Lixi Village is located at the foot of Gu'niujiang
Nature Reserve, hometown of Wangdian, a doctor who served for the
imperial family in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). This village
has a history of more than one thousand years. An old bridge at the
entrance to the village and the old woods at the back can easily remind
us of its antiquity.
Old house, old temple, old tomb and old stele, etc can be found in the
village. Among these ancient sites, Wufeng Tower and old-line Mulian
Opera get the most attention from tourists and scholars.
As ancestral hall of the Wang family imperial doctor Wangdian built
Wufeng Tower, also called Heyi Hall, during the Ming Dynasty’s
Jiajing reign. The tower structure is unique, has three sections, upper
story, left lower story and right lower story.
Supported by 120 pillars, the clan temple of primitive simplicity looks
majestic and elegant. On beams and crossbeams are carvings with dragons,
phoenixes, beasts, and horse and cart patterns. The up-turned eaves
together with its four fastigiums look like four baby phoenixes flying
up in the sky led by a mother on the top. That's where the name of the
tower came from. Wufeng means five phoenixes in Chinese.
On both sides of the front gate are a pair of jade drums, 1.2 meters
high, 0.8 meters long and 0.2 meters thick. They’re carved out
of pure white jade, decorated with delicate carvings. They were Wangdian's
crowning glory for it's a largess from the Emperor. In fact, it is a
really rare antique of this kind to be in Huangshan City.
Another feature of this village is Mulian Opera though it doesn't show
often. Muilan Opera is the oldest opera of China found in historic documents,
dating back to the Tang Dynasty (AD 618–907) and closely related
to the life of ancient society. As a matter of fact, the Opera is an
integration of folktale, sideshow and acrobatics. Usually Mulan Opera
shows can be very long, even "from sunrise to sunset." A fixed
stage is not a must have for traditional Mulian Opera, the whole village
can be the arena. As a unique part of Hui Culture,
Mulian Opera exerted a lot of influence on Hui Opera.
