27 Pai Fang(monumental arched gateways) have stood in the history of the block around Wuma street, 3 of them devoted to a Longwan-district local - Wang Zan, the Shang Shu(equivalent to today minister) in the Ming Empire.
Source:温州三十六坊
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Author:Wenzhoudaily
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Publish time:2018-08-21
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The old downtown area in Wenzhou used to be a forest of Pai Fang.The Wenzhou's local chronicle from Hongzhi era(the ninth emperor in Ming Dynasty) — Wenzhou Fu Zhi accounted 109 "Fang Men"...
Bang Yan Fang
The Pai Fang which acquired its name from the inscription "Bang Yan" on it was, according to the local chronicle Wenzhou Fu Zhi from the Ming Dynasty, erected for “Wang Zan's achievement in the state imperial exam” in the location at "Wumaheng Alley" — the now Houshi Alley in Wuma Street. By the time of the Qing Emperor Guangxu, the archives from that time — Yongjia Xian Zhi — changed the Pai Fang’s location to “the Zhi Street in front of Qiao Tower”, namely the Gongan Road nowadays, which indicated the fact that it had been reconstructed.
an nickname attached by the people referring to his second place in the exam grade ranking list(Bang Yan literally means the eye’s place of the ranking list) — had his legend tightly interwoven with the Wuma Street. Folk tale has it that the Fu Rong Academy(the same spot of today’s Dongnan High-rise) where Wang Zan pursued knowledge in his youth would have Fu Rong(Confederate rose) blooming per September, yet in the tenth year of his learning (1495, the eighth year under the Emperor Hongzhi), the Confederate rose tree in the Academy "unprecedentedly outburst with dazzling kaleidoscope of colors and a deluge of hundreds of flowers in, unseasonably, mid-May".
The prodigy seemed to have prophesied auspiciously — he triumphed in the Provincial exam that autumn and prevailed at the second place in the State exam next year.
The county magistrate Wu Chuanlin was so exhilarated by the exploit not only composed he poems to praise the auspice, which evoked scores of responsive verses from others, but also raised he, in the name of the local government, the "Bang Yan" Pai Fang at the Houshi Alley in Wuma Street.
Ji Jiu Fang
Inscribed with the charactors "Ji Jiu"(the official position designated as the headmaster of the State College), the Pai Fang stood at the eastern end of Wuma Street "in glorification of Wang Zang" as documented in the Yongjia Xian Zhi — the chronicle from the Qing Emperor Guangxu's era.