Former Residence of Huang Jingren (Zhongze)

　　The former residence of Huang Jingren (Zhongze) is situated at No. 35 Shenxian Guan Long, Mashanbu. The front gate is at No. 86 Mashanbu (now No. 62). The residence is a closed quadrangle courtyard, featuring two sedan-chair halls, three nanmu wood halls, a rear flower hall, and east and west wing rooms. The west wing room served as the poet’s study, “Liangdang Xuan,” a Ming Dynasty structure originally fitted with floor-length clear-glazed windows, now replaced with glass ones. The main hall and courtyard have been demolished. The municipal government has designated the remaining “Liangdang Xuan” as a cultural relic protection site. The renowned calligrapher Liu Haisu inscribed the plaque for Liangdang Xuan.

　　Huang Jingren (1749–1783), styled Hanyong, also known as Zhongze or Zhongze, with the alias Xili, and self-styled as Lufei Zi, was a descendant of the Northern Song poet Huang Tingjian and a famous poet of the Qing Dynasty. Huang Jingren’s works include the 22-volume Collected Works of Liangdang Xuan (including two supplementary volumes), the four-volume Bamboo Sleep Lyrics, the two-volume As If No Record, and several volumes of Seal Drafts of Xili. He was renowned alongside fellow locals Sun Yuangu, Hong Liangji, and Zhao Weixin, collectively referred to as the “Sun-Hong-Huang-Zhao Quartet.” His poetry collection, Collected Works of Liangdang Xuan, has been published in over twenty editions. One of his poems contains the line: “Huang Zhongze of my hometown, cold through a night of wind and snow.” The modern writer Yu Dafu authored a historical short story titled The Stone Crag, based on the life of Huang Jingren.

　　In 1983, the literary and art circles of Changzhou held commemorative events for the 200th anniversary of Huang Zhongze’s death. Huang Jingren’s descendants, brothers Huang Hexi and Huang Heshu, who were living overseas, donated 244 original woodblocks of the Complete Works of Liangdang Xuan—an invaluable family heirloom—to the Changzhou Museum in support of the nation’s cultural endeavors. In April 1964, it was listed as a municipal-level cultural relic protection unit.