Liang Sicheng
Encyclopedia
Liang Sicheng was the son of Liang Qichao
, a well-known Chinese
thinker in the late Qing Dynasty
. Liang Sicheng returned to China from the United States
after studying at the University of Pennsylvania
. His first wife was Chinese architect Lin Huiyin
and his niece is Chinese American architect/artist Maya Lin
.
Liang is the author of China's first modern history on Chinese architecture
and founder of the Architecture Department of Northeast University in 1928 and Tsinghua University
in 1946. He was the Chinese representative in the Design Board which designed the United Nations headquarters
in New York
. He, along with Lin Huiyin (1904–1955), Mo Zongjiang (1916–1999), and Ji Yutang (1902–c. 1960s), discovered and analyzed the first and second oldest timber structures still standing in China, located at Nanchan Temple
and Foguang Temple
at Mount Wutai.
He is recognized as the “Father of Modern Chinese Architecture”. To cite Princeton University
, which awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1947, he was “a creative architect who has also been a teacher of architectural history, a pioneer in historical research and exploration in Chinese architecture and planning, and a leader in the restoration and preservation of the priceless monuments of his country.”
During the waning years of the Qing Dynasty
, China’s last feudal regime, the empire endured a series of foreign invasions and vicious domestic struggles, beginning with the first Opium War in 1840. Foreign powers soon divided China into spheres of influence, while the weak and corrupt Qing Dynasty could do little to stop them. In 1898, in an attempt to stem the decay and bring China onto the path to modernity, the Guangxu Emperor
, led by his circle of advisers, attempted to introduce drastic reforms. Liang Qichao
, a well-educated and energetic man, was a leader of this movement, also called the Hundred Days' Reform
. However, in the face of opposition from conservatives in the Qing court, the movement failed. The Empress Dowager Cixi (the emperor's adoptive mother and the power behind the throne) imprisoned him, and executed many of the movement's leaders. Liang Qichao took refuge in Japan, where his eldest son Liang Sicheng was born on April 20, 1901 (see footnote 1).
After the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1911, Liang Qichao, Liang Sicheng's father, returned to China from his exile in Japan. He briefly served in the government of the newly-established Republic, which was unfortunately taken over by a faction of warlords in Northern China. (Called the "Beiyang" clique, meaning Northern Ocean) Liang Qichao quit his government post and initiated a social and literary movement to introduce modern, Western thought to Chiense society. Liang Sicheng was educated by his father in this progressive environment.
Liang's wife, Lin Huiyin
(known in the United States as Phyllis Lin), was an equally renowned scholar in modern Chinese history. She was recognized as an artist, architect and poet. She was admired by and maintained good friendship with several well famed scholars at the time. Among them were poet Xu Zhimo
(whom she also had a brief relationship with), philosopher Jin Yuelin
and economist Chen Daisun.
In 1915, Liang entered Tsinghua College, a preparatory school in Beijing. (This college later became Tsinghua University
, now among the best universities in China.) In 1924, he and Lin went to University of Pennsylvania
funded by Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship to study architecture under Paul Cret. Three years later, Liang received his master's degree in architecture. He greatly benefited from his education in America, which also prepared him for his future career as a scholar and professor in China.
. At that time Shenyang was under the control of Japanese troops, which was a big challenge to perform any professional practice. They went anyway, established the second School of Architecture in China, but also the first curriculum which took a western one (to be precise the curriculum from University of Pennsylvania) as its prototype. It was a pity that their effort was interrupted by Japan’s occupation in the following year, but after 18 years, in 1946, the Liangs were again able to practice their professorship in Tsinghua University in Beijing
. This time a more systematic and all-around curriculum was discreetly put forward, consisted of courses of fine arts, theory, history, science, and professional practice. This has become a reference for any other school of architecture later developed in China. This improvement also reflected the change of architectural style from the Beaux-Arts tradition tot the modernist Bauhaus
style since the 1920s.
