Yang Jiaoshan Ancestral Hall (Songyun Nunnery)

Yang Jiaoshan Ancestral Hall (Songyun Nunnery)

Yang Jiaoshan Ancestral Hall (Songyun Nunnery) is a municipal-level cultural heritage site in Beijing.

Yang Jiaoshan Ancestral Hall (Songyun Nunnery) is located

at No. 12 Dazhi Bridge outside Xuanwu Gate and No. 2 San Tiao of Jiaochangkou, and is among the third batch of municipal-level cultural heritage protection units in Beijing.

During the Ming Dynasty’s Jiajing era, it was the residence of Yang Jiaoshan (also known as Ji Sheng), who fearlessly impeached the powerful prime minister Yan Song. In the 52nd year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1787), it was converted into Yang Jiaoshan Ancestral Hall. Stone engravings of Yang Jiaoshan’s two drafts criticizing the government policies are embedded in the Jiancao Pavilion within the ancestral hall.

Source: Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage

Yang Jisheng (1516–1555), courtesy name Zhongfang, style name Jiaoshan, was from Beihaozhao Village in Rongcheng. He was born into a family of farmers and scholars. Orphaned of his mother at age 7, he endured a life of hardship from an early age. At 11, he split his time between herding and studying. Although he failed the provincial examination at 18, he studied even harder and eventually passed the imperial examination in the 26th year of the Jiajing reign (1547), becoming a principal official in the Ministry of Personnel at the Southern Capital (present-day Nanjing). He studied under Minister Han Bangqi and mastered the science of musical pitch pipes. He personally crafted a set of twelve pitch pipes that played in perfect harmony. Han Bangqi was so impressed that he passed on all his knowledge to Yang. At age 35, Yang was transferred to the capital and appointed as an Assistant Director in the Ministry of War’s Department of Transport. This was during the height of Yan Song’s power, who widely... More details about Yang Jisheng++

Further reading:

· The third batch of municipal-level cultural heritage protection units in Beijing