Seventeen Houses of the Zheng Family - the largest ancient architectural village of Ming and Qing dynasties in Jiangnan

The Seventeen Houses of the Zheng Family is one of the largest and best-preserved ancient architectural villages from the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, located in Xiapu Town, a coastal town in Zhejiang Province. It was built by Zheng's ancestors who migrated here from Xingyang, Henan during the Southern Song Dynasty. It has now become a 4A-level scenic spot and folk culture tourist destination integrating a hotel. The layout of this ancient building complex is in the shape of a chessboard, with buildings as units connected into courtyards, streets above the houses and markets within the streets. The overall design combines the grandeur of the northern "courtyard" with the exquisiteness of the southern pavilions. Among them, there are more than ten single-entry or multi-entry mansions with grand scale, exquisite workmanship, painted beams and flying eaves, and intricate carvings, forming a unique style. In addition, there are many former residences of business tycoons such as Zheng Jingfeng, the founder of the prosperous Minxin Bureau in the late Qing Dynasty, Zheng Yuqing, the founder of Lao Fengxiang, and Zheng Zunfa, the creator of the Yingxiong Ink Factory. It is worth mentioning that the horse-head walls here are lined up in rows and staggered in height; the flagpoles are numerous and tall; and the river does not dry up even if there is no rain for three years. These are known as the "three treasures" of the Seventeenth House. According to relevant reports, "Shiqifang is one of the largest and most well-preserved ancient architectural villages from the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. It is of great value to the study of Qing Dynasty architectural history. It is also the last climax of residential architecture in Chinese feudal society after the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties." The seventeen rooms are built next to each other, closely connected, with some parts separated and some combined. There is a pavilion on the corridor and a garden behind the house. The eaves are wide, on which lanterns and decorations can be hung, tables can be set up for banquets, and people can walk around even when it rains without getting wet. The size of the hall door, the height of the horse-head wall, the size of the Mingtang, the buildings, the wing rooms, the stone drums, the chess poles, etc. are all divided according to rank and power, with clear levels, reflecting the social outlook of that period that strictly followed the feudal ethics. Historical documents prove that the seventeenth branch of the Zheng family in Zhenhai was one of the earliest business family groups in Ningbo. The original construction area of ​​​​Seventeen Rooms was as much as 60,000 square meters, and the land area was as much as 80,000 square meters. Due to the changes over the years, there is still a construction area of ​​more than 40,000 square meters and a land area of ​​more than 60,000 square meters. The reason why they have such a large-scale building complex is that they did not get rich by being officials, but by going out to do business from generation to generation. Among the early businessmen of the Ningbo Gang, no other merchant clan group can compare with them. From the Kangxi period to the middle of the Guangxu period, the Zheng family had a total of 6 business groups, totaling about 40 people, forming a huge business team of the Zheng family. Opium Wars After the opening of the Five Ports to Trade, Shanghai became the most active place for Ningbo merchants. Zheng Xun, a man of great vision, used his huge capital accumulated over the years and favorable time to open the Ningbo Gang's earliest money shop in Shanghai. His business "was often successful in its plans, and it received information frequently, and its business prospered day by day." When the money lending industry in Shanghai was on the rise, he moved to Ningbo to open his own money lending business and soon became a tycoon in the Ningbo money lending industry. "Gai stood firm as the mainstay of Yongjiang for twenty years," which was very remarkable at that time.