Xijiashan Folk Museum

Xijiashan Folk Museum

Xijiashan Folk Museum serves as a patriotic education base.

The Xijiashan Folk Museum in Jiang’an County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province was completed on October 19 and opened to domestic and foreign tourists. Located on the edge of the famous national scenic area “Shunan Bamboo Sea,” it is 20 kilometers from Jiang’an County. The museum was approved by the State Council in 1996 as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and is a national 4A-level tourist attraction. Situated in Xijiashan, Jiang’an County, it is one of the best-preserved ancient residential architectural complexes in China to date. Originally built in 1612, it is hailed as the “Living Fossil of Chinese Folk Architecture,” a “Treasury of Traditional Culture,” and a “Natural Egret Park.”

The museum primarily showcases the historical evolution and architectural style of Xijiashan residences. Its basic exhibition is the Folk Customs Exhibition of Southern Sichuan.

Major Attractions

The residence faces south and is backed by the Anyuan Mountain Range to the north, overlooking rolling hills, giving it the imposing presence of “a thousand hands clasped in salute, with myriad mountains paying homage.” Covering an area of 680,000 square meters with a built-up area of 10,056 square meters, it features a hanging and post-and-lintel wooden structure. With 123 rooms, deep courtyards, high walls, upturned eaves, dark tiles, and ancient trees towering amidst bamboo groves, the scenery is picturesque.

The ancient residence has a composite courtyard layout, extending three sections deep. The main gate, central hall, and rear hall are aligned along a central axis, with three sets of wing rooms symmetrically arranged on both sides of the axis. The entire layout resembles a soaring crane perched atop an ancient vase, symbolizing peace (the vase) and the crane’s auspicious flight (peace and prosperity). The eastern section of the manor cleverly uses the interplay of solid buildings and open courtyards among three tiers of wing rooms to form the shapes of “paper, ink, brush, and inkstone,” showcasing ingenious design. The residence is surrounded by ponds, a rear garden, a western garden, and an eastern garden. The overall architectural layout is rigorous, with clear hierarchy, balanced openness and enclosure, and mutual harmony, preserving the folk architectural styles since the Song and Ming dynasties. Following traditional Chinese beliefs that “the left is more esteemed than the right,” the left side of the central axis houses the scripture hall, central reception room, I-shaped hall, theater stage, upper reception room, study, music room, schoolhouse, and the Yi Garden, all arranged in an elegant and orderly fashion. These spaces, adorned with exquisite carvings, hanging floral motifs, and colorful paintings with gold accents, were clearly reserved for the residence’s owners and upper-class residents for living and entertainment. The right side of the axis includes the lower reception room, embroidery tower, weaving room, granary, kitchen, stable, sedan chair room, detention room, and dining hall. The architectural style here is noticeably more modest compared to the left, serving as quarters for servants and younger family members. This contrast in architectural grandeur between the two sides reflects the hierarchical and ritual systems of feudal China. The Xijiashan residential complex emphasizes a prominent main structure in its architectural form while showcasing diverse decorative techniques. The front hall (second section) and rear hall (third section), positioned along the central axis, are the main architectural components, distinguished by their particularly outstanding design and ornamentation. Their depth and width are exceptionally generous, with tall buildings constructed from robust materials, high-pitched roofs, straight slopes, and neatly laid tiles. The continuous eaves, flying rafters, and eight-rafter framework exude solemn dignity. Column bases and camel humps are often painted with auspicious patterns such as clouds, water, and lotus flowers, adding to their elegance. The ridges of the roofs curl upwards and are inlaid with ceramic pieces featuring floral designs. At the center of each ridge, grey sculptures depict historical and legendary scenes such as “Poetic Inscription in the Valley,” “Trading a Goose for Buddhist Scriptures,” “Yellow Crane Tower,” “Journey to the West,” and “The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea.” These compositions are vivid, with lifelike figures. The front of the central hall features fourteen bays and twenty-eight wooden lattice doors, with the central four panels’ skirt boards carved with openwork designs of figures representing “fishing, woodcutting, farming, and studying.” These depictions of fishermen, woodcutters, farmers, and scholars are uniquely crafted, using bold lines and strikingly lifelike expressions, rich in everyday charm. The skirt boards of other lattice doors are mostly decorated with relief carvings in alternating shades, featuring auspicious patterns such as “prosperity, wealth, longevity, and happiness,” “mountains of fortune and seas of longevity,” “lifelong good fortune,” “plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo,” and “lotus (symbolizing continuous promotion).” Brackets combine round carving and openwork techniques, depicting exaggerated bats, deer leaping through flowers, cranes poised to fly, and joyous lions, all subtly symbolizing “prosperity, wealth, longevity, and happiness.” The overall design is lively, with fine craftsmanship, smooth lines, and strong symbolic and metaphorical meanings. The decorations are elegant and exquisite, complementing each other and adding a magnificent splendor to the appearance of the residence.

The rear hall is also one of the main structures, with the main chamber serving as a place for ancestral worship. It features three bays and six lattice windows, with the window frames inscribed with six seal-style characters: “Prosperity (福), Wealth (禄), Longevity (寿), Happiness (喜), Loyalty (忠), and Filial Piety (孝).” Each character is bordered and embellished with a swastika-patterned grid and accented with five stylized bats, forming the pattern “Five Blessings Descend Upon the Home (五福临门).” The skirt boards of the lattice doors are also carved with shallow reliefs of “Longevity, Happiness, Zither, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting,” lending an air of refined elegance amid the solemnity.

