Tian'en Diju

Tian'en Diju

Tian'en Diju is a cultural relic protection unit of Jilin Province.

Tian'en Diju is located on the north side of the middle section of Xinglong Street in Taonan City, Jilin Province. Constructed in 1903, its name originates from the “Menghuang Xingju” (Mongolian Frontier Affairs Bureau) bestowed upon the Zhasakhtu Banner by Emperor Guangxu of the late Qing Dynasty. Covering an area of 6,670 square meters, Tian'en Diju is a highlight along Taonan’s Ancient Architecture Street. The building, with its upturned eaves and classic ancient design, still showcases the past glory that the ancient city of Taonan once possessed.

In the 27th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1688), descendants of one of the “Three Khans of the Khalkha Mongols,” the Khan of Zhasakhtu, migrated eastward and established a tribe on the Horqin Grassland in Inner Mongolia and along the Tao'er River. To win over their upper echelons, the Qing court employed a strategy of “conciliation and appeasement,” granting them titles such as “Prince Banner,” “Duke Banner,” and “Gongye Banner.” After 1891, when the Zhasakhtu Duke Banner passed to its twelfth-generation duke, Wutai, disputes arose over the inheritance of the title, leading to repeated official investigations and accusations. He repeatedly borrowed foreign debts but was unable to repay them. As a result, he unilaterally opened up wilderness lands, recruited Han settlers, embezzled frontier subsidies, and engaged in other questionable activities. Later, Wutai defied imperial orders by rejecting the government’s plan to officially settle the land. On the sixth day of the sixth month of that year, the Qing court issued an edict stripping Wutai of his position but allowing him to remain in office to observe his future conduct. It also ordered the establishment of the “Zhasakhtu Menghuang Xingju” to open up both cultivated and uncultivated lands along the Tao and Jiao rivers, setting up the “Menghuang Xingju” in what is now Zhengjiatun. In the early summer of the 29th year of the Guangxu reign (1903), the “Menghuang Xingju” was relocated to Shuangliu Town. In the autumn of the same year, the “Taonan Administrative Region” was established, and in the 30th year, it was elevated to a prefecture. The “Menghuang Xingju” thus became the predecessor of the Taonan Prefecture. With the administrative region being elevated to a prefecture and Taonan being officially established, it grew into a major town in eastern Mongolia and a hub for commerce and transportation between Fengtian and Heilongjiang provinces. During this period, taking advantage of the opportunity to develop the vast grasslands along the Tao and Jiao rivers, Wutai set up a “Royal Office” in Taonan under the guise of facilitating administration and trade. This office was responsible for allocating land and collecting taxes, as well as handling affairs related to the Mongolian banners, serving as a permanent base in Taonan. Wutai hired renowned architects who had worked on the construction of the Shenyang Imperial Palace and, following the architectural styles and layouts of the Dongdan and Xidan Princes’ Mansions in Beijing and the Tuzhi Banner Princes’ Mansion, undertook large-scale construction. Spending a total of 40,000 silver dollars, he built a small “Mongolian Princes’ Mansion” to the east of the “Saji Ancient Post” — the “Shuangyi Freight Depot” — on the north side of Xinglong Street. This included inner residences and a garden for the young ladies. The project took nearly two years and was grand in scale. In the 31st year of the Guangxu reign (1905), the Qing court, intending to restore Wutai’s Duke title, used the reward for frontier development as a pretext to bestow a handwritten golden plaque nine feet long and three feet wide. Engraved in gold relief were the four large characters “Tian'en Diju” (Heaven’s Grace, Earth’s Bureau), which Wutai hung above the main gate of the office, along with the words “Bestowed by Emperor Guangxu.” Since then, this royal mansion, outwardly known as the “Menghuang Xingju,” has been widely referred to as “Tian'en Diju.”

The structure of Tian'en Diju follows a “two-courtyard princely office-style” traditional Chinese architectural layout. It faces south and sits on a site that once fronted the extremely bustling Xinglong Street. The front gate has double doors on the east and west sides, with a “Golden Lion Wall” in between concealing the second gate. The top of the wall features a magnificent “Golden Lion Battle Horn” design, while the wall itself bears the prominent characters “Tian'en Diju” in raised relief, flanked by “eight-character horse paths” leading to the central gate. Behind the gate lies a scenic screen, a giant “Xing’an Mountain Range” backdrop, concealing the solemn main hall. The courtyard is primarily designed as a quadrangle, exquisitely detailed, with five rooms on each of its four sides, featuring hard mountain-style blue brick and tile roofs with “goose-wing ridge” small tiles. The eaves and tile ends all feature “lion-head tiles,” echoing the “Golden Lion Battle Horn” atop the wall, creating a unified whole that symbolizes the “martial valor” of the ancient Huns, Turks, and Mongol peoples. Each corridor is fronted by six bright red-painted pillars, radiating an air of solemnity.

After constructing Tian'en Diju, Wutai did not enjoy it for many years. Due to excessive borrowing from Russian lenders, he was forced to mortgage the property to the Taonan Prefecture to cover his debts. In the first year of the Republic of China (1912), the “Wutai Incident” occurred, resulting in Wutai’s dismissal and escape to Kulun (Ulaanbaatar). Tian'en Diju fell into decline. Although Wutai was later reinstated, he was placed under house arrest by Yuan Shikai and eventually died in Beijing. In the 13th year of the Republic of China (1924), during Feng Yuxiang’s “palace coup” to drive out the remnants of the Qing court, Wutai’s adoptive father, “Martial Duke,” was exiled and temporarily took residence at Tian'en Diju, hence it also became known as the “Wu Residence.” In the spring of the 17th year of the Republic of China (1928), the 9th Panchen Lama fled Tibet and came to Taonan via a circuitous route. He conducted Buddhist rituals for 40 days at Tian'en Diju and had commemorative photos taken while “seated on the throne.”

After the liberation, the provincial, regional, and central county governments successively stationed here. Tao Zhu and Yan Baohang once stayed and worked at Tian'en Diju. Before the Korean War, the central county committee of the “Southern Eight Counties” of Heilongjiang Province (now the Baicheng Regional Committee) and the People's Liberation Army Public Security Brigade also “jointly occupied” the site. Until the end of the Cultural Revolution, Tian'en Diju remained the base for Taonan’s eight major bureaus, including agriculture, forestry, and water conservancy. After the Cultural Revolution, the Science and Technology Museum purchased Tian'en Diju and carried out minor renovations. Over eighty years, through wars and turmoil, aside from the demolition of the front courtyard’s “double-gate screen wall” and the occupation of the back garden for housing construction, the site has endured the elements with no major damage and remains relatively well preserved.