Langshan Mountain-World Natural Heritage

The memorial archways were quite popular in ancient time, but Sandushui Memorial Archway is quite unique. It is the only huge archway that is still well preserved in Xinning county.

Sandushui Memorial Archway, also known as “Li Zhao Qian’s Wife He’s Archway” and “Archway of Chastity & Filial Piety Honored by Imperial Edict”, is located in Cha’an Compound, Sandushui Village, Yidushui Town, Xinning County, Shaoyang City, Hunan Province. It was built in the third year of Daoguang’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1823) and stands on the main post road from Xinning county to Dong’an county. It is now beside the national road 207.

The archway is in the style of a pavilion, made entirely of large ridge stones, with a height of 10 meters and a width of about 7 meters. It is with four big stone pillars and three overlapping layers from top to bottom. There are three parallel doors from left to right. The middle door is 3 meters high and 2.3 meters wide, and two side doors are 2.7 meters high and 1.6 meters wide. Four stone pillars with a height of 7 meters stand tall on four huge stone bases. The entire archway has a rigorous structure and a dignified sitting posture. The relief stone carvings on the archway are dazzling. There are 15 relief carvings of various characters, such as leading an ox, carrying plow, sitting and meditating.  Each layer has two Aoyu-shaped cornices(Aoyu,a huge legendary turtle). The archway is exquisitely carved and finely engraved with mythological stories such as Kuixing(Test God), Ten Dragons Robbing Treasures, Eight Immortals Floating in the Sea, Red Phoenix Bowing to the Sun, Two Lions Rolling Ball, Plowing and Farming, and Kirin, Monkey, Frog, Flower, Bird, etc. Ten window frames of different sizes in the archway embedded with over 40 patterns of birds and beasts. The carving is exquisite and delicate, the statues are vivid and lifelike, and the craftsmanship is exquisite, making it breathtaking. 

The ambiguous words carved in the middle of the bottom layer read as follows:
This archway is to honor 84-year old Mrs. He, who was the daughter of He Wenzhang and the wife of a Confucian scholar named Li Zhao Qian, lived in Xiaoxi Village, Xinning County, Baoqing Prefecture, Hunan Province.

According to the words carved , the memorial archway was built by the emperor to praise Mrs. He, demonstrating the benevolence and filial piety of the royal court and educating the people. Li Zhaoqian, the husband of Mrs. He, was known as Guozhen. He was born in  a wealthy family and was a scholar. Unfortunately he passed away 55 years earlier than his wife. His wife was the daughter of He Wenzhang who was also from a prominent family in the local area. Mrs. He would rather remained a widow, maintained chastity, showed filial piety to her parents, educated her children well, and many of her descendants have achieved great achievements. Her behavior can be said to be admirable. The local government (or its descendants) reported her deeds to the emperor who instructed to build memorial archway to honor Mrs. He . According to Li’s genealogy, the memorial archway was built with money allocated by the royal court. When the memorial archway was built,  Mrs. He was already 84 years old and she witnessed  this archway specially built her.

The Sandushui Memorial archway embodies the wisdom and culture of the ancients. It was announced by the Hunan Provincial People’s Government as a provincial key cultural relics protection unit on January 24, 2011.