The Gan family living in Nanquting is a famous family. Their ancestor Gan Ning was a famous general during the Three Kingdoms period. Later, Gan Ning’s descendants took root on the banks of the Yangtze River and thrived from generation to generation. , and became the earliest indigenous people in Jinling. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a branch of the Gan family moved to the inner city, but still lived a civilian life. During the Qianlong period, Gan Fu, a descendant of the Gan family, rose to prominence and rose to the rank of chief envoy, chief envoy, chief minister, and inspector general. The appearance of the Gan family began to change dramatically. What made him famous in history is that he visited Wu and Yue all over the country, collected more than 100,000 volumes of books, and built the famous library "Tiejin Building" in Jiangnan. The building was destroyed by war in 1853, leaving behind the only domestic copy of the Song Dynasty edition of " "Jinshilu"; secondly, his two sons Gan Xu and Gan Xi were both famous men of the generation.
When it comes to the Gan Family Courtyard, probably everyone in Nanjing doesn’t know about it. This typical Chinese ancient building with mainly wooden frames was built in the early years of Daoguang. Its architecture inherits the style of Huizhou ancient architecture. It has exquisite wood carvings and stone carvings, and it also has the architectural style of the Taihu Lake Basin. It pays attention to the detailed carvings of the hall beams. The Gan family spent 50 years building 4 groups of houses with more than 300 rooms. The Gan family courtyard is commonly known as "ninety-nine and a half rooms". The most unique thing about the house is that the entire building faces south and faces north. This is due to two legends: one is that the Gan family went to Jinling to do business. According to the Feng Shui of "Tu Zhai Mu", sitting south and facing north can turn bad luck into good luck; Our ancestors moved from the north to the south, so the building is located in the south to commemorate their ancestors. However, there is an uncertain but interesting folk saying about the origin of "ninety-nine and a half rooms". China's largest imperial palace, the Forbidden City in Beijing, has 9,999 and a half rooms; China's largest bureaucratic palace is in Qufu. The Confucius Mansion has 999 and a half rooms; the largest civilian residence in China is the former residence of Gan Xi in Nanjing, with 99 and a half rooms.