Zhaosi Hall

Zhaosi Hall
昭嗣堂
Former names	Xiangnan ting (香楠廳)
Alternative names	Fragrant Cedar Pavilion
General information
Status	Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level
Type	Pavilion
Architectural style	Ming dynasty, Jiangnan courtyard style
Address	Yu'an Road, Shuofang Residential District
Town or city	Wuxi, Jiangsu Province
Country	China
Coordinates	31.452075°N 120.452084°E / 31.452075; 120.452084

Zhaosi Hall
Traditional Chinese	昭嗣堂
Simplified Chinese	昭嗣堂
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāosì táng Bopomofo ㄓㄠ ㄙˋ ㄊㄤˊ Wade–Giles Chao Ssu T'ang
Xiangnan ting
Traditional Chinese	香楠廳
Simplified Chinese	香楠厅
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiāngnán tīng Bopomofo ㄒㄧㄤ ㄋㄢˊ ㄊㄧㄥ Wade–Giles Hsiang Nan T'ing

Zhaosi Hall is a cultural site protected at the national level in Wuxi, People's Republic of China.

History

Zhaosi Hall was built by the father of Consort Duan, a Ming dynasty concubine of the Jiajing Emperor. The building was completed in 1528 and today lies in front of the home of the Cao family of Shuofang district. In 1748, descendants of the Cao family designated the building as an ancestral shrine.

Zhaosi Hall was designated a Cultural Site Protected at the Provincial Level (Chinese: 省级文物保护单位) in 1995.

Architecture

Zhaosi Hall is typical of a Ming dynasty Jiangsu style courtyard house. The central hall is five rooms across, with a hill-shaped roof. The entire building is made from a very expensive and rare type of local cedar wood.

Consort Duan's burial

In 2013, archaeologists observed that a stone archway near to Zhaosi Hall was built in the style of an imperial memorial, but lacked an inscription. Local people reported that there had been a grave tumulus near the arch that had been levelled, suggesting that the individual buried there was the recipient of an imperial, uninscribed memorial. Additionally, the word cedar (Chinese: 楠; pinyin: nán) in the original name Xiangnan ting sounds similar to the word for daughter in the local dialect (Chinese: 囡; pinyin: nān). Consequently, the archway is popularly believed to have been erected by Cao Ji in memory of his daughter.