Ruijia Village

Overview

Ruijia Village belongs to Jingqiao Town. The district government's administrative divisions page lists the town's five residents' committees as Taocun, Hangcun, Xinqiao, Fengxiangling and Ruijia, and its seven villagers' committees as Shuijing, Dacun, Zhishan, Yunheshan, Kongjia, Xiantan and Taicun. Ruijia appears in the residents' committee column, yet its name ends in the character for "village"; the suffix does not match its actual tier.

Traditional villages within it

The list of the first batch of traditional villages of Jiangsu, carried on the provincial housing department's website on 8 April 2020, records Shishanxia as "Shishanxia, Ruijia Village, Jingqiao Town". Shishanxia entered the list in April 2020.

A report by The Paper on 8 April 2020 says that at Shishanxia "a Liu family ancestral hall was built in 1820 and still stands intact in front of the village". The hall's protection grade and publication batch belong to the history site of this group.

Clues concerning Shishanxia in the reports, and the level to which they belong

A Lishui Release report of August 2025 states that Shishanxia Rice Cake, of Shishanxia Village in Ruijia community of Jingqiao Town, is intangible cultural heritage of Lishui District, and that its essence lies in a distinctive osmanthus filling made from an ancient osmanthus tree in the village over five hundred years old; the report further states that the village was founded in 1245 and took its name from being ringed by hills on three sides.

Three levels must be kept apart here and not run together. First, the names the report uses are Shishanxia Rice Cake and Shishanxia Village in Ruijia community, not Ruijia Village. The osmanthus filling and the ancient tree are told of Shishanxia Village, and carrying them up to the level of Ruijia Village would be an unwarranted inference. Second, the wording of Shishanxia Rice Cake differs from that of Lishui Rice Cake Making in the public notice of the fourth batch; whether the two are the same item has not been verified here, each has an entry of its own, and they are not merged. Third, the founding year of 1245, the name derived from hills on three sides and the ancient osmanthus tree over five hundred years old are statements made in the report; this library holds no exact document or stele bearing out the founding of the village, so they are recorded as reported and not treated as established fact.

Points of doubt

• Ruijia is a residents' committee in the official table while its name reads "Ruijia Village"; this entry follows the official tier and takes the community as its unit type, keeping the official form of the name.
• The boundaries, household count, population and origin of the name of Ruijia Village itself are not recorded in the sources used here.
• The fifth-batch place-name cultural heritage public notice lists a Liu family ancestral hall under Jingqiao Town without naming the village; neither document states whether it is the same as the Liu family ancestral hall of 1820 at Shishanxia. The two are held in parallel as doubtful.
• The founding year, the age of the ancient osmanthus and the name derived from hills on three sides all await verifiable sources.