Ancient Residential Complex of Xidi Village

Ancient Residential Complex of Xidi Village

The Ancient Residential Complex of Xidi Village is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Xidi Village is located in Dongyuan Township, Yi County, at the southern foot of the Huangshan Mountain Range in Anhui Province, approximately 8 kilometers east of the county town.

According to the *New Annals of Xin'an Clan* from the Ming Dynasty's Jiajing era, Xidi Village got its name because “Luofeng Mountain decorates its front, Yangjian Peak shelters its back, Shishi Lion coils around its north, Tianma Hill shrouds its south, and two streams flow around the stones to the east and west, hence the name Xidi.” The renowned Qing scholar Yu Zhengxie wrote in *Records of Ancient Yi Mountains and Waters*: “Xidi derived its name because it lies to the west of the prefecture (Huizhou Prefecture), where a 'post relay station' was once established.” Xidi is an ancient mountain village, initially built during the Northern Song Dynasty and has a history of nearly 900 years. The village was first inhabited by the Hu family during the Yuanfeng era of the Northern Song, and by the mid-Ming Dynasty, it had already taken on its current layout. After the mid-Qing Dynasty, with the development of Huizhou merchants’ economy, residential architecture saw significant improvements. Today, only the Shihui Guang Governor’s Memorial Archway, the former residence of Hu Wenguang, the Gulai Bridge, and the Huiyuan Bridge date back to the Ming Dynasty; all others were constructed during the Qing Dynasty. The village is laid out along the contours of hills and waterways, extending from northeast to southwest.

The village currently preserves one residential building from the Ming Dynasty and 122 from the Qing Dynasty, all featuring well-planned layouts and distinctive styles. Xidi is organized along three main streets—Zhengjie (Main Street), Henglu Street, and Houbianxi—as well as over 40 lanes and two streams that run through the village, dividing the residences into neat, orderly blocks. The pathways are all paved with bluestone slabs, winding gracefully. The ancient houses stand in tiered layers and courtyards, densely yet neatly arranged. Each home features bluestone gateways, white walls, gray tiles, and upturned eaves, exuding grandeur. High walls and deep lanes form secluded, winding paths, creating an atmosphere of simplicity and elegance. At the southwestern entrance of the village stands the Governor Hu Wenguang Memorial Archway, a three-bay, three-pillar, five-story hanging gable structure that is majestic in scale. It is 13 meters high and 9.6 meters wide, built entirely of bluestone with exquisitely carved details. The residential compounds in the village are typically designed as inward-facing square courtyards centered around a rectangular skywell, encompassing main halls, side rooms, wing rooms, studies, bedrooms, and gardens. Some also include academies and ancestral halls. The construction materials are refined, and the decorations are lavish. The gates of the homes are made of polished black marble, adorned with various brick and stone carvings forming decorative arches. The latticed windows in the white walls also feature unique stone carvings with patterns such as bamboo and plum blossoms, pine and rocks, flowers, and plants. The wooden carvings on interior panels and railings are equally exquisite, often depicting narrative scenes or openwork designs, delicate and lifelike.

Some households in Xidi have adopted garden design principles, resulting in compact, quaint, and serene residential layouts. Structures such as the “Dafu Mansion” of Hu Wenzhao, a former prefect, the “Household in the Peach Blossom Spring,” Aipark, Taoli Garden, and Fish Joy Park are all ingeniously integrated into the landscape, utilizing flower ponds, low latticed walls, stone and brick carvings, stone benches and tables, and even whole-stone carved plum vases placed at the entrances, creating symmetrical, harmonious, elegant, and beautiful courtyards. The watchtower-style buildings here are also a notable feature of Huizhou-style dwellings. Additionally, many homes in Xidi house heirloom cultural relics such as portraits, calligraphy and paintings, hanging scrolls, wooden plaques, ancient ceramics, antique furniture, and ancestral hall plaques. These artifacts enhance the refined and elegant scholarly ambiance of the homes.

Thanks to the well-preserved ancient residences, the distinctive Huizhou architectural style, exquisite craftsmanship, and particularly outstanding stone carvings among the “three types of carving” (stone, wood, and brick), Xidi is not only a valuable physical resource for studying Qing Dynasty residential architecture but also an important reference for understanding the socioeconomic structure, architectural history, and art history of Huizhou merchants since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It has been hailed as the “Museum of Ming and Qing Residential Architecture,” the “Treasury of Eastern Culture,” the “Best-Preserved Ancient Residential Complex in the World,” and the “Most Beautiful Village in the World.”

On November 30, 2000, at the 24th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Cairns, Australia, the ancient villages of Xidi and Hongcun in Anhui, China, were inscribed on the *World Heritage List*. In 2001, the Ancient Residential Complex of Xidi Village, as a representative of Ming and Qing Dynasty architecture, was designated by the State Council as part of the fifth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Protected Area: 60 meters east to the newly developed zone, 50 meters west to Paomalu, 30 meters south to Huiyuan Bridge, and 0 meters north to the Yi (City)–Tan (Kou) Highway.

Construction Control Zone: 2000 meters in all directions (east, south, west, and north) beyond the protected area.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units