Master’s Room: The bedroom of Master Huang Gongmei.

The second bay of wing rooms on the west side of the residence serves as the entertainment area. The I-shaped hall and theater stage are closely connected, arranged over two tiered levels with an alternating layout and exceptionally ornate decorations. Brackets and spandrels are adorned with openwork and high-relief carvings, featuring painted beams, tasseled lanterns, and gilded designs. The theater stage’s crossbeams are decorated with high-relief carvings depicting numerous theatrical stories and floral, insect, and antique motifs. The style is simple yet three-dimensional, with sharp carving and considered a masterpiece of traditional Chinese woodcarving art.

Xijiashan residences place great emphasis on garden art. The East Garden, Rear Garden, Yi Garden (also called West Garden), and Date Garden are distributed around the residence, with the Yi Garden being the most renowned. Covering an area of 3 mu (approximately 0.2 hectares), the Yi Garden is celebrated for its floral and arboreal landscape. It boasts trees that remain green year-round and flowers that bloom in all seasons. Winding corridors, small bridges over flowing water, spring orchids, autumn chrysanthemums, and fragrant blossoms create an atmosphere where one can enjoy the pleasures of a mountain forest without leaving the garden. The main structures in the Yi Garden include the study, music room, upper reception room, Yi Pavilion, and schoolhouse. The architecture is especially known for its delicate elegance. In front of the music room lies a courtyard with a pond, where rocks are piled up against the water’s edge, creating jagged stone formations topped with banyan trees. The trees’ ancient roots and gnarled branches are rustic yet refined, encapsulating the essence of the entire garden within a small space. This showcases the harmonious interplay of “flowing water,” “lofty mountains,” and “majestic trees.” The southern wall of the Yi Garden is lined with emerald bamboo, and tree branches inside and outside the garden intertwine, with white walls peeking through the bamboo and vines. Whether bathed in moonlight or accompanied by the gentle rustle of bamboo, the setting evokes a serene and contemplative mood. The half-open back gate of the Yi Garden further hints at the existence of a vast, mysterious garden beyond, sparking a sense of “a hidden paradise.” Occasionally, a stream of clear water emerges from beneath the southern wall, evoking poetic imagery of “a fresh spring emerging from within, its source unknown.”

In Chinese garden design, smaller gardens often feature solitary plantings, while larger ones favor group plantings. The Yi Garden at Xijiashan combines both. The southern part features dense groupings of trees, lush and tranquil, exuding the grandeur of a large garden. The northern section opts for solitary plantings, using whitewashed walls as “paper” with one or two flowers or trees set against them to compose a three-dimensional miniature scene, reflecting the refinement of a small garden. Within the garden stands a more than 200-year-old ancient yellow orchid tree with a tall trunk and sprawling branches. Every summer and autumn, when the orchids bloom, the fragrance envelops the entire Xijiashan area, creating an ambiance akin to “sparse shadows slanting across clear shallow water, with a subtle fragrance drifting in the moonlight.” Even more intriguing is the coexistence on the garden’s artificial hill of a towering ancient banyan tree and a more than three-zhang-high (over ten-meter) ancient palm tree. Their trunks intertwine and lean toward each other in an embrace. This unique design reflects the ingenuity of the garden creator and draws inspiration from the Confucian philosophy of the “Doctrine of the Mean (中庸之道),” symbolizing harmony between the “Chinese palm (中, zhōng)” and “banyan (榕, róng).” This rare integration of Confucian philosophy with garden design is an exceptional masterpiece seldom seen in folk gardens.

Surrounding the Xijiashan residences are hundreds of acres of Phoebe zhennan and mixed forests. The dense woods are lush and verdant. Every spring and summer, tens of thousands of egrets gather on the branches, creating a spectacle resembling light white fluff drifting over green fields or clusters of jade and ice sculptures. Egrets have inhabited Xijiashan for over 200 years, bringing boundless vitality to the residences and earning it the title “China’s Natural Egret Park.”

The Xijiashan residences are a folk architectural complex imbued with the essence of Chinese agrarian culture and serve as a living fossil of folk architecture embodying the spirit of combining farming with scholarly pursuits. They stand as an isolated enclave and guardian of the mysterious agrarian culture of Bashu (Sichuan and Chongqing). On October 21, 1996, the State Council officially approved the Xijiashan residences as a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit. As early as the mid-1980s, the People’s Government of Sichuan Province issued a document approving the establishment of a folk museum at Xijiashan. Through the continuous efforts of the Jiang’an County People’s Government and cultural authorities, the folk museum now offers richly detailed exhibits such as the “Original Layout Exhibition of the Huang Family” and the “Folk Customs Exhibition of Southern Sichuan.” Currently, the Xijiashan residences and their folk exhibitions have attracted increasing attention and admiration from scholars, experts, and tourists from home and abroad. With the advent of the information age, this radiant pearl of cultural heritage—Xijiashan residences—will shine with ever greater brilliance.