In 1929, Liang and his colleague, Zhang Rui, at Northeast University won an award of the physical plan of Tianjin. This plan incorporates the contemporary American techniques in zoning, public administration, government finance and municipal engineering. Liang's involvement in city planning was further inspired by Clarence Stein
, the chairman of the Regional Planning Association of America. They met in Bejping in 1936 during Stein's trip to Asia. Liang and Stein became good friends and in Liang's visit to the US in 1946/7, Liang stayed in Stein's apartment when he came to New York City. Stein played an instrumental role in the establishment of the architectural and planning program at Tsinghua University.
In 1931 Liang became a member of a newly-developed organization in Beijing called the Institute for Research in Chinese Architecture. He felt a strong impulse to study Chinese traditional architecture and that it was his responsibility to interpret and convey its building methods. It was not an easy task. Since the carpenters were generally illiterate, methods of construction were usually conveyed orally from master to apprentice, and were regarded as secrets within every craft. In spite of these difficulties, Liang started his research by "decoding" classical manuals and consulting the workmen who have the traditional skills.
From the start of his new career as a historian, Liang was determined to search and discover what he termed the “grammar
” of Chinese architecture
. He recognized that throughout China’s history the timber-frame had been the fundamental form of construction. He also realized that it was far from enough just to sit in his office day and night engaged in the books. He had to get out searching for the surviving buildings in order to verify his assumptions. His first travel was in April 1932. In the following years he and his colleagues successively discovered some survived traditional buildings, including: the Temple of Buddha's Light (857), the Temple of Solitary Joy (984), the Yingzhou Pagoda (1056), Zhaozhou Bridge
(589-617), and many others. Because of their effort, these buildings managed to survive.
During the later stages of WWII, the Americans began to bomb the Japanese homeland. Liang, whose brother-in-law was a pilot who died in the air war against Japan, recommended that the Americans to spare the ancient Japanese city of Nara
: "architecture is the epitome of society and the symbol of the people. But it does not belong to one people, for it is the crystallization of the entire human race. Nara's Toshodaiji Temple is the world's earliest wood-structure building. Once destroyed, it is irrecoverable." The U.S. Army accepted Liang’s proposal. As a result, even though Japan was heavily attacked, Nara remained intact with its original scenery unaffected by the war.
After the war, Liang was invited to establish the architectural and urban planning programs at Tsinghua University. In 1946, he went to Princeton University as a visiting fellow and served as the Chinese representative in the design of the United Nations Headquarters Building. In 1947, Liang received an honorary doctoral degree from Princeton University. He visited major architectural programs and influential architects in order to develop a model program at Tsinghua before returning China.
in 1934. The book was on the study of the methods and rules of Qing architecture with the 1734 Qing Architecture Regulation and several other ancient manuals as the textbook, the carpenters as teachers, and the Forbidden City
in Beijing as teaching material. Since its publication, for more than seven decades, this book has become a standard textbook for anyone who wants to understand the essence of ancient Chinese architecture. Liang considered the study of Qing Structural Regulation as a stepping stone to the much more daunting task of studying Song dynasty Yingzao Fashi
(Treatise on Architectural Methods ), due to the large number of special terms used in that manual differ substantially from the Qing dynasty architectural terminology.
Liang's monumental study of Yingzao Fashi spanned more than two decades, from 1940 to 1963, and the first draft of Annotated Yingzao Fashi was completed in 1963. However due to the eruption
of Cultural Revolution
in China, the publication of this work was cut short. Liang's Annotated Yingzao Fashi was published posthumously by Tsinghua University Architecture Department's Yingzao Fashi Study Group in 1980. (The text occupies all of Volume 7 in his ten-volume Collected Works).
Liang considered the Yingzao Fashi and Qing Structural Regulations as "two grammar books of Chinese architecture." He wrote, "Both government manuals, they are of the greatest importance for the study of the technological aspects of Chinese architecture."
