Liukeng Village, known as the "No. 1 Village of the Ages", is located on the bank of Wujiang River in the southeast of Niutian Town, Le'an County, Jiangxi Province. It is surrounded by green mountains and surrounded by rivers on three sides. The mountains and rivers are beautiful and beautiful. Now, the village has 1,280 households, 5,600 people, 3,572 acres of cultivated land, 53,400 acres of mountainous land, and a village area of ??3.61 square kilometers. It is one of the largest villages in the county.
Liukeng Village has an ancient and proud history and a highly developed civilization. The village was built during the Shengyuan period of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties (937-943). It was originally part of Yongfeng County in Jizhou, and was transferred to Le'an County in Fuzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty. It has a history of more than a thousand years. Most of the people in this village have the surname Dong, and it is a blood-related village where people with the single surname Dong live together. The Dong family respects Dong Zhongshu, a great scholar of the Western Han Dynasty, as their ancestor, and considers Dong Jin, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, as their ancestor. According to genealogy records, Dong Jin's grandson Dong Qingran moved from Anhui to Yihuang County in Fuzhou, Jiangxi during the war in the late Tang Dynasty. His great-grandson Dong He then moved to Liukeng and settled there, becoming the founder of Liukeng. The Song Dynasty was one of the most glorious periods in the history of Liukeng. The Dong family valued literature and education and flourished with academic qualifications, becoming a typical example of large families living in the south of the Yangtze River. At that time, it was known as "Five Jinshi in one discipline, four ministers in two dynasties, two number one scholars in civil and military affairs, scholars like stars" and "the famous hometown of Ou (Ouyang Xiu) Dong (Liukeng Dong)". In the Yuan Dynasty, the village was destroyed during the war. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the knowledgeable people in the village inherited their ancestral business, established education and schools, built genealogies and temples, and developed bamboo and wood trade, making Liukeng Village prosperous again. From the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were many schools and schools in the village, with 26 schools in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty and 28 schools in the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. The whole village has produced one scholar and one military scholar each, 34 Jinshi, and 78 officials. There are more than 100 people who have entered the official career, ranging from participating in political affairs and ministers to being chief administrators and teaching edicts. There are only four villages in Jiangxi Province with more than 30 Jinshi scholars. Liukeng Village is the only ancient village among them with such well-preserved cultural relics, which is really rare. Xu Xiake, a traveler in the Ming Dynasty, once visited Liukeng Village and praised: "It is a city with thousands of shopping malls, and the Dong family has a huge surname, and there are five Guifangs." (See "Xu Xiake's Travels", page 147. , published by Shanghai Gujie Publishing House) The "Wuguifang" mentioned here is a commemorative archway built to commemorate the great event that five people from the Dong family were awarded Jinshi at the same time in the first year of Jingyou's reign (1034), the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty. "Qi Fang" is rare in history and can be described as an honor. In the past thousand years, the prosperity of Liukeng's imperial examinations, the number of officials, the high titles, the wealth of business, the complete architecture, the beauty of art, the size of the family, and the longevity are unique in Jiangxi and rare in the country.
Liukeng Village is a microcosm of China’s feudal patriarchal society. For more than a thousand years, the Dong family in Liukeng relied on the strict feudal clan system to unite the clan, maintain order, and develop stably. Remains of feudal clan activities can be seen everywhere in the village, especially the numerous versions of genealogies and ancestral halls scattered throughout the village lanes, which are rare cultural landscapes. There are still 3 genealogies dating from the Wanli decade of the Ming Dynasty, more than 20 versions of genealogies for each house in the Qing Dynasty, and 58 ancestral temples and ancestral halls. The ruins of the Dazong Temple are even more unique. Five granite stone pillars 8 meters high and 0.7 meters in diameter stand proudly in the sky. They are called the "Old Summer Palace" of Liukeng.
Liukeng is famous for its large-scale traditional buildings and unique village layout. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, under the planning and construction of the tribe, the village formed eight streets and lanes, seven horizontal (east-west) and one vertical (north-south). The tribesmen lived in the lanes according to the clan branches of the Fang clan. Gatehouses were set up in the lanes, and the village walls were between the gatehouses. Connected and enclosed pattern. The lanes are paved with cobblestones and have a good drainage system. There are more than 260 ancient buildings and ruins from the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the village, including 19 Ming Dynasty buildings and ruins, 18 important building groups, 14 cultural buildings such as bookstores, 5 archways, 48 ??ancestral halls, and 8 temples. . There are also 32 ancient wells, wind and rain pavilions, docks, ancient bridges, ancient tombs, and ancient pagoda ruins. The ancient buildings in the village are all brick and wood structures, one and a half stories high. The layout is mostly two with one entrance and one with a courtyard. They are simple and simple, but the architectural decoration is very particular, with wood, bricks, stone carvings (carvings), color paintings, and ink paintings. All in one, exquisite craftsmanship. The brick murals of birds (jue), deer (luxuries), bees (confession), monkeys (hou) in the Huaide Hall of the Ming Dynasty and the "Kilin Looking at the Sun" sculptures inlaid on the screen wall of the Yongxiang Hall are both exquisite works.
The cultural relics protection and tourism industry in Liukeng Ancient Village are booming. At present, we are mobilizing the entire county to do a great job in applying for the World Cultural Heritage of Liukeng Ancient Village.
Liukeng Village has very broad development prospects. Not only can the village carry out a variety of cultural tourism activities, but also in the upper and lower reaches of the Wujiang River that passes around the village, there are also the majestic, dangerous, quiet and strange Jinzhu Waterfall, the natural stone bridge ancient temple; the two sides of the Wujiang River winding for 10 The camphor forest belt in Yuli has towering ancient trees and an elegant environment, making it an ideal place for vacation; the Wujiang River is crystal clear, with rapids and dangerous shoals, allowing for various forms of rafting activities. Through development and construction in recent years, the "Liukeng-Jinzhu" scenic spot has become a provincial-level scenic spot, and Liukeng Village is becoming a beautiful tourist attraction. The people of Le'an warmly welcome friends from all walks of life to come to Liukeng for sightseeing, leisure and vacation. They also welcome everyone to come to Liukeng to display their ambitions, start new businesses, and invest in the protection, construction and tourism development of Liukeng Ancient Village!