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Guide to the former residence of Zeng Guofan in Shuangfeng, Hunan

Zeng Guofan, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty, was born in Heye Town, Shuangfeng (formerly Xiangxiang County) on October 11, the 16th year of Jiaqing (AD 1811).

His birthplace was in Baiyangping, Dajie, which now belongs to Tianping Village, Heye Town. It was originally an ordinary private house with one entrance and two horizontal sides. After three constructions, it formed a high-rise building with four sides. The magnificent courtyard with walls is named "Bai Yutang". There are four big characters written on the slot door: "Fang Mai Qun Yan" written by Zeng Guofan's father. There is an ancient tree in front of the gate, with a large wisteria like a horned dragon hovering above it. After Zeng Guofan was promoted, people rumored that he was the reincarnation of a python. Da Ziteng was the incarnation of the python dragon. He had ringworm all over his body, which was like dragon scales. Coincidentally, after his death, the ancient trees and wisteria also withered one after another.

Zeng Guofan's grandfather Zeng Xinggang not only built a farmhouse in Baiyangping in Heye, but also had a farmhouse nearby. When his father and uncle separated, they split up in Xiayaoli (now Liangjiang Village, Heye Town), which became Zeng Guofan's second former residence. It was originally an ordinary farmhouse with one bay and two bays. Later, it was expanded into a tiled house with one bay and four bays. It was named "Golden Hall" to correspond to the "Baiyu Hall" of my uncle's house. As early as the thirteenth year of Daoguang's reign (AD 1833), after Zeng Guofan entered the county school, he designated these four new houses as "Tingyuxuan" and wrote "Tingyuxuan" in big characters about one meter high on the door. In September of the second year of Xianfeng (AD 1852), after his mother, Mrs. Jiang Tai, died of illness, he returned to his hometown and held a memorial hall for his mother here. During the lunch meal alone, there were more than 240 guests, and it was served three times. His five brothers felt that it was shameful and they were eager to buy more land. After defeating the Taiping Army, the Zeng family opened up Nanjing to make foreign money and started building large-scale construction projects in their hometown. First, in the ninth year of Xianfeng (AD 1859), Zeng Guoquan built the Dafu Di Zhongshan Hall and Dunde Hall in Daping (now Daping Village, Heye Town), and built a Futuo Manor together. Then Zeng Guofan built the Fuhou Hall of Yiyong Marquis in Futuo.

Fuhoutang is the third former residence of Zeng Guofan. It was built by his brothers Zeng Guoquan and Zeng Guohuang. In the third year of Tongzhi, Zeng Guofan rewarded the prince with the title of Taibao and the first-class Marquis. His younger brother imitated the rules of the Marquis Mansion. After several years, Futuo was completely rebuilt into a grand and compact "Marquis Mansion". The whole house covers an area of ??more than 40,000 square meters, with a construction area of ??more than 10,000 square meters. The civil structure has the cloister-style architectural style of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The house faces west and faces east. In front is a vast field surrounded by trickling water; at the back is a half-moon-shaped hill with bamboo trees planted in the middle, which is evergreen all year round. It is surrounded by tall walls and pedestrian thoroughfares run from east to west. Entering the east and west gates of the house, there is a half-moon-shaped platform paved with granite. On the edge of the platform are the dragon and phoenix flags of the Qing Dynasty, the commander's flag of the Hunan Army, and umbrellas for thousands of people. Outside the platform is a half-moon-shaped lotus pond, with lotus flowers in summer, like a pan palace. In the middle of the platform is the entrance gate, and there is also a gold plaque with the 4th Zhu Di written by Zeng Jizeshu Yiyonghou on the door, so the local people call it "Hou's Mansion" or "Prime Minister's Mansion".

Entering the front gate, there is a wide inner terrace with exotic flowers and plants planted there. Pass through the stone pavement in Pingzhong and go directly to the second entrance steps. Hanging on the door of the middle hall are three gold characters on a red background called "Fuhoutang" written by Zeng Guofan. The main hall is divided into two parts, front and back, which is the main body of Fuhou Hall. The front hall is named "Babentang". There are three black gold plaques written by Zeng Guofan hanging in the hall. Under the forehead are his father's "Babentang" family motto written by Zeng Jize in official script: "Read ancient books based on exegesis." , writing poems is based on tone, serving relatives is based on pleasing people, maintaining health is based on being less angry, standing up is based on not lying, staying at home is based on not getting up, being an official is based on not wanting money, marching is based on not disturbing the people For this. At the back of the central hall is the altar. On the shrine with the five dragons holding the saints, there is a plaque written by Zeng Jize directly saying that the Zeng family has been the ancestor of the ancestors. On the top hangs the imperial letter from the emperor in the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870 AD) to Zeng Guofan. There is a horizontal plaque with gold characters on the black ground and a high pillar of honor. On the walls on both sides, there are also vertical plaques with the words "Fu" and "Shou" written by the emperor as rewards; on the wall of the shrine is a horizontal plaque with blue characters on the white ground and "Su Yong He Ming" written by him in the second year of Tongzhi.

On both sides of the back hall are the main rooms. On one side is the residence of Zeng Guofan's wife, Ouyang family; on the other side is the residence of his eldest son Zeng Jize and his wife. The left door of the front building is the south hall, with four main rooms on both sides, which is the residence of Zeng Guofan's second son Zeng Jihong and his wife; the right door is the north hall, which is the residence of Zeng Jihong's eldest son and his wife. There are also three-storey libraries at the north and south ends. At the south end are Zeng Guofan's Gongji Library and Zeng Jize's Puji Library, and at the north end is Zeng Jihong's Fangji Library. This is the essence of Fuhoutang, with various collections of books. With 300,000 volumes, it is the largest private library in modern China.

Fuhoutang was once listed as a national cultural relics protection unit by the National Government. In 1996, it was announced as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit by the Hunan Provincial People's Government. Fuhoutang, the former residence of Zeng Guofan, known as China's "Rural House", was announced by the State Council as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in 2006. It was also the first national key cultural relics protection unit in Loudi City.