Wanmu Caotang

Wanmu Caotang

Wanmu Caotang is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The former site of Wanmu Caotang is located at No. 3 Changxing Lane, Zhongshan 4th Road, Guangzhou. Originally the ancestral hall of the Qiu clan, this place was used by Kang Youwei to give lectures. The exact year of construction of the Qiu Family Study Hall is unknown. It is 15.59 meters wide and 45.96 meters deep, featuring a main gate, central hall, rear hall (ancestral hall), rear building, and side rooms. It has a flush-gable roof.

In the 17th year of the Guangxu reign (1891), Kang Youwei established a school here to gather students and teach, promoting the ideas of reform and improvement. He also drafted the school regulations titled "Changxing Academic Record." In the same year, he wrote "Examination of the New Learning's Forged Classics," using classical texts to construct a theoretical basis for reform, thereby grounding the reformist ideas in traditional Confucian theory. His students included more than 20 individuals such as Chen Qianqiu, Liang Qichao, Mai Menghua, Han Wenju, Liang Chaojie, and Cao Tai. The following year, the “schoolhouse” moved to the ancestral hall of the Kuang clan on Wei Bian Street in Guangzhou. In 1893, it relocated again to the Yanggao Shrine within the Guangzhou Prefectural Confucian Temple (now located inside the Guangzhou No. 1 Workers’ Cultural Palace). The scale of the lectures grew larger, and by 1894, the number of disciples had increased to over 100.

In August 1983, the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Government designated it as a cultural relics protection unit.

In 2019, it was approved and announced by the State Council as part of the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Kang Youwei (March 19, 1858 – March 31, 1927), also known as Zuoyi, with the courtesy name Guangsha and the pseudonyms Changsu, Mingyi, Gengsheng, Xiqiaoshanren, Youcunsou, and Tianyuhuaren (later using Tianyuhuaren as his alias), was a native of Nanhai, Guangdong, commonly referred to as “Kang Nanhai.” A successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, he was appointed as an official in the Ministry of Works. Born into a scholarly and official family, he came from a prominent Guangdong lineage known for generations of Confucian scholars. A renowned modern political figure, thinker, social reformer, calligrapher, and scholar, he believed in Confucius’s Confucian doctrine and dedicated himself to adapting Confucian teachings to fit... [More details about Kang Youwei++]

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Further reading:

· Seventh Batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units