Former Site of the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant’s Office

Former Site of the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant’s Office

The former site of the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant’s Office, also known as the Qin Family Courtyard, is now the Er Yi Jiu Kindergarten. It covers an area of 2,761.2 square meters and is enclosed by a rectangular brick wall running from north to south. The wall is 78 meters long from north to south and 35.4 meters wide from east to west. The building complex consists of three courtyards and is made up of seven tiled houses, with a total construction area of 815.96 square meters.

According to records, the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant was established in the 25th year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1686). In the 6th year of the Tianming era of the Later Jin (1621), Nurhaci unified Liaodong and appointed Wang Yuanzhong, a former Ming dynasty general from Fenghuangcheng who had submitted to Qing authority (granted hereditary official rank), as the fort commandant to guard Fenghuangcheng. In the 3rd year of the Chongde era (1638), Huang Taiji dispatched Prince Jirgalang to lead troops to be stationed in Fenghuangcheng. In August of the 1st year of the Shunzhi reign (1644), the Qing court moved its capital from Shengjing (present-day Shenyang) to Beijing. He Luohui was put in charge of garrisoning Shengjing and 14 other key locations, including Fenghuangcheng. The Fenghuangcheng city commandant at that time, He Lokai, commanded 300 soldiers and 20 able-bodied men. After the capital relocation, the Qing court carried out a comprehensive deployment of military defenses nationwide. Governors-general and border defense commanders were appointed in provincial capitals and frontier regions, provincial capitals were assigned commanders-in-chief and vice-commanders-in-chief, and critical areas within provinces were guarded by city commandants and defense commandants. In the 25th year of the Kangxi reign (1686), to strengthen Qing power in the northeast and address livelihood issues arising from the growing population of the Eight Banners soldiers stationed in the capital, 783 Eight Banners soldiers (with their families) were relocated from Beijing back to the northeast for garrison duty. Among them, 783 soldiers were dispatched to Fenghuangcheng, where a city commandant was appointed and the City Commandant’s Office (also called the Commandant’s Hall) was constructed. The Eight Banners administrative offices were composed of the Governor-General’s Office, the Commander-in-Chief (or Vice-Commander-in-Chief) Office, and the City Commandant’s Office, forming a hierarchical chain of command. The Fenghuangcheng City Commandant’s Office was successively under the jurisdiction of the Shengjing Governor-General’s Office, the Xiongyue Vice-Commander-in-Chief’s Office under the Shengjing Governor-General, and later the Northeastern Governors-General’s Office. During the Qing Dynasty, the administrative system in the northeast operated under a dual-track model — the Eight Banners offices were solely responsible for managing affairs related to the Banner people, while civil prefectures and counties managed affairs pertaining to the civilian (Han Chinese) population, a system commonly referred to as “separate administration of Banners and civilians.” The City Commandant was the highest administrative officer of the City Commandant’s Office, serving as the overall military and political governor of the region and as the local leader of the Banner people. As recorded in Volume 233 of the “Sacred Teachings of the Ten Reigns of the Great Qing”: “Where there are no governors-general or vice-commanders-in-chief, a city commandant is appointed to take charge. Although ranked as a third-rank official, the city commandant holds authority equal to that of a vice-commander-in-chief and, being stationed alone in a city, also carries out duties on par with high-ranking ministers.” Therefore, it can be said that the city commandant was a “veteran and distinguished official” personally selected by the emperor, appointed to lead elite troops in strategic locations. From the establishment of the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant in the 25th year of the Kangxi reign until its abolition in the 8th year of the Republic of China (1919), spanning approximately 230 years, there are records of 46 city commandants who served in Fenghuangcheng.

After the September 18th Incident in 1931, the Qin Zhongnan brothers, prominent landlords in Fengcheng, moved into the former site of the Fenghuangcheng City Commandant’s Office. During the Liberation War and the Korean War, the site was occupied by military forces. After the liberation of Fengcheng in 1946, it was nationalized and later used as a kindergarten run by the military. It is now a cultural relic protection unit of Liaoning Province.

Protected Area: Within the enclosing wall and within 15 meters outside the outer base of the wall.

Construction Control Zone: A Zone II construction control area extends 15 meters beyond the protected area, and a Zone IV construction control area extends 70 meters beyond the Zone II area.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Liaoning Province