Baifu Courtyard

Baifu Courtyard

Baifu Courtyard is a cultural relic protection unit of Sichuan Province.

Baifu Courtyard, located on Baifu Lane, Tianjie Street, Baifu Community, Zhenjiang Temple Subdistrict Office, Chuanshan District, Suining City, Sichuan Province, is the earliest existing wooden ancient building in Chuanshan District and a cultural relic protection unit of Suining City. The front hall was built during the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1398), and the rear hall was built in the 47th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1782). Originally arranged as a quadrangle courtyard, it once covered an area of 947.42 square meters, with a floor space of 676.03 square meters.

The rear hall and right wing room of Baifu Courtyard were demolished in 2002, leaving only the front hall (also known as the Buddha Hall). The front hall faces southwest, sitting on a plain base 0.1 meter high, with a raised-beam wooden frame structure, six-rafter spans, a single-eave hipped-gable roof, and small blue tiles covering the roof. The eaves feature 20 sets of bracket arms (dougong), with five-tiered bracket arms at the front eave corner and three-tiered ones at both the rear eave corner and column-top brackets. The hall is 12.1 meters wide and 12.4 meters deep, with a total height of 7.7 meters. The structure is simple and archaic, using sturdy materials, with exquisite craftsmanship demonstrating the architectural style of the Yuan Dynasty. It serves as a tangible historical resource for studying the art of ancient architecture from the late Yuan and early Ming periods, possessing significant cultural value.

In the 12th year of the Republic of China (1923), Wang Feizhang spearheaded renovation efforts and had inscriptions engraved on rectangular wooden boards, which were embedded into the left wall of the rear hall (these inscribed boards were damaged in 1985, though transcripts of the original text survive). The upper floor of the rear hall housed Buddhist scriptures and enshrined a large copper Buddha, seven feet tall and weighing more than 120 jin (approximately 72 kilograms). A large stone stele stood downstairs, but its inscriptions have been lost.

Protective boundary: A 1-meter buffer zone extending outward in all directions from the drip line around the main hall.

Construction control zone: A 2-meter buffer extending beyond the protective boundary.

Baifu Community: Baifu Community…… More details about Baifu Community++

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relic Protection Units