Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Liang Sicheng

Liang Qichao by minguotupian.com from Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Remarkable Facts about Liang Sicheng

Liang Sicheng was a Chinese architect and historian of architecture who is regarded as the father of contemporary Chinese architecture. In the early 20th century, one of the most well-known Chinese scholars was his father, Liang Qichao. Lin Huiyin, a poet and architect, was his wife. One of China’s first archaeologists was his younger brother, Liang Siyong.

The “Father of Modern Chinese Architecture” is what he is known for. In a 1947 statement congratulating him on receiving an honorary doctorate from Princeton University, the university described him as “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.”

Here are 10 interesting facts you probably didn’t know about him.

1. His father was exiled from China

Having fled China following the failure of the Hundred Days’ Reform, Liang Sicheng’s father, the brilliant scholar and reformer Liang Qichao, was living in Tokyo, Japan when his son, Liang Sicheng, was born on April 20, 1901.

Beginning with the first Opium War in 1840, the Qing Dynasty—last China’s imperial dynasty—saw its final years beset by a series of invasions from abroad and domestic conflicts. To put China on the road to modernity, the Guangxu Emperor tried to enact radical reforms in 1898 under the guidance of a group of advisors.

In this movement, Liang was a leader. The initiative, meanwhile, was quashed in the face of resistance from Qing court conservatives. The emperor was imprisoned by Empress Dowager Cixi, the empress who had adopted the emperor and was in control of the throne.

2. Liang Sicheng was educated by his father

Liang Qichao by Rowanwindwhistler from Wikimedia Commons

Liang Sicheng’s father left his exile in Japan after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1911 and came back to China. He briefly served in the newly formed Republic’s administration before it was overthrown by a group of warlords in Northern China (the “Beiyang clique”, meaning Northern Ocean). In order to impart contemporary, Western philosophy to Chinese culture, Liang Qichao resigned from his government position and started a social and literary organization.

In this modern setting, Liang Sicheng’s father provided him with an education. Liang enrolled in Tsinghua College, a Beijing preparatory institution, in 1915. He and Lin attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1924 on the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program to study architecture under Paul Cret (this college later changed its name to Tsinghua University). Liang earned his master’s in architecture three years later. He received a lot of benefits from his study in America, which also helped him prepare for his upcoming job as a professor and scholar in China.

3. He met his wife at the University of Pennsylvania

Lin Huiyin by Unknown author from Wikimedia Commons

Liang married Lin Huiyin (also known as Phyllis Lin), a fellow University of Pennsylvania student who went on to achieve equal fame as a scholar, in 1928. She was respected as a poet, artist, and architect. She was also friends with and revered by many eminent thinkers of her age, including the economist Chen Daisun, philosopher Jin Yuelin, and poet Xu Zhimo (with whom she had a brief romance).

4. Liang and his wife worked together to start a school

The Northeastern University in Shenyang invited the couple to return when they did so in 1928. It was extremely difficult to carry out any professional practice at the time since Japanese troops were in control of Shenyang. They nevertheless went ahead and opened the second school of architecture in China, as well as the first program that used a western one as a model (more specifically, the curriculum from the University of Pennsylvania).

However, after 18 years, in 1946, the Liangs were once more free to exercise their professorship at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Their work had been halted by Japan’s occupation the previous year. This time, a more organized and comprehensive curriculum was covertly proposed. It included courses in fine arts, theory, history, science, and professional practice. Any other Chinese school of architecture later formed used this as a guide. This advancement was also a result of the architectural style transition that occurred in the 1920s from the Beaux-Arts tradition to the modernist Bauhaus style.

5. He and his colleague won an award for the physical plan of Tianjin

Liang Sicheng by Wikimedia Commons

Liang and his colleague Zhang Rui received recognition for the physical layout of Tianjin in 1930. This design integrates modern American methods for zoning, government financing, public administration, and municipal engineering.

Clarence Stein, the head of the Regional Planning Association of America, served as another source of inspiration for Liang’s involvement in city planning. During Stein’s voyage to Asia in 1936, they crossed paths in Beiping. Liang and Stein grew close friends, and during Liang’s 1946–1947 tour to the US, he lived in Stein’s apartment in New York City. The Tsinghua University curriculum in architecture and planning was founded in large part because of Stein.

6. Liang joined the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture

Architecture Team by Harkins Commercial Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Liang joined the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture, a recently established group in Beijing, in 1931. It was his duty to interpret and explain the construction techniques used in ancient Chinese architecture, and he had a tremendous urge to learn more about it.

The task was not simple. Carpentry techniques were typically passed down orally from master to apprentice and were considered trade secrets because carpenters were mostly illiterate. Despite these challenges, Liang began his investigation by “decoding” old instructions and talking to craftsmen who had the necessary training.

7. After WWII Liang was invited to establish planning programs at Tsinghua University

After the war, Liang accepted an invitation to start Tsinghua University’s architectural and urban planning programs. He was the Chinese representative in the design of the United Nations Headquarters Building when he went to Yale University as a visiting fellow in 1946.

Princeton University awarded Liang an honorary doctorate in 1947. In order to create a model program at Tsinghua before departing for China, he visited important architecture programs and notable architects.

8. He helped develop a national style of architecture by the Communist Party of China

National Congress by Dong Fang from Wikimedia Commons

The Communist Party of China later tasked Liang with creating a national architectural style, and he intended to express the essence of Chinese architecture in the process. The “big roof,” the concave, curved roofs in the manner of temples, and the overhanging eaves that indicated their Chinese provenance were thought to be this particular “essence.”

Although he received harsh criticism for it during political campaigns, a wave of the National Style had already begun to spread and even continued to have an impact after a decade or two. The National Library of China (1987), Beijing West Railway Station (1996), and the China Fine Arts Gallery (1959) are all well-known examples of buildings with huge roofs.

9. Liang’s biggest ambition was to preserve old Beijing

Liang’s greatest desire was to completely preserve old Beijing, which had been the capital city of the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. He received the title of Vice-Director of the Beijing City Planning Commission while serving in the Communist regime. He argued that the city should be a political and cultural hub rather than an economic zone in his early recommendations to make Beijing the new national capital.

10. Liang published his first book in 1934

In 1934, Liang released Qing Structural Regulations, his debut book, in order to share his knowledge of and enthusiasm for Chinese architecture with others and, more importantly, to aid in the preservation of the country’s dwindling building technology.

The 1734 Qing Architecture Regulation and numerous other old documents served as the book’s textbook, the carpenters served as its instructors, and the Forbidden City in Beijing served as its source material for the study of Qing architecture’s procedures and regulations. This book has served as a go-to reference for anybody interested in learning the fundamentals of ancient Chinese architecture for more than seven decades since it was first published.

Following the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution, Liang received posthumous rehabilitation. As part of the third set of their “Modern Chinese Scientists” stamp series, China Post released a stamp honoring Liang Sicheng on November 20, 1992. (serial number 1992-19). There were 54 million printed copies.