Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall

Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall

The Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall is a cultural relic protection unit of Anhui Province.

The Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall is located in Tanpeng Town, Linquan County, Fuyang City, dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Zhang family in Tanpeng originally came from Shandong. The founding ancestor, Zhang Dagong, migrated from Zhaolin Village in Shandong to the area seventy li west of Yingzhou, south of the spring and north of the river (present-day Zhang Laojia) during the Yongle era (1403–1425) of the Ming Dynasty. After settling in Zhang Laojia, his eldest son Zhang Xing had a son named Zhang Biao, who in turn had a son named Zhang Shouwen. Zhang Shouwen had four sons: the eldest, Zhang Gong; the second, Zhang Qi; the third, Zhang Jie; and the fourth, Zhang Pei. Since then, the descendants of these four branches have thrived and multiplied to this day. Today, the descendants of the Zhang family in Tanpeng are distributed across Tanpeng Town, Gaotang Township, Yangqiao Town in Linquan, and Maza Township in Yingzhou District, with nearly 100,000 people all belonging to the branches of these four families.

To honor their ancestors' virtues and merits, preserve traditions, and pass on the family values of scholarship and respect for education, in the first year of the Hongzhi reign of the Ming Dynasty (1488), Zhang Biao, a Ming scholar, invested in the construction of the Zhang family ancestral hall. Over the following centuries, parts of the hall suffered damage. In the eighth year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1803), Zhang Xiang, the 14th-generation descendant of the Zhang family and former Director of Confucian Studies in Lingbi County and Instructor in Chizhou, oversaw the renovation of the ancestral hall. This led to the formation of the Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall as it stands today.

In 2012, the Zhang Laojia Ancestral Hall was designated as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit in the seventh batch by the People's Government of Anhui Province.

Protected area: The protected area covers the land occupied by the ancestral hall, spanning 600 square meters.

Construction control zone: Beyond the protected area, the zone extends 15 meters to the east and west, 5 meters to the south, and 8 meters to the north.

Tanpeng Town: Tanpeng Town is the “eastern gateway” of Linquan, situated at the junction of two counties, one city, and one district. It lies 25 kilometers west of Linquan County and 30 kilometers east of Fuyang City. To the east, it borders Jiulong Town of Yingzhou District along the Jiulonggou stream; to the south, it connects with Gaotang Township; to the west, it neighbors Yangqiao Town; and to the north, it faces Daiqiao Town of Jieshou City across the Quanhe River. National Highway S102 runs through the town, providing convenient transportation. Established as a commune in 1958, Tanpeng was restructured as a township in 1983 and became Tanpeng Town in the spring of 1992 through the merger of Tanpeng, Wangzhai, and Chenying townships. The town administers 28 villagers' committees, 204 natural villages, and 369 villagers' groups. The town government... More details about Tanpeng Town++