Hanlu

Hanlu

Hanlu is a protected cultural heritage site of Yangzhou City.

Hanlu

Located at No. 7 Shipailou, it was originally the residence of Qing Dynasty salt merchant Xu Gongshu. During the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty, epigrapher, painter, and calligrapher Wu Xizai, modern Yangzhou calligrapher Chen Hanguang, and ivory carver Huang Hanhou all lived here successively. The residence covers an area of -．23 square meters, with 31 main rooms and 5 wing rooms, and a built-up area of 807.01 square meters. The main house is divided into east and west sections by a fire lane, featuring three courtyards extending north-south in both directions. The main gate is situated on the northern side of the west section, flanked by a three-room front hall. A stone-paved courtyard features a Fu shrine. To the left, there is a second gate made of finely matched brickwork, with solid double doors and a pair of stone drums on either side. The gate is adorned with carved brick brackets, above which a plaque wall is inlaid with angled brickwork, while the eaves showcase three-tiered carved brick decorations. Adjacent to this, under the eaves, there is a section of polished square brickwork. South of the second gate, there is a passage leading to the fire lane, with the lane itself paved in stone slabs and walls finished with brickwork and jointed lines. The east section was rented and used by Chen Hanguang in 1930 (the 19th year of the Republic of China). Entering through the western second gate, a small front courtyard paved in stone slabs lies before the porch, featuring a north-facing guest room and a south-facing study—Chen Hanguang’s painting studio. The wood-carved lantern-style lattice windows are divided into three sections: the middle with glass panes, the bottom with wooden panels, and the upper section featuring paired glass-panel doors with carved woodwork, all of which remain to this day. Though aged, they retain an air of rustic elegance. The first and second courtyards to the east consist of seven-rafter, six-room houses with matching wing corridors, complete with stone-paved courtyards, latticed windows, wooden partitions, wooden flooring, and square brick surfaces. A side door in the east corridor leads to a small eastern courtyard with a single-story building upstairs and down, each with one room, and a wooden-railed drying terrace on the upper floor. The third courtyard contains a seven-rafter, six-room residential building with upstairs and downstairs, with a service room attached to the west and a kitchen to the east (both facing south and north respectively), separated by a small central courtyard and a well. The west section's second and third courtyards, south of the front hall, form a symmetrical "one seal" style residence with three visible and four hidden rooms, featuring a standard three-bay, five-wing layout. The main hall and side rooms face each other, topped with a single-eave gable roof. The main hall spans 16.5 meters in width and 7.82 meters in depth, with a fir wood beam structure. The interior includes a ceiling, square brick flooring in the main hall, wooden partitions, wooden flooring in the bedrooms, and glass-panel doors and windows with lower sill walls. Between the westernmost room and the west wing room, there is a carved moon-door lattice screen where the ivory carver Huang Hanhou often worked at his desk. The courtyard is spacious, paved with stone slabs, and home to a lush, robust boxwood tree. Chen Congzhou referred to Hanlu as “an example of a north-facing residence in Yangzhou.”

Further Reading:

· List of the Fourth Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites in Yangzhou City