Shen Ting

Shen hall, formerly known as Jingye hall, was changed into Songmao hall in the late Qing Dynasty. It was built by Shen Benren, a descendant of Shen Wansan, in the seventh year of Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty.

It is located in Nansha Street on the south side of Dongtu of Fu'an bridge in Zhouzhuang. It faces the East and faces the West. It has seven entrances and five gatehouses. There are more than 100 large and small houses.

Shen hall is the representative scenic spot of Zhouzhuang. Its architecture is rich in the style of large families, and its environment is antique. Songmao hall is the main attraction.

You can visit Zhouzhuang free of charge if you buy tickets. There are so many people here on holidays that you'd better avoid the rush hour.

Shen Ting

Shenting is located on Nanshi Street on the south side of Dongtu of Fu'an bridge in Zhouzhuang. It faces east and West, with seven entrances and five gatehouses. There are more than 100 large and small houses, which are distributed on both sides of the 100 meter long central axis. It covers an area of more than 2000 square meters. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit. Shen hall, formerly known as Jingye hall, was changed into Songmao hall in the late Qing Dynasty. It was built in 1742 by Shen Benren, a descendant of Shen Wansan.

brief introduction

Among the nearly 1000 residential buildings in Zhouzhuang, more than 60% of the buildings in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the Republic of China and the Ming Dynasty are still preserved, including nearly 100 ancient houses and more than 60 brick gate buildings, as well as some arcades and water wall doors, which are representative of the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. Among these buildings, Shen hall is the most representative.

historical origin

According to the records of Zhouzhuang Town, "Shen Benren liked evil travel in his early years, and all his friends were bandits. As for the death of his father, there are those who will give up their family within three years. When Ben Jen heard of it, he still bought wine, called all bandits to drink, and gave them money. He told him, "I should support you now, and I can't travel with you!" so he closed the door and invited guests to run agriculture. He built a large house beside Daye hall, with more than 100 rafters and thousands of acres of fertile land, which became a huge town. " It seems that Shen Benren is the kind of prodigal son who never changes his money. He did not squander all the family property inherited by his predecessors. After his father died, he worked hard to expand his family business and built a large-scale Shen hall.

Main buildings

Shen hall consists of three parts. The front part is the water wall gate and the river port, which are specially used for the family to dock ships and wash clothes. It is a unique building in Jiangnan Water Town. The middle part is the wall gate tower, the tea hall and the main hall, which are the places to pick up guests and handle wedding and funeral affairs. The rear part is the lobby building, the small hall building and the back hall house, which are the living places. The whole hall is a typical architectural pattern of "front hall and back hall". The front and rear buildings are connected by the Cross Street building and the corridor Pavilion, forming a circular Zoumalou, which is rare in similar buildings.

Architectural features

Seven into the hall, covering 170 square meters of Songmao hall in the middle. The main hall is 11 meters wide, with porches in front, seven purlins and 11 meters deep, and porches behind. The front of the main hall is square, and there are secondary rooms on both sides of the hall. There are buildings connecting the front and back rooms. The roof is two slope hard top, except six purlin to seven purlin for single roof, the rest are double roof. In the hall, the beams and columns are thick and engraved with Python dragon, unicorn, flying crane, dancing wind and other flowers. On one side of the plaque hanging in the center of the hall, "songmaotang" was written by Zhang Jian, the number one scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. Facing the main hall, the brick gate building is the most magnificent of the five gates. It is six meters high, with three five floors. It is covered with brick cornices, Diaojiao high and warped, with brick brackets under it. On both sides, there are chuihualian, and on the bottom, there are five stories of brick carvings, with compact layout. There is a plaque in the middle, engraved with the four characters "Ji Hou Liu Guang", and fine relief of red plum in spring around the forehead. The brick doors are also engraved with figures, animals, pavilions and other designs, including "the romance of the West Chamber" and "the number one scholar riding a white horse" and other classical dramas. The lines are fine and smooth, and the characters have different and lifelike expressions. The three scenes of front, middle and far are engraved on a brick board with a length of not more than one foot. Its fine carving and ingenious design are comparable to those of the brick gate building in Suzhou wangshiyuan. The wooden beam frame of the lobby building is full of Ming style circular pattern. Most of the floors are single loose boards about 60 cm wide, which are solid and solid. We can imagine the difficulties of the construction at that time. The railings and lattice windows of the lobby are exquisite, different from the architectural style of the front hall, belonging to the Huizhou style.

Traffic information

Within the ancient town of Zhouzhuang, you can walk to Shuangqiao.

Tourism value

Shenting was seriously damaged in the ten years of havoc. Since 1983, the restoration project of Shen hall has been started. Songmao hall, tea hall and lobby building have been restored successively, Zouma building has been opened, and the back hall house has also communicated with the shimmering yinbang. The renovated Shen hall restored the architectural style of the Qing Dynasty and became a popular tourist attraction. In the fifth entrance of Shen hall, there is a sitting statue of Shen Wansan, a rich man in the south of the Yangtze River. In front of him is a golden cornucopia. People always use coins to smash Shen Wanshan's gold ingot. It is said that if they hit it, they can make money. People from all over the world are looking at this rich man in Wuzhong 600 years ago, either to get some enlightenment and reference, or to satisfy the hope of blessing. No matter what the identity is, everyone who walks into Shen hall will have a strong interest in Shen Wansan, a legendary figure.

