The Zhou Family Ancestral Hall

The Zhou Family Ancestral Hall

The Zhou Family Ancestral Hall is a cultural relic protection unit of Anhui Province.

The Zhou Family Ancestral Hall (also known as the Jing’ai Hall) is located in Xiachongchuan, Hule Village, Hule Town, Ningguo City.

It was first built on the Wuzi day of the seventh month in the year of Wushen during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (July 1848). This is a covered corridor-style ancestral hall and also one of the largest buildings that best reflects the cultural characteristics of Huizhou. The hall is 37.5 meters long and 17.2 meters wide, with a total of 76 wooden pillars, each engraved with couplets. The building covers a construction area of 1,145 square meters, faces south, and is divided into three sections: front, middle, and rear. This ancestral hall was constructed under the leadership of the grandfather’s generation of Zhou Yun, a “child prodigy” of the Qing Dynasty. Zhou Yun was able to write poetry at the age of 7, created the “Six-Tone Chart” at 9, and passed the imperial examination to become a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the lowest level of the imperial civil service examinations) at 12, earning the title of “child prodigy” at the time. His self-created “Six-Tone Rhyme Studies” gained the appreciation of Zeng Guofan, the Minister of War in the Qing court, who petitioned the court to grant him the rank of a second-class educational official. This structure is currently the largest ancient Qing Dynasty building in Ningguo City and was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit of Anhui Province in October 2004.

Protected Area: Beyond the main body of the ancestral hall, the boundary extends 2 meters southeast to the junction with the paddy field, 35 meters southwest to the small river in front of the hall, and to the eaves drip line to the northeast and northwest.

Construction Control Zone: Beyond the protected area, the boundary extends 75 meters southeast to the Hua xia Road, and 25 meters outward to the southwest, northeast, and northwest.

Hule Village: Hule Village is located in the southwestern part of Hule Town, Ningguo City, upstream of the Qinglong Bay Reservoir, with the Wan-Gan Railway, Yihuang Expressway, S323, and S215 provincial roads passing through, offering very convenient transportation. The village covers an area of 35.7 square kilometers, with 3,230 mu of arable land, 28,000 mu of mountainous land, including 2,300 mu of hickory, 6,200 mu of bamboo, 8,700 mu of fir forest, and 10,800 mu of natural forest. The village Party branch consists of two branches (Hule Branch and Meichuan Branch), with a total of 89 official party members and 6 probationary party members.

Hule is a place with a history of over 1,000 years... More information about Hule Village++