The Ancestral Hall of the Jia Clan in Jingxian

The Ancestral Hall of the Jia Clan in Jingxian

The Ancestral Hall of the Jia Clan in Jingxian is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

Jingxian Jia Family Ancient Village is nestled against mountains and near water, with crisscrossing ancient lanes paved entirely with blue bricks and bluestone. Deep ruts in the roadways bear witness to the village’s storied past. The ancient drainage system here is scientifically designed and still in use today. Twelve ponds are scattered throughout the village to regulate rainwater and manage silt. The historic architecture includes temples, nunneries, ancestral halls, monasteries, Taoist shrines, and academies scattered both inside and outside the village. There are numerous cultural relics such as sedan chairs, spirit tablets, plaques, ancient ceramics, and wooden furniture. A seven-tiered jade pagoda stands in the fields in front of the ancient village.

Calling the Jia Family the real-life “Rongguo Mansion” refers to their prominence in officialdom. This is illustrated by a local anecdote passed down through generations: because Jia Xin was a high-ranking court official with close ties to the imperial family, his father, Jia Jiliang, would typically kneel only before male members of the royal family when entering the palace, and refused to bow to women, stating, “My left foot treads on gold, my right on silver—how could I bow my head to a woman?” This was meant to demonstrate his exceptional status.

Of course, most people take such stories as mere legend, but the distinct official-style architecture still preserved in Jia Family Ancient Village lends credence to the tale. “It’s precisely because so many people from Jia Family Village served as officials elsewhere and returned to build homes with diverse styles—including elements of imperial architecture—that this remains evident,” said Liu Jincheng.

The most representative example is the Ancestral Hall of the Jia Clan. Passing through the lane in front of the hall, you’ll see this four-courtyard, through-style ancestral building, covering an area of more than 1,872 square meters. It consists of four parts: the Rilu Hall, the Worship Pavilion, the Ancestral Chamber, and the Guanyin Hall. Most crucially, the Rain Pavilion, Worship Pavilion, Ancestral Chamber, and Guanyin Hall are all aligned along the north-south central axis, with even the corridors, courtyards, and wing rooms symmetrically arranged around this axis. “This clearly follows the symmetrical principles of imperial architecture—an extremely rare feature among ancestral halls in the Jiangnan region,” said Liu Jincheng.

The imperial style in the ancestral hall’s architecture doesn’t end there. The hall features a large octagonal Rain Pavilion caisson ceiling divided into three tiers. In traditional belief, this central courtyard space was designed to gather the essence of heaven and earth and accumulate wealth and prosperity for the family. The second courtyard houses the Worship Pavilion, whose floor is paved with axe-blade bricks arranged in an octagonal pattern. The third courtyard is the Ancestral Chamber, dedicated to enshrining ancestral tablets—but only those of individuals who had achieved a certain level of distinction could be placed there. The fourth courtyard is the Guanyin Hall, which has a Peace Vat positioned at the front.

The carvings in the ancestral hall not only showcase the artisans’ exceptional craftsmanship at the time but also reveal that Jia descendants who succeeded in official careers abroad brought back what they saw and learned to their hometown.

The Village Architecture Has a Strong Official Character

Compared to the unadorned simplicity of typical ancient villages, the extraordinary official-style architecture of Jia Family Village adds a sense of grandeur and solemnity. During the War of Resistance against Japan, just before the famous Battle of Shanggao, Nationalist Army General Wang Yaowu resided in Jia Family Village, where he planned and directed the battle operations. Wang Yaowu was a high-ranking Nationalist general and served as the lieutenant general and commander of the elite 74th Army during the war. Known for his modest and amiable demeanor in peacetime and decisive, forceful leadership in battle, he was one of the Nationalist Army’s most formidable generals during the eight-year war. He participated in the Battle of Shanggao in 1941, and due to the 74th Army’s meritorious service, the Nationalist government specially awarded the unit a star-shaped honor flag.

The residence where Wang Yaowu stayed was the Jia Family’s official reception hall, the “Cifutang.” Official halls served as waystations for receiving visiting officials from the prefectural and county governments and also functioned as government offices. “Cifutang” is undoubtedly the most typical example of an official hall in Jia Family Village. Built in the early Qing Dynasty, it covers an area of over 700 square meters. “From Cifutang, we can see how Confucian ideals of valuing inner substance over outward show—refined within but restrained without—are embodied here more prominently than anywhere else in the village. Its exterior looks quite ordinary, but the interior construction is highly practical,” said Liu Jincheng. The central courtyard features circular brick inlays forming the Chinese characters for “Fortune,” “Prosperity,” “Longevity,” and “Happiness,” flanked by fireproof gable walls with upturned corners. The decorations in Cifutang include wood carvings and stone carvings, crafted using round carving, openwork carving, and high relief techniques. The gable walls of Cifutang are built with strip-shaped bluestone slabs, each 1.5 meters high, making them very sturdy and providing good anti-theft protection. The gable and rear walls feature multiple stone carvings with patterns such as deer, phoenixes, bagua (the eight trigrams), and bats.

Xinjie Town: Located in the southern part of Gao’an City, Xinjie Town has a long history and convenient transportation. It covers a total area of 135.18 square kilometers, governs 14 village committees and 2 neighborhood committees, and includes 238 villager groups. In 2017, the town had a total of 13,079 households and a population of 41,321. It has 5,059.8 hectares of arable land, 4,267 hectares of forested land, and 836 hectares of water area, with a forest coverage rate of 31.6%. In 2017, the town achieved a total fiscal revenue of 81.2794 million yuan, ranking 10th in the city.

Main Industries in 2017... More details about Xinjie Town++

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units