Shangzhuang, Jixi

Shangzhuang, Jixi

The Shangzhuang Scenic Area is located to the east of Shangzhuang Town. The 15th-generation descendant of Shi Ronglu, a descendant of Shi Shouxin — one of the founding heroes of the Northern Song Dynasty — relocated here and established the village. To commemorate their ancestors’ merits and showcase the glory of their forebears, the Shi descendants not only built the entire village and all its houses facing south but north, and because Shi Shouxin and Zhao Kuangyin were close friends and chess companions, they designed the village in the form of a chessboard, with houses, streets, ponds, and streams arranged in an orderly, tightly structured, neat and square grid. The ancestral hall of the Shi family at the very center of the southern part of the village serves as the “General’s Command.” In front of the ancestral hall lies a pond with an inkpad-shaped mound built to the proportions of Shi Shouxin’s personal seal. A large cypress tree planted on the mound symbolizes the handle of the seal, surrounded by gracefully swaying green bamboo that remains evergreen all year round, signifying the Shi family's enduring legacy of holding official positions through generations. With the ancestral hall and the square pond as the central axis, lanes paved with fine bluestone are laid out every 30 meters symmetrically on both sides, resembling chessboard grids with interconnected lines, and each lane exit is fitted with a lane gate.

The village closes at set times each day, resembling a castle — this ensures the security of the village while also facilitating orderly production and daily life for the residents. The Peach Blossom Stream in front of the village represents the “Chu River and Han Border” from the game of Go. Built over 600 years ago, the original layout and appearance of Shijia Village have remained unchanged, and it has been recognized by architectural circles inside and outside the province as a representative work embodying the cultural characteristics of ancient Huizhou villages. To the south of the village stands the Kuixing Pavilion, built in the 16th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1751), covering an area of 40 square meters with a square floor plan and a hip-and-gable roof. Legend has it that the Shi family, aiming to express their “Overthrow the Qing, Restore the Ming” sentiment, put much thought into the pavilion’s design: the structure is larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, symbolizing the idea that the Ming Dynasty was above and the Qing below, with the Ming being strong and the Qing weak. The eaves extend seventeen feet downward, representing the seventeen emperors of the Ming Dynasty. The wing corners reach nineteen feet above the ground, and the sum of the four corners is seventy-six; adding two hundred (fifty rafters per side multiplied by four sides) gives exactly two hundred and seventy-six — the number of years of the Ming Dynasty. This ingenious and deeply symbolic design is rare even among ancient Huizhou architecture. In 2004, Shijia Village was designated as a Key Protected Unit of Ancient Architectural Complexes in Anhui Province.

Specific location: Located to the east of Shangzhuang Town