Another book, History of Chinese Architecture, was "the first thing of its kind." In his words, this book was "an attempt to organize the materials collected by myself and other members of the Institute during the past twelve years." He had divided the previous 3,500 years into six architectural periods, defined each period by references to historical and literary citations, described existing monuments of each period, and finally analyzed the architecture of each period as evidenced from a combination of painstaking library and field research. All of these books became the platform for later scholars to explore the principles and evolution of Chinese architecture, and are still considered classics today.
Liang's posthumous manuscript "Chinese Architecture, A Pictorial History", written in English, edited by Wilma Fairbank (:zh:费慰梅) was published by MIT Press in 1984 and won ForeWord Magazine's Architecture "Book of the Year" Award".
Restoration works
Liang's first experience participating in the restoration of an old building was in 1932, when he was asked to restore a two-story imperial library, the Wenyuan Chamber
, erected in 1776 in the southwestern part of the Forbidden City
. In 1935, he was selected as the advisor of the restoration project of the Temple of Confucius. In his proposal he expressed his attitude toward historic buildings. He said, "in the face of all the old buildings dating from different periods of time, it is our responsibility to protect and restore them. Before starting our work, we need to carefully look into its background, to fix it in a rational way in order to extend its existence for as long as possible." Liang's attitude toward tradition is typical of the Chinese spirit of conservation and respect for the past.
Design works
The same reverence toward history was reflected by most of Liang's design works. One example was in around 1950, when he and his wife were both appointed to the groups designing the new national emblem. They urged that the emblem should have Chinese characteristics, not a hammer and sickle. They succeeded and in the end a representation of the façade of the Tiananmen
in red and gold became the emblem that is still used today.
In 1951, they were commissioned to design the Monument to the People's Heroes
, which was to be erected in the center of the Tiananmen Square
. Liang's advice that it should resemble the stone memorial stele universally found throughout China swayed the design group. It is noticeable that although Liang received a totally western education in his youth, he and his works were still dominated by a conservative and tradition-oriented spirit, which was probably influenced by his father, and which was also authentic and sincere for a real Chinese scholar.
The National Style
When Liang was later given the responsibility to develop a national style of architecture by the Communist Party of China
, his intention was to pass on the essence of Chinese architecture. This specific "essence", was considered to be the "large roof", the temple-style concave curved roofs and overhanging eaves to denote their Chinese origin. Though he was severely criticized for this during political campaigns, a wave of the National Style had already spread out and even continued to be influential after one or two decades. Famous examples include: China Fine Arts Gallery (1959), National Library of China
(1987), Beijing west railway station
(1996), which are all typical of their large roofs.
Urban planning of Beijing
With such a deep respect for tradition and the nation's cultural heritage, Liang came up with his biggest ambition: preserving Old Beijing in its entirety. Under the Communist government, he was named Vice-Director of the Beijing City Planning Commission. In his early recommendations for transforming Beijing into the new national capital, he insisted that the city should be a political and cultural center, not an industrial zone. He later put forward a proposal that a new administrative center for government buildings with a north-south axis be established west of the Forbidden City, far away from the Inner City. He also advocated that the city walls and gates be preserved. He even published an article entitled "Beijing: a Masterpiece of Urban Planning", hoping to win the support of the general public. Very regretfully, these dreams of Liang were not realized, ending only in frustration. Despite his best efforts, most of Beijing's ancient gates and city walls have been torn down, depriving the world of a spectacular example of cultural history.
Beloved Educator
Liang was also respected by his colleagues and students as a humorous, dedicated and responsible teacher. He founded two design programs and endeavored to integrated modernity and best practice into design education. He believed that architecture should be seen in the context of its greater physical environment, and that students should learn an array of subjects in an integrated manner.
During the Cultural Revolution, Liang Sicheng was condemned as "an authority of counter-revolutionary scholarship" and suffered severe persecution. He died in Beijing in 1972, three years before the Cultural Revolution ended. He was subsequently rehabilitated posthumously.
Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...
