Zhou Family Chastity and Filial Piety Archway

Zhou Family Chastity and Filial Piety Archway

The Zhou Family Chastity and Filial Piety Archway is located in Beizhun Natural Village, Zhongxin Village, Zhou Tie Town, Yixing City. In November 1996, it was designated as a municipal-level cultural relics protection unit by the Yixing Municipal People's Government.

Constructed in the 37th year of the Qianlong reign during the Qing Dynasty (1772), the Zhou Family Chastity and Filial Piety Archway was built to honor Zhou, the wife of the Confucian scholar Ou Wenyu, for her exemplary chastity and filial piety. It has a single-bay, two-pillar, three-story structure made of stacked granite, with some horizontal beams crafted from bluestone. At the very center on the front is inscribed the characters “Imperial Edict,” while the lower horizontal beam is engraved with the word “Chastity.” The horizontal beams are adorned with relief carvings of phoenixes, qilins, dragons playing with pearls, and lions playing with embroidered balls. The archway spans a total width of 2.97 meters and stands 5.90 meters tall. It faces southwest, at an angle of 40° south by west.