The Ancient Building Complex of Matouzhai

　　   The Ancient Building Complex of Matouzhai is located in the western part of Hefeng Buyi and Miao Township, Kaiyang County, approximately 58 kilometers northeast of Guiyang City, Guizhou Province.

　　   During the Tang and Song dynasties, Matouzhai was under the jurisdiction of the Song clan in Manzhou. In the early Yuan Dynasty, administrative divisions such as Diwo and Zijiang were established within the village, marking over 700 years of institutional history. In 1301, Song Longji, the Tusi (local chieftain) of Shuidong, led an uprising against the Yuan Dynasty, with over 4,000 people from various ethnic groups in Diwo and Zijiang joining the revolt. They captured the Diwo and Zijiang Provincial Administration Office and seized the "Official Seal for Managing the Barbarian People of Yongzhen and Other Areas." In the early Ming Dynasty, Matouzhai gained its name as one of the twelve Matou (horse-head administrative units) directly governed by the Song clan of Shuidong, a name that has been retained to this day. By the late Ming Dynasty, after the rebellion of the Shuidong Tusi Song Wanda was suppressed, the twelve Matou of Shuidong were restructured into the civilian administrative system and incorporated into Kai Zhou (present-day Kaiyang County). However, descendants of the Song clan continued to reside in Matouzhai and nearby villages such as Pingzhai and Anguanzhai. During the Qing Dynasty, the Song Family Ancestral Hall was built in Matouzhai to enshrine the spirit tablets of figures like Song Wanda.

　　   The village faces the Diwo Paddy Fields, backs onto Baihua Mountain, and is surrounded by water on two sides, with the Qinghe River and Shen Shui River encircling the northern and eastern parts of the village respectively. The paths inside the village are mostly paved with bluestone and cobblestones. This area was the hometown of Song Longji, leader of the anti-Yuan resistance movement, as well as the site of the Yuan Dynasty’s Diwo and Zijiang Provincial Administration Office, the Jingjiang Road Provincial Administration Office, and the Ming Dynasty’s Diwo Matou. The ruins of the administration offices still remain. The village also houses dozens of slogans left by the Red Army's First and Third Corps when they passed through Diwo in April 1935.

　　   Many residences in Matouzhai are stilt-style quadrangle or triple-courtyard dwellings, generally featuring a mixed structure of mortise-and-tenon and beam-raising frameworks, consisting of a central main room, side wings, and a facing hall (or screen wall). The main rooms vary in width from three, five, to seven bays. Doors and windows are adorned with exquisite wood carvings. A waist gate is often added outside the main entrance, and many side wings have front-facing gates. Designs such as dragons, phoenixes, and the “wan” (endless knot) pattern—symbols of good fortune—are common. The Buyi people, however, have unique interpretations of certain decorative patterns. For example, they believe the “wan” pattern symbolizes waterwheel flowers or crab flowers, both associated with water, reflecting the Buyi people’s longstanding aquatic culture rooted in their tradition of living near water. The village currently has 208 households and 1,126 residents, most of whom are Buyi. The villagers build their houses along the mountains and riverbanks, adapting to the terrain, with wooden homes situated on the hillsides. Towering ancient trees cover the hills, creating lush greenery. The Qinghe River flows around the front of the village, with a stone arch bridge spanning the water. Village paths are often paved with cobblestones in herringbone patterns. Quadrangle courtyards are typically paved with bluestone, exuding a classical charm. On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, tens of thousands of Buyi people from the “Eight Villages of Diwo” dress in festive attire to celebrate the “June 6th” Song Festival in Matouzhai. The village contains 97 residential buildings, 2 temples, over 50 meters of village walls, 1 stone arch bridge, 1 theatrical stage, more than 1,000 meters of ancient pathways, and 2 ancient wells.

　　   In 2006, the Ancient Building Complex of Matouzhai, recognized as historical architecture from the Yuan to Qing dynasties, was included in the sixth batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level by the State Council.