, a well-known Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
thinker in the late Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. Liang Sicheng returned to China from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
after studying at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. His first wife was Chinese architect Lin Huiyin
Lin Huiyin
Lin Huiyin was a noted 20th century Chinese architect and writer. She is said to be the first female architect in China. Her niece is Maya Lin.-Biography:...
and his niece is Chinese American architect/artist Maya Lin
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Personal life:...
.
Liang is the author of China's first modern history on Chinese architecture
Chinese architecture
Chinese architecture refers to a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained largely unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details...
and founder of the Architecture Department of Northeast University in 1928 and Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
in 1946. He was the Chinese representative in the Design Board which designed the United Nations headquarters
United Nations headquarters
The headquarters of the United Nations is a complex in New York City. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1952. It is located in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on spacious grounds overlooking the East River...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He, along with Lin Huiyin (1904–1955), Mo Zongjiang (1916–1999), and Ji Yutang (1902–c. 1960s), discovered and analyzed the first and second oldest timber structures still standing in China, located at Nanchan Temple
Nanchan Temple
Nanchan Temple is a Buddhist temple located near the town of Doucun on Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China. Nanchan Temple was built in 782 CE during China's Tang Dynasty, and its Great Buddha Hall is currently China's oldest preserved timber building that is still extant, as wooden buildings are...
and Foguang Temple
Foguang Temple
Foguang Temple is a Buddhist temple located five kilometres from Doucun, Wutai County, Shanxi Province of China. The major hall of the temple is the Great East Hall, built in 857 AD, during the Tang Dynasty . According to architectural records, it is the third earliest preserved timber structure...
at Mount Wutai.
He is recognized as the “Father of Modern Chinese Architecture”. To cite Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, which awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1947, he was “a creative architect who has also been a teacher of architectural history, a pioneer in historical research and exploration in Chinese architecture and planning, and a leader in the restoration and preservation of the priceless monuments of his country.”
Early life
Liang was born in 1901. The early twentieth century was a tumultuous time in China's history. Tradition and modernity were in sharp conflict, eventually leading to momentous change, while a nascent sense of nationhood was beginning to form.During the waning years of the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, China’s last feudal regime, the empire endured a series of foreign invasions and vicious domestic struggles, beginning with the first Opium War in 1840. Foreign powers soon divided China into spheres of influence, while the weak and corrupt Qing Dynasty could do little to stop them. In 1898, in an attempt to stem the decay and bring China onto the path to modernity, the Guangxu Emperor
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor , born Zaitian of the Aisin-Gioro clan, was the eleventh emperor of the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898...
, led by his circle of advisers, attempted to introduce drastic reforms. Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...
, a well-educated and energetic man, was a leader of this movement, also called the Hundred Days' Reform
Hundred Days' Reform
The Hundred Days' Reform was a failed 104-day national cultural, political and educational reform movement from 11 June to 21 September 1898 in late Qing Dynasty China. It was undertaken by the young Guangxu Emperor and his reform-minded supporters...
. However, in the face of opposition from conservatives in the Qing court, the movement failed. The Empress Dowager Cixi (the emperor's adoptive mother and the power behind the throne) imprisoned him, and executed many of the movement's leaders. Liang Qichao took refuge in Japan, where his eldest son Liang Sicheng was born on April 20, 1901 (see footnote 1).
After the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1911, Liang Qichao, Liang Sicheng's father, returned to China from his exile in Japan. He briefly served in the government of the newly-established Republic, which was unfortunately taken over by a faction of warlords in Northern China. (Called the "Beiyang" clique, meaning Northern Ocean) Liang Qichao quit his government post and initiated a social and literary movement to introduce modern, Western thought to Chiense society. Liang Sicheng was educated by his father in this progressive environment.
Liang's wife, Lin Huiyin
Lin Huiyin
Lin Huiyin was a noted 20th century Chinese architect and writer. She is said to be the first female architect in China. Her niece is Maya Lin.-Biography:...
