Liu Family Residence in Qinshui, Shanxi

The Liu Family Residence was established in the 29th year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1550), covering an area of approximately 4,032 square meters. This residence was the former home of Liu Yuchun, whose ancestral home was in Qinshui and who served as a deputy magistrate in Huachang Prefecture, Shaanxi. The Liu Family Residence is well-preserved, with the Wenxing River to the east and a mountain valley to the south. At the northern and southern ends of the eastern part, tall protective walls were built due to the low terrain, with brick kiln-style structures beneath the walls facing outward from the village. The Liu Family Residence is situated on a large platform between the high southeast wall and the lower northwest wall. The residence faces south and consists of a total of 114 rooms. The courtyards are divided into two groups, with the village street running east-west as the central axis, and two courtyards arranged side by side on the north and south sides. Originally, there were 13 courtyards, but only 4 remain today. Except for two stone archways built during the Ming Dynasty, the rest of the buildings date from the Qing Dynasty. The layout of the Liu Family Residence is arranged in single and double courtyards, with architectural styles mostly featuring Xianshan and Yingshan roofs. Divided by the village street, the north and south sides are symmetrically distributed with a compact architectural layout. The rear wall of the south courtyard is aligned east-west and features a street-crossing building. The courtyard gates bear inscriptions of the courtyard names in regular script, and all four courtyards are enclosed quadrangles. The Liu Family Residence fills a historical gap in the study of Liu Zongyuan in China and provides authentic and reliable evidence for the inheritance of Liu Zongyuan’s culture. It also remedies the historical absence of traces of the famous Shanxi native Liu Zongyuan in his homeland. The residence is well-preserved, distinctive, and holds both aesthetic and historical research value. The architectural concepts, ethics, values, and aesthetic views embodied in the Liu Family Residence fully reflect profound cultural connotations. The quantity and quality of preserved cultural relics here are rare in Shanxi Province and even in China, making it highly valuable for research. It is a nationally protected key cultural relic, a Chinese historical and cultural village, and one of the first batch of traditional Chinese villages.