Zheng Banqiao Forest Park

Zheng Banqiao Forest Park

Zheng Banqiao Forest Park is a cultural relics protection unit of Jiangsu Province.

Zheng Banqiao Forest Park is located in the northwest corner of Guanruan Village, Daduo Town, Xinghua City. The area is commonly known as Zheng Family Ground and serves as the ancestral burial site of the Zheng family. Five rivers converge here, resembling five dragons playing with water and shaped like a phoenix tail, hence it is called the Phoenix Treasure Land. Since its planning and construction began in 1986, Zheng Banqiao Forest Park has undergone three major renovations and expansions in 1993, 2003, and 2007, and now has taken initial shape. The park covers an area of 9,000 square meters, with 1,200 square meters of antique-style buildings. It includes a mausoleum area and a historical exhibition room. The exhibition room displays reliefs depicting Zheng Banqiao’s life, his artistic achievements, inscribed steles of Banqiao’s Daoqing ballads, couplet plaques, celebrity-inscribed plaques, brick carvings, and more. Paintings and calligraphy works by Zheng Banqiao are available for visitors to purchase and collect. In 1995, it was designated as a provincial cultural relics protection unit by the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government.

Zheng Xie (1693–1765), a Chinese painter and calligrapher of the Qing Dynasty, was one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. His courtesy name was Kerou and his pseudonym was Banqiao. He was from Xinghua, Jiangsu. Born into a poor intellectual family, he lost his mother at a young age and was raised by his stepmother. As a teenager, he studied under the local scholar Lu Zhen, passed the imperial examination for the xiucai degree in his twenties, achieved the juren degree in the 10th year of the Yongzheng reign (1732), and became a jinshi (advanced scholar) in the 1st year of the Qianlong reign (1736). In the 7th year of Qianlong (1742), he was appointed magistrate of Fan County in Shandong. A year later, he was transferred to Weixian County. In the 13th year of Qianlong, when Emperor Qianlong visited Mount Tai, Zheng served as an official recording paintings and calligraphy. In the 18th year, he was dismissed from office for offending senior officials by requesting famine relief. Zheng Xie was influenced by Confucianism... More details about Zheng Banqiao ++