(known in the United States as Phyllis Lin), was an equally renowned scholar in modern Chinese history. She was recognized as an artist, architect and poet. She was admired by and maintained good friendship with several well famed scholars at the time. Among them were poet Xu Zhimo
Xu Zhimo
Xu Zhimo was an early 20th century Chinese poet. He was given the name of Zhangxu and the courtesy name of Yousen . He later changed his courtesy name to Zhimo ....
(whom she also had a brief relationship with), philosopher Jin Yuelin
Jin Yuelin
Jin Yuelin was a Chinese philosopher and logician. He was born in Changsha, Hunan, attended Tsinghua University from 1911-1914, obtained Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 1920...
and economist Chen Daisun.
In 1915, Liang entered Tsinghua College, a preparatory school in Beijing. (This college later became Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
, now among the best universities in China.) In 1924, he and Lin went to University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
funded by Boxer Rebellion Indemnity Scholarship to study architecture under Paul Cret. Three years later, Liang received his master's degree in architecture. He greatly benefited from his education in America, which also prepared him for his future career as a scholar and professor in China.
Career
When the couple went back in 1928, they were invited by the Northeastern University in ShenyangShenyang
Shenyang , or Mukden , is the capital and largest city of Liaoning Province in Northeast China. Currently holding sub-provincial administrative status, the city was once known as Shengjing or Fengtianfu...
. At that time Shenyang was under the control of Japanese troops, which was a big challenge to perform any professional practice. They went anyway, established the second School of Architecture in China, but also the first curriculum which took a western one (to be precise the curriculum from University of Pennsylvania) as its prototype. It was a pity that their effort was interrupted by Japan’s occupation in the following year, but after 18 years, in 1946, the Liangs were again able to practice their professorship in Tsinghua University in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. This time a more systematic and all-around curriculum was discreetly put forward, consisted of courses of fine arts, theory, history, science, and professional practice. This has become a reference for any other school of architecture later developed in China. This improvement also reflected the change of architectural style from the Beaux-Arts tradition tot the modernist Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
style since the 1920s.
In 1929, Liang and his colleague, Zhang Rui, at Northeast University won an award of the physical plan of Tianjin. This plan incorporates the contemporary American techniques in zoning, public administration, government finance and municipal engineering. Liang's involvement in city planning was further inspired by Clarence Stein
Clarence Stein
Clarence Samuel Stein was an American urban planner, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the "Garden City" movement in the United States.- Biography :...
, the chairman of the Regional Planning Association of America. They met in Bejping in 1936 during Stein's trip to Asia. Liang and Stein became good friends and in Liang's visit to the US in 1946/7, Liang stayed in Stein's apartment when he came to New York City. Stein played an instrumental role in the establishment of the architectural and planning program at Tsinghua University.
In 1931 Liang became a member of a newly-developed organization in Beijing called the Institute for Research in Chinese Architecture. He felt a strong impulse to study Chinese traditional architecture and that it was his responsibility to interpret and convey its building methods. It was not an easy task. Since the carpenters were generally illiterate, methods of construction were usually conveyed orally from master to apprentice, and were regarded as secrets within every craft. In spite of these difficulties, Liang started his research by "decoding" classical manuals and consulting the workmen who have the traditional skills.
From the start of his new career as a historian, Liang was determined to search and discover what he termed the “grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
” of Chinese architecture
Chinese architecture
Chinese architecture refers to a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained largely unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details...
. He recognized that throughout China’s history the timber-frame had been the fundamental form of construction. He also realized that it was far from enough just to sit in his office day and night engaged in the books. He had to get out searching for the surviving buildings in order to verify his assumptions. His first travel was in April 1932. In the following years he and his colleagues successively discovered some survived traditional buildings, including: the Temple of Buddha's Light (857), the Temple of Solitary Joy (984), the Yingzhou Pagoda (1056), Zhaozhou Bridge
Zhaozhou Bridge
The Anji Bridge is the world's oldest open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. Credited to the design of a craftsman named Li Chun, the bridge was constructed in the years 595-605 during the Sui Dynasty...
