Wang Family Courtyard

With its provincial capital Taiyuan located only a few hours' drive west to Beijing, Shanxi Province boasts three tourism charms: the diversified religious culture in the north, the legendary Shanxi merchants in the center and the time-honored historic relics in the south.

The train ride from Beijing to Taiyuan takes 6 hours, and then another 2.5 hours from Taiyuan to Jiexiu, a small city close to  destination - the Wang Family's Grand Courtyard. It's also known as the "Grassroots Forbidden City", referring to the more popular ancient Chinese imperial palace in Beijing.

"Da yuan", or grand courtyard, was the special name for the residential complex of wealthy "jin shang", or merchants from Shanxi.
General introduction

Acclaimed as the "First Folk Residence in Cathay", the Grand Courtyard of the Wangs is the largest-existing folk residence cluster in China and a model of the merchant family's residence in North China's Shanxi Province demonstrating the quintessence of Chinese architectural art and cultural values. The famous architect Zheng Xiaoxie researched the place six times, describing it as a "priceless treasure not only for the nation, but also for the entire world."

Situated in Jingsheng Town, 12 km east of Lingshi County in the province, the Wang's Grand Courtyard is only 35 km from the Ancient City of Pingyao, which is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

This luxurious residence covers about 45,000 square meters with 123 compounds and 1,118 rooms and took about half a century (1762-1811) to build.

  The Wangs

Besides the unique constructions and the cultural bearings, what attract tourists most are the legends and tales about the Grand Courtyard's owner, the Wangs. The Wang clan originally lived in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, before their ancestor Wang Shi moved to Jingsheng during the reign of Emperor Huangqing (1312-1313) of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

After moving to Jingsheng, Wang Shi mainly engaged in agriculture, but also made bean curd. The business gradually thrived as a result of the family's hard work and business virtues. Some members began to attend school, making the Wangs a distinguished family in the town.

The Wangs prospered during the reigns of Emperors Kangxi (1662-1722), Qianlong(1736-1795), and Jiaqing (1796-1820) in the Qing Dynasty  (1644-1911). The family conducted large-scale constructions at the time, building many houses, ancestral temples, graveyards, stores, and workshops. Besides, they also set up some free private schools and barns, built roads and bridges, dug channels, offered relief to those people struck by disasters, and did some other philanthropic works. In this period alone, the family produced 12 top-ranking government officials.

The Wangs began to decline during Emperor Daoguang's Reign (1820-1850). Besides the social and political reasons, another important factor that led to their decline was the later generations' abandonment of the family's traditional values like diligence and thriftiness. They became increasingly luxurious; some gave up attending school, choosing instead to bribe their way into government positions; while others indulged in opium, leading to the erosion of the once-prosperous family.

The few members of the family who still had shops and stores within the province or other big cities like Beijing and Tianjin before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) lost what little they had after the outbreak. The whole family moved southward after the Lugou Bridge Incident (or Marco Polo Bridge Incident, staged by Japanese imperialists in their attempt to control the whole of China, which marked the beginning of China's war against Japan).

With a history of more than 680 years, the Wangs have lived on for 27 generations throughout all the ups and downs. Now there are some newly emerged talents in various fields from the Wangs. Upon gazing at the Wang Grand Courtyard, one can vividly feel the history of China in the past few centuries through the legend of one common family.

  The construction style and folk customs 

With a time-honored history, Jingsheng is a famous historical and cultural town. Archeological finds have revealed a painted pottery site of the Neolithic Age in the town, demonstrating that Chinese ancestors have dwelt in the place a long time. The tomb cluster dating form the Shang Dynasty (About 16th - 11th century BC) boasts a lot of precious relics from the Bronze Age. The cultural relics from the Qin and Han dynasties (221BC-220AD) also abound in the town. Currently, there are still many buildings in Jinsheng that were built in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

The Grand Courtyard of the Wangs, deliberately protected and left from the Qing Dynasty, boasts strong ethnic Chinese flavor and occupies an important position in Chinese construction history.

The mansions of the family are rather luxurious, as the family paid little attention to the production cost. In the Kangxi Reign of the Qing Dynasty, the Wangs built the first two lanes named Yongcui and Suorui for their mansions in Jingsheng. In the Qianlong Reign, the Zhongling lane was built, and the Hongmen, Gongji, and Dongnan fortresses were also built to form a dwelling area for the Wangs. During the Yongzheng Reign, the Chongning Fortress was built. Two Wang members, Wang Rucong and Wang Rucheng, built the Gaojiaya dwelling area, the last construction cluster.

