Xu Family Mansion

Xu Family Mansion

The Xu Family Mansion is a cultural heritage site protected by Anhui Province.

The Xu Family Mansion is located in Nanling County, Wuhu City, dating back to the Qing Dynasty.

Situated in the area of the former county hospital, it was completed in the 10th year of the Guangxu reign (1884). Apart from gardens and pavilions, the mansion comprises ninety-nine and a half rooms, covering an area of over ten thousand square meters. With its quaint and unique architecture and beautiful surroundings, it is the largest ancient building in terms of construction scale in Nanling’s modern history.

The builder of the Xu Family Mansion was Xu Wenda, a powerful and prominent official of the late Qing Dynasty. Xu Wenda (1825–1890), courtesy name Renshan, was a native of Shanjifeng Village, Gongshan Town. Starting in the 3rd year of the Xianfeng reign (1853) during the Qing Dynasty, amid the fierce battles between the Qing army and the Taiping Rebellion forces, Xu Wenda organized local militias to assist the Qing army in strengthening the defenses at the four city gates. He also sought funding through various means, appealing to local gentry, wealthy households, and major merchants to gather grain and supplies for military use. Years later, Xu Wenda ascended to the prestigious position of Salt Commissioner for the Lianghuai region, enjoying high rank, substantial wealth, and considerable power. To celebrate his mother’s seventieth birthday, he planned to construct a grand residence as a commemoration. Upon the news, many merchants rushed to present valuable gifts. Legend has it that numerous wealthy traders contributed massive Yixing flower pots adorned with blooming peonies, hiding gold, silver, and jewels underneath, with total birthday gifts amounting to hundreds of thousands of taels. Xu Wenda used this money to build extensively on the former site of a restaurant in West Street, Nanling County, where he had previously been bullied by the restaurant owner. By the early years of the Republic of China, the Xu family and the Xu Family Mansion had both begun to decline. Descendants of Xu Wenda lived in the Xu Family Mansion until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan. By the end of 1938, with the fall of Nanling, the Xu descendants all fled back to their ancestral home in Gongshan. From then on, the Xu family never returned to the Xu Family Mansion again. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the site became a communal courtyard akin to the “Seventy-Two Tenants” setup.

The main structure of the Xu Family Mansion covers an area of over ten thousand square meters. Its architecture is quaint and unique, set within beautiful surroundings, making it the largest private residential complex in Nanling’s modern history, known as the “Ninety-Nine and a Half Rooms.” Initially, the mansion had nine courtyards, each separated by a skywell. Each courtyard was roughly the same in layout—two-story buildings with covered corridors on the second floor in a covered walkway style, surrounded by exquisitely carved railings. In addition, the layout of the entire mansion’s courtyards, doors, windows, beams, pillars, and even small pathways were all intricately designed, richly decorated with carvings, and crafted with exceptional craftsmanship.

In 2012, the Xu Family Mansion was designated as part of the seventh batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Heritage Protection Units by the People's Government of Anhui Province.