Overview of Kunyang
The terrain of Kunyang Village, where the Kunyang Government is located, is a small basin, shaped like a cauldron raised to the sky, surrounded by green hills. A stream of Cangshan Stream flows leisurely from west to east into Xiaonan River and returns to the Nanxi River system. It is a geomantic treasure land with beautiful mountains and clear waters, smooth weather, pleasant climate, fertile land and sufficient resources. Kunyang Village is the earliest ancestral settlement of the Yongjia Pan family. After thousands of years of vicissitudes, it still retains its ancient charm.
According to the "Yongjia County Chronicle": Pan's surname comes from Ji, and he takes the name of the city or the country as his surname. Their descendants mainly breed in the present-day Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang areas, including Xingyang, Guangzong, Yuzhang and other groups. There were three branches of the Pan family that moved to Yongjia earlier: Pan Beiji, who moved from Qingtian to Kunyang Village during the Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (743-755); Pan Yinli, who moved from Qingtian to the Lianbo Tanxia family outside the east gate of Zeng County (today's Lucheng District), from In the third year of Xuanhe's reign (1121), Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty moved to Xialiao Village; Pan Tian moved from Shuangxi, Jinhua to Lingtou Village when the Song Dynasty moved south.
After the Pan family moved to Kunyang, they lived and worked in peace and contentment. Their family was rich and prosperous. It has been 49 generations so far, and its branches are spread all over southern Zhejiang. After generations of hard work, the village has fully developed, with houses, gardens, ancestral halls, temples, academies, pavilions, stone pagodas, bridges, roads, canals, and other types of buildings that a farming society should have. It is a pity that due to the changes of the times, the erosion of wind and rain, and man-made changes, there are not many ancient buildings left.
Only the Kunyang Pan Ancestral Hall can be regarded as a precious heritage of ancient farming civilization. According to the "Kunyang Pan Family Genealogy", the Kunyang Ancestral Hall was built by Pan Tianli (known as Meigong in the world), the ninth lord of the Kunyang Ancestral Hall. It was rebuilt during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Its architecture is solemn, magnificent, unique in shape and exquisite in structure. It is truly a style of the Xishan generation.
In November 2003, Chen Zhihua, a professor at Tsinghua University and a famous expert on vernacular architecture, came to Kunyang for investigation. As soon as I arrived at the entrance of Kunyang Village, I was amazed when I saw the rows of old houses with gray walls and black tiles. He said that there is such a large village at the bottom of such a deep mountain. If it were in the north, it would be a county seat, the largest county seat! Get out of the car immediately and take the photo.
He also visited Pan’s Ancestral Hall, pointed to the arches in the east corridor, raised his thumb, and praised that this was something he had never seen before in the Nanxi River Basin. He also observed the folk houses with great interest, passing from the West Village to the East Village, praising them all the way. He saw the decay of old wooden houses and the encroachment of modern bungalows, and felt very sorry. He said, I came 10 years too late!
In 2004, Professor Chen’s book "Ancient Villages in the Upper Reaches of Nanxi River" was published. The book had high praise for the Kunyang Ancient Village: "I made a special trip to Kunyang at the end of November 2002. , it is a large town with developed transportation and commerce. It has a large ancestral hall of the Pan family and a large number of old houses with quite high standards."
The following year, the Yongjia County Government issued a document (" Yongzhengfa [2003] No. 1 Document") approved Kunyang Pan's Ancestral Hall as the fifth batch of cultural protection units in the county. The township government attached great importance to it and immediately established the Kunyang Township Cultural Relics Protection and Maintenance Committee and prepared to repair the ancestral hall. With the efforts of the tribesmen and the support of many parties, the construction was completed in the winter of 2005. After the construction, the ancestral hall still retains its original appearance and ancient charm.