Ji Lüe Huang Gong Ci, constructed in the 13th year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign (1887), spans 15.4 meters in width and 25.7 meters in depth. This two-part ancestral hall faces north to south, with a skywell between the front and back halls, flanked by verandas and featuring a wraparound extension in the rear hall, creating a layout where four halls face each other. The central roof structure of the back hall is a typical ‘three-five papaya eighteen blocks of clay’ configuration. The lintel bears the inscribed words ‘Ji Lüe Huang Gong Ci’, with ‘Filial Piety as the Norm’ engraved on the reverse. The entire structure of the ancestral hall is unique, with exquisite landscape stone carvings embedded on both sides of the gate tower and the surrounding walls, particularly the exquisite hollow double-sided carvings of the horse face slope roof structure. The main hall is three bays wide, with the central bay being larger. The roof structure is beam-lifting style with a hard mountain top, and the hall’s lintel is adorned with gold lacquer paintings. The ends of the beams and rafters are decorated with various auspicious animals such as dragons, phoenixes, and lions; between the beams and columns, there are vividly shaped and richly contented wood carvings depicting dramas like the Bronze Sparrow Terrace, Zhang Yu Boiling the Sea, and the Flooding of Jinshan Temple, which are lifelike and extremely elegant. The roof ridge is decorated with embedded porcelain paintings. The carvings are exquisite, with landscapes, figures, flowers, and birds, insects, and fish in a thousand different forms, demonstrating a high level of craftsmanship and artistic value. The entire building makes full use of Chaozhou wood carving’s unique techniques such as black lacquer gold, colorful gold, and natural wood carving, giving the building a sense of ‘light and heavy’, with clear layers, and is a concentrated display of Qing Dynasty Chaozhou carving art, known as ‘The First Exquisite Wood Carving in South China’. Opening hours: Open Tuesday-Sunday from 08:30 to 17:30 all year round; closed all day on Mondays, with specific business status subject to daily opening conditions.
Ji Lüe Huang Gong Ci: A Masterpiece of Chaozhou Wood Carving Art
Ji Lüe Huang Gong Ci, constructed in the 13th year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign (1887), spans 15.4 meters in […]
