painting. The Huizhou Culture, along with the Dunhuang Study, and the Tibetan Study, are reputed as three Local Studies in China. Over the centuries, Shexian has given birth to many outstanding people, including Cheng Yi, Cheng Ying, Zhu Xi, Jian Jiang, Huang Binhong, and Tao Xingzhi. It is also famqus for three kinds of ancient structures: residences, archways, and memorial temples.

Dou Shan Lane

Dou Shan Lane, Shexian

Dou Shan Lane, located in the center of Shexian County, one of the famous historic and cultural towns in China, is well known for its typical construction style of the local residential houses. Residential houses, whose characteristics are whitewashed walls, grey tiles and all kinds of stone carving ornaments, flank the winding lane, paved with large pieces of stone slabs. Among them the most outstanding are the Xu's, Yang's and Wang's residential houses.

The most attracting part of these houses is their elaborately carved beams and colorfully painted pillars. All the houses are two-storeyed, wood-bricked structures with 3-4 courtyards in successive order. Push in the front gate, you'll see an exquisite, winged skylight (Tian Jing). Stone carved windows with potted landscapes in the yard are main characteristics of the space. Step in the hall, which is flanked by a bedroom on either side, coming into your views are the ornaments of wood carvings on the beams or the pillars.

The vivid figures of the carvings originate from the traditional Chinese legendary stories and common practice. The ornaments with superb workmanship can be seen everywhere in the house, which really reflects the prosperous period of the local merchants who made great fortunes in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The representatives of the ornaments in the houses are the art carvings on wood, brick, bamboo and stone. The other worth seeing places of Dou Shan Lane are Ye Chastity Archway, the Toad Well and an ancient manger connected with Yue Fei, an ancient hero in Chinese history.

Tangyue Memorial Archways

Tangyue Memorial Archway

Shexian County is regarded as "a town of archways". In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were more than 200 memorial archways dotted all over the whole territory, now only 80 of which remain well. Among the preserved ones, Tang Yue Complex is most significant and completely well-preserved. At the entrance of the Tang Yue Village stand the seven magnificent stone memorial archways-three built in the Ming Dynasty and four in the Qing Dynasty, in the successive order of loyalty, filial piety, women's chastity and charity. Each was built in relation with a moving story and vividly reveals in one way or another the moral values.

By the side of the seven archways stand two ancient clan halls-one for men, called as Dun Ben Tang, which means the hall of honesty, and another for women, called as Qing Yi Tang, which means the hall of good examples. Both halls provide vivid statues for the tourists to understand the life and work style of the local merchants' families in the patriarchal-feudal system evolved in Huizhou Area. In addition, the construction of a women's' hall at the mid 19th century was a rare symbol of women's victory over feudal routine "women were not allowed to enter the clan hall".

Nuci (Qingyi Hall) Usually called "Nuci", the hall rarely serves as the "ancestral temple for women". Built in the Qing Dynasty, it was the first of its kind. It is highly valued by those who research feudal ethical codes and patriarchal norms.

Nanci (Dunben Hall) "Dunben Hall," usually called "Nanci" (the ancestral temple for men) was originally built in the Ming Dynasty. The complex has five rooms covering 750 square meters. Restored in 1962, it still contains all its original features. The interior hall houses important historical records of the flourishment of "Hui Shang" (businessman from Huizhou, today's Anhui province).

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