According to legend, during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangxi Zhang traveled to Weidong along the shogunate Shanxi, saw a basin surrounded by mountains and beautiful natural environment, and suddenly had the idea of settling here. Zhang is a master of Feng Shui. After careful investigation, he chose this homestead, so he built many buildings and prospered, hence the name Zhangguying Village.
Zhangguying Village has gone through many vicissitudes and basically retained its original appearance. There are three relatively complete doorways: going to the new building, being the door and Panjiachong. Each connected doorway with different specifications is composed of four entrances, such as hall, auditorium, ancestral hall and back hall, and three patios formed by wing rooms and wing rooms.
Looking down from the roof, the whole building of Zhangguying Village has become countless "wells". There are cloisters on both sides of the main hall, and the patios are patchwork and neat, supplemented by blue bricks and granite.
The first ancient building in Zhangguying Village is a unique framework of "dividing into one's own courtyard and merging into one". Zhangguying Village has gone through many vicissitudes and basically retained its original appearance.
The second unique ancient building in Zhangdawuchang is the pattern of "streams running down the steps, doors opening into the water" and "sunny days, rain and snow don't wet shoes". Most of the houses in Zhangguying Village are built on the mountain and follow the stream, with winding paths leading to secluded places and small bridges flowing water, which are connected with each other. The Weixi River winds through the village, and there are 47 large and small stone bridges on the river. The walls of the house are connected with sandalwood, staggered over the stream, and a long corridor is built by the stream. The corridor is paved with bluestone slabs, reaching all the households along the way and connecting all the lanes, with a total of 60 lanes.
The third unique ancient building in Zhangdawuchang is the drainage system with patio as the carrier, which is reasonable and accessible and never accumulates water. Patios can be seen everywhere here, and there are patios in halls, wings and kitchens. The sewers extending in all directions are unimpeded.
Panxi promenade is built along the winding stream, and all kinds of shops are facing the promenade, with sparkling stones at the feet, as if you can still hear the noise and horseshoe of the ancients.
Zhangguying village is surrounded by mountains. If you sit at the bottom of the basin, you can go to rainy days and under the neat stones in the world. Its invisible waterways extend in all directions, with moderate levels and no omission. For more than 600 years, although there have been many storms and floods, there has never been a patio waterlogging.
Crossing just visiting and locking in the vicissitudes of 600 years of history, the big house seems to be a real life and a treasure house with a clean mind.
There is no traffic here, no noise, sitting around the table next to the courtyard of the ancient village: embroidery, spinning, weaving straw sandals, or knitting a bamboo stick, as if you were in a paradise.
Ancient embroidered architecture.
This embroidery room was built more than 200 years ago by Zhang's grandparents for his daughter.
Zhang Dawu is not only grand in scale, but also exquisite in architectural technology. Brick carving, stone carving and wood carving as decorations are all exquisite. Carved on wood, carved on stone and painted everywhere in the house, it is known as the "Folk Forbidden City" of China folk art.
All the residents of Zhangguying Village are descendants of Zhang. Now there are more than 600 households with more than 2,000 people living in this village. This single-family village with the same surname of Han nationality has remained so pure after more than 600 years, which is rare in China.
Zhang's mansion is famous for its strict family rules and clean manners. Zhang Jiaxun is a national internal prescription that the Zhang family constantly sublates and transcends in the process of survival and development, and it is a national internal culture that is gradually improved and perfected. It is in this unique cultural atmosphere that Zhang can survive, develop and be handed down from generation to generation healthily.
Walking into Zhangguying Village, you seem to feel that history seems closer to us, while reality seems farther away from us. This may be the greatest value of Zhangguying Village.