Sunflower Well

Sunflower Well

The Sunflower Well is the only surviving original structure from the Ming Dynasty's Prince of Rong’s residence, tucked away in a corner of Changde No.1 Middle School. Legend has it that sunflowers often appeared in the well — when scooped with a ladle, the ladle would hold sunflowers, and when ladled into a bucket, the bucket would carry the blooms. In the fourth year of the Hongzhi reign (1491), Zhu Youchu was granted the title of Prince of Rong by Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, with his fief located in Changde Prefecture. In August of the same year, Wuling District in Changde was ordered to begin construction of the Prince of Rong’s palace, but Zhu Youchu did not comply with the decree to take up his fief in Changde and remained in the capital, staying within the political center. In the third year of the Zhengde reign (1508), under pressure from the imperial court, Zhu Youchu left the capital and went to Changde to assume his title. It was not until October of the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign (1643) that the peasant rebellion led by Zhang Xianzhong captured Changde, and the Prince of Rong’s palace, emblematic of feudal royal power, met its fate. The splendor of the palace faded into history, and the last master of the Prince of Rong’s residence, Zhu Cizhao, fled in haste with his mother, never to be seen again.

The Sunflower Well bears witness to 135 years of the rise and fall of the Prince of Rong’s palace, and also preserves the cherished childhood memories of countless local families, engraving the historical trajectory of Changde’s progress. Today, the surroundings of the ancient well have been beautified, the top of the well wall has been renovated, decorated with sunflower leaf patterns, stone railings have been added inscribed with the well’s name in seal script, and carvings of sunflower blossoms adorn the railings. Four stone lions have also been placed at the four corners of the well’s railing.

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