Wulong Lane, the Entertainment Venue from the Song Dynasty

Excavating cultural debris and clearing the fog of history. The cultural connotations and deposits inherited from the Song Dynasty have merged into Hangzhou. They have permeated every street, landscape, and corner of the city and become its distinctive cultural icon. The winding lanes and roads connect Hangzhou's cultural context and have witnessed the vicissitudes of history for hundreds of years. Today, let us walk into “Wulong Lane”, the Goulan Washe (simplified Chinese: 勾栏瓦舍; literal meaning: entertainment venue) from the Song Dynasty. 

Wulong Lane, once known as “Puqiao Lane (蒲桥巷)” in the Song Dynasty, is also called “Dongwa (东瓦)”. It served as an entertainment venue in Hangzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty. Here, people can experience different flavors of life, pursue a life of elegance and seclusion, and live a life as exquisite as the porcelain of the Song Dynasty.

The place mainly features storytelling, such as historical tales and Confucian classics. It also offers imitation shows, such as imitating Xiucai (one who passed the imperial examination at the county level in the Ming and Qing dynasties), telling a gag, imitating dialects from different parts of China, etc.; There are also acrobatics such as sumo wrestling and shadow play. According to historical records, there were as many as a hundred kinds of performances staged in Washe at that time!   

Xi Gang, one of the Eight Xiling Masters, used to live here. Throughout his life, he did not take the imperial examinations that were considered the only path to social advancement for literary men in ancient times. He was big-hearted and upright and cared nothing for wealth or power. He despised the bigwigs and died a commoner. As he gained fame for his calligraphy and paintings, a steady stream of people came to buy his works, including officials and wealthy men who tried to buy them for large sums of money, but at whom he turned his nose up.

Emperor Qianlong made many inspection tours to the Jiangnan region. The civilian and military governor of Zhejiang built a palace by the West Lake for the emperor to stay in. Because of his fame, Xi Gang was asked by a local official to paint the palace. Xi Gang resolutely refused this request, much to the anger of the civil and military governor, who, in a fit of rage, sent armed soldiers to escort him to the palace. Xi Gang wasn’t intimidated and said, “How can you ask me to paint when you have my hands tied up? You can behead me, but still, you won’t get my painting!” The governor admired his courage and praised him that “Thee weren’t an intellectual, but a piece of iron, so strong and so unyielding”. Afterward, Xi Gant then used “Tiesheng (Iron)” as his alternative name and became a shining example of “Hangzhou people’s characteristics of being staunch and unyielding”.

Today's Wulong Lane is less lively but is added with a touch of Hangzhou people's daily way of life. The sun shines through the slightest cracks and casts light on the white walls, which are enhanced with more charm by natural filters. Occasionally, pedestrians pass by the street. Their gentle figures have become a charming landscape of the small lane.