Ancient Buildings of Chengkan Village

Welcome to Chengkan, a village of such historical and architectural significance that it was once praised by the famous Confucian scholar Zhu Xi as the 'number one village south of the Yangtze River.' With over 1,800 years of…

Our exploration begins at the entrance, where the philosophical layout of the village is most apparent. Chengkan is designed as a 'living Ba Gua,' a Taoist diagram used to represent the fundamental principles of reality. …

We now come to Baolun Hall, the ancestral hall of the Luo family and the architectural crown jewel of Chengkan. Built during the Ming Dynasty, it is considered one of the finest examples of ancestral hall architecture in all of…

As we dive deeper into the village, we enter the maze of residential alleys. Most of the buildings here belong to the Luo family, which has been the dominant clan in Chengkan for generations. …

Everywhere you look in Chengkan, you will find stone carvings that serve as both decoration and cultural markers. On the lintels above doorways and the bases of pillars, you will see images of bats for good fortune, deer for…

Chengkan is not just a museum; it is a lived-in community. As you wander, you will see the 'peanuts' and other local crops being dried in the middle of the 'nowhere' mentioned by visitors. …

To truly appreciate the Ba Gua layout of Chengkan, we must find a higher vantage point. There is a tower in the village, often looked after by elderly residents like 76-year-old Dong Jugun, that offers a bird's-eye view. …

As we walk back toward the entrance of Chengkan, the 'tender and slow' passage of time seems to linger. We have explored the philosophical depths of the Ba Gua layout, marveled at the vibrant pigments of Baolun Hall, and peeked…