Cai's ancient dwellings

Cai's ancient dwellings

Cai's ancient folk house is located in Zhangli village, Guanqiao Town, Nan'an City, Fujian Province. Cai's ancient folk house complex was mainly built by Cai Qichang and his son Cai senior in the period from Tongzhi to Xuantong of Qing Dynasty. There are 16 relatively complete houses, which are the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

The majority of CAI's ancient people are of bucket like wooden structure. The main building is a five bay big house on the swallow tail ridge of a hard mountain, and the left and right sides are rolling shed type box houses. Most of the single buildings are three or two in five bay layout. Between the front and rear seats, there is a 10 meter wide Shicheng, and between the gables, there is a 2 meter wide fire passage. There are many kinds of inscriptions in the buildings.

Cultural relics protection

Cai's ancient folk house is located in Zhangli village, Guanqiao Town, Nan'an City, Fujian Province. Cai's ancient folk house complex was mainly built by Cai Qichang and his son Cai senior in the period from Tongzhi to Xuantong of Qing Dynasty. There are 16 relatively complete houses, which are the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units.

Layout structure

Most of CAI's ancient dwellings are of bucket like wood structure. The main building is a five bay big house on the swallow tail ridge of a hard mountain. The left and right sides of the house are rolling shed type box houses. Most of the single buildings are of three or two Bay layout. Between the front and rear seats, there is a 10 meter wide Shicheng, and between the gables, there is a 2 meter wide fire passage. There are many kinds of inscriptions in the buildings.

Main attractions

The buildings of CAI's ancient dwellings have high ridges, carved beams and painted buildings, brick relief in front of the door, strong three-dimensional sense, carved flowers and birds on the window edges, ingenious and gorgeous decoration, decorated with calligraphy and painting on the door, wall, hall and wall, and unique charm. The seal script, official script and regular script have their own charm, leaving a lot of calligraphy and painting of celebrities at that time. Wood carving, clay sculpture, brick carving and stone carving can be seen everywhere. They are of exquisite workmanship, most of which adopt techniques such as penetrating, floating and flat carving.

The contents are rich and colorful, including animals, flowers and birds, fish and insects, landscape figures and ancient designs. The exquisite carving of ancient dwellings not only reflects the mature sculpture art in Southern Fujian, but also reflects the influence of Indian Buddhism, Islam, Nanyang culture and Western architectural art. It is known as the "Grand View Garden of Southern Fujian architecture". From a distance, Cai's ancient dwellings are like a pipa, big at one end and small at the other. The gap between the stone slabs in Shicheng is like a Pipa string.

Prosperous period

According to folklore,

The site of CAI's ancient residential complex is a place where the nine immortals lost their pipa. Therefore, Cai's ancient residential complex is called "Pipa" shaped village. It is said that "if you build a house in Pipa cave, as long as you keep making the sound of beating stones, you will get a lot of money." Cai's house has been built for more than 40 years. With the sound of chiseling, the business is becoming more and more prosperous.

Related allusions

Cai Qichang and Cai senior father and son are overseas Chinese in the Philippines. As a successful businessman, Mr. Cai is full of Confucianism. He thinks that "business is not as good as agriculture" in a long-term business. He transfers a lot of wealth to China, builds many large houses in his hometown, forms a group of residential buildings, widely buys wasteland, and organizes his brothers and nephews to vigorously cultivate. In order to improve his family's social status, he was also enthusiastic about public welfare, and generously donated money for school and disaster relief. Cai Qichang returned to Zhangli village of Guanqiao in the year of Yichou in Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty. He fell in love with the Fengshui treasure land called zhangzhouliao, so he invested money to buy land and build qichangcuo, youjicuo and other houses. At that time, many building decoration materials were shipped from the Philippines. Combined with the charming carving art and decoration style of Southern Fujian, it formed a Chinese Western architectural map Painting.

The scale

Cai's ancient residence has won the praise of experts all over the world for its grand scale, strict layout, exquisite carving and rich connotation.

Walking in the architectural complex of CAI's ancient dwellings is like living in a colorful Minnan architectural museum of the Qing Dynasty. The complex consists of 15 residences and 1 ancestral hall. There are nearly 400 rooms, 200 meters long from east to west and 100 meters wide from north to south. The total construction area is 16300 square meters. The main building is a suspended mountain style roof with carved beams and painted buildings; the brick and stone relief on the front wall of the gate has a strong three-dimensional sense; the window lattice is decorated with flowers and birds, and the decoration is ingenious and gorgeous; the calligraphy and painting on the hall wall of the gate wall are embellished with seal script and regular script, each with its own charm, leaving many famous people's calligraphy and painting at that time. Calligraphy and painting, such as ink, color, gold and plain, are colorful; plaques, such as books, scrolls, fans and rhombus, are unique; doors and windows, such as circle, arch, rhombus and square, are various.

Sculpture art

According to reports, there are five kinds of carving art in the ancient residential buildings of Cai family, including stone carving, wood carving, brick carving and clay sculpture. There is another kind of carving art that is very peculiar and has not been verified by experts so far. It is these four kinds of exquisite carvings and an unknown craft that make Cai's ancient dwellings achieve the unique charm of Southern Fujian architecture and show the architectural characteristics.

In addition, Cai's ancient dwellings were all built with bluestone walls, red brick walls, red tile roofs and swallow tail ridges, which were typical qidacuo of Minnan imperial palace.

There is a place to visit in this huge complex. This is the dressing house. Here, a touching and sad love story of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies has been deduced, which adds mystery to Cai's ancient dwellings.

Folklore

It is said that CAI Shitian is senior Cai's nephew. He has outstanding appearance and literary talent. Once, senior Cai took him to visit Wu Lu, the number one scholar in Jinjiang. He was taken by the number one scholar and intended to marry his daughter Wu Mingzhu to him.

The two families exchanged the eight characters of their birthdays, and they engaged each other. The Cai family specially built a dressing house for the number one scholar's family. Unfortunately, Miss Wu Mingzhu suddenly fell ill. On her deathbed, please marry her cousin Wu Baozhu instead of herself.

So, on the wedding day, Wu Baozhu and Wu Mingzhu's Wooden God came to the Cai family. Misfortune never comes alone. Wu Baozhu didn't live a good life in the Cai family for a few days. Her husband Cai Shitian fell ill again and died. Poor Wu Baozhu became a widow at the age of 18. She won the word "anzhen" on her door without going out of the small building.

Address: Zhangli village, Guanqiao Town, Nan'an City

Longitude: 118.413941

Latitude: 24.813523

Chinese PinYin : Cai Shi Gu Min Ju