Zheng family house

Zheng's house is the former residence of Zheng Guanying, a modern Chinese thinker. It belongs to Lingnan style residence with Lu's house. Zheng's house is located in Longtou left lane of Macao, facing the ground in front of grandma's well. Because of its architectural integration of Chinese and Western characteristics, it has been listed as part of Macao's historical city.

Zheng family house

Built in 1869, Zheng's big house is the ancestral house of Zheng Guanying, a famous thinker in modern China. It was built by his father Zheng Wenrui. Later, the descendants of the Zheng family scattered. The whole house was not repaired or rebuilt for a long time, but the building was completely preserved. In July 2001, the Culture Bureau took over the building and began to carry out maintenance work according to its original appearance.

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Historical evolution

Built by Zheng Guanying's father Zheng Wenrui in 1869, the Zheng family house covers an area of 4000 square meters and has more than 60 rooms. It is one of the oldest existing large-scale Chinese style dwellings in Macao. In the 1950s and 1960s, the descendants of the Zheng family were scattered all over the country. The Zheng family's big house was sublet. At the peak, more than 70 families lived in it. Even a tenant from India raised dozens of sheep in the courtyard. Wind and rain erosion, overuse and disorderly reconstruction, Zheng's big house is becoming more and more dilapidated. In 2001, the Macao SAR Government acquired the property right of Zheng's house by means of "land exchange". Macao Cultural Bureau has carried out eight years of restoration on the principle of "repairing the old as before". In 2005, as a part of Macao's Historic District, Zheng's house was listed as a world cultural heritage. In 2010, the Zheng family house was officially opened to the public. In addition to displaying the beauty of the building, it also introduced the deeds of Zheng Guanying and his family, so that this Macao man who lit a bright light in modern China could reappear to the world. Today, the Centennial house not only welcomes tourists from all over the world, but also often holds art performances.

architectural composition

After the whole building, we can see Yangshan in the West and the sea in the northwest. Living in Macao, the Zheng family house has a strong Lingnan residential style, and a lot of western architectural elements. The Zheng family's big house is composed of two side-by-side quadrangles. The right hand of the entrance is the common land God of the gate officials in Macao's folk houses. When you enter the first courtyard, you can see the gray sculptures on the wall of the gate tower, including the festive contents such as "surplus every year", "Marquis Fenghou" and "carp leaping over the dragon's gate". After the round "moon gate", behind is the corridor called "sedan path". This is the access to the main room area and also the place for visitors to get off the sedan chair. Entering the main room area from the car path, there is a plaque of "rongludi" written on the eaves of the door, which shows that the house is the home of officials. The main housing area includes Yuqing hall and Jishan hall, which are two-story buildings with two entrances and three bays. Yuqing hall was built by Zheng Wenrui, while Jishan hall was built by Zheng Sixian, Zheng Guanying's younger brother. It's easy to see from the name that it comes from "the family of good deeds has Yuqing". The architectural pattern is Chinese style, while the gray plastic ceiling, lintel and window lintel in the hall are western style. There are two gardens in Zheng's big house. One is in front of Wenchang hall next to rongludi, and the other is next to Yuqing hall. The intersection between China and the west is more obvious. In the garden next to Yuqing hall, the cloister pillars have western style caps and bases, Chinese style moon doors and gourd window openings, with white walls, grey tiles and green grass, which not only do not violate the rules, but also complement each other. Next to Zheng's big house, there is a small Zheng Guanying memorial hall to introduce his life and thoughts.

Located on the side of MAGE street, the Zhengjia mansion covers an area of about 4000 square meters. It is a courtyard style mansion of Lingnan School, with a depth of more than 120 meters along the direction of MAGE street. It is mainly composed of two side-by-side courtyard buildings, servant house area buildings and gate buildings connected by inner courtyard.

The main building material of the whole building is green brick. The roof plane is continuous Chinese style sloping roof. The building height varies according to the nature of the room area. The servant room area is generally a one story hard Hill building, and sometimes there are accessible flat roofs. The main room area is mostly two stories high, and there are also three stories in the room. The main entrance of the building is located in Longtou left lane in the northeast direction. It is a one or two storey building with a length of 13 meters and a depth of 7.9 meters. It is separated from the main building complex. The entrance wall of the house door retreats from the cornice. There are windows on the upper layer and the entrance gate on the lower layer. There are Chinese paintings on the cornice wall, which is a typical traditional Chinese style. There are shrines on the inner wall of the porch, and the ceiling is decorated with Western gypsum patterns. There are granite steps in the porch to transition to the main building complex space with lower level. Different from traditional Chinese dwellings, the entrance of the main building complex is not in the same direction as the entrance of the mansion. They all face the northwest and are on the same line all the time. There is a wide and long sun house in the front. Another door in the middle of the sun house separates the main and secondary buildings. The front part is the servant house area and the outer garden, and the back part is the main house area.

