Brick Inscription of Heavenly Water Chronicle

Brick Inscription of Heavenly Water Chronicle

The Brick Inscription of Heavenly Water Chronicle is located inside the Wanjia Shop House in Shangban Group, Tian Tang Village, Shuihou Town. The Wanjia Shop House was built during the Xianfeng reign of the Qing Dynasty and consists of three sections: front, middle, and rear. It was jointly constructed by the Wan and Shi families; the shop house got its name from the shop opened by the Wan family in the front section, while the rear section served as the residence of the Shi family. The building faces southeast and is situated northwest, bordered by the Huangkan River to the south and a road to the north.

The water chronicle brick inscriptions consist of two lines of regular script standing on the east wall of the central hall’s main gate: “The flood reached here on the fifth day of the fifth month in the eighth year of the Guangxu reign” and “The flood reached here on the twentieth day of the fifth month in the twenty-second year of the Guangxu reign.” The characters are neat and arranged from right to left. The first line, “The flood reached here on the twentieth day of the fifth month in the twenty-second year of the Guangxu reign,” is the upper brick inscription, measuring 0.7 meters in width and positioned 0.36 meters above the ground. The second line is 0.7 meters wide and located 0.18 meters above the ground. The events described in these two brick inscriptions are recorded in the Qianshan County Annals and are verified as factual records, providing reliable data for the scientific study of the local hydrological conditions.