“It was not until after I had visited hundreds of cities and towns in five provinces that I became aware that my hometown Shimenwan is really a paradise,” wrote Feng Zikai (1898-1975), a master of art celebrated for his unprecedented literati-styled cartoons and essays. He was a native of Shimen, a tiny ancient town on the Grand Canal of China in northern Zhejiang.

The town is about 20 kilometers from Wuzhen, now the best known canal town in northern Zhejiang. Like Wuzhen, Shimen is located in the territory of Tongxiang, a city in northern Zhejiang. Unlike Wuzhen which is sometimes full of people from all over the world, Shimen is quiet and comfortable with itself. The Yue Kingdom and the Wu Kingdom were at war with each other in this region over 2,500 years ago. In order to defend itself against the northern enemy, Yue built a stone gate where the town is now. According to local historians, that’s how the town is called Shimen (literally stone gate in Chinese). In the Southern Song (1127-1279), the town had a government-operated post service. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1466-1911) is said to have stayed in town on his southern inspection tours toward Hangzhou.

Shimen is also known as Shimenwan. “Wan” in the Chinese name refers to a river bend. The Grand Canal comes from Hangzhou before it takes an abrupt 120-degree turn at the town and flows in the direction of northeast. The town sits and flourishes at the sharp bend.

Shimen has given birth to some cultural celebrities in modern times.

Feng Zikai

He is the best known celebrity of Shimen. Feng Zikai (1898-1975), generally considered the founding father of modern China’s literati cartoons, was a versatile master. A man of letters, he was also a musician, calligrapher, educator and translator. He studied music and art under the guidance of Li Shutong, a celebrity of culture and religion, and studied Chinese classics under the guidance of Xia Mianzun, a professor of ancient poetry. It was in a secondhand bookstore in Tokyo during his years in Japan that Feng ran into an art collection by Yumeji Takehisa. Inspired by Takehisa’s artworks, Feng began to create literati-styled cartoons that portray a lifestyle seen in Jiangnan. In the 1920s and the 1930s, Feng was best known for his literati-styled cartoons. In 1933, he came back to Shimen and built a house which he called Yuanyuantang. He planned to live there, but the residence was destroyed in Japanese bombing in 1937 after Japan launched an all-out invasion into China. 

Wu Qingyuan

To the surprise of many people, Wu Qingyuan (1914-2014), a very influential Weiqi player of China, had his ancestral roots in Shimen. In his lifetime, Wu knew his ancestor came from Shimen but he wasn’t sure where Shimen was in Zhejiang. He was born in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province to the south of Zhejiang, and spent his childhood years in Beijing. At 15, he went to Japan to study under Weiqi masters there. He grew up to be the best Weiqi player in Japan. His relatives in Fujian didn’t know where Shimen was either. Wu asked a few relatives to visit Zhejiang in a bid to locate Shimen, but, strangely enough, all to no avail. It was not until 2015 that Wu Shujun, a descendent of the Wu clan in Fujian, found Shimen in Tongxiang. His visit to Shimen made the Wu clan in Shimen well known to the present-day world. The most glorious ancestor of the Wu clan in Shimen was Wu Han, who came out the third in an imperial examination in 1682. He served as a high-ranking official of the Qing Dynasty. His fairness in making judicial decisions was highly appreciated by Emperor Kangxi who handwritten a plaque to honor the official. About 190 years ago, Wu Ying, a descendent of Wu Han, was appointed to a position in the education authorities in Fujian. He became the founding father of the Shimen-related Wu clan in Fujian. Wu Qingyuan was a descendent of the clan in Fujian. In May 2017, Wu Jiacheng, the daughter of Wu Qingyuan, visited Shimen and paid homage to their ancestors.

Zhang Xingyi

Born in 1908, he came from a family of business. His father was a man of letters with a passion for theater. The junior grew up to be a theater fan. He studied Japanese and art under the guidance of Feng Zikai. Like his father, Zhang Xingyi specialized in the poems of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) known as Yuan Qu. Recommended by his mentor Feng Zikai, Zhang visited Professor Zhao Jingshen, a linguist with a profound knowledge of ancient Chinese theater. Encouraged by Zhao, Zhang Xingyi corrected many mistakes in a Japanese selection of the Yuan Qu poetry put together and annotated by a Japanese professor. Zhang’s amendment was published in an academic journal in Japan, and caused a stir in both China and Japan.

Wu Peng

Born in 1941, Wu Peng is an art master. He is a calligrapher and painter, aesthetician, art educator and critic. He also plays the Qin, an ancient Chinese string instrument. In 2015, Wu donated 2,300 artworks of painting and calligraphy to Tongxiang and set up Wu Peng Art Foundation there in 2016.

Ye Yusun

Born in 1945, Ye Yusun turned to bamboo carving at the age of 34. He took art lessons at 7 and studied seal carving at 12. He later turned to woodcarving. In 1979, he was approached by Rong Bao Zhai, a shop set up in 1672 in Beijing and specialized in traditional stationery, calligraphy and painting, to make some carvings on bamboo armrests for stationery to be exported to Japan. Ye agreed to do it. After the assignment, he began a self-education course on the art. He found that Feng Zikai’s literati cartoons appealed to him. Wang Shixiang (1914-2009), a researcher of traditional Chinese culture, leading art collector, poet, and calligrapher, appreciated Ye’s bamboo carving and directed him to expand his techniques and themes. Ye now applies a full range of carving techniques to his carving. His bamboo-carving artworks include some reproduction of best known artworks of painting and calligraphy by ancient masters. Since the mid-1990s, Ye has been China’s best known bamboo engraver. 

“While I carve bamboo, bamboo carves me, too. Bamboo carving has transformed me and my life totally,” says the master.