Xinye Village in Zhejiang: Preserving Ancient Heritage and Vitalizing Rural Culture

Stepping into Xinye Village, Daciyan Town, Jiande City, Zhejiang Province, one feels as if entering a simple and peaceful farming painting. Nearby, shallow paddy fields stretch out, with lotus fragrance curling in summer; in the distance, green mountains stand as a screen, surrounded by trees all year round. Hidden among the lush forests, a beautiful white pagoda stands tall — this is Tuanyun Pagoda, the landmark of the ancient village.

“This pagoda was built to promote literary fortune, just like a brush pointing straight to the sky, encouraging scholars to achieve great success,” said Ye Xianjie, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xinye Village, standing close to the pagoda. More than 300 years after the completion of Tuanyun Pagoda, a Wenchang Pavilion advocating respect for culture and education was built locally. The village is also dotted with many academies, private schools, free schools and official schools, with its cultural context extending to this day. “The ideal and pursuit of ‘farming and reading to pass down the family’ have always been the background of Xinye,” Ye Xianjie added.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Xinye Village, founded during the Jiading period of the Southern Song Dynasty, features an overall layout of “mountains rising in the northwest and water gathering in the southeast”. It was included in the first batch of China’s Traditional Village List in 2012, and “Xinye Village Local Architecture” was listed as a national key cultural relic protection unit in 2013.

After more than 800 years of precipitation, the village still preserves 16 ancient ancestral halls, grand halls, pagodas and temples, as well as more than 200 ancient dwellings. Known as an “open-air museum of Ming and Qing architecture” for its rich and distinctive architectural relics, Xinye Village’s charm lies not only in its profound ancient charm. Chen Zhichang, a staff member of Jiande Cultural Heritage Protection Center, said that to understand Xinye, one must first understand its ancient architecture.

Taking ancestral halls as an example, Xinye has a large number of well-structured and fully equipped ancestral halls that carry rich historical and folk information. Youxu Hall, built in the Yuan Dynasty, was once the general ancestral hall of the Ye family in Yuhua, and an exquisite stage is still preserved in the gatehouse. “It is conceivable that during festivals in those years, gongs and drums resounded on the stage, and clan members gathered off the stage to enjoy family happiness,” Chen Zhichang noted.

Jiande is a national demonstration county for the concentrated and contiguous protection and utilization of traditional villages, and Xinye Village is an important station of this demonstration. In recent years, with policy support, hundreds of certified rural construction craftsmen have been active in the front line of Xinye’s protection. “For Xinye’s ancient buildings, renovation should be as close to the original as possible to restore their historical style,” a relevant person in charge of Jiande Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau said. Xinye Village was included in the list of typical cases of protection and utilization of traditional villages in Zhejiang Province in June 2025.

While guarding its cultural roots, Xinye also strives to maintain the vitality of local culture and make cultural heritage truly “live in the present”. Chen Zhichang, known as the “living map of the ancient village” by villagers who has been engaged in grass-roots cultural relic protection research for more than 40 years, said he has long hoped to attract more young people to Xinye. In the past five years, the village’s tourism income has exceeded 20 million yuan, and its “March 3rd” traditional temple fair has become a cultural card. Jiang Yuhan, Member of the Party Committee of Daciyan Town, said, “We will not only keep the root of the traditional village, but also set up a stage for modern cultural activities to protect, inherit and utilize the traditional village through improving the industrial chain.”