Kuixing Pavilion

Among all existing historical relics in Jingjiang, Kuixing Pavilion is not the oldest, yet it stands out as the most eye-catching. Boasting a towering and imposing silhouette, this three-story structure rests on a stone plinth roughly 1.5 meters tall. At around 14 meters in total height, it towers prominently above the surrounding low bungalows like a crane standing among chickens. The pavilion features a spacious ground floor that tapers steadily upward, shaped much like an ancient pagoda. Hexagonal in plan, it has eighteen soaring upturned eaves; gazing at them, one cannot help but imagine them dancing gracefully in the wind.

A stone balustrade encircles the ground floor, unadorned with intricate carvings. Weathered by centuries of wind and rain, it exudes an air of understated antiquity and solemn grace. Inside the stone railing stands a tall wooden palisade. These wooden barriers create the visual effect of a wider base narrowing toward the top and evoke a profound sense of steadiness, a subtle masterstroke of the ancient architect’s ingenuity. The second and third floors have no surrounding corridors, with wooden lattice windows lining all six facades. Each of the six corners on the second floor bears an exquisitely carved dragon head, its delicate whiskers still distinctly visible to this day.

First built in the 4th year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1799), Kuixing Pavilion is also known as Xun Pavilion. Xun is one of the eight trigrams in Bagua, symbolizing wind and the southeast direction — and the pavilion sits precisely at the southeastern corner of the old county town. It was erected for two purposes: to foster scholarly prosperity and to stabilize local feng shui. The feng shui function was tied to Jingjiang’s unique geographical predicament back then.

Prior to the 19th year of the Jiaqing reign (1814), Jingjiang lacked river embankments, and the old town stood right beside the Yangtze River. Whenever the river tide rose, the riverfront land bore the full brunt of surging waters, suffering either severe floods or catastrophic riverbank collapses. In the 18th year of Jiaqing (1813), a massive bank collapse occurred, swallowing the Tianhou Palace, Guan Emperor Temple and Wenfeng Pagoda south of the city gate one after another. Ironically, though constructed to suppress the destructive river currents, Kuixing Pavilion failed to halt the bank erosion and itself teetered on the verge of collapse. It had to be dismantled out of necessity