Lin Residence

The Lin Residence is located in Zijin Lane, Zhenming Road, Haishu District, Ningbo City, and was the residence of the brothers Lin Zhongjiao and Lin Zhonghua, who were juren during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty. The entire residence is composed of a front gate, a screen wall, a second gate, a screen wall, a sedan chair hall, a front building, a middle building, a rear building, and so on, with side rooms on both sides. There are exquisite carvings on the gate tower, screen walls, and walls, with over 170 brick carvings and more than 50 stone and wood carvings still existing.
In the southwest of the residence, there is a small garden called ‘Lanting’, which houses two stone rubbings of the ‘Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion’, written by Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty and inscribed by Chen Jiru. The front gate is located on the east side of the building, facing south, and is a towering archway-style brick door tower. On the front is written ‘Celebrating the Auspicious Clouds’, and on the back is ‘Spring Breeze and Junior Brothers’. The front and back have high relief figures and stories. The wall inside the gate has brick carvings with themes such as ‘Eight Phoenix Steed Chart’, ‘Grand Tutor and Junior Tutor Chart’, ‘Two Lions Playing with a Ball’, and ‘Phoenix Facing the Sun’, with rich themes and exquisite carving techniques.

The ceremonial gate faces east and is a wooden structure with eaves, brackets, and upturned corners, exquisitely crafted. The columns are carved with dragons, lotuses, ruyi, bats, and ‘Jade Spring Fish Leaping’, with dynamic and unique shapes. After entering the ceremonial gate, there is a tall and magnificent screen wall in front. The upper half of the screen wall is carved with ‘Eight Immortals’, ‘Fu Lu Shou’, ‘Harmonious Deities’, ‘Nine Old Men Chart’, and ‘Twenty-Four Filial Sons’ using high relief, deep carving, and through-carving techniques. Surrounded by lingzhi, orchids, narcissus, and other strange plants, as well as buildings, platforms, pavilions, towers, mountains, rivers, and bridges, the rich and colorful content is all gathered on a picture of about half a square meter, with a harmonious blend of scenes and a clever layout.

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Opposite the ceremonial gate, in the small garden, there is a Lanting, rockery, pool, and garden built in the spirit of the ‘Here there are towering mountains, dense forests, and tall bamboos, as well as clear streams and rapids, reflecting on both sides’ from the ‘Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion’ written by the great calligrapher Wang Xizhi of the Jin Dynasty. Although the area is small, it has the feeling of mountains, rapids, and winding paths. The wall is embedded with the ‘Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion’ by the famous Ming Dynasty calligrapher and painter Dong Qichang, with inscriptions by the literary figure and painter Chen Jiru.

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The sedan chair hall is a three-bay hard mountain top building, with carvings on the inside and outside of the central door and the beams, mainly featuring dragons and bats. The brick walls under the eaves of the eastern and western secondary rooms are carved with ‘Herding Chart’ and ‘Farming and Weaving Chart’. The door lintel, eaves, window decorations, and horse head walls all have themes and decorations such as ‘Ladies Burying Flowers’, ‘Squirrels Stealing Peaches’, ‘Cloud Bats Playing’, and ‘Auspicious Wealth’. The brick-made flower windows in the secondary and minor rooms have regular patterns, unified and generous. The wooden components of the main building and the rear building have the same decorative patterns as the carvings on the roof. The two facing screen walls between the main building and the rear building have the dramatic story of ‘Tang Bohu Dotes on Qiuxiang’ carved under the eaves. The picture plot is rich and vivid. The opening hours and specific business status are subject to the actual opening conditions on the day.

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