Shekou Lin Family Mansion Introduction
During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the ancestors of the Lin family settled in Aili Community (now Shenkang District) in Taiwan. During the Tongzhi period, in the Dai Chaochun Incident, Lin Zhenfang contributed to the Qing army's effort to suppress Dai Chaochun, and the Qing court awarded him the title of "Zhongshu Ke" along with a plaque. The Shekou Lin Residence was built during the peak of Lin Zhenfang's prosperity. Originally, it was a renovation of the old residence of Wu Zhang. The initial scale was largely completed in the first year of the Guangxu period (1875), while the additional wing rooms were constructed over the next decade as the family's population grew. The entrance gate of the Shekou Lin Residence is a single-story structure, three bays wide, with a simple appearance. Entering the gate and passing through a long corridor, one arrives at the first entrance hall, which has a simple recessed longevity design, and the second main hall also has a recessed longevity design. In front of it is a porch that offers a spacious semi-outdoor living space, and the courtyard in front of the main hall is paved with tiles in various intricate patterns, with the herringbone pattern being the main motif, symbolizing "prosperity in offspring and endless life." The stone carvings of the Lin Residence are quite exquisite and are rather rare in Qing Dynasty civilian residences. Both the entrance hall and the main hall feature carved decorations on the feet of the cabinets, with a plaque in the center of the entrance hall reading "Dafu Di," and colorful, finely shaped decorations of Tainan pottery on the walls of the porches. The two high walls that separate the courtyard from the side courtyard are primarily constructed of brick, mostly red bricks, with the wall foundation made of pebbles, and there are small gun holes in the walls for firearms. In the main hall, a scroll-shaped plaque hangs above the door frame, but the text within it has been lost, and its content is unknown. The walls have finely crafted hexagonal wooden flower windows, with four triangular "corners" at the corners, each carved with a bat, symbolizing "blessings." The timber decoration at the porch features an amusing motif of "the simple folk bearing heavy beams." The altar table and the shrine in the main hall belong to the same period, so their carving styles and themes are similar. The legs of the altar table are intricately carved, but the grand chair in the main hall has been lost. The roof structure of the main hall is a dou gong style, and no gourd tubes have been used, while the calligraphy and paintings on the left and right walls reflect an elegant style of cultured scholars, with inscriptions dating back to the first year of the Guangxu period, which is significant evidence for estimating the date of the main structure of the Lin Residence. The "dou bao" on the roof frame of the side wing rooms is carved with crabs, symbolizing "Er Jia Chuan Li" (where "Jia" represents the imperial examination, and the second class in the civil service examination is called Er Jia), suggesting the pursuit of academic success. The decorative paintings of the Shekou Lin Residence are also quite exquisite, and from the characteristics of the painting style, it is evident that they were created by renowned painters such as Guo Youmei and Guo Tingke from Lugang. Their architectural paintings are predominantly found in civilian residences and temples in central Taiwan from the late Qing period, and few remain today, holding an important page in the history of Taiwanese art and being extremely precious.
