Yang Shifang Residence

Date CapturedApril 30th, 2020 at 05:12 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR IIApertureƒ / 3.5Shutter Speed1/40 secFocal Length18.0 mmISO400Exposure Value8.9 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

The surviving hall of the final residence of Yang Shifang (楊士芳), the first and only jinshi (進士) the Qing examinations produced in Kavalan. Born into a poor farming family at Qingshuigou (清水溝) in 1826, Yang took up study only after a foot injury left him unable to work the fields, attaining the juren degree in 1861 and jinshi in 1868. He declined a magistrate’s post in Zhejiang and returned to a life of scholarship in Yilan, helping to found the Confucian Temple, heading the Yangshan Academy, and advocating the building of Bixia Temple.

Yang built this city residence in 1885, when the journey to his ancestral home at Baili (擺厘), the compound fronted by his flagpole stands, had become too taxing in old age. Originally a five-bay courtyard house with flanking wings and a gatehouse, it was sold off and rebuilt by later generations; only the central hall survives beneath its iconic plaque, hemmed in by concrete buildings. Due to the extreme degradation of the original structure it has not been recognized for its obvious heritage value and may be destroyed at any time.