Where is Liu's big house?
Liu's Mansion is located in Luotian Village (now Shuangwan Village), Sanjiaotang Town, Changning City, with a strong manor style. After more than 200 years, it is still well preserved, which is rare in the whole southern Hunan area at present. Carved window grilles, symmetrical patios, upturned cornices, solid windows, carefully designed granaries and some exquisite small parts all show the prosperity and prosperity of Liu Dawu.
According to Liu Jiapu, Liu's ancestral home is Changning Town. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty (1796- 1820), Liu's descendants were upright and proficient in business. After creating a certain amount of wealth, they felt that the village of Yin Tian Town where their ancestors lived was not open enough, so they deliberately found another "land of geomantic omen" to settle down. So, they searched all the way into the city, and later found a "treasure land" with flat terrain and broad vision in the original Luotian Village of Sanjiaotang Town. The Liu family moved to Sanjiaotang Town and invested in the construction of a luxury manor covering an area of nearly 4,000 square meters. Because it was built by Liu, later generations called it "Liu Dawu".
Big house, east-west, brick-wood mixed structure with mountains and water. The roof is completely covered with small blue tiles, and the wall is a falling gable. Blue bricks and tiles occupy most of the structure of the house. The overall building structure of the big house takes Liu's ancestral hall as the central axis, which is symmetrically distributed left and right, showing the form of "three vertical and three horizontal". The houses on both sides embrace each other from the left and right, like a pair of wings to protect the Liu ancestral hall in the middle. The left and right horizontal houses in the house are built opposite each other, and the hall, upper courtyard, reception room, slant hall and bedroom are arranged in turn. Seen from a height, Liu Mansion is patchwork and quaint, just like a big manor, which is very rare in southern Hunan.
Liu Mansion was built in the early years of Jiaqing. Although it has experienced more than 200 years of wind and rain baptism, it is still calm and atmospheric. The main body of the house is still intact, and the structural distribution of the master room at that time can be distinguished. In particular, carved window grilles, symmetrical patios, cornices, solid windows and some exquisite small parts all confirm the prosperity of this manor.
One of the most conspicuous is the central ancestral hall. The ancestral hall is deep, and the gate is all stone, with a height of nine feet and five feet. There is a dragon playing beads on the door, which symbolizes the identity of the master in the Ninth Five-Year Plan. In addition, there are embroidered buildings, granaries, servant rooms, stables and other buildings, which all reflect the dignity of the owners of the houses in those days.
More than 200 years have passed, although Liu Mansion has been damaged, many existing wooden buildings are still well preserved. In the middle and upper part of the hall of Liu's Ancestral Hall, you can see a plaque of "mending old friendship". Beneath the plaque, the money donated by the villagers for repairing the big house is clearly engraved.
According to the old people, in the early years, in order to repair the Liu family's big house, the whole village was very enthusiastic, with much money and strong output. Everyone wants to do their best to protect this important building, which represents the memory and foundation of the whole village. Today, the Liujia House is still the ancestral hall of the whole village, and it is also an important religious sacrifice place in the village. It is very lively here every holiday or major event day.
According to the relevant person in charge of Changning Cultural Relics Bureau, Liu's Mansion is one of the ancient buildings found in Changning's third national cultural relics survey. Because its architecture is mainly manor style, solemn and elegant, it is very rare in southern Hunan, which provides precious reference materials for the academic research of local architectural history and is a good physical specimen for studying ancient buildings in southern Hunan. In 2009, Liu Mansion successfully applied for provincial cultural relics protection units.