Zizheng Dafu Temple has preserved its original appearance, including the dignified halls, capacious courtyards, brick carving, stone carving, wood carving, plastered sculpture, and ceramic carving. It can be called the master of Lingnan arts and crafts.
Zizheng Dafu Temple is located in the first ancestral temple village, Sanhua Village, Xinhua Town, Huadu District. It is surprisingly well preserved. It includes four ancient ancestral temples and two rear buildings, covering a total area of over 18,000 square meters. The ancestral temples line up in one line, inter-connected and interlinked in a way of independence yet unification. The fabrication of the Temple is very exquisite from the overall frame design to the gate piers and pedestal rocks.
Zizheng Dafu Temple was "the first temple in Lingnan granted by imperial edict". This extraordinary antecedent probably could date back to the years of Emperor Tongzhi's reign in Qing Dynasty. At that time, there were two cousins-Xu Fangzheng and Xu Biaozheng from the Xus in Sanhua Village. They were officials of then government. Xu Fangzheng took office of Director of the Bureau of Military, Xu Biaozheng Director to the Department for Military Affairs. They won recognition from Emperor Tongzhi for their excellent job. As a rewarding, the Emperor appointed Xu Fangzheng's grandfather and father "Zizheng Dafu" and Xu Biaozheng's father "Fengzhi Dafu".
The ancient punishment mechanism is different from the present one: your nine clans will be executed if you did wrong; but your three generations will be rewarded if you did well. For the whole clan, it means one failure leads to another; so does success. It can be called the master of Lingnan arts and crafts.
Xu Fangzheng and Xu Biaozheng's ancestors had died long before the surprise laurel was bestowed on them. However, the rewarding from the emperor was so huge a glory, it couldn't be neglected like nothing happened. To show off the Emperor's grace. Xu Fangzheng built Zizheng Dafu Temple, while Xu Biaozheng founded the Nanshan Academy. The Xus' later generations built Xiangzhi Xugong Temple. To this day, they form Guangzhou's largest ancient temple architecture, 27 years earlier than the Chen Clan Academy.
Sanhua Village is located near a river, making it convenient in traffic to Guangzhou. Its past prosperity was no less than that of today. For its sound financing, Zizheng Dafu Temple was built with not only capacious halls but also exquisite craftsmanship. Guangdong's plastered sculpture, a wood carving, brick carving and painting decors can be seen everywhere. Be it the architecture components, main walls, ridges, arches, beams, square-columns, brackets, decorated brackets, windows and doors, or interior furniture, all are made elegantly.
※ Location: Sanhua Village, Xinhua Town, Huadu District, Guangzhou
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