This attraction introduction is compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · Scenic Spots section). Ticket prices, opening hours, transportation, and contact information mentioned in the text may be outdated. Please refer to the latest official announcements from the scenic area before traveling; some content consists of historical background/cultural introductions and is for reference only.
Wang Chuanshan's Former Residence is located near Shichuan Mountain in Xiangxi Village, Qulan Township, Hengyang County. It was first built in the winter of the fourteenth year of the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty (1675), when it consisted of three thatched rooms: the central one was the main hall, the left was the living quarters, and the right was the study. Wang Fuzhi lived here in his later years for 17 years, devoting himself to writing, and died here. He inscribed a couplet for the hall himself: "Burning incense by the Chen River, a kingdom of three rooms; lush green in Xiangxi, a single thatched cottage." Chuanshan's Former Residence is also called the Xiangxi Thatched Cottage. After Wang Fuzhi's death, his son Wang Gan in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1715) converted the thatched cottage into a brick-and-wood tile-roofed house. After his death, the thatched cottage went through many vicissitudes, and the house and fields "ended up in the hands of the powerful." By the sixtieth year of the Qianlong era (1795), Wang Fuzhi's great-grandson Wang Qixuan managed to recover it, and it was repaired or converted into an ancestral hall between the Guiyou (1813) and Yihai (1815) years of the Jiaqing era, with the door plaque inscribed "Chuanshan Shrine." In the Xinyou year of the Xianfeng era (1861), the fields were recovered and the ancestral property was restored. From then on, the Xiangxi Thatched Cottage was preserved. In 1981, the local government carried out a comprehensive restoration of the thatched cottage and opened it to the public. The Xiangxi Thatched Cottage faces southeast with its back to the northwest, covering 2,100 square meters, with a building area of 176 square meters. It is a horizontal row-style single-story house with a front corridor; one section with three rooms, the central one being the main hall, with side rooms on both sides; it has a flush gable roof covered with small gray tiles, in the general residential architectural style of southern Hunan. The door plaque reads "Xiangxi Thatched Cottage," inscribed by Zhao Puchu; the door couplet reads: "The clear breeze has the will but finds it hard to keep me; the bright moon has no intent yet naturally shines on people"; in the front corridor stand two stone steles, respectively the notice from the Hengyong Chen Gui Military Defense Circuit in the second year of the Xuantong era of the Qing Dynasty (1910) protecting the thatched cottage and the notice from the Hengyang County People's Government protecting the thatched cottage. In the center of the main hall hangs a portrait of Wang Chuanshan and a couplet composed by Chuanshan himself: "The Six Classics charge me to open new ground; I have long begged heaven for a living burial." Above the portrait hangs a plaque inscribed "High Mountain, Look Up to It" by Tao Peng, Governor-General of Liangjiang during the Daoguang era of the Qing Dynasty. The side rooms on both sides host restoration and supplementary exhibitions. About 0.5 kilometers to the right front of the Xiangxi Thatched Cottage is a maple tree called "Maple Horse," where Wang Chuanshan often read; about 1 kilometer to the left is the former residence Baiye Hut, and more than 5 kilometers away at the foot of Daluo Mountain is the Chuanshan Tomb Shrine. In July 1956 and October 1983, Wang Chuanshan's Former Residence and Wang Fuzhi's Tomb were both designated as provincial-level cultural relic protection units.
