Yujingfang Zheng Family Mansion

Yujingfang Zheng Family Mansion

Yujingfang Zheng Family Mansion is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Era: Qing Dynasty

Address: Houfeng Village, Xibin Town, Youxi County, Sanming City, Fujian Province.

Yujingfang, also known as the Houfeng Zheng Family Mansion, was built by Zheng Kongshi, a tribute student of the Qianlong era in the Qing Dynasty, and is therefore commonly referred to as the Kongshi Mansion. The mansion faces south and features a main structure of three courtyards with hanging gables, constructed from stone and wood. The entire complex consists of a main house, a wing house, two side rooms, two wing chambers, and more, totaling 108 rooms. It covers an area of nearly 4,485 square meters, with a construction area of 2,800 square meters. The layout is rectangular and enclosed by walls. It is a typical traditional rural dwelling in central Fujian that uniquely blends architectural styles from southern Fujian, Hakka, and Jiangxi regions. The building is highly functional, featuring relatively independent areas for scholarly and martial activities, women’s living quarters, guest leisure spaces, financial and archival storage, and living supplies. The structure is rigorously designed, logically laid out, and accessible only through one main gate and three smaller ones, giving it strong defensive capabilities.

The main house is grand and imposing, with a three-story structure and massive beams and pillars, which are very rare among ancient residences in Fujian Province. The central hall is five bays wide and six columns deep. There are five steps leading up, with decorative moldings and carved stone ornaments. The eaves feature an arched roof supported by bracket sets that hold up the purlins and roof framework. The central bay on the first floor serves as a meeting hall, built with a traditional post-and-lintel structure and fronted by partition frames. At the back, the high screen wall holds a solemn ancestral shrine. The pearwood window above the shrine is intricately carved with patterns such as symbolic motifs, and it enshrines the ancestral tablets of the Zheng family. Below lies a black lacquered altar table displaying ritual vessels and offerings. In front of the table is a golden nanmu eight-immortal table. In the past, a pair of large matching vases stood on either side of the hall entrance, while five golden nanmu armchairs and four tea tables were arranged along each side of the hall. Three plaques hung high inside the main hall: “Yimou Yanyi,” dedicated by Zheng Kongshi to his father upon the completion of Yujingfang; the other two were imperial gifts bestowed in 1855 (the fifth year of the Xianfeng reign) and 1832 (the twelfth year of the Daoguang reign), inscribed with “Five Generations Under One Roof” and “Upright and Austere.” Unfortunately, these plaques were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and the current ones are replicas.

In 2001, it was designated as part of the fifth batch of Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Units by the Fujian Provincial People's Government. In May 2013, it was listed as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council (State Council Document [2013] No. 13).

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units