Tsai Ting-lan (蔡廷蘭) Chin-shih Residence Permanent Exhibition

The Hsingjen Tsai Chin-shih Residence in Penghu is located in Shangtsun, Hsingjen Village, southeast of today's Makung City. It was built after the Penghu chin-shih Tsai Ting-lan (蔡廷蘭) passed the highest imperial examination. From the 26th year of the Tao-kuang reign (1846) to the present, it has been around for one hundred and fifty years. Hsingjen in Penghu was formerly known as Shuangtou-kua, located in the area between Kungpei Mountain and Lion Mountain in Penghu. The village got its name from being situated between the two mountain heads. In the early days of development, the lifestyle was largely half fishing and half farming. Later, cultivated land gradually expanded inland, moving farther from the seaport, while farmland increased, and agriculture gradually replaced fishing. The settlement is divided into Shangtsun and Tungtsun; Shangtsun is largely inhabited by the Tsai clan, with one ancestral temple, the Tsai Family Chiyang Hall. Tsai Ting-lan (蔡廷蘭), a descendant of the Hsingjen Tsai clan, passed the imperial examination in the 24th year of the Tao-kuang reign (1844), becoming the first and only chin-shih from Penghu. Chin-shih Tsai Ting-lan was born in the 6th year of the Chia-ch'ing reign (1801). At the age of thirteen, he was admitted as a sheng-yuan due to his youth. He later entered the prefectural school, repeatedly passing examinations, and became a lin-sheng of the Penghu Subprefecture. He was honest and quiet, fond of reading, and successively lectured at the Chongwen Academy, Yinxin Academy, and Wenshi Academy. In the autumn examination of the 17th year of the Tao-kuang reign (1837), he passed as a chu-jen. In the spring of the 24th year of the Tao-kuang reign (1844), he went to the capital for the metropolitan examination, passed as a chin-shih, and was assigned as a magistrate to Kiangsi Province. Thereafter, his official career was mostly in mainland China, where he rose to the position of t'ung-chih. He died of illness at his post in the 9th year of the Hsien-feng reign (1859). Three years after becoming a chin-shih, in the 26th year of the Tao-kuang reign (1846), he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors and built the Chin-shih Residence to the right of the old house in Shuangtou-kua to bring honor to the family. Since Tsai Chin-shih's entire official career was spent outside his hometown, the construction of the Chin-shih Residence held more symbolic significance than practical residential meaning. The architectural features of the Chin-shih Residence include a porch width of 4.5 meters and a depth of about 3.3 meters. The main facade uses a recessed design. Its side rooms are built in the Ma-pei Ying-shan style, with a Ying-shan swallow-tail roof ridge, making it the only residence in Penghu with a swallow-tail design. Other architectural techniques and decorations in the residence are also quite exquisite. As the Tsai descendants did not carry out large-scale renovations or reconstructions of the Chin-shih Residence, the overall structure remains largely intact to this day. However, due to long-term disrepair, the Penghu County Government carried out restoration work from 2011 to 2012, restoring the residence to its former appearance.