Former Residence of Bian Yinchang

Former Residence of Bian Yinchang

The former residence of Bian Yinchang is a cultural tourism attraction.

The former residence of Bian Yinchang is located in the Bian Family Courtyard south of the Township Ancestral Hall inside Dongmenli. Built during the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty by Bian Yinchang’s father, it has a history of over 140 years. The Bian Family Courtyard south of the Township Ancestral Hall covers an area of 10,700 square meters and consists of two large courtyards, east and west. All the houses are of brick-and-timber construction with blue tile roofs, featuring four beams and eight pillars. The north and south rooms have large columns, while the east and west wing rooms have slightly thinner square columns, all visibly coated with thick lacquer. In normal times, Bian Yinchang and his 14 cousins lived separately in their own courtyards. During major celebrations or funerals, the panel doors at the back walls of the central row of halls would be opened simultaneously, turning the area into one unified courtyard. The east courtyard complex includes various scattered rooms, carriage houses, stables, and a theater stage, while the west courtyard was the living quarters of the Bian family. The west courtyard faces east and features a pair of stone lions and a main gate in front. Upon entering, there is a passageway courtyard with a gatehouse to the south, three small side rooms, and then the east arrow alley. Inside the west courtyard, from south to north, there are two arrow alleys (east and west) and three rows of buildings. The middle row is the main structure, consisting of five large three-courtyard compounds and one narrow connecting alley that links to the west arrow alley. Each compound has a main house with five rooms, and three-room wing rooms on the east and west sides. Facilities include reception halls, living rooms, and accounting offices. To the east of the east arrow alley, there is another row of buildings, which, apart from the gate and passageway courtyard, also includes four three-courtyard compounds. Each of these has three north rooms, three south rooms, and two east wing rooms, as well as two smaller yards housing guard rooms, a small tower, and a firewood shed. The south end of the east arrow alley has a back gate that leads out to Rishengdang Hutong. The row of buildings on the west side of the west arrow alley consists of three compound courtyards containing living quarters, a small tower, utility rooms, a small kitchen, a study, a nine-room tower study, a Buddhist shrine, an ancestral hall, as well as fire safety facilities and toilets. Each inner courtyard in the west complex has three-tiered stone steps (the steps in front of the main gate have five tiers), along with gate towers, screen walls, covered verandas, exterior brick carvings, hanging eaves boards, and two-meter-wide front porches in front of the north and south rooms. Inside, there are wooden partition walls, carved doors and windows, among other features.

After the fire in the southernmost three-courtyard compound in the central row where Bian Yinchang lived in the second year of the Xuantong era (1910), he moved to the compound of his cousin Xia Jichang (Bian Shuqing). The theater stage in the east courtyard was once destroyed by fire, and the other buildings have since been converted into residential houses, currently housing over a hundred families. The inner buildings of the west courtyard have weathered over the years, especially after the 1976 earthquake, with many of the square brick carvings on the outer walls damaged and the doors and windows significantly altered, though the basic framework remains intact. It is now used as residential housing.

Bian Yinchang (1866–1926) was a patriotic industrialist in the business community, the owner of the Longju Foreign Cloth Shop, and one of the wealthiest figures in Tianjin. His courtesy name was Yueting, and he was born in 1866 in Tianjin.

During the late Qing Dynasty, he served in the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Justice. In 1904, he became the vice president of the Tianjin Chamber of Commerce, later serving as a council member of the Tianjin Federation Sports Club. After the 1911 Revolution, he was appointed commander of the Tianjin Business Regiment and an executive committee member of the Tianjin Red Cross. In 1913, he became president of the Zhili Chamber of Commerce Federation and, in the same year, led the Chinese delegation to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition under the title of head of the Chinese delegation. He also served as an advisor to Feng Guozhang, the Zhili Military Governor... More details about Bian Yinchang ++