Zhang Family Ancestral Hall in Puling

Zhang Family Ancestral Hall in Puling

The Zhang Family Ancestral Hall in Puling is a cultural relic protection unit of Sichuan Province.

The Zhang Family Ancestral Hall is located in Group 2 of Huahua Village, 2.5 kilometers from Puling Township. According to Li Rongguo, director of the Huahua Village Committee, the ancestral hall was built by members of the Zhang family. With around 80% of the villagers surnamed Zhang, the ancestral hall has long served as the village’s activity hub. Events such as village meetings, film screenings, and theatrical performances were all held there. Every year, the Zhang families in the village would gather at the ancestral hall for an alumni association meeting. In March of this year, locals contributed funds to repair the ancestral hall.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Puling Primary School was housed in the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall. At that time, the school included both elementary and junior high levels, and most children in the village received their early education here. This place became a stepping stone for many villagers to escape “farming life” and even nurtured a number of outstanding talents, including panda expert Zhang Heming.

According to data provided by the Cultural Relics Management Office of Yongshan County, the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall was built in the sixth year of the Kangxi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1667). It faces southwest and features a traditional layout with a main gate, theater stage, central hall, and left-right wing rooms — altogether forming a wooden quadrangle courtyard covering 522 square meters. There is a stage inside the ancestral hall. In the past, there used to be a plaque reading “Zhang Clan Ancestral Hall” above the main entrance, and the ceilings of the stage and wing rooms used to feature colorful paintings depicting stories from the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately, these were destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, the Zhang Family Ancestral Hall still serves as a school — though no longer a full primary school, but now a village-level one with only three classes: kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade. Zhang Rongzhong, who teaches here, is a local villager and has been at the ancestral hall for over 20 years. Li Rongguo says that since the hall became a school, there has been an unwritten rule: apart from teachers, no one else is allowed to live inside.

The Zhang Family Ancestral Hall is the living history of Huahua Village. How to preserve and pass on this heritage remains a shared question among the villagers.

Protected area: 10 meters beyond the site boundary.

Construction control zone: 10 meters beyond the protected area.

Further reading:

· Eighth Batch of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units