Yanmen ancient castle

Yanmen ancient castle

The Yanmen ancient castle in Dalan town was built in the late Ming Dynasty. It has a long history of more than 600 years. The area of the castle is about 20000 square meters, with a total number of 78 households and a total population of 398 people. The ancient fortress has a profound culture, simple folk customs and beautiful scenery. A stream at the bottom of the House passes through the fortress, and the ancient trench at the top of the hill behind the fortress is clearly visible.

Geographical features

Yanmen ancient fortress is built on the basis of the mountain. The red sand rock wall foundation is oval shaped. It is composed of wall foundation, red clay brick wall and pavilions. The central part of the fortress radiates around with the Horsehead shaped wind and fire gable courtyard as the core. The gate and courtyard are not limited to one pattern and connect with each other. However, there is no lack of the traditional concept of axis, orientation and enclosure. In the inner tight and private space, the inner framework of the settlement is constructed by the network of roadways. The unique doors, windows, railings, architraves, flower teeth, etc. are decorated in the eye-catching, lighting, ventilation and other parts through the techniques of relief, openwork and depiction, which all reflect the superb skills of craftsmen. Depending on the landscape, different groups of fortresses are shaped into different spatial images and settlement landscapes.

historical background

The ancient fortress in Yanmen is of great archaeological value to the series of military remains of Miao border wall in Western Hunan. Pushi, historically an important traffic road in Southwest China, has a very special and important geographical location. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court suppressed the Miao area in Western Hunan at all costs. From the first year of Hongwu (1368 A.D.) to the 24th year of Wanli (1606 A.D.), it set up Zhenxi qianhusuo, 5 villages, 18 battalions and sentries in the Miao area. Huguang garrison was stationed in the provincial capital, with one general, one Garrison and more than 6000 officers and soldiers,

The situation of Ming Dynasty's encirclement and control in the Miao area of Western Hunan was also discussed. The ancient fortress of Yanmen is also a historical product of this pattern. Due to frequent wars, the overall design of Yanmen ancient castle and the architectural style of residential buildings are characterized by adapting to the war. The narrow network of roadways, gaosen Gables, dense lookout, multiple gateways, both the single and the whole show the atmosphere of mutual response and closure, becoming another representative of the series of military relics of Miao border wall in Western Hunan.

Before Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Yanmen began to build brick and wood structure houses, and built granaries beside the houses.

In the Qing Dynasty, Kang Zuxi built a brick and wood structure house. Next to the civil structure of the granary, the title is "Gu Ji Ru Yong". There is a basement for gold and silver. At that time, the county magistrate gave Bian a piece with the title of "pushing people".

In 1946, a fire broke out in Yanmen village due to a long-term worker in the landlord's home, which destroyed about 30 brick and wooden houses in the east of the village.

In the 1950s, when the people's Liberation Army was stationed in Yanmen, some slogans of suppressing bandits were left on the ancient buildings. At the top of the mountain in the northwest of the village, there are trenches and wartime headquarters.

During the cultural revolution in the 1960s, the red guards came to Kang Qiwu's house and forced him to cut off the three-star relief of fortune, fortune and longevity from the house built by Kang Zuxi. Kang Qiwu secretly took down the flower window and hid it.

In the 1970s, Kang Qiwu installed flower windows. Later, because a team came to the village, they took down the window and hid it.

After the 1980s, Kang Qiwu installed flower windows again.

In October 2008, the cultural relics survey team of Luxi County discovered Yanmen ancient castle in the third national cultural relics survey.

In November 2008, the people's Government of Luxi County listed Yanmen ancient castle as a county-level cultural relic protection unit.

On December 20, 2008, Hunan discovery tour came to Yanmen ancient castle for an interview and reported on relevant media.

Address: Dalan Town, Luxi County, Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Western Hunan

Longitude: 110.0068170308

Latitude: 28.0190380925

Ticket information: free.