Yang Shifang Flagpole Stands

Date CapturedMay 1st, 2020 at 05:46 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR IIApertureƒ / 6.3Shutter Speed1/160 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO100Exposure Value12.6 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

A set of carved flagpole stands (旗杆座) erected in 1874, when Yang Shifang (楊士芳) rebuilt his family’s old residence at Baili (擺厘) six years after attaining the rank of jinshi (進士). Only holders of the juren and jinshi degrees could raise such stands, which held a timber pole to fly a banner as a public marker of rank, and these are the only ones connected to a jinshi in Yilan. Little of the old Baili compound behind them survives intact, its remaining hall patched together with modern brick and a sheet-metal roof, leaving only the stands as relics of those times. Yang later built a separate city residence in central Yilan City.