Tangyue Village

Location: 25 km from Huangshan City, Anhui

The scenery isn't as good as huangshan, but if you want to find out what memorial archway (paifang) is all about, you should pay a visit to this place. Tangyue has many well preserved paifang dated back to as early as Ming dynasty.

Tangyue village is 6.5 kilometers away from Shexian county, one of the historical and cultural cities in China. There are 7 memorial archways winding their ways into a group, simple and elegant. 3 were built in Ming dynasty, the other were built in Qing. All of them are in order of loyalty, filial piety, moral integrity and justice. In recent years, it used to be the scenery for filming such films as "Dream of the Red Mansions" and "Smoke Blocked Double-eaved Roof", it has become a world-famous tourist spot of top culture grade.

Memorial Arches are a product of the feudal society, yet they embody the wisdom and artistry of ancient craftsmen. Furthermore, each arch, regardless of the size is related to a particular person or an event. Every arch has a history or a story with profound implications and the arches are memories of the past.

The "Love and Duty Arch"was built in honour of Bao Zongyan, a loving father, and Bao Shousun, his dutiful son; the two "Filial Piety Arches 'in honour of Bao Can and Bao Fengchang for their filial love; the two "Chastity Arches "in honour of Bao Wenlin's wife Wang and Bao Can's grandson Bao Xiangxian, who had been Vice -Minister of War. Finally Bao Shufang, a wealthy merchant of the village, seeing that the arches built had covered loyalty, filial piety, and chastity---three of the four conventional virtues --- but devoid of philanthropy, donated a large sum of money to the court to be used for the imperial soldiers salaries and provisions as well as to build an 800 meter-long flood prevention dike. The emperor then approved the construction of the "Philanthropy Arch". The seven arches were built successively during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, representing different styles of the era, both characterized by the artistry of Huizhou stone carving, which is of great value to the study of ancient architecture.

There are many historic sites in Tangyue. The Temple of the Bao's deceased mother, also known as "Qingzi Temple", commonly called "Female Temple", the branch temple of Bao's, commonly called "Male Temple". Both have been repaired as ancient as it will be, with perfect craftsmanship, it is broad. It also take use of man-made scenery and status in ancient style, as well as modern methods such as sound, light and electricity, in order to reproduce its original appearance. With images true to life, they are the evidences to research patriarchal systems and merchant's history in Huizhou.

Cultural Fact: Memorial Archway (Paifang)
Paifang, also called Pailou in Chinese, is very Chinese architecture. Actually a Paifang is an archway usually made of fine wood or stone, well painted and with glazed tiles sometimes, for memory and decoration. On its middle beams, moral inscriptions by certain calligraphist, mostly preaching some norms, often can be seen. Usually, these so-called memorial structures stand in downtown areas, or before entrances of mausoleums, temples, bridges and parks.

Though Paifang is deemed as memorial architecture, it has other functions - marking, decorating, honoring and spacing. Not all these archways possess all the functions, however rich cultural connotations can be explained.

First, Paifang or Pailou reflects people's life aspirations in feudal times, which usually can be read from inscriptions on the beams. It exhibits folk customs of ancient China. Building Paifang was an important folklore in feudal society, while the structure itself was a carrier of ancient social customs. Paifang presents perfect harmony of ancient Chinese architectural modeling art and sculpting art, which both enjoy long history and attract interests of the world for their unique styles and artistic value.

The sacred emotions of the ancient Chinese rested on Paifang too. Erecting a Paifang was a very solemn event. Various emotions, praising, honoring, commemorating, praying or blessing were materialized through those beautiful arches. The structure mirrors feudal ethics and traditional norms in ancient China. As a physical architecture of those ethics and norms, various Paifangs, such as chastity Paifang (mostly for widowed women exclusively), loyalty Paifang and filial piety Paifang, were set up all around.

Paifang witnesses history. Many a Paifang was built to commemorate historical events and important historic figures, thus those structures, are of great importance in the research of Chinese history. Paifang has long become a symbol of China for its long history, rich connotation and unique art value.