Yang's Grand House in Longtan

Yang's Grand House in Longtan

Yang's Grand House in Longtan is located in Dawu Group, Longtan Village, Longtan Township. The original site of the old house was owned by a wealthy man from the Su family, nicknamed “Su Millionaire.” It was abandoned after being destroyed by fire during wartime in the late Ming Dynasty. Later, it was rebuilt in the mid-Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty by Yang Dabin, the fourth son of Yang Guangzong, the seventh-generation ancestor of the Yang family. Covering an area of 4.07 hectares, the building has a construction area of approximately 2,007 square meters, with 103 rooms currently in existence, and is elegantly named “De Yin Ju.” The structure faces south and is rectangular in shape, continuing the old custom of Huizhou merchants from the Ming and Qing periods that “a merchant’s door should not face south.” According to the Five Elements theory: merchants belong to metal, the south belongs to fire, and fire overcomes metal.

The massive scale of Yang's Grand House in Longtan is formed by the connection of many small “courtyard”-style units, giving a sense of “how deep the courtyard goes.” This is also one of the characteristics of Huizhou-style architecture.

The building follows a central axis layout with two courtyards and three sections. The houses are interconnected by four rows of lanes, with a courtyard opened in each section to maximize ventilation, lighting, and drainage. The roof features a seven-pitch slope, and the connections between roof sections form grooves. Rainwater flows through the roof tiles into the drainage channels, commonly referred to as “all water flows to the hall” or “no wealth leaks out,” reflecting the owner’s belief in accumulating and preserving wealth.

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