House of Prolonged Goodness

The House of Prolonged Goodness (种福堂) had been the mansion of Wang's Family during the Qing Dynasty. In 1129 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, Jin, a tribe from northern China, were invading Yangzhou in eastern China. Emperor Gaozong managed to escape, Wang Yuan (王渊), who took charge the safety of the emperor, escorted him to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu Province. General Liu and his forces could not catch Wang to help protecting the emperor and he was afraid of the emperor would scold him. Therefore, he cried before him and made false accusation that Wang was busy to administrate riverboats, so he refused to dispatch forces to help him and his army to cross the Yangtze River. Wang was very angry to learn the news so he killed a patrol officer. However, the killing made him unwelcome by his officers. Some officials hated him a lot too, they deployed soldiers to catch Wang Yuan, and he and about a hundred of his allies were executed. These officials also forced Gaozong to step down, and his son became the new emperor. Because of his young age, Longyou, the mother of Gaozong, was reigned behind the curtain.

The offspring of Wang Yuan came to Hangzhou and Jiaxing areas in Zhejiang Province, and in the Qing Dynasty they settled in Xitang and built the mansion – the House of Prolonged Goodness. The grand mansion has a big backyard. The architectural style is in the forms of Ming and Qing Dynasties.