For foreign tourists, if they come to Huangcheng West Street, Longkou City, Shandong Province, and just see the door of the old house in Shi Ding without stepping in, it is estimated that they will not feel anything great about this old house. Yes, like most tourists, they mistakenly thought that this was just the house of a rich family in the past before they got to know it in detail and walked in. Because the family is rich, the mansion is built in a larger area and the building is more luxurious. There are also some ornaments and antiques in it to introduce the prosperity of the family. That's all. However, when I really walked into my hometown in Shi Ding, it was not just a surprise.
Yes, Shi Ding's former residence, located in Huangcheng West Street, Longkou City, Shandong Province, now covers an area of 3. 106 hectares with a building area of 8042 square meters. There are 240 existing houses, which are the official group layout in Qing Dynasty, and also a large-scale, world-famous and well-preserved "quadrangle" complex in China. However, when we walk into Shi Ding's former residence and begin to understand it, we will find that the luxury here is unparalleled in history.
First of all, the Shi Ding family. In Longkou in the past, that is, around the Imperial City, the locals called it "Ding Million", which is another name of the Shi Ding family. Shi Ding's family began to make a fortune in Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, and it was a pawnshop family. Pawnshops and money houses are all over the country 1 1 provinces and cities, with assets equivalent to 54 million taels of silver, which is said to be equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the Qing government for one year. He is the richest man in Shandong, hence the name "Ding Million". The Shi Ding family is not only well-run in business, but also attaches great importance to studying and being an official. They know that only by helping officials, businessmen and Confucianism can they become rich and strong. Therefore, their generation "takes learning as an official, protects business with officials, and supports learning with business". There are 27 people in the family who were awarded candidates and scholars in the exam. There are 149 people with more than five titles.
After Shi Ding made his fortune, he began to recruit skilled craftsmen inside and outside the city and built a mansion in Huangxian Town, which was built in the early years of Yongzheng and Daoguang. The old house in Shi Ding, facing east from west, is a typical traditional hard mountain brick-wood structure in the north. The building complex is divided into several courtyards, and each courtyard is composed of several quadrangles, which are appropriately dense, seamless and concise. Architectural style, with a strong charm of Beijing mansion and Jiaodong residential buildings, is a typical representative of "Huangxianfu" and can be called the essence of residential architectural art. At its peak, its luxurious buildings covered most areas of the imperial city, with more than 3,000 rooms.
Shi Ding's former residence, with a history of more than 200 years, is no longer the glorious period of that year. After a series of development, it has now become a museum to show the primitive life of Shi Ding family and the folk customs of Jiaodong, showing the wisdom and creativity of the ancient working people in China. There are over 4000 pieces of cultural relics/kloc-0, and more than 60 pieces of cultural relics/kloc-0. There are restoration exhibitions and Ding Foyan Memorial Hall in the old house, as well as 20 exhibition rooms including living room, living room, bedroom, study room, private school, pawnshop, sedan chair room, accounting room and folk customs, which are important windows for us to understand the folk customs in Jiaodong area and the excellent history and culture of the Chinese nation.
The old house we see in Shi Ding is not the heyday of the Shi Ding family, but we can also get a glimpse of it from the remaining 240 houses. If it wasn't the home of great wealth and great wealth in history, how could such a luxurious mansion be built?