Dongsheng Hall

Dongsheng Hall

Dongsheng Hall is a cultural heritage conservation unit of Suzhou.

Dongsheng Hall is located at Sanlian Neighborhood Committee, Pinglou Street, Lili. It was originally named Pujì Chan Monastery and built during the Southern Song Dynasty.

Located at Sanlian Neighborhood Committee, Pinglou Street, Lili, it was originally called Pujì Chan Monastery and built in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the third year of the Jiajing reign (1524) of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Ji, the magistrate of Wujiang County, converted it into a community altar and erected a community altar stele (now relocated and preserved at the Liu Yazi Memorial Hall), which was used at the time as a place where village chiefs lectured on local regulations. The hall was renovated in the late Qing Dynasty, and now only the gatehouse, a main hall, and two wing rooms remain.

The hall once housed a wooden statue of Zhao Lao, a local notable and scholar from the Southern Song Dynasty who served as a reviser in the Secretariat, but it was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. On the west side of the entrance wall, there was originally a stele from the 30th year of the Guangxu reign (1904) issued by the Suzhou Prefecture strictly prohibiting farmers from resisting rent payments. The notice provides insight into how farmers at the time, undaunted by authority, resisted rent through various means (the stele has been relocated and is preserved at the Liu Yazi Memorial Hall).

Dongsheng Hall was designated as a county-level cultural relic protection unit in July 1986 and was renovated by the town government in 1989.

Community altar architecture is rarely found in Wujiang. The community altar stele and the stele prohibiting farmers from resisting rent offer significant historical value for studying the local customs, community regulations, and the resistance of peasants against rent during the late Qing Dynasty.