Chapter 37 The gentleman on the beam and the beauty under the forest

No. 3 Beizongbu Hutong is