Main Hall of the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall

Main Hall of the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall

The main hall of the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall is located in Lujian Village, Houbai Town, Jurong City, Jiangsu Province

Originally, it consisted of three groups of buildings arranged across five courtyards, with the central axis serving as the family ancestral shrine and the wings on either side functioning as residential quarters. Currently, only the first hall of the third courtyard along the central axis remains. It faces south, features a width of five bays, a depth of 11 meters, an overall length of 24 meters, an eave railing height of 4 meters, and a roof supported by seven purlins in a flush-gable style with gently sloping rooflines. Both the beams and columns are made from thick nanmu wood, hence it is also known as the “Nanmu Hall.” The interior columns rest on blue stone basin-shaped pedestals, and the tops of the railings feature rolled edges. The structural connections mostly use simple forms of bracket sets (dougong), short columns (shuzhu), and spacer blocks (dianban). At the center of the main bay, simple triangular wood carvings decorate the left and right undersides of the ridge purlin, with forked arms positioned along their outer edges. The beams are styled as crescent beams, with slightly curved surfaces and double-lined carvings along the bottom edges. Externally, the bracket sets consist of two grouped sets of one-dou-three-sheng brackets, while internally, single and double bracket sets are used between beams without overhangs. Both inner and outer bracket sets have petal-shaped bearing blocks, some square and some round. The flooring is laid diagonally with square bricks.

This structure was built during the Ming Dynasty. Its design is simple and classic, the construction straightforward, and the materials used are substantial, with decorations that avoid excessive ornamentation. It holds certain representativeness in the Ning-Zhen region.

Houbai Town: A town under the jurisdiction of Jurong City. It is a production base for export toys in Jiangsu Province. Established as Houbai Township in 1956, it was reorganized as a commune in 1958 and reverted to a township in 1983. Located in the southern part of the city, it is 17 kilometers from the urban center and 42 kilometers from Nanjing Lukou International Airport. Covering an area of 39.5 square kilometers with a population of 12,000, it intersects with National Highway 104 and the Guozhuang-Maoshan Road. To the west, it borders Chishan Lake. The town administers twelve village committees—Houbai, Gaoping, Lijiaqiao, Xiaowang, Shengfu, Dongwan, Gucun, Yanfu, Huaiyuan, Huagang, Lujian, and Zhata—and one neighborhood committee, Houbai. Agriculture mainly focuses on crop cultivation and animal husbandry... Detailed information about Houbai Town++

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units