Lin Family Yizhuang, Charity estate in Yangcuo Village, Longhai, China

The Lin Family Yizhuang is a Qing-dynasty charity estate in Guojing, Yangcuo Village, built 1819–1821. It faces southeast, covers 2,500 square metres in brick and timber with a suspended-ridge roof, and has 99 rooms around a courtyard layout. A 3-metre-wide, 1-metre-high stele of 12 polished black stones, inscribed by calligrapher Lü Shiyu, is set into the wall.

Lin Pinghou built the estate between 1819 and 1821, after making his fortune developing land in Taiwan, to provide relief for needy members of his home lineage. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2006, in the sixth batch of such designations.

The name yizhuang refers to a charitable estate, not an ancestral hall: Lin Pinghou, rich from developing Taiwan, founded it to relieve and support his home-village kin. The stele by calligrapher Lü Shiyu, 12 polished black stones 3 m wide and 1 m high, records the relief fund's sources, staff and management rules.

The estate stands at Guojing, Yangcuo Village, Jiaomei Town, in Longhai, Zhangzhou, Fujian. It faces southeast, so morning light falls on the main courtyard; the stele is set into the wall inside. The site is a protected heritage building, so check locally before travelling for opening arrangements.

The stele inside the estate is made of 12 finely polished black stones, 3 metres wide and 1 metre high, set into the wall when the compound was completed. Its inscription, written by the calligrapher Lü Shiyu, records how Lin Pinghou raised the funds, who managed the relief, and the rules by which grain and money were handed out to needy members of the Lin lineage.