Qiyun Tower

Qiyun Tower

Qiyun Tower is a cultural tourism attraction.

Qiyun Tower was built in the 18th year of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty (1590), making it over 600 years old. It is the earliest known circular earthen building in terms of construction date, often referred to as the "Mother of Towers," proving that Hua’an is the birthplace of round earthen buildings in southern Fujian.

The Guo family of Qiyun Tower is a prominent and prosperous clan. According to two treasured volumes of the *Genealogy of the Guo Family* preserved at Qiyun Tower, their earliest recorded paternal ancestor was Shu, the younger brother of King Wen of Zhou, whose most ancient ancestral home was Taiyuan, with other noted lineages also tracing back to Huayin and Fengyi. By the Tang Dynasty, Guo Ziyi played a key role in restoring the Tang Dynasty and was granted the title “Prince of Fenyang,” after which “Fenyang” became the family’s hall name, and Guo Ziyi was honored as the founding patriarch of the Guo lineage. Guo Ziyi had eight sons, the eldest being Guo Yao, who fathered Yan and Song. During the time when Wang Shenzhi entered Fujian, Guo Song accompanied the army into Fujian and settled at Guokeng at the eastern foot of Zhishan Mountain in Zhangzhou, becoming the first ancestor of the Guo family in Zhangzhou. After more than thirty generations of complex migrations, the lineage continued down to the 30th-generation descendant of Guo Ziyi, Guo Shuzi, who established his roots in Hua’an’s Shajian Daishan Village during the Yongle era (1403–

1442) of the Ming Dynasty under Emperor Yongle.

The Guo family flourished in Daishan for seven or eight generations, and by the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, had grown into a powerful clan. After the construction of Qiyun Tower, and up until the end of the Qing Dynasty, many members of the Guo family migrated outward, with the largest and most concentrated group moving to Taiwan. The *Daishan Genealogical Record of the Guo Clan*, compiled in the late Qing Dynasty, documents up to the 18th generation in Daishan. The record shows that from the 10th to the 18th generation—across nine generations—a total of over 300 Guo men from Daishan migrated to Taiwan to establish new roots. Each generation saw no fewer than 40 individuals relocating to Taiwan, marking a significant movement. Throughout the Qing Dynasty, descendants of the Daishan Guo family in Taiwan frequently returned to Qiyun Tower to pay homage to their ancestors and reconnect with relatives.

Descendants of the Daishan Guo family are spread throughout Taiwan. The clan’s generational poem is: “Wen Jing Wei Zhong Shu, Yuan Shi An Ru Qi. Shi Zhi Zhen Guang Zong, Yun Long Ji Yu Shi. Cheng Xian Qi Lai Yi, Shao De Yong Wei Ji. Tian Ci Wo Che Zuo, Qian Qiu Qing You Yu.”