Ruiyun Building

Ruiyun Building

The Ruiyun Building is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Ruiyun Building, the birthplace of Wang Yangming, is located in the northern part of Yuyao. Before his father, Wang Hua, became the top scholar in the imperial examinations, he rented this building from the Mo family. In the eighth year of the Ming Dynasty’s Chenghua era, when Wang Yangming was born, his grandmother dreamt of an immortal delivering the child amidst auspicious clouds. Thus, she named the building “Ruiyun.” Wang Yangming spent his childhood here. Later, when Wang Hua was appointed to a post in the capital, he chose a site at Longshanli to build a new residence, and this building was then rented to the Qian family. By the ninth year of the Hongzhi era (1496), Qian Deguang, a distinguished disciple of Wang Yangming and a renowned Confucian scholar, was also born in this very building — a remarkable historical coincidence. Whenever Wang Yangming returned to Yuyao in his later years of prominence, he would point out the spot where his swaddling clothes were kept, thinking fondly of his mother and grandmother. He suffered deeply over being unable, due to his demanding military duties, to care for them during their lifetimes or arrange proper funeral rites after their deaths. The main structure of the building was destroyed by fire during the Qing Dynasty’s Qianlong era, but surrounding structures such as the ceremonial gate and main hall remained largely intact. The fire site has been preserved to this day. In 1996, with funding from the municipal government, the charred ruins were rebuilt on the original site using architectural materials salvaged from other dismantled Ming-era buildings. The reconstruction followed the Ming style and was based on the original design recorded in the historical document “Record of the Ruiyun Building.” It is now a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.