Official Residence of Prince of Zhong of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Zhongwangfu is the palace of Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the peasant uprising regime in the Qing Dynasty. It is the most complete building left by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time, and also the most complete peasant uprising army palace left in the history of our country.

Official Residence of Prince of Zhong of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Located in Northeast street of Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, adjacent to Humble Administrator's garden, the palace of loyal King Li Xiucheng of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a peasant uprising regime in the Qing Dynasty, is the most complete building left by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at that time and the most complete peasant uprising army palace left in Chinese history. It was announced by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit in 1961.

Evolution of construction

In April of the tenth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (June 1860), Li Xiucheng, the loyal king, led the Taiping army to conquer Suzhou. In October of the same year, the zhuozhengyuan base of Wu family was rebuilt into zhongwangfu, and the Dongpan family and Xiwang family's houses were collected together to expand into the land of Wangfu, forming a "miangenlixu" building complex including the official office, court house and garden pool.

In the winter of the second year of tongzhi (December 1863), Suzhou was lost, and the repair project of Prince Zhong's mansion had not been completed, but it had begun to take shape. Taiping army withdrew from Suzhou, and Li Hongzhang became governor of Jiangsu Province according to Prince Zhong's mansion.

In 1872, it was changed into the Eight Banners Fengzhi guild hall.

In 1938, the Japanese puppet government was stationed in Jiangsu Province.

In 1946, the National Institute of social education was borrowed as a school building.

In 1951, it was put under the cultural relics management committee of Southern Jiangsu District.

In 1960, it was changed to Suzhou Museum.

Cultural relics

Prince Zhong's mansion is located at beisita Road (formerly Dongbei Street) in Suzhou. The main body of the mansion is the official office on the middle road. It was built according to the regulations of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After Li Hongzhang removed the dongxiyuan gate, the turret and the drum Pavilion, changed the gate to the Qing Dynasty official office style, and painted with dragon and phoenix patterns, but the others remained the original appearance.

From south to north, there are Zhaoqiang, Damen, Yimen, main hall, houtang, houdian and so on, with a depth of about 140 meters.

The gate of Zhongwang mansion is 12.5 meters wide and 10 meters deep. It was originally a single eaves Xieshan, but later changed to a hard peak. On the front and rear eaves columns, there are two kinds of beams: the first is the first, the second is the second, the third is the third, the third is the single, the third is the arch, the third is the truss, the third is the cantilevered beam, the third is the arch, the third is the arch, the third is the cantilevered beam. Liang Fang painted are painted, the traces of dragons and phoenixes can be discerned, the plinth are covered with bluestone. The partition wall is built between the secondary rooms, the broken door is set in the open room, and the drum stone is set. On the left and right wings of the gate, there is an octagonal wall and a stone lion in front. Baogu stone and stone lion are exquisitely carved with extraordinary momentum. The gate is a hard mountain style, with a width of 13.5 meters and a depth of 8.5 meters. Behind the door is a broad stone court, with seven East and seven West verandahs, opposite to each other.

The main hall and the back hall are hard on the top of the mountain, with three rooms on each side. They are connected as a whole by five deep winding shed roof corridors. The plane is I-shaped, so it is commonly known as I-shaped hall. The main hall is about 11 meters high, 17 meters wide and 14.5 meters deep. In front of the corridor, there is a flat square on the forehead, a bucket with three arches, and an eaves truss. The T-shaped section is set at the end of the corridor column, and the overhanging eaves truss is set at the front, and the supporting moon beam is set at the back. Among the pillars, there are 14 long windows with Begonia lattice, the skirt board is embossed with cloud dragon, and the tapering board is decorated with cloud phoenix pattern. The structure of the beams in the hall is similar to that of the hall. The canopy is built between the step column and the gold column. The gold column and the back step column are used to build the main beam and connect the back double step eaves gallery. After the Ming Dynasty, screen doors were set between the pillars. The back hall is 14.2 meters wide and 6.2 meters deep, with a back porch. The beam frame is round, which is different from that of the main hall. The beams, beams and trusses of the main hall and the back hall are decorated with colored paintings.

There is a small courtyard between the back hall and the back hall, with the East and the west facing each other. The back hall is on the top of the hard hill, with the same height as the main hall. It is 14.6 meters wide and 10 meters deep. There is a walking corridor in front of it, a flat Fang on the forehead, and a bucket arch with one bucket and three elevators. There is a T-shaped section with one side jump on the pillars. A boat canopy is set between the step column and the golden column, and a girder is set between the golden column and the back step column. There are 18 screen doors between the back stepping pillars, and a base plate between the door brace and the back stepping brace, which are divided into nine sides by a guide bar. All of them are painted with murals. The contents are mainly deer, crane, tiger, leopard, lion, elephant, mandarin duck, ribbon bird, white rabbit, flower cat and other birds and animals, with trees, stones, flowers and plants, which have their own meanings. The distance between the rear eaves column and the back step column is only 1 meter, and the rear eaves is as high as 7 meters, which is 2 meters higher than the front porch truss. This hall was originally dedicated by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the heavenly Father, heavenly brother and God. The place where the worship ceremony was held was called "Temple" or "heavenly hall".