Life

Shen Wansan, a well-known man, was named Zhongrong and Xingsan. The people of Wu called him Shen Wansan. In the Yuan Dynasty, people ranked Lang, Guan and Xiu first, and wansanxing Xiu was also called sanxiu. In the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, shen you, Shen Wansan's father, moved from shenjiayang, Nanxun, Wuxing (now Huzhou, Zhejiang Province), to Dongda, Zhouzhuang, and then to yinbang. After becoming rich, Shen Wansan took Suzhou as an important business place and sought for further development. He once supported Zhang Shicheng's great Zhou regime in Suzhou, and Zhang Shicheng also set up a monument for Shen Wansan. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Nanjing. Shen Wansan donated money to build one-third of the capital, so Zhu Yuanzhang appointed his two sons as officials. After gaining a firm foothold in Nanjing, Shen Wansan spent a lot of money to build comfortable houses. According to records, there are "1650-14ying verandas, four restaurants" and so on. Later, Shen Wansan, who wanted to reward the three armies on behalf of the emperor, offended Zhu Yuanzhang and was sent to Yunnan Province for the rest of his life.

Shen Wansan left his footprints in Zhouzhuang, Suzhou, Nanjing and other places, but he always regarded Zhouzhuang as a place of business. "Wansan residence is half a mile to the northwest of Yan, that is, Dongzhuang land and yinbang, and the warehouse, garden pavilion and residence are connected with each other" (Volume 2 of Zhouzhuang Town annals), "Wansan family is in Zhouzhuang, but the broken house still exists" (Su Tan by Yang Xunji). Although he set up a different business in Nanjing, and was awarded by Zhang Shicheng and Zhu Yuanzhang, he was unwilling to leave Zhouzhuang. "Wang Xing, Zi Zhi Zhong, Wu Xian, Shen Wan San Yan as a Western guest, every literary achievement, Shen reward gold Yi Yi" (Volume 6 of Zhouzhuang Town annals), it can be seen that he even his own descendants have to stay in this rich land, at all costs to cultivate with a lot of money, so that the fragrance of the Shen family will last forever.

Shen Wansan is the richest in the world. In Chapter 33 of Jin Ping Mei, Pan Jin Lian also said such a proverb: "Nanjing Shen Wan San, Beijing dead trees, people's name tree shadow." It is said that Shen Wansan got rich because he got crow stone (or horseshoe gold) from a fisherman. More often, it is said that he had a cornucopia in his family, which made him so rich that even Zhu Yuanzhang was envious.

How to get rich

Reclamation theory

Under the feudal mode of production, agriculture was the main means of management. Shen Wansan's wealth mainly depended on agricultural production and heavy rent exploitation of large areas of land. He "worked hard to start his own business", and then "opened up a wide range of fields and houses to enrich the wealth of gold and jade", and even "had a huge amount of capital and property all over the world". Dongzhuang snow, one of the eight sceneries in Zhouzhuang, has a huge granary, which is actually the symbol of Shen's manor.

The theory of sharing wealth

Some people think that "Shen wansanxiu's wealth is due to Wu Jiaren's Lu family, Lu FUJIA's Jiangzuo It is also said that Lu Deyuan, a rich man in Yuan Dynasty, was the best in the world In his twilight years, the two people who managed his wealth paid for it with their assets. "It is Shen wansanxiu" (Yang Xunji's su tan). In a word, Shen Wansan became a rich man in the south of the Yangtze River after he got a lot of money from the Lu family in Suzhou.

Tongfan said

According to the records of Wujiang county annals, "Shen Wansan lived in Zhouzhuang, the 29th capital of Wujiang. He was the richest in the world. It is said that he got it from Tongfan." Wu Han, a historian, also said, "the reason why Shen Wansan and Yihao in Suzhou got rich was because of overseas trade." This shows that Shen Wansan became a rich man because he transported his goods to overseas trade.

epilogue

In fact, the reason why Shen Wansan became a rich man in the south of the Yangtze River is that none of the three factors mentioned above is indispensable and closely related to each other. If we say that Shen Wansan "started his career by bowing to the family His father is rich, his inheritance is futile, and he is handsome in his children's strength, which shows that he has the foundation of his career. Shen Wansan got a lot of money from the Lu family in Suzhou, and because he had a good way of "managing money", he showed his excellent economic management ability and had the capital and means to get rich. After he had the huge capital to develop himself, on the one hand, he continued to open up fields and houses, on the other hand, he took Zhouzhuang as a base for commodity trade and circulation, and took advantage of the convenience of the white clam River (Dongjiang) connecting the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal in the West and the Liuhe River in the northeast to transport silk, ceramics, grain and handicrafts from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to overseas, starting his bold foreign trade activities of "competing for wealth" He quickly became the richest man in the south of the Yangtze River. Shen Wansan used part of the money he earned from trade to purchase land, and the other part of the money was used as business capital. Therefore, Shen Wansan took reclamation as his goal

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