Yu'ai Ancestral Hall

Yu'ai Ancestral Hall

Yu'ai Ancestral Hall is a cultural heritage site protected by Yinzhou District.

Yu'ai Ancestral Hall is located in Yu'ai Community, Fuming Subdistrict, Jiangdong District, Ningbo City. It serves as the ancestral temple for the Yu clan within Yu'ai Community (historically known as Bingchanggen Yu'ai) and is currently the best-preserved ancestral hall in the area.

Preliminary research suggests it was first built in the late Qing Dynasty. According to inscriptions on a stele, clan members carried out renovations in the first year of the Republic of China (1912). In the 1930s, members of the Yu clan from Yu'ai initiated and contributed funds to rebuild the ancestral hall. They constructed square pillars and a terrazzo main hall adorned with carved beams and painted rafters, along with wooden bas-reliefs depicting the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars downstairs. The structure was innovative and grand in scale, earning widespread acclaim in the region. After the 1950s, Yu'ai Ancestral Hall was used for a long period as the campus of Yu'ai Primary School, serving as a place of learning for children from nearby villages. Since 1998, the Yu'ai Village Committee and descendants of the Yu clan have donated over 100,000 yuan for extensive repairs and decorations. The hall faces south and sits north, with a small river running in front of its main entrance. It consists of a main hall, side rooms, and an inner courtyard. The main gate is two meters wide, flanked by gate rooms, and features a post-and-lintel wooden frame. Side rooms are built on both the east and west sides of the courtyard, with a stele located in the east-side room. Inside the main hall, a screen displays Zhu Baochu’s “Family Management Admonitions,” alongside pairs of illustrations and poems depicting the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, all exquisitely crafted. Historical plaques and couplets from notable figures abound, including a particularly striking plaque inscribed with the words “Flowing Source Through the Ages” in red with gold characters, signed “Chiang Kai-shek.” The hall is grand in scale, featuring fine wood carvings that are vividly lifelike, including three depictions of the Yu clan’s family precepts and fifteen illustrations of filial sons.

To this day, Yu'ai Ancestral Hall remains a major social gathering place for the entire clan and is one of the largest and best-preserved ancestral hall buildings in downtown Ningbo. In 2010, it was designated as part of the first batch of district-level cultural heritage protection units by the Jiangdong District People's Government.