The Hanlin Residence of Xia Tongshan is located at Guanhou Street in Zhongshi. It is not large in scale. Fortunately, the house is complete. After renovation, it has become a humanistic landscape integrating traditional dwellings and gardens. Tourists can experience the life style of wealthy families in small towns in southern Jiangsu at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The renovated Hanlin Residence basically follows the original layout and can be divided into three parts. There are three rooms and three entrances along the main axis. In front of the gate, there is a pair of marble rollers, showing the extraordinary nature of the Xia family. At the first door of the entrance hall, one can see that there are horizontal ‘top beams’ on the lintel, that is, five carved short woods. The threshold is extremely high and not easy to cross, but the middle section can be removed and is called the ‘virtue threshold’. Usually, the main gate is not opened, and people enter and exit through the side doors on both sides. Further inside is the third door, namely the front wall gate. After passing this gate is a small slate patio. This is the first entrance. Crossing the patio is the main hall, which is the second entrance. The main hall is a flat hall. On the beam are two large red lacquered wooden boxes with gold carvings containing imperial edicts. Immediately behind are two wing rooms which are storied buildings and connected by corridors along the wall. This structure is rare elsewhere and is probably related to the narrow foundation. Further inside, passing through the second wall gate is the small rear hall on the third entrance. On the east wing are two rooms and two entrances, including a kitchen and a courtyard. The style is mediocre and it is where servants live. On the west wing, parallel to the entrance hall is a three-room flower hall, also known as the’receiving hall for officials’. It is exquisitely decorated. Passing through the flower hall and entering a courtyard, there are rockeries, pools, and various seasonal flowers and rare trees. It is small, elegant and extremely lovely. This is the ‘Xia Family Garden’. Further inside, there are again the main hall and the rear hall, which are places for the Xia family to receive guests, live, relax, read and entertain. The Xia family’s Hanlin Residence was originally an ordinary residential house with a small area. After Xia Tongshan was appointed as a Hanlin scholar and was granted the plaque of ‘Hanlin Residence’, it was able to expand and become somewhat larger in scale. Regarding the Xia family and the Hanlin Residence, it is a story of’succeeding in officialdom through excellence in learning’ and thereby glorifying the ancestors and the hometown. But it is a fact in the history of Wuzhen and also the pride of the people. The specific business hours and operating status are subject to the opening situation on that day.
Hanlin Residence
The Hanlin Residence of Xia Tongshan is located at Guanhou Street in Zhongshi. It is not large in sc[...]
