Former Residence of Zhou Xinfang

Former Residence of Zhou Xinfang

The former residence of Zhou Xinfang is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangbei District.

This ancestral hall was built and once inhabited by Zhou Xinfang, an outstanding modern Chinese Peking Opera performer, after he achieved fame at the age of 30 in 1925. The hall was named “Quan’en Hall.” Originally, it had a front gate, a central hall, rear buildings, and wing rooms on both sides, but only the ancestral hall remains today. It is three bays wide, features a flush-gable roof, and uses a post-and-lintel construction. Its beam structure does not use a flat beam, but instead employs arched opposing beams that support the ridge purlin. A decorative bracket hangs from the middle of the opposing beams. The roof is of the flush-gable style, and the gable walls rise higher than the main ridge.

Quan’en Hall, also known as the Censor’s House, earned its name because an ancestor of the Zhou family once served as an imperial censor of Jiangxi Circuit. A stele inscribed with the “Record of the Reconstruction of Quan’en Hall” is preserved inside the hall.