Zhengding Majia Courtyard

Zhengding Majia Courtyard

The Zhengding Majia Courtyard is a cultural relics protection unit of Zhengding County.

On November 13, 1982, it was designated as a county-level key cultural relics protection unit by the People's Government of Zhengding County. Located 30 meters east of the city's Grand Cross Street on the north side of the road, it is a building from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period.

According to the "Genealogy of the Ma Family", the Ma family of Zhengding are descendants of the famous Three Kingdoms general Ma Yuan. They migrated from Hongtong County to Zhending Prefecture (now Zhengding) during the Ming Dynasty, and made their living through farming and commerce. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, they had become a wealthy and influential family. It is understood that the currently well-preserved Majia Courtyard was built in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period by Ma Zhaolin, the fifteenth-generation descendant of the Ma family, who commissioned workers from Wutai County, Shanxi Province, to design and construct it. Its structure and style feature characteristics of traditional Shanxi residential architecture.

The entire siheyuan (courtyard house) complex is meticulously laid out and exquisitely crafted, representing a typical siheyuan-style residence in Zhengding.

The original Majia Courtyard consisted of five connected siheyuan units. Currently, only three remain. These are arranged along a north-south axis, stretching 70.5 meters in length and 13.65 meters in width from east to west. All buildings feature single-eave, flush-gable roofs covered with gray tiles.

One of the most notable features of the Majia Courtyard architecture is the uniquely designed column-base stones under the eaves, which come in three types: round-drum style, lotus-pedestal style, and octagonal style. The round-drum style bases resemble small versions of the Changshan War Drums—delicate and charming. The lotus-pedestal bases are exquisitely carved, with curled leaf edges and raised leaf veins, showcasing folk craftsmanship with realistic techniques. The eight column-base stones of the front and rear eaves of the main house are even more intricate, featuring octagonal pedestals adorned with "antique motifs" and "Eight Buddhist Emblems" patterns—designs that are quite rare among surviving ancient residences. These extraordinary decorative elements add an artistic charm to the otherwise ordinary residential architecture.

In 1933, when Mr. Liang Sicheng visited Zhengding, he was deeply impressed by these residential buildings. He wrote in his "Brief Survey of Zhengding": "The drum-shaped bases under the columns are eight or nine inches high. Between the purlins and the eave brackets, instead of using the common spacer boards seen in Beijing, three lotus or lily pads are used as supports—extremely lovely."