(589-617), and many others. Because of their effort, these buildings managed to survive.
During the later stages of WWII, the Americans began to bomb the Japanese homeland. Liang, whose brother-in-law was a pilot who died in the air war against Japan, recommended that the Americans to spare the ancient Japanese city of Nara
Nara, Nara
is the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
: "architecture is the epitome of society and the symbol of the people. But it does not belong to one people, for it is the crystallization of the entire human race. Nara's Toshodaiji Temple is the world's earliest wood-structure building. Once destroyed, it is irrecoverable." The U.S. Army accepted Liang’s proposal. As a result, even though Japan was heavily attacked, Nara remained intact with its original scenery unaffected by the war.
After the war, Liang was invited to establish the architectural and urban planning programs at Tsinghua University. In 1946, he went to Princeton University as a visiting fellow and served as the Chinese representative in the design of the United Nations Headquarters Building. In 1947, Liang received an honorary doctoral degree from Princeton University. He visited major architectural programs and influential architects in order to develop a model program at Tsinghua before returning China.
Works
To spread and share his understandings and appreciation of Chinese architecture, and most importantly, to help save its diminishing building technologies, Liang published his first book, Qing Structural RegulationsQing Structural Regulations
Qing Structural Regulations , a monograph on Qing dynasty architecture by theChinese architect Liang Sicheng, first published in 1934.Liang based his research of Qing dynasty architecture on the 1734 Qing dynasty Architecture...
in 1934. The book was on the study of the methods and rules of Qing architecture with the 1734 Qing Architecture Regulation and several other ancient manuals as the textbook, the carpenters as teachers, and the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
in Beijing as teaching material. Since its publication, for more than seven decades, this book has become a standard textbook for anyone who wants to understand the essence of ancient Chinese architecture. Liang considered the study of Qing Structural Regulation as a stepping stone to the much more daunting task of studying Song dynasty Yingzao Fashi
Yingzao Fashi
The Yingzao Fashi is a technical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship written by the Chinese author Li Jie , the Directorate of Buildings and Construction during the mid Song Dynasty of China. A promising architect, he revised many older treatises on architecture from 1097 to 1100...
(Treatise on Architectural Methods ), due to the large number of special terms used in that manual differ substantially from the Qing dynasty architectural terminology.
Liang's monumental study of Yingzao Fashi spanned more than two decades, from 1940 to 1963, and the first draft of Annotated Yingzao Fashi was completed in 1963. However due to the eruption
of Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
in China, the publication of this work was cut short. Liang's Annotated Yingzao Fashi was published posthumously by Tsinghua University Architecture Department's Yingzao Fashi Study Group in 1980. (The text occupies all of Volume 7 in his ten-volume Collected Works).
Liang considered the Yingzao Fashi and Qing Structural Regulations as "two grammar books of Chinese architecture." He wrote, "Both government manuals, they are of the greatest importance for the study of the technological aspects of Chinese architecture."
Another book, History of Chinese Architecture, was "the first thing of its kind." In his words, this book was "an attempt to organize the materials collected by myself and other members of the Institute during the past twelve years." He had divided the previous 3,500 years into six architectural periods, defined each period by references to historical and literary citations, described existing monuments of each period, and finally analyzed the architecture of each period as evidenced from a combination of painstaking library and field research. All of these books became the platform for later scholars to explore the principles and evolution of Chinese architecture, and are still considered classics today.
Liang's posthumous manuscript "Chinese Architecture, A Pictorial History", written in English, edited by Wilma Fairbank (:zh:费慰梅) was published by MIT Press in 1984 and won ForeWord Magazine's Architecture "Book of the Year" Award".
Restoration works
Wenyuan Chamber
The Wenyuan Chamber , an imperial library of the Qing Dynasty in the Forbidden City in Beijing, was built in 1776. It stores numerous works, including the Sikuquanshu...
, erected in 1776 in the southwestern part of the Forbidden City
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum...
