Working with people of integrity and courage, learning from unwritten texts.

The hometown of the Three Sages (108) Establishing oneself and one's career by working with people of integrity and courage, understanding principles and clarifying the mind by reading from unwritten texts. Deep in the Loess Plateau of Lingshi County, Shanxi, lies a folk mansion larger than the Forbidden City by 1.6 times — the Wang Family Courtyard, covering an area equivalent to 35 standard football fields. It is a treasure of Ming and Qing architectural art. Standing beneath the ten-meter-high fortress walls, looking up, the weathered bricks seem to tell a story: this place not only witnesses the pinnacle of architectural art but also vividly depicts the poignant history of the Ming and Qing family’s rise and fall. The fortress walls of the Wang Family Courtyard reach the height of three stories, with battlements and lookout holes clearly visible, as if narrating the hardships of the past. According to local elders, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, banditry was rampant in the Jinzhong area. For safety, the Wang family deliberately built the fortress on a steep slope. The natural cliff on the east side combined with the man-made fortress walls formed a stronghold that was easy to defend but hard to attack. The sloped horse path leading to the main residence is ingeniously designed; what appears to be an ordinary bluestone road is actually full of traps. The path is only wide enough for one carriage, with high walls on both sides like a natural urn city. Once bandits break in, the front and rear gates can be closed to trap them like turtles in a jar.