Wan'an Baijia Jiuxian Ancestral Hall

Wan'an Baijia Jiuxian Ancestral Hall

The Wan'an Baijia Jiuxian Ancestral Hall is a cultural tourism attraction.

The Jiuxian Ancestral Hall is located within the Baijia Town Jiuxian Primary School, adjacent to the Gan River, and is one of the three historic cultural sites of our county from the Tang to the Qing dynasties. Since its construction in 1870, the Jiuxian Ancestral Hall has inspired generations of students and gained widespread fame for its thriving literary culture.

Since the Tang Dynasty, the Jiuxian Village has been home to three renowned sites: the Xianju Temple, the Angxi Study Hall, and the Jiuxian Ancestral Hall. Originally named Han Shan Temple, the Xianju Temple was built during the Tang Dynasty as a place for Buddhist worship. The eminent monk Huaidu Chan Master once drank from the Turtle Spring near the temple and exclaimed, “The spring carries the fragrance of ink—great scholars will reside here in the future.” He then renamed it “Xianju Temple” (Scholars’ Residence Temple). From the Song to the Ming dynasties, literati such as Ouyang Xiu, Liu Chenweng, and Min Zilin of the Song Dynasty, and Guo Jianzhai, Xie Jin, Luo Hongxian, Liu Yu, and Ouyang Zhengde of the Ming Dynasty, came here to lecture. The place became famous through these notable figures. The Angxi Study Hall was a civilian house built by the righteous man Duan Kuizhai along the river during the Song Dynasty, which he converted into a schoolhouse to teach village children. Their loud reading voices echoed across the river. When the national hero Wen Tianxiang passed by by boat and heard the studying, he stopped to go ashore, gave lectures, and encouraged the students to study diligently. He named the place “Angxi Study Hall.”

During the Xianfeng era of the Qing Dynasty, the Wan'an Academy was completely destroyed in the Taiping Rebellion. After that, Wan'an had no place for gathering students to study, so children could only study at home with private tutors. To promote the values of respecting the virtuous, cultivating talent, and upholding righteousness, upon the initiative of teachers Zhang Junxing and Wang Dong, villagers were encouraged to donate funds for building a new school. This initiative received strong support from the local community, with generous contributions, and also gained the attention of then-county magistrate Ouyang Jian. Under his supervision, skilled craftsmen were employed, and after more than two years of construction, the new schoolhouse was completed in 1870. The spirit tablets of the Eight Sages of Xianju and Wen Tianxiang were enshrined there, and the school was named the Jiuxian Ancestral Hall. The main gate of the Jiuxian Ancestral Hall features a couplet: on the left, “Nine Gentlemen once lectured here,” and on the right, “The people of this district built this hall out of righteousness.” Above the gate is inscribed “The Righteous Qi of Heaven and Earth.” Each season, scholars gathered in the hall for lessons, their writings reviewed by teachers who awarded prizes. Visitors admired the virtuous predecessors, exchanged ideas, and the hall’s reputation flourished.

The Jiuxian Ancestral Hall is a classic example of ancient academy architecture, featuring an elegant and classic design with corridors, hanging towers, a library pavilion, and a heavenly pool. Covering an area of 741 square meters, except for the single-story classrooms and memorial tablet rooms, the hanging tower, student and teacher dormitories, and library pavilion are all two-story structures. The exterior walls are made of brick, while the interiors are of wood, richly carved with dragons and painted with intricate designs.

Having endured over two hundred years of wind and rain, the ancestral hall gradually deteriorated, leaving only the facade, the couplets on the front, and the stone carving of a carp leaping over the dragon gate still clearly visible. It is the only remaining ancient academy ruin in our county.

Baijia Town: With a long history, Baijia has been an important commercial port along the thousand-mile Gan River since the Southern Song Dynasty. It has long enjoyed the reputation of “Going up or down, nothing compares to Baijia.” By the Yongzheng era of the Qing Dynasty, goods from all over converged here, and the bustling trade market made it a regional trading hub, with over a hundred shops established, hence the name Baijia (“Hundred Merchants”).

The Baijia town was newly built due to the relocation of the town government. The current site was originally a barren hill. The planned area covers 1.27 square kilometers and follows an overall layout of “one town, two lines, and three zones,” with the north-south Yangwan Highway and the east-west Baishao Highway serving as the two main axes, divided into administrative services... More details about Baijia Town++