The Site of King Zhongwang's
Residence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is located at Dongbei Street in Loumen
District of Suzhou City. It has been built into the Suzhou City Museum.
On June 2, 1860, the main military leader in
the late period of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Li Xiucheng was conferred the title
of King Zhongwang in 1957. He, together with Chen Yucheng, led the Taiping Army
and seized hold of the camp of the Qing Army at Jiangnan (area south of the
Yangtze River) for the second time. Then they marched to the east, taking
Changzhou City, Suzhou City, and Jiaxing City, etc. Afterwards, he built up Sufu
Province (today's Jiangsu Province) of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the area
of Suzhou City and Changzhou City, with Suzhou as the center. Mean time, he
constructed the residence of King Zhongwang at the site of the Humble
Administrator's Garden. Li Xiucheng held two meetings with the vassals of the
Heavenly Kingdom in the main hall of his residence. And there they directed the
Taiping Army to carry out armed revolutions.
The Site of King Zhongwang's Residence of
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is a magnificent and glorious architectural
construction. It is deep and serene with a pleasingly asymmetrical arrangement.
Li Hong Zhang, the provincial governor Jiangsu who took the place as his
government office, was deeply touched by its beauty and said, I haven't never
seen such a gorgeous place before.
King Zhongwang's Residence is small and
exquisite, in line with the architectural style in the southern area. It creates
an elegant environment with small bridges over running water, colorful flowers
and rough hill rocks. It consists of the office, the residence, and the garden.
The main hall is tall and capacious, with a breezeway in the north leading to
the back house. The plan of the main hall, the breezeway and the back house has
the shape of H. In the buildings of the residence, there are still 400 colored
paintings on the beams and lintels, and nine vivid frescos. On the doors and
windows of the main hall, there are the art treasures such as the panes
delicately carved with the patterns of dragons and phoenixes.
The garden at the back part of the
residence, the Humble Administrator's Garden, covering an area of 4.2 hectares,
is one of the four famous classic gardens in China. There are Yulan Hall and
Jianshan Tower, etc, inside the garden.
The living quarter is on the left and the
right side of is the office, and is still well
preserved.