Yuping Village

　　Yuping Village is situated in Yantang Town, approximately 25 kilometers from Zhongshan County, surrounded by karst mountain ranges. Nestled between hills and waters, the village is flanked by a small stream at the front and lush greenery at the back. The surrounding peaks — the Brush Rack Mountain, Dragon Head Mountain, and Three-Tiered Mountain — are strikingly lifelike, creating a truly picturesque landscape. Historically, the village was known as a wealthy and prestigious enclave within a hundred-mile radius, producing numerous scholars who passed imperial examinations, officials, and affluent families. With its deep courtyards, towering buildings, and fortress-like fortifications, it earned the nickname “Little Nanjing.”

　　Yuping Village was first established during the Song Dynasty by its founding ancestor, Liao Zhengyi (a Song Dynasty scholar who passed the imperial examination in Yuanfeng era, hailing from Jincheng County, Fuzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi Province). Serving as an official in Longping, the former county of Zhao, he chose this land for its beautiful mountains and charming waters. The slope of Yuping, with jade-like hues and a temperate climate year-round, became the ancestral home for his descendants. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, due to unrest caused by uprisings of the Yao and Zhuang peoples, the family relocated to Guiyang. They returned to their homeland during the mid-Ming Dynasty.

　　Liao Zhengyi took the imperial examination under Su Shi (Su Dongpo) in the Yuanyou era. He once served as the prefect of Changzhou and, after gaining fame, was registered as a member of a party affiliation. He styled himself as the “Bamboo Grove Recluse” and left behind two literary collections titled White Clouds and Cloud Stream.

　　Since ancient times, Yuping Village has placed great emphasis on education. Particularly during the feudal era when academic excellence led to officialdom, studying and martial training became prominent village traditions. Historical records indicate that during the Ming and Qing dynasties alone, the village produced nearly twenty successful candidates in the imperial examinations, most of whom went on to serve as officials. Some held positions such as the Deputy Commissioner of Yunnan, Literary Gentleman, Commander and Deputy Commander of Wuzhou, military officers, as well as magistrates, local administrators, instructors, and scholars in counties and prefectures including Guangshan in Henan, Guilin, Longping, Lingchuan, Liucheng, and Quanzhou in Guangxi. The village’s land holdings once extended as far as Gongcheng and Lipu, almost as if it sought to buy up all the land under the heavens. Especially in Yuping’s Yuxi area, land was especially abundant — before liberation, over 85% of households owned sizeable plots, truly earning its reputation as a wealthy enclave. Today, Yuping Village still preserves dozens of old-style blue-brick mansions, several-decimeter-thick protective stone walls, as well as ancient wells, gate towers, flagstone alleys, stone bridges, ancestral temples, and stone memorial archways. Among them, the Grace Honor Stone Memorial Archway is the most distinctive ancient structure in the village and also one of the notable historical buildings in Guangxi. Located in front of the ancestral hall of the Liao family in the village, it was built in the 17th year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1752) by Liao Shide, a successful imperial examination candidate of the village, in honor of his ancestors. The archway covers an area of 10.30 square meters, featuring four pillars, three bays, five stories, and a hip-and-gable roof. It is 6.18 meters wide, 1.66 meters deep, and 7.32 meters tall, entirely constructed from bluestone. The archway is richly adorned with round carvings, high-relief, and relief sculptures. The materials used are grand and solid, with stone pillars standing on stone bases, and drum stones set in front and behind each pillar for protection. The front drum stone of the central pillar features an openwork carving of...

　　a stone lion. The main ridge at both ends of the central bay’s hip-and-gable roof is decorated with upward-curving fish-like chiwen ornaments, with a precious gourd finial at the center. The lattice windows between the bracket sets are intricately carved. The central stone plaque under the horizontal beam is inscribed vertically in regular script with the characters “Si Rong” (Grace Honor). The decorative beams and stone slabs between them feature high-relief and openwork carvings of more than ten exquisite and symbolic designs, including “Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl,” “Two Lions Playing with a Ball,” “Qilin Spitting a Jade Book,” “Red Phoenix Facing the Sun,” “Eight Immortals Celebrating Longevity,” and “Fish Leaping Through the Dragon Gate.” In short, the archway boasts exquisitely fine craftsmanship, masterful technique, and is a rare artistic masterpiece. In 2000, it was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.