The First Mansion in the South of the Capital
The mansion is a place where ancient Chinese officials handled official affairs. Hejian City is now under the jurisdiction of Cangzhou City, Hebei Province. Historically, Hejian was one of the four famous mansions along with Baoding, Jinan, and Kaifeng. It has a history of more than 2700 years. In the past dynasties, counties were set up, countries were established, states were built, and mansions were set up. It is an important place for economy, politics, culture and military in the south of the capital, and it is known as "The First Mansion in the South of the Capital".
The Hejian Mansion was established in the second year of Daguan in the Northern Song Dynasty (1108). Since the establishment of the mansion in the Northern Song Dynasty, Hejian Mansion and County have coexisted for 804 years. There are both mansion and county offices in the city. Until the Xinhai Revolution abolished the mansion and retained the county. In 1936, the Nationalist Government established a commissioner's office here.
The old mansion faces south to the north, with a tall screen wall in front of the mansion, and yamen on both sides. Outside the yamen, there is a straight road leading to the east and west streets of Hejian. There is a tall wooden archway on the street, with the four characters "Yan Zhao Xiong Feng" carved on the archway. (It is said to be written by Fang Guancheng, the governor of Zhili) There is a pair of stone lions on both sides of the gate, and there is a well near the gate.
On the walls on both sides of the gate (after the Xinhai Revolution), the left side is written "The world is for the public", and the right side is written "Select the wise and able". Inside the gate, there is a gatehouse, with two flagpoles facing each other, and houses on the east and west sides, where the servants live. Going inside is the ceremonial gate, with official residences on the east and west sides, which is the place where the officials work. There is a Shenming Pavilion to the east of the gate, and a Jingshan Pavilion to the west of the gate.
Inside the ceremonial gate is a wide courtyard with ancient cypresses on both sides, covering each other, lush and lush. There is a large bronze bell on the west side, with inscriptions on it, containing a thousand taels of white gold, and the sound can be heard for forty miles. This bell was later taken away by the Japanese army.
Going north along the courtyard, there were originally five stone steps, on which a hall was built, called the Great Hall, which was originally the place where the officials of the mansion handled cases. Generally, civil cases handled by the Great Hall allow the public to listen to, in order to show the clear judgment of "the great master". There is a plaque hanging in the middle of the Great Hall, with the three vigorous characters "Bao Li Tang" written on it, which is said to be written by Yan Song of the Ming Dynasty.
There are wing rooms on both sides of the Great Hall, which are the places where the officials of the mansion rest and change clothes. In front of the Great Hall, there is a stone tablet pavilion, with the inscription on the stone tablet: "Your salary and your salary, the people's fat and the people's fat. The people are easy to abuse, and the sky is hard to deceive." It is opposite to the seat of the official in the hall.
Behind the Great Hall is the hall, and after the hall is the Second Hall, some secret cases are tried here, and the public is not allowed to listen. Behind the Second Hall is the inner house, where the prefect (formerly known as the governor) and his family live. There are wing rooms built on the east and west sides of the inner house, which are the places where the prefect handles official documents and receives guests. The West Cross Courtyard is a shrine and a Tongzhi Office. The East Cross Courtyard is a Land Temple and a Calendar Office.
The large screen wall in front of the mansion. It is about seven meters high and ten meters wide. After the Xinhai Revolution, a portrait of Mr. Sun Yat-sen was painted on the south side of the screen wall. The "Datong Chapter" in the "Book of Rites" is written on the north side of the screen wall, saying: "The way of the great road is that the world is for the public, choose the wise and able, preach trust and repair harmony. Therefore, people do not only love their parents, and do not only love their children. Let the old have a place to end, the strong have a place to use, the young have a place to grow, the widows, the widows, the orphans, and the lonely, all have a place to support. Men have a share, women have a return, goods hate to be abandoned on the ground, do not have to be hidden in oneself, hate not to come out of the body, do not have to be for oneself, this is the great same." This screen wall still stands here after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it was not demolished until 1963 when the street was built because it affected traffic.
To the south of the mansion is the street at the gate of the mansion, which used to be a bustling and tidy street, with restaurants and shops lined up on both sides of the street. A wooden archway was built at the south end of the street in the eighth year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1730 re-repair) is a pure wooden structure building, with flying eaves and carved beams, quite spectacular. The main door in the middle, the ear doors on both sides, can go south and north, very smooth. The four characters "Cheng Zhen" and "Zheng Ping" are written on the east and west ear doors.
The four characters "Yan Zhao Xiong Feng" are written above the main gate, and the title of Commissioner Huang Weicheng is written below, but actually these four are written by Mr. Wang Bolong in the city. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Bai Jinhua, a teacher from Hejian Normal School, rewrote it as "Prosperous Economy", giving this ancient building a sense of the times.
Hejian Mansion is the only local yamen building with a hall except the Forbidden City in Beijing. Bao Zheng, Li Suzhi, Wang Sicheng and others have served here. After the Republic of China abolished the mansion and retained the county, it became a ruin due to disrepair. It was reopened after being rebuilt on the original site in August 2013. The mansion has more than 60 houses and more than 300 rooms, divided into east, middle and west roads, with the Great Hall, Hall, Second Hall, Third Hall, Inner House, Prison Department, Prison Temple, Tongzhi Office, Land Temple, Shouzhen Temple, Qing Army Office, Qing Army Hall, Li Xing Hall, Ma Zheng Office, Hejian Post, Li Xing Office, Patrol Office and other buildings. The internal exhibitions are divided into seven parts: Hejian History Exhibition, Mansion Culture Exhibition, Official System Culture Exhibition, Ancient Building Relics Exhibition, Religious Culture Exhibition, Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition, and Clean Government Culture Exhibition.