Jingsheng Wang's ancestral home was Langya (now Jiaonan, Shandong), and then moved to Taiyuan, Shanxi. In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wang Shi moved from Taiyuan to Gouyutan Village in Lingshi County. In the second year of Emperor Qing of Yuan Dynasty (1313), Wang Chengzhai led his family to Jingsheng Village. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Wang Xingwang, a clansman, began to do business and small businesses. By the 14th, Wang Qianshou, Wang Qianhe and Wang Zhengju had increased their capital and shops, and gradually became a wealthy businessman. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the Wangs had developed from ordinary people into a well-known family with comprehensive functions of official residence, business and agriculture. The Wang Family Courtyard includes East Courtyard, West Courtyard and Xiaoyi Temple, with a total area of 34,65 square meters.
The East Courtyard, commonly known as Gaojiaya, was built in the early years of Jiaqing, Qing Dynasty, and it is an irregular castle-style residential group in series. The castle was built according to the layout of the land and the trend. Bird's-eye view of the East Courtyard consists of three rectangular courtyards with different sizes: two main courtyards and a north courtyard in the middle; The northeast is a small courtyard commonly known as "Cypress Garden"; The southwest is the big courtyard. There is a castle door on all sides of the castle. Dongbaomen is located at the eastern end of the main courtyard, Xibaomen is located in the southwest corner of the large courtyard, Nanbaomen is located in the middle of the main courtyard, and Beibaomen is located in the northeast corner of the small courtyard. Outside Nanbaomen is a stone slope road with a length of 5 meters and a width of 3 meters, which leads directly to Wuli Back Street in the village. Datong in front of the main courtyard is 127 meters long and 11 meters wide, all paved with bluestone. To the south of the big passage is a high brick flower wall with a wind and rain corridor more than 6 meters long. The main building of the East Courtyard is two three-way quadrangles, and there are tall zhaobi, Shangma stone, flagpole stone, Shishi and stone steps in front of the courtyard. From the layout, each main courtyard has spacious main courtyard, partial courtyard, suite courtyard, heart-piercing courtyard, cross-courtyard, etc. According to the purpose, there are halls, living rooms, wing rooms, embroidered buildings, halls, academies and kitchens. The courtyard varies from place to place, with tunnels, secluded paths, low fences and high walls. There is a courtyard in the courtyard, and there is a door in the door. A kiln is built on the top of the kiln, and the room is occupied. The large courtyard in the southwest corner of the main courtyard is composed of two garden-style courtyards for the owner to have a rest. The backyard just north of the main courtyard is a fort-protecting courtyard composed of a row of 13-hole caves and divided into four small courtyards. The whole East Courtyard is large-scale and well-structured.
Go out of the Xibaomen of the East Courtyard and walk through a horseshoe-shaped gully path, which is the West Courtyard. The West Courtyard, commonly known as Hongmenbao, is a very regular castle-style closed residential group, facing the same as the East Courtyard. Overlooking the west courtyard, its plane is a very regular rectangle, 15 meters wide from east to west and 18 meters long from north to south. There is only one fort door, which is located slightly east of the Nanbao wall, facing the main street of the castle. The magnificent castle gate has two entrances and two floors, and a bluestone plaque engraved with "Hengzhen Castle" on one side is embedded in the center of the castle gate. Because the castle gate is red, people call the West Courtyard "Red Gate Castle". The fort wall is eight meters high outside, four meters high inside and more than two meters thick. It is built with blue bricks. There is a crib on the wall of the fort. Outside the fort gate, just opposite it, there is a brick carving on the wall. There is a footpath to the left and right of the fort gate and the northeast and northwest corners of the fort wall. There is a main street paved with large river pebbles in the north-south direction of the fort, which is called "Long Lin Street", with a length of 133 meters and a width of 3.6 meters. The main street divides the West Courtyard into east and west areas, and there are three horizontal lanes in the east-west direction. The horizontal lane divides the west courtyard into four rows: north and south. Counting from bottom to top, each row of courtyards is called bottom armour, dimethyl, top armour in turn. A vertical street and three horizontal lanes intersect, which just forms a big word "Wang". There is a watchtower in the northeast corner and northwest corner of the fort wall. There is a well in the southeast corner and northwest corner of the fort. There are 27 courtyards in the fort, except for the top armor, which is 6, and the other top three are 7. The layout of each courtyard is similar, most of them are one front, two compartments and two courtyards, with caves and corridors on the front and caves or pavilions on the top floor. Most courtyards take the north-south center line as the symmetry axis, and the east and west are basically symmetrical. There are also some courtyards that are in the right direction, and the gate is in the southeast direction. There is a long passage in the gate. The south end of the west side of the passage is the door leading to the front yard, and the north end is the door leading to the backyard.
The Wang Family Courtyard is not so much a group of residential buildings as an architectural art museum. Its architectural technology, decorative skills and carving skills are ingenious, extraordinary and unique. Inside and outside the courtyard, up and down the house, inside and outside the house, you can see exquisite architectural works of art everywhere. These artworks, ranging from eaves, arches, reflecting walls, kissing animals to foundation stones, shrines, stone drums, doors and windows, are lifelike in shape, unique in conception, exquisitely carved, and unique in originality. They not only have the majestic momentum of northern architecture, but also have the beautiful and elegant style of southern architecture. The buildings here combine wood carving, brick carving and stone carving in one courtyard, painting, calligraphy and poetry into one furnace, and people, animals and flowers and trees are integrated into one, with various postures and characteristics, which can be called a bright pearl in the northern residential architecture art garden. The Wang Family Courtyard is the largest well-preserved building complex in Shanxi, and it is called "the first residence in Sanjin", and it was selected in the book "China Ethnic Architecture Collection Han Northern Dwellings", which is the only case in our province.