The two rooms are connected by a large inner courtyard. The main house area is mainly composed of two quadrangle buildings. The buildings are of three deep and three bay type, which are connected by water lanes. The external walls and eaves of the buildings are decorated with clay sculpture, and the wall base is made of granite. The entrance of the building, especially the two main entrances, adopts the same treatment as the entrance of the house door, that is, retreating from the eaves, not in the same position as the external wall In order to show its importance, the door frame is made of granite, and the most important entrance is designed with double granite door frame. The interior of the building is generally designed in traditional Chinese style, but the location of the hall is different from that of the traditional way of placing it on the ground floor. It is located on the second floor. The whole hall occupies a space of three bays and one depth, which is a beam lifting wooden structure.

architectural style

Although the architecture is mainly built in Chinese shape, it embodies the characteristics of the combination of Chinese and western. The Chinese architectural techniques are mainly manifested in the roof, beam structure, building materials, cornice wall painting and clay sculpture relief. There are many kinds of windows in the inner courtyard, as well as the treatment of the main entrance from the cornice to the inside, and the door closing. The influence of the West or foreign countries is confirmed by the treatment of some indoor ceiling, the style of the lintel and window lintel, the cornice line, the mica window from India, and the swing of the external wall.

Introduction to the owner

Zheng Guanying was born in Guangdong in 1842. At the age of seven or eight, he moved to Macao and studied in private schools. At the age of 17, he failed in the imperial examination and went to Shanghai to study business. After more than 20 years of business in Shanghai, Zheng Guanying transformed from a foreign comprador into a national capitalist, and successively served as the general manager of Shanghai telegraph Bureau, the assistant and general manager of China Merchants Steamship Bureau, etc. In 1886, when he returned to Macao, he concentrated on sorting out his thoughts in the Zheng family's big house. In 1894, he completed the book of the golden age. In this great work, Zheng Guanying clearly realized the importance of developing modern industry, and put forward that "if you want to fight against foreign countries, you need to be strong; if you want to be strong, you must first get rich, you must first boost industry and commerce; you must first stress schools, quickly establish the constitution, respect morality, and improve politics." he also put forward a series of reform plans for politics, economy, military, diplomacy, and culture.

historical value

Recently, Macao zhengjiadawu was awarded the title of "World Heritage youth education activity base" by UNESCO Asia Pacific World Heritage training and Research Center (Suzhou)! Zhengjia house is the largest residential complex in Macao. It is also an important part of the world heritage "Macao historical city". It has high humanistic value. The successful declaration of Zheng's house as the "World Heritage youth education activity base" will further enhance the sense of belonging and identity of young people to Macao's history and culture, and promote their support and participation in world heritage protection.

Celebrity footprints

Same as below, Mrs. Xi Jinping, President Peng Liyuan, visited the Zhengjia Da house of Macao's important material part of world material heritage, accompanied by Mrs. Cui Shian, Huo Huifen in December 20, 2014. From time to time, she stopped to watch the model of Zheng's big house, the old wooden beams, and the shell windows with a lot of amorous feelings. She appreciated the Chinese and Western architectural style of the big house, and had a detailed understanding of the history, repair and protection of the big house.

Get honor

In 1992, the Zheng family house was rated as "a building of architectural art value". The Cultural Department of the Australian and Portuguese government needs to obtain the ownership before it can be restored and protected.

In 2005, as a part of Macao's historical city, the zhengjiadawu was listed on the world heritage list;

Address: No.10, Longtou left lane, Macao Peninsula

Longitude: 113.53443835582

Latitude: 22.188498153099

Official website: http://www.wh.mo/mandarinhouse/cn/

Traffic information: you can take bus No.18 or 28b to yapojing Qiandi (due to the influence of one-way line, only the downhill vehicles can stop at the station); or you can take bus to mage and go northward along mage street.

Ticket information: Free

Opening hours: all weeks except Wednesday. Opening hours: 10:00-18:00, stop admission at 17:30.

Chinese PinYin : Zheng Jia Da Wu