Ma Xiangbo's Former Residence in Songjiang, Shanghai

Ma Xiangbo's Former Residence was built in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, covering an area of 850 square meters. It is a traditional courtyard-style building with five entrances, four courtyards, and one corridor, facing south. The front and back halls are still preserved, with four rooms and nine partitions in the back hall, and a bow-shaped pavilion and a boat-shaped pavilion on the south side. There is a passageway on the east side of the house, connecting the front and back halls. In the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1882), after the death of Ma Xiangbo's brother, Ma Jianxun, a general of the Huai Army, his mother, Mrs. Shen, divided the ancestral land and property equally between Ma Xiangbo and his younger brother, Ma Jianzhong. All the properties and houses located in Songjiang, Sijing, and Qingpu were inherited by Ma Xiangbo. In the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1900), Ma Xiangbo donated 3,000 mu of fertile land in Songjiang, Sijing, Qingpu, and other places, as well as properties in Lujiawan and Dongjiadu in Shanghai, as a fund for the establishment of the "Chinese and Western University." At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ma Xiangbo's Former Residence was already old and dilapidated. The government has invested in its repair many times since then, and it was once used as a "Youth Home" for a youth activity base, while the rest of the property was used as a residence. Ma Xiangbo's Former Residence is a witness to modern higher education and an important physical material for studying the residential houses in Sijing during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is a cultural relic protection unit in Songjiang District, the first batch of revolutionary cultural relics in Shanghai, and a patriotic education base in Songjiang District.