The Inspectorate Office

The Inspectorate Office

The Inspectorate Office is located at the southern end of Gongyuan Road Pedestrian Street in Haishu District, Ningbo. Also known as the Scholars’ Examination Hall or the Provincial Surveillance Institute Office, it was renovated in 1998 and designated as part of the second batch of municipal-level cultural heritage sites in Ningbo in September 1999. The restored building faces south, with the front section being a gatehouse. The central bay of the main entrance hall now has an erected stele inscribed with the words “Blessing over Confucian Studies.” The rear section is the main hall, named Zhengjian Hall, featuring a single-eave hip-and-gable roof and a post-and-lintel wooden structure. The front porch has a rolled shed roof, with single-step beams spanning a considerable distance and the tops of the pointed beams adorned with hexagonal floral brackets.

The Inspectorate Office is the only remaining architectural example in Ningbo—and one of the rare such examples in Zhejiang Province—related to the study of the ancient imperial examination system. It originally also included other structures such as the Youxue Pavilion, the Shenguo Pavilion, and the Dixin Pavilion. In the ninth year of the Yongzheng reign, Inspector Li Qingzhi and Prefect Cao Bingren built examination sheds. In the eighteenth year of the Jiaqing reign, local gentry including Shuiyun expanded the complex with additional buildings, gradually completing the architectural ensemble. It was destroyed by bandits in the eleventh year of the Xianfeng reign and restored in the second year of the Tongzhi reign. By the thirty-third year of the Guangxu reign, with the abolition of the imperial examination system, the buildings gradually deteriorated and fell into disrepair. Prefect Yu Zhaofan then sold the office complex to private owners, with the proceeds later used to help establish a prefectural school.

Source: Haishu District Cultural Relics Management Office