. In 1935, he was selected as the advisor of the restoration project of the Temple of Confucius. In his proposal he expressed his attitude toward historic buildings. He said, "in the face of all the old buildings dating from different periods of time, it is our responsibility to protect and restore them. Before starting our work, we need to carefully look into its background, to fix it in a rational way in order to extend its existence for as long as possible." Liang's attitude toward tradition is typical of the Chinese spirit of conservation and respect for the past.
Design works
Tiananmen
The Tiananmen, Tian'anmen or Gate of Heavenly Peace is a famous monument in Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is widely used as a national symbol. First built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420, Tian'anmen is often referred to as the front entrance to the Forbidden City...
in red and gold became the emblem that is still used today.
In 1951, they were commissioned to design the Monument to the People's Heroes
Monument to the People's Heroes
The Monument to the People's Heroes is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of the People's Republic of China.The Monument was built in memory of the martyrs who laid down their lives for the revolutionary struggles of the Chinese people during the 19th and 20th centuries...
, which was to be erected in the center of the Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
. Liang's advice that it should resemble the stone memorial stele universally found throughout China swayed the design group. It is noticeable that although Liang received a totally western education in his youth, he and his works were still dominated by a conservative and tradition-oriented spirit, which was probably influenced by his father, and which was also authentic and sincere for a real Chinese scholar.
The National Style
When Liang was later given the responsibility to develop a national style of architecture by the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, his intention was to pass on the essence of Chinese architecture. This specific "essence", was considered to be the "large roof", the temple-style concave curved roofs and overhanging eaves to denote their Chinese origin. Though he was severely criticized for this during political campaigns, a wave of the National Style had already spread out and even continued to be influential after one or two decades. Famous examples include: China Fine Arts Gallery (1959), National Library of China
National Library of China
The National Library of China or NLC in Beijing is the largest library in Asia, and one of the largest in the world with a collection of over 23 million volumes...
(1987), Beijing west railway station
Beijing west railway station
Beijing West Railway Station, also known as Beijing West or West Passenger Station is located in western Beijing's Fengtai District. Opened in early 1996 after three years of construction, it was the largest railway station in Asia with 510,000m². The station serves in average 150,000–180,000...
(1996), which are all typical of their large roofs.
Urban planning of Beijing
With such a deep respect for tradition and the nation's cultural heritage, Liang came up with his biggest ambition: preserving Old Beijing in its entirety. Under the Communist government, he was named Vice-Director of the Beijing City Planning Commission. In his early recommendations for transforming Beijing into the new national capital, he insisted that the city should be a political and cultural center, not an industrial zone. He later put forward a proposal that a new administrative center for government buildings with a north-south axis be established west of the Forbidden City, far away from the Inner City. He also advocated that the city walls and gates be preserved. He even published an article entitled "Beijing: a Masterpiece of Urban Planning", hoping to win the support of the general public. Very regretfully, these dreams of Liang were not realized, ending only in frustration. Despite his best efforts, most of Beijing's ancient gates and city walls have been torn down, depriving the world of a spectacular example of cultural history.
Beloved Educator
Liang was also respected by his colleagues and students as a humorous, dedicated and responsible teacher. He founded two design programs and endeavored to integrated modernity and best practice into design education. He believed that architecture should be seen in the context of its greater physical environment, and that students should learn an array of subjects in an integrated manner.
Repression and criticism during the Cultural Revolution
Despite Liang's contribution to designing national emblem of the People's Republic of China and helping with the reconstruction of Beijing, his theory of architecture, which emphasized the greatness of Chinese building tradition, was severely criticized by the Communist Party. In 1956 Liang was forced to self-criticize and admit that he had made mistakes. (Chou p. 283)During the Cultural Revolution, Liang Sicheng was condemned as "an authority of counter-revolutionary scholarship" and suffered severe persecution. He died in Beijing in 1972, three years before the Cultural Revolution ended. He was subsequently rehabilitated posthumously.