The Ancient Architectural Complex of Chengkan Village

The Ancient Architectural Complex of Chengkan Village

The ancient architectural complex of Chengkan Village is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The ancient architectural complex of Chengkan is located in Chengkan Village, Huizhou District, Huangshan City, Anhui Province. The main structures date from the early Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty. Since the Tang Dynasty, the village has produced numerous high-ranking officials, recluses, wealthy merchants, historians, writers, ink makers, and calligraphers/painters. According to the *Xin’an Prefecture Annals*, during the Ming Dynasty alone, 110 members of the Luo family from Chengkan held official positions at or above the rank of clerk. To this day, the village retains a relatively intact overall layout of an ancient Ming-era settlement, including its street grid and water system, with 140 ancient residential buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Chengkan Ancient Residential Architectural Complex refers to 20 representative ancient residential buildings in the village (including 18 from the Ming Dynasty and 2 from the Qing Dynasty). These 20 structures, which embody the characteristics of the ancient Ming-era village, include 1 ancestral hall, 1 community shrine, 1 watchtower, 2 stone bridges, and 15 residences. They are distributed within a mountainous basin covering 0.7 square kilometers in the village area.

The Literature Ancestral Hall is located at the western end of the village. It is the ancestral temple of the Luo family of Chengkan, serving as a venue for ancestor worship, clan meetings, and major ceremonial activities.

The Changchun Community Shrine is located at the southern end of the village, where villagers worship the God of Land and the God of Five Grains. The Zhongying Watchtower, situated at the intersection of lanes in the village center, was used for night patrols, keeping watch, and timekeeping. The Huanxiu Bridge and Longxing Bridge, spanning the various streams, are vital transportation routes connecting the eastern and western parts of the village and providing access to the south. These two stone bridges also serve as resting spots for villagers. The 15 residential buildings scattered across the village’s 5 streets and 99 lanes have served generations of villagers as homes for living and working. They include prominent official residences, simple dwellings, and abodes of Huizhou merchants. In addition to the main houses, some of these buildings also retain kitchens, private schools, gardens, and miscellaneous courtyards. On June 25, 2001, they were listed as part of the fifth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units. Prior to that, in 1996, the Luo Dongshu Ancestral Hall in the village had already been included in the fourth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Protected Area: To the east, 120 meters beyond the southern end of the Longxing Bridge, i.e., 25 meters east of the bend in the Cōngchuān River at the southern water outlet of the village, extending about 25 meters east along the Cōngchuān River and then both southward and northward; to the south, approximately 45 meters south of the bend at the southern water outlet of the Cōngchuān River in Chengkan Village; to the west, about 10 meters west of the Literature Ancestral Hall, with other boundaries extending roughly 10 meters outward from the main cultural heritage structures; to the north, 10 meters outside the residence of Luo Sihai.

Construction Control Zone: To the north, 50 meters north of the Cōngchuān Bridge; to the south, 420 meters downstream of the Longxing Bridge; to the east, 400 meters east of the Cōngchuān River at the foot of Lingjin Mountain; to the west, the roadside on the west side of Baolun Road at the foot of Longpan Mountain. The total area is 53 hectares.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units