Zhongwang mansion is a building integrating department, residence and garden. The garden part is in the east of the mansion and now belongs to Zhuozheng garden. At present, Zhongwang mansion still contains some buildings and courtyards of Wang shuofu's residence Garden (most of Wang's residence was purchased by Zhang lvqian, a salt merchant of Wuxian County, for 6500 liang of silver in 1877), which is now Zhuozheng garden In the courtyard, Wen Zhengming's hand planted Wisteria is preserved. The branches are full of twigs and twigs, which are simple and vigorous. In the east side of the main hall of Prince Zhong's mansion, a large-scale indoor stage was also reserved, which was built after Li Xiucheng conquered Suzhou in 1860. After the failure of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the site has been changed many times and many changes have taken place. Now there is only one left. The stage is square, with a two-story building and a height of 8.78 meters. The lower platform is 0.98M higher than the floor, 8.7m deep and 6.17m wide. The performance stage is 42.6 square meters, 4.4 meters high, flat top, open on three sides, with upper and lower doors on one side. The upper layer is 3.4 meters high, with low hurdles outside and movable window panels inside. There is an iron bar that can be lifted and lowered at the entrance of the stage, which is used for performing martial arts drama "upper bar". In the 1980s, the stage was still in use. In 1982, Kun Opera was performed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Main attractions

Woqiu Hall

Zhongwangfu East Road building, outside the hall for Wisteria courtyard, after the theater. It is said that Wang Xianchen, the master of the Humble Administrator's garden, was in love with Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin and Zhu Yunming, the gifted scholars of Wuzhong. In the middle of spring, when the vines were flying and the flowers were blooming, Wang Xianchen often held banquets here, which was called "woqiu hall". Crouching Qiu is not only famous for its Wisteria curling like a dragon, but also implies the hermit's sense of following the world.

Classical stage

The guild hall is not only a gathering place for fellow townspeople, but also a place for businessmen to negotiate trade. There is often a stage. The classical stage is built on the East Road of zhongwangfu. It is built by Fengzhi guild hall of eight banners using the courtyard of the southern courtyard. Although it has been repaired several times, it basically retains its original appearance. It is one of the well preserved indoor classical stages in China. The entire classical theater covers an area of 450 square meters, imposing, up to 9.85 meters high. The top is a 14.8-meter-long ceiling. Under the eaves of the ceiling, 47 windows are equipped to supplement the indoor light, creating an indoor stage. The stage is 8.65 meters long, 6.10 meters wide and 0.96 meters high. The front wall of the stage is painted by the famous painter Jin Xinlan. It is carved on the screen of the round door of boxwood. The East and West ends of the stage are set with steps. On both sides and opposite sides of the stage are the famous calligraphic mural nanmu painting screens, with a total of 26 pieces and 52 faces. There are famous calligraphic paintings by Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, Wang Chong, Xu Wei, Wang Duo, etc., which are engraved by the craftsman master Yang. The cultural atmosphere of the whole classical stage is very strong and the artistic value is very high. In 1986, Kunqu Master Yu Zhenfei gave a special performance here, which won the favor of people at home and abroad. Qiao Shi, Kissinger and other famous people at home and abroad have also been here to watch, listen to books and watch plays.

Courtyard Dwellings

Zhongwangfu East Road building is the second entrance after the classical stage. Because at that time, in order to meet the living habits of the banners, the zhongwangfu East Road building was converted into a courtyard, and its style was completely in accordance with the Royal courtyard in Beijing. Its columns are painted with vermilion, while the windows are painted with dark green, presenting a magnificent scene, which enables us to appreciate the architectural style of northern courtyard in Jiangnan. The total area is 720 square meters.

incompetent person holding a high position

Hexuan is a building on zhongwangfu West Road. Hexuan is a three Bay building. Its board walls are all made of Phoebe, so it is named Phoebe Hall (also known as flower Hall). There is a courtyard in front of it. The courtyard and the front hall are separated by a high wall. There is a round door in the original. There are five different kinds of leaky windows on the high wall. There are small stones piled in the courtyard, elegant and quiet. There are two beads of LIANLI Baozhu Camellia in the courtyard. It is a relic of Chen Shilin in the early Qing Dynasty. Another tall magnolia tree is hundreds of years old and has a sweet osmanthus flower. It always blooms for the first time every year, usually 2-3 times. These trees are ancient and famous trees under first-class protection.

Zoumalou

Zoumalou is a building on zhongwangfu West Road. It is a two-story building with a gallery. It used to be the residence of family members during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. There are not only stairs, but also secret doors. In the east of the building, there are dark windows with round holes, which can be used to look out and sneak through the windows. Opposite to Hexuan is the "secluded water room". On the column of the original room, there is a couplet "fighting wine and crossing 21 histories, incense and tranquility to thirteen classics", which is written by Mr. Hong Jun. In the central courtyard, there were two cranes, so it was named. After that, Zhexi is the residence of Zhang's house, and two two-story buildings with five bay rooms and wing rooms are built in parallel. The former one still retains its original appearance, especially the lady's boudoir in the northwest corner, which is very characteristic. The later building was demolished in 1976. The beams and columns are made of boxwood. The northwest of the building is Zhang Luqian's garden,

Chinese PinYin : Tai Ping Tian Guo Zhong Wang Fu