The Ming Building on Phoenix Street was originally the former residence of Wu Dayi, where Wu Hufan spent his youth
Ming Building
There is an antique restaurant on Phoenix Street, called Ming Lou. There are two small signs in the corner of the lintel of the porch, one of which reads "Control and Protection Building" and the other reads "Former Residence of Wu Dayi", which tells the history of the old mansion in a few words.
The former residence of Wu Daye
Ming Building, according to legend, was the return of Song Ju, the governor of Jiangsu during the Kangxi period. Song Ju was responsible for receiving Emperor Kangxi's three southern tours, and was praised by Emperor Kangxi as "the first governor in the world who is honest and honest". He had a good reputation as an official in Suzhou, and he also left two elegant things: the world-famous "Xiangxue Sea" was inscribed by Song Ju; because Song Ju enshrined the "frightening incense", the tea was good and bad, and it was famous for the "Biluo Chun" given by Kangxi.
The sea was up and down, and Wu Dashi returned to Su to write books and give lectures
Statue of Wu Dashi
In the Jiashen year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1884), Wu Dashi, a famous goldsmith and governor of Hunan, purchased the old house of Song Ju in the east of Shizi Street. The pillars are all made of wand, nan for it. According to the saying of "one room for one tree", the hall of the old residence is a five-bay lobby, and the wood used is precious yellow wood and nanmu. Although "Liang Dong is slightly tilted", because of "the material is solid and good", after Wu bought it, the structure of the house was not renovated, but only renovated. Wu Dayi once got "Song Weizi Ding", and his inscription wrote "Ke" as "愙", so he used this word as his name, and Su Zhai also became his number. Wu Dayi is a native of Suzhou, a Jinshi in the seventh year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1868), who loved gold and stone all his life, and worked on poetry, calligraphy and painting, and was good at identification and collection. After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, Wu Dayi, who was frustrated by officialdom, returned to his hometown of Suzhou and began to sort out his works and the collection of gold and stone paintings and calligraphy.
Letter from Wu Dahan to Wang Mingluan
After returning home, Wu Dayi once lectured at Longmen Academy. Later, together with Gu Wenbin's sixth grandson, Gu Linshi, he launched the "Yiyuan Painting Collection", bringing together many famous artists such as Wu Changshuo, Lu Hui, Fei Nianci, etc., to "discuss the six methods and learn from art". On the 27th day of the first month of 1902, this sixty-eight-year-old man finally lived in his new house in Nancangqiao, Fengmen, Sucheng. Wu Dayi bought Song Ju's old house when he was 50 years old, and he was really in this house, but he stayed for 8 years.
Wu Hufan spent his teenage years here
Cover and inside page of the Wu family in Gaowu (collection of Suzhou Municipal Archives)
Wu Dayi had a son and six daughters, and his son Benxiao unfortunately died early, so he succeeded his brother Wu Dagen's grandson Wu Hufan as a grandson. Wu Hufan's biological father, Wu Benshan (Neshi), when Wu Hufan was three years old, had another son, named Yihong. Unexpectedly, his younger brother Yihong died of a convulsive illness when he was three years old, so Wu Hufan became a two-room son. In this old mansion, Wu Hufan spent his teenage years.
Photographed at Huangshan Painting Society in 1946 (from left: Yan Wenliang, Wang Yachen, Xu Shiqi, Wu Hufan, Zhang Daqian, Zhang Chongren, Zheng Wuchang)
When Wu Hufan was eight years old, he wrote a sentence on the back of the video with his second sister Wu Huijing: "The second sister is ten years old and I am eight years old." Wu Dayi, who was bedridden after a stroke, sighed according to his book: "This son should be successful in the future." I have to say that my grandfather had a far-sighted vision, and Wu Hufan lived up to his grandfather's expectations and became a generation of calligraphers, painters, collectors and connoisseurs of cultural relics. Wu Dashi divided the family property into two, one to his daughters, but gave all the calligraphy and paintings to Wu Hufan in his life, and also personally taught the names and ins and outs of the family collection of cultural relics every day before the bed. Wu Hufan, as a two-room single seedling, inherited the two-room incense, and then married Pan Zuyin's niece Pan Jingshu, enriching the collection of calligraphy and painting, ancient books, gold and stones. It was not until 1920 that due to natural disasters, Ruizhi Hall collapsed, and the Wu family rebuilt it on the original foundation of the house, and made some changes to the structure of Ruizhi Hall "wide and still the old, with a height of two feet and a depth of four feet". The rebuilding lasted more than half a year, and when the new house was completed, Wu Hufan's biological father Wu Benshan wrote a "Rebuilding Record", and Wu Benshan died on March 23, 1921. After that, Wu Hufan still lived here until the 13th year of the Republic of China (1924) due to the "Qilu War" between the Jiangsu warlord Qi Xieyuan and the Zhejiang warlord Lu Yongxiang, Suzhou was in the midst of war, and Wu Hufan had to leave his hometown and move to Shanghai. Since then, with the wonderful pen in his hand, starting from co-founding a calligraphy and painting office with Chen Ziqing, he has gradually become a dominant figure in the maritime painting world.
The Ming Building reproduces the style of the former residence of the literati
There are still stories to tell about Song Ju's return and Wu Dayi's former residence. First of all, how can the old house of Song Ju in the east of Shizi Street contained in the history books be the Ming Building at the intersection of Phoenix Street and Shen Ya Lane?
"Suzhou Local Chronicles, Canglang District Chronicles"
According to the "Suzhou Local Chronicles, Canglang District Chronicles" record: "It was originally a six-entry mansion on the third road facing south, and the gate was on Shizi Street. Most of them have been demolished during several road expansions. In 1998, the remaining houses were relocated to the east and rebuilt, namely three halls and three halls with two compartments. Therefore, now Wu Dayi's former residence is not all, but the last fifth and sixth houses in the middle road, and in 1998, the original north-south direction was moved to the current east-west direction. The current Ming Building was built on the relocation site at that time. Therefore, the current Ming Building actually has three parts. One part is the east and west two entrances after the relocation in 1998, the former residence of Wu Dayi, with an area of more than 400 square meters; the second part is the four bungalows in the south side by side with it; the third part is a three-story building in the northwest, everyone calls it "Little White Building".
Ming Lou brick carved gatehouse
Now these three parts are connected. Entering from the main entrance of the Ming Building is the entrance hall of the former residence, and the columns at that time were still standing in the hall. Bypassing the central hall of the hall, there is the second entrance of the shikumen and the crab eye patios on both sides. The three-storey brick carved gatehouse is the only preserved relic in the former residence: the brick carving pattern of "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" inscribed by the Suzhou prefect and the "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" on both sides and the third floor is basically intact. The courtyard is a two-storey hall with two compartments, and the left side of the leisure aisle is connected to the other two parts of the Ming Building by an antique corridor. At that time, the house was empty and deserted, until 2001, the new owner who bought this house decided to integrate the elements of the ancient Soviet-style building into the renovation, restore the original appearance of the old house in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and named it "Ming Building", perhaps also has this intention. After the opening of the Ming Building, it underwent two major renovations. The first time is to hang the nameplate of "control and protection building" and "Wu Dayi's former residence", and renovate and maintain it in strict accordance with the requirements of the cultural management department. Originally, the door of the Ming Building was opened at the four bungalows on the south side, and later the gate was moved to the current position, and a large calligraphy of Wu Dayi was placed in the middle hall of the hall, and then a wooden cloister was built, so that the three parts of the Ming Building were connected and integrated in the overall style. A subsequent renovation was mainly to excavate the Wu culture and create a stronger cultural atmosphere.