Former Residence of Wu Yuzhang

The Former Residence of Wu Yuzhang is situated at Group 6, Caijiayan Village, Shuangshi Town, 14 kilometers southeast of Rong County urban area. This is the birthplace, childhood residence and study venue of Wu Yuzhang, an outstanding Chinese proletarian revolutionary, educator, historian and linguist.

In 1958, Wu Yuzhang returned to Rong County and donated his ancestral house to run a normal school. After Rong County Normal School relocated in 1983, Caijiayan Middle School (now renamed Yuzhang Middle School) was established on the site. To mark the 110th anniversary of Wu Yuzhang’s birth in 1988, the state allocated funds to reconstruct the Former Residence of Wu Yuzhang immediately to the west of the original house, and paved a new cement road leading to the residence.

The inscription of "Former Residence of Wu Yuzhang" was written by Yang Shangkun. Nestled between mountains and waters, the complex was constructed between the 10th year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty (1837) and 1878. It adopts a traditional timber chuandou frame quadrangle courtyard architectural style, containing 108 rooms of varying sizes and boasting grand scale. The building itself covers 5,000 square meters, while the entire scenic area spans 33,350 square meters. It is designated as a Sichuan Provincial Patriotic Education Base, a Sichuan Provincial Youth Education Base, and one of the Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units. The scenic zone consists of five functional areas: the Exhibition Hall, the Tomb of Mr. Wu and His Wife, the Osmanthus Garden Leisure Zone, the Shuren Garden Hotel, and the Former Residence Lake Scenic Area.

The Exhibition Hall houses eleven showrooms, preserving over 2,000 cultural relics of high historical and artistic research value. It also collects inscriptions by Party and state leaders including Yang Shangkun, Xu Xiangqian, Deng Xiaoping and Zhang Aiping, as well as more than a hundred calligraphy works by masters such as Chu Tunan and Liu Qian. The displayed cultural relics, pictures and documents fully reproduce Mr. Wu’s brilliant life.

This zone features the joint tomb of Wu Yuzhang and his wife. Stone steles are erected here, inscribed with a brief biography of Mr. Wu and the poem Mourning My Wife You Binglian, written by Wu Yuzhang in memory of his spouse. A forest of stone tablets bearing epitaphs from Wu’s relatives also stands in this area.

The core landscape is an osmanthus grove, among which four golden osmanthus trees were personally planted by Wu Yuzhang in his youth. Lush and leafy, the trees offer a serene spot for reading and tea tasting under the canopy. Other highlights include a unique echo spot and the "Shuren Garden" inscribed in Mr. Wu’s own handwriting. Filled with birdsong and blossoms, the zone features a pleasant natural environment, equipped with large, medium and small conference rooms capable of hosting meetings and training events for up to 500 participants. The Shuren Garden Hotel can accommodate 80 guests.

This zone comprises willow groves, ponds, the Nanmo Pavilion, a stone tablet engraved with the Ode to Nanmo Pavilion, the Unfailing Spring, and Former Residence Lake. Thanks to improved ecological conditions, flocks of wild ducks and white egrets now gather and dance by the lake all year round.

Classified as a national AAAA-level scenic spot, the Former Residence of Wu Yuzhang has received a series of official honors: