Huatang Village is located to the east of Shengzhou City. It is where the Wang family, the direct descendants of the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, live. In ancient times, it was the distribution center for agricultural and sideline products in Xinchang, Ningbo and other places.
Huatang Ancient Village (where descendants of Wang Xi live)
Huatang Village was built in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to the "Jinting Wang Clan Genealogy", Wang Xizhi's 29th grandson Wang Kai had a residence in Woyi Mountain (south of today's Huatang Village) in the Southern Song Dynasty. The 33rd generation grandson Wangmai (named Lanshi) set up camp in Guangsha from the Yuan Dynasty to the Great Year (1264-1310). The Epitaph of Prince Xigu of the Ming Dynasty, written by Feng Yi, a general of Wude in the Ming Dynasty and a professor at the Palace of the Qin Dynasty, says: Gaozu Lanshiweng tried to build the sun of the Yangshan Mountain. It is extremely beautiful and is known as Huatang. This is the beginning of the name of Huatang Village, and it has been more than 700 years.
The west side of the village used to be the main road in and out of Huatang Village, that is, the "official road". The two majestic watchtowers still stand. There are many shops on both sides of the village's front street and back street, and many of them still maintain their old style.
The existing ancient buildings in the village are large in scale and of various types, including temples, nunneries, ancestral halls, houses, archways, bridges, watchtowers, ponds, wells, water sheds, etc. The main building complex consists of ancestral halls, gates, nunneries, and commercial buildings with front shops and back houses. The theater building and the shrine form the commercial and cultural activity center of the ancient village. Most of the existing buildings in Huatang Village were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They are mainly three-heyuan and four-heyuan courtyards. Most of them face east or south and are arranged neatly. The layout of the building emphasizes symmetry on the central axis, with a small width. There are side rooms on both sides, and the longitudinal depth is mostly one to three.
The building is solemn and elegant, with blue bricks and gray tiles, white walls and hard top, two floors, and many fire walls. The structure is simple and solid, and the beam frames are all of bucket type. The interior decoration is relatively sophisticated, with most doors and windows using ten thousand-character grids, and the upper, middle and lower tapered ring panels with embossed flower panels. The ground floor of the house facing the street is built with a boat canopy and carved corbels on the columns, making it look exquisite and elegant. There are currently 55 old Taimen in existence, among which more than 30 are larger in scale, more elegant in architecture, and better preserved, such as Yiqingtang, Shanqingtang, and Zhou Yan's former residence.
The most eye-catching thing in the village is the Wang Ancestral Hall, which was built during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty and is still well preserved. There are two ancient pools facing each other inside and outside the ancestral hall. The ancient pool inside the ancestral hall has the best scenery, with carved stone bridges, ancient pool pavilions, duckweeds and swimming fish, full of ancient charm. There are also buildings such as Xiaojie Hall and Qijiankai Hall in the ancestral hall that can be visited.
Attraction location
Jinting Town, Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province