UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site: Xidi and Hongcun

Although China has been a village society for millennia, few Chinese villages can trace their origins to the 11th and 12th centuries, and still fewer can prove their ancient origins not only with written records, but also by existing structures from that distant past.

In the scenic land of Yixian County in southern Anhui, near the spectacular Yellow Mountains, there are two such villages, Xidi and Hongcun, and the two villages are only about ten miles apart. Xidi and Hongcun share many similarities. Both were founded during China’s Song dynasty (960-1279 AD). Xidi was first built in 1047 AD during the northern Song period, whereas Hongcun entered history in 1131 AD during the southern Song period.

Both started out as single family villages. Xidi was the residence of the Hu family, which claimed a Tang dynasty royal prince as its ancestor. Hu remains one of the most popular family names in southern Anhui, and in the modern era famous Hus from that region include Hu Shi, leader of the New Culture Movement and Nationalist China’s ambassador to the United States, and Hu Jingtao, current leader of the Chinese Communist Party.

Hongcun was home to the Wang family. Wang is another very popular family name of that region. As the saying goes, “Of every ten people from Huizhou, nine are surnamed Wang.” The Hus and Wangs are still living in the two villages today.

Both villages flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties (from the 14th to the 19th centuries), when merchants from southern Anhui dominated Chinese trade. Most of the existing structures in the two villages were constructed during that period. The preservation of these buildings owes much to the remote location of the two villages.

The traditional residences, temples, and other structures all testify to the existence of a rich local tradition that was jointly created by merchants, scholars, and officials. It is interesting to note that the strong Confucian prejudice against merchants did not prevent the merchants of southern Anhui from promoting Confucianism.

For many influential local families, including the Hu and Wang families, the typical path to honor and power consisted of three steps: to accumulate wealth through commercial activities; to spend part of their wealth on educating the youth in the Confucian classics; and to send their well-educated youths to take the civil service examinations so that they could enter the government. In a way, what the merchants of southern Anhui did to Confucianism then is not very different from what the capitalists are doing to Communism now in China. Instead of trying to sabotage or eliminate a seemingly hostile doctrine, they make peace with it and make good use of it.

Today, Xidi has 124 well-preserved Ming and Qing dynasty family residences, three family temples, and a memorial archway dedicated to a Ming dynasty high-ranking official from the village. Hongcun has nearly 140 Ming and Qing dynasty structures, including a grand house of a Qing dynasty salt merchant that has nine courtyards, four gardens, and 60 rooms, a Ming dynasty family temple, and a Confucian academy founded during the Ming and renovated during the Qing.

The buildings were arranged according to the principles of geomancy (fengshui), and the design of the village emphasized the accessibility of water, partly because the previous residence of the Wang family had been destroyed by fire. An artificial creek brings water to every residence in the village. The layout of Hongcun—the hills at its edge, two huge trees, houses with black roof tiles and white walls, the creeks and bridges throughout—gives the village its nickname, “Ox-shaped Village.” It is also known as “the village in a traditional painting” for its beautiful landscape. Some sections of the village appear in the award-winning movie Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon.

In November 2000, Xidi and Hongcun were designated a world cultural heritage site by UNESCO, making them the only two villages in China that have attained equal status with such world-known sites as the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the terra-cotta army of the First Emperor. It is often said: ““If you want to know how the emperors lived in ancient China, you should go to Xian or Beijing; if you want to learn about the lives of common people in ancient China, you should go to Yixian.” The entire county of Yixian has over 3500 traditional structures.

Most travelers visit Xidi, Hongcun and other villages in the area right after coming down from the nearby Yellow Mountains—China’s most beautiful mountains, and enjoying the magnificent pines, stones, clouds and springs that the mountains have to offer. It is in these tranquil villages that the travelers make the transition from nature to culture, from heaven to earth (local people believe that China’s legendary Yellow Emperor ascended to heaven from the Yellow Mountains), and from exhausting climbing to relaxing walking.

Xiaorong Han, a native of Anhui, China, teaches Chinese and Asian history at Butler University. He wishes to thank colleague Paul Hanson for his contribution to this article.