Laojie Street in Le'an

Laojie Street in Le'an

According to historical records, Le'an County was established in the 19th year of the Shaoxing era during the Southern Song Dynasty (1149 AD), formed by carving out territory from Chongren and Yongfeng counties. It was named after the Le'an township and governed from Aoxi Town. Legend has it that as early as the 3rd year of the Qiandao era in the Northern Song Dynasty (997 AD), a person surnamed Zhan relocated to Aoxi Town, which at the time was inhabited by only a few households of the Zhong family. The Zhan family found a relatively flat basin surrounded by mountains, overgrown with reeds, and considered it a geomantically auspicious site. They migrated there in large numbers to settle and multiply, gradually replacing the Zhong family. They called this place Zhanxu. Because there was a huge rock in the river that resembled an aoyu (a mythical turtle-like dragon), the area came to be known as Aoxi.

According to the book *The Turbulent Years of Republican Le'an*, by the Republican era, the county town of Aoxi had formed a demographic pattern dominated by four major surnames—You, He, Yuan, and Zhan—alongside six other surnames: Le, Chen, Hu, Li, Zou, and Huang. These ten surnames accounted for over 90% of the town’s total population.

These surname groups formed fixed residential areas centered around ancestral halls. For example, the Zhan family lived around Wutang Lane; the You family surrounded Bota Lane, residing near Xiaonanmen and Nanmen Lane; the Yuan family mostly lived on Beimen and Dongmen Lane; and the He families mainly resided on Xinmen Lane.

During the Republican period, the main streets of the county town stretched from Dongmenkou to Yaqian Lane, about 3 Chinese li in length. The street center was paved with long strip-shaped sandstone slabs, and there were about a hundred shops along the street, most of which had a “front shop, back house” structure. Yaqian Lane is the only street in the county that retains a relatively intact sandstone-paved road. The Sima Mansion on Wutang Lane features three gateways interwoven together, reflecting the distinguished stature and cultural heritage of the Zhan family. In the late Qing and early Republican periods, the You family of Le'an was extremely wealthy. The “You Taishun” merchant house, operated by the family across several generations, was the largest business in the county town. It had three branches in Nanchang, the provincial capital, as well as 17 sub-stores and handmade paper workshops in surrounding towns. Passing through the main gate of the You family compound, you can see two ancestral hall structures.

The “You Family Ancestral Hall” was originally built during the Ming Dynasty and renovated in the Qing Dynasty. Comrade Zhou Enlai once stayed here. On August 17, 1932, when the First Front Army of the Red Army captured Le'an, the Central Bureau of the Soviet Area held a meeting with local merchants in the You Family Ancestral Hall, where Zhou Enlai was staying, to promote the Party’s industrial and commercial policies, setting an example for the Central Soviet Area. The next day, the soldiers of the First Red Army Corps marched toward Yihuang and successfully captured the city of Yihuang.

The county town of Le'an also houses the “Former Residence of Comrade Mao Zedong” on Dayuan Lane. In Fuzhou, only the county town of Le'an preserves the former residences of both of these great leaders. In August 1932, Mao Zedong last directed a battle—the “Le-Yi Campaign”—in the preliminary stage of the Fourth Anti-Encirclement Campaign of the Central Soviet Area in the county town of Le'an.