People

Chen Yuanguang and the Founding of Zhangzhou Geographic Connections From Zhangzhou’s urban center, traveling southwest about 15 kilometers to Punan Town in Xiangcheng District—this is where the northern and western tributaries of the Jiulong River converge, and where Chen Yuanguang originally established Zhangzhou’s first administrative seat in 686 CE. Today’s Zhangzhou has expanded into a major Minnan hub, but Chen Yuanguang’s legacy—the Chen Gong Canal (also called “Guangang”), his military garrison at “Yingtou,” the “General Mountain” where his family lived for generations—all these physical traces still remain scattered throughout Xiangcheng District. ...

The Yangshi Lei Family: Imperial Architects of Qing Dynasty China (1662-1900) Geographic Connections Heading northwest from Yongxiu County, Jiangxi, along the Xiushui River valley, you reach the ancestral village of the Lei clan. Continuing north some 100 kilometers brings you to Jiujiang Prefecture, then onward across Poyang Lake to Nanjing—这是 the traditional route from Jiangxi to Beijing in the early Qing. It was along this road that Yongxiu’s Lei Fada first entered the Forbidden City during the Kangxi era, beginning the longest family lineage in Chinese architectural history. ...