Gaojiaya began to be built in 1796 and finished in 1811. After 16 years, the whole construction covered 11,728 square meters with 26 courtyards and 218 rooms. The features of the mansion are as follows:

First, the whole construction faces the river, away from the mountain. The buildings were established upon the fully advantages of the landscape of the hills, which makes the whole compound appear scattered in a graceful manner. Layers of gardens on different heights of the hill give the compound more levels and the hill more vibrancy and glamour.

Second, the compound walls of are very tall, and there are four gates on four circles of walls that enclose the buildings on different layers. This style inherited the construction mode of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-771BC) that employs halls in the front and rooms in the rear part, as well as many rows of houses. There are a multiple of spaces, which strengthens safety. 

The main body of each building strictly follows feudal rules about the construction styles of different ranks, reflecting the class differences in the feudal society as well as the notions and thoughts of the scholar-officials.

The third feature is the magnificence and the complete functions of the compound. The main body of the construction is symmetrical in its layout. Inside one courtyard, there always seems to be another; behind one door, there always seems to be another door. Rooms, pavilions, studies, gardens, and kitchens are all stationed in the places that are most suitable to them.

Stone carvings, brick carvings, and woodcarvings have various themes and rich content. Known for their exquisite skills, the carvings incorporate folk customs and folk arts, and best represent the "fine and dense" artistic style of the Qing Dynasty. Many experts and scholars think that the place is suitable for traveling, dwelling, and just plain appreciating.

  Construction Art

The Grand Courtyard of the Wangs gained its fame as the "First Courtyard in Cathay" not only because of its use, stability, and beauty, but also because of its magnificent grandeur and unique craftsmanship that are embodied in its location, structure, interior design, and cultural bearings.

The whole compound incorporates garden art and courtyard building techniques under the premises of conforming to social institutions and practicality. The traditional flavor of North China's civil residence is very distinctive, but the building also borrowed the design of the gardens in South China. The outline, the intervals, and every other detail of the compound jointly present an elaborate work of Chinese folk residence. 

  Three Carvings

Carving works made of brick, stone, and wood can be seen almost anywhere in the Grand Courtyard of the Wangs, yet each piece of the work is fine and ingenious. As an important part of the courtyard's construction art, the carvings demonstrate the artistic feature of the time.

With varied themes, the carving works applied a multiple of carving skills. Literati figures, painters, and carving arti sts participated in making the artistic carvings works, presenting Confucius, Taoism, and Buddhism thoughts as well as the Chinese folk customs and arts. Consciously or unconsciously, the carvings have inherited ancient Chinese civilization in its unique way.

The carvings are an important reason why the courtyard is also reputed as the "art gallery of Chinese folk residence."

Furniture, painting and calligraphy
 

As an important component of the Chinese artistic treasure trove, the furniture art boasts not only practical use, but also values in cultural research and artistic appreciation. Most of the furniture exhibited in the courtyard were made in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties. Although the style is usually simple, the carvings on the furniture are very exquisite, fully showing the natural beauty from the fine texture, color, and pattern of the wood.

The calligraphies and paintings collected in the courtyard were mostly from the famous calligraphers and painters in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The famous literati Zheng Banqiao's handwritings, Qi Junzao's horizontal wood inscribed boards on doors, vertically-hung scrolls of Fushan and Liuyong (Liu Luoguo), paintings of Tang Bohu and Wen Zhengming, and Weng Fanggang's stone carvings and horizontal wood inscribed boards can all be found here.

All the works contain their workmanship in the strokes and place their feeling on the points and in the paintings. Even after two to three hundred years, these works still remain full of charm and are of high value, therefore, often enticing numerous poets and writers among the courtyard's many visitors to make a temporary stay to savor their flavor a bit longer.

"It's very impressive. It's huge. It's much bigger than I expected.. Really, really, beautifully designed and I think the little gardens inside are really impressive too."

There is still much to say about the Wang family's Grand Courtyard, but it'll be more fun to see it with your own eyes. As a slogan in the courtyard reads: "You need see no more mansions after seeing the Wang family's Grand Courtyard." Is it true? Come and decide for yourself!