Zoumatang Ancient Village

Zoumatang Ancient Village

The millennia-old village of Zoumatang is located south of Ningbo in Maoshan, Yinzhou District, renowned as the "Ancient Prefecture of Siming, a Land of Literature, Blessed with Scenic Mountains and Rivers, and Abundant in Water and Land Resources." The village boasts numerous ancient Ming and Qing dynasty buildings, a simple folk culture, and many historical relics. Throughout the dynasties, it produced 76 imperial examination scholars, earning it the title "China’s No. 1 Scholar Village." Zoumatang currently has a population of over 1,500, all surnamed Chen. It is a 30-minute drive from the city center. Historical records indicate that it was first built during the Duan'gong era of the Northern Song Dynasty when the Chen family migrated here from Changzhou, Jiangsu, to settle temporarily—over a thousand years ago.

The millennia-old village of Zoumatang has lingered in my mind for a long time. It is said to have numerous ancient Ming and Qing dynasty buildings, a simple folk culture, and many historical relics. According to records, from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties over the past thousand years, the Chen family in this village produced 76 imperial examination scholars and 161 local officials, earning it the title "China’s No. 1 Scholar Village."

Zoumatang Village is located in Maoshan Town, Yinzhou District, Ningbo, situated on the Ningnan Plain and adjacent to the Dongjiang River, a tributary of the Fenghua River. It is only about 20 kilometers from the city center. On a morning during the May Day holiday, my wife and I took a bus from under the Xingning Bridge in Jiangdong to Maoshan, which took about half an hour, and then a few minutes in a tricycle to reach Zoumatang Village.

Zoumatang Village is surrounded by a protective moat, forming a rectangular layout connected to the outside world via a flat bridge. Passing through the grand and imposing new archway labeled "China’s No. 1 Scholar Village," which stands proudly by the village entrance road, a short walk leads to the Zilai Bridge on the southeastern side of the village. The Zilai Bridge, meaning "Purple Air Comes from the East," has quite a history, and the inscribed stone slabs and rocks beneath it silently recount its long past. However, the bridge surface is now modern concrete, like an ancient figure wearing only a poorly tailored Western suit jacket. Looking toward the village from the bridgehead, I didn’t see any particularly outstanding rows of old houses—instead, what met my eyes were mostly rough cement roads and some unremarkable, recently built farmhouses. Times change, but at that moment, I didn’t feel that the surrounding new houses overshadowed the old ones. On the contrary, I felt that the new houses, in contrast to the simple and weighty old homes, were truly ugly and crude, with little aesthetic appeal, making the entire village seem like a rustic farm girl unexpectedly wearing cheap lipstick. Perhaps it was due to lack of development, or perhaps it was just the natural aging of time, but my first impression of the ancient village left me with a sense of disappointment.

Entering the village with slight disappointment through the Zilai Bridge, the first thing I saw was a stone tablet marking Zhejiang University’s designation of the site as a research base for ancient Chinese history. It was surrounded by weeds and garbage, indicating that it indeed holds significant historical deposits but also seemed forgotten. A short walk along South Street from the Zilai Bridge leads to Old Street. Old Street is not long, about 20 to 30 meters, lined with two-story wooden buildings, showing that it was once a commercial area. However, unlike other ancient town commercial streets that served as regional historical commercial hubs, it is small in scale and lacks any famous old brands. It was probably just a place to meet the daily needs of the villagers at the time.

On the wooden walls of Old Street, some slogans from Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution can still be faintly seen. This made me feel that while many old traces are preserved in their original form, it also highlights the stagnation and backwardness in the development of other suburban villages, making it somewhat unbelievable that this is in today’s rapidly modernizing Ningbo. To the east of Old Street is the "Yizhong Hall," where many idle villagers sit chatting, and two Ming Dynasty-carved stone drums serve as leisure seats. From this, I deduced that this is the so-called "Drum-Beating Gate." The courtyard is rather messy, filled with many farming tools and miscellaneous items. The plaque in the hall is old but simple and rustic. However, whether it’s because the cultural lineage here has been severed or because there are no more scholars or elders in the village nowadays, the calligraphy of the list of 76 imperial examination scholars hanging in front of the hall is very rough—not at all commendable. A village of scholars shouldn’t lack elders with deep literary knowledge. I don’t know if it’s been a while since any visitors came or if the villagers are just used to it, but my curiosity and inquiry were met with a simple "There’s nothing much to see."

North of the street in front of "Yizhong Hall," a woman was washing clothes and vegetables by a small water channel. The water channel isn’t large, but there’s an ancient stone tablet inscribed with "Public Prohibition: No Waste in the Pool," which is thought-provoking. It reminded me of the poem: "Pure in nature, return pure; do not let filth stain the ditch." If one should live purely, shouldn’t environmental protection be the same? In places without "a constant source of fresh water," only protection can keep the water clean; otherwise, it’s just futile "digging and filling, filling and digging" again and again.

Address: Jiangshan Town, Maoshan, Yinzhou District, Ningbo City

Type: Ancient Town/Village

Recommended Visit Duration: About 2 hours

Opening Hours:

Open all day

Ticket Information:

Free admission.