Centennial crape myrtle in the old house

Wuzhai was built by the Shu brothers during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1600). It is the largest and best-preserved ancient house of Ming Dynasty in Hangzhou, covering an area of seven acres. After the brothers died, the house changed hands five times. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it was also used as the king's palace. Later, it was occupied by the Qing army and set up as a military organ. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Zhen Wu, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, bought this house from the Sun family after his retirement in his later years, and expanded it into a large enclosed courtyard with a length of108m from north to south and a width of 67m from east to west, covering an area of more than 5,700 square meters. Since then, the name of Wu Zhai has spread to this day, and Wu's descendants also live here. The integrity of this mansion in the south of the Yangtze River makes it a classic case that many scholars who study ancient buildings in China are used to citing.

Wu Zhai was severely damaged during the Cultural Revolution, and flowers and trees over a hundred years old and nanmu sculpture "Five Blessingg's Birthday" in Ming Dynasty were destroyed. More than 30 houses have been demolished, leaving only two halls, and the west yard has become a hardware processing factory and canteen. The house was occupied by various residents overnight, and the descendants of the Wu family lived with those forty or fifty families from now on. Forty or fifty families are chopping wood to make a fire, cooking oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, chickens and dogs. The second floor where the sundries used to be kept was also occupied, and a coal stove was built. Therefore, Wuzhai, a cultural relic protection unit in Hangzhou, is mainly made of wood structure and has become one of the "Top Ten Fire Hazards in Hangzhou".

Since 1995, Wuzhai residents have moved out one after another, and their houses have been handed over to the municipal cultural relics department for repair. Buildings on the central axis and the eastern axis have been repaired. The buildings and rockery ponds on the west axis have been seriously damaged, and it is impossible to imagine the local customs at that time.

At the beginning of 1999, the restored Wuzhai was officially opened to the public with the appearance of Hangzhou Traditional Craft Museum and Hangzhou Cultural Relics Supervision Market. In 2002, all the antique shops of the original famous houses on Xinhua Road were moved to Wuzhai, and the famous houses became the exclusive silk market. Since then, among the former giants, there are 48 shops, ranging from antique furniture to calligraphy and painting Yin Shi, where all the ancient things of China can be found.