Yuncheng Folk Museum

Yuncheng Folk Museum

Yuncheng Folk Museum was established in September 2006. Its founding filled the gap of having no state-owned folk museum in Yuncheng City. Its responsibilities include: implementing national, provincial, and municipal laws and regulations on cultural relics protection and management; formulating the overall conservation plan for the architectural complex of the Li Family Courtyard; overseeing the protection of cultural relics at the Li Family Courtyard and enforcing related regulations; collecting, curating, exhibiting, preserving, and researching folk cultural relics from southern Shanxi, as well as organizing inter-museum cooperation and exchanges.

Yuncheng Folk Museum is located at the Li Family Courtyard in Wanrong, a nationally protected heritage site. The ancient residential complex of the Li Family Courtyard was initially built during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty and completed in the early years of the Republic of China. It currently consists of 11 courtyard groups, 230 rooms, as well as the remains of an ancestral hall and a garden, covering a total area of 125 mu. Most of the courtyards feature a two- or three-courtyard quadrangle layout. The overall architecture is systematically arranged, with distinct layers, grand proportions, and substantial materials. Decorative artworks such as brick carvings, stone carvings, wood carvings, and ironwork are commonly seen throughout, all rich in content and exquisitely crafted. The courtyard of the key figure, Li Ziyong, is built against a cliff and consists of a hybrid wooden, brick, and stone structure library, brick-built cave dwellings, and the Three Provinces Platform. This gives rise to a style distinctly different from traditional northern Chinese quadrangles. The courtyard’s gate tower, with its tall, straight, and pointed “Gothic” architectural features, reflects the fusion of Chinese and Western design philosophies in this residence, offering high ornamental and research value.

The museum’s permanent exhibitions include "The History of the Li Family," "Exhibition of the Li Family’s Charitable Deeds," "The Life of Li Ziyong," "Exhibition of Folk Stone Carvings from Southern Shanxi," "Exhibition of Folk Paper-cutting Art from Southern Shanxi," and "A Brief Introduction to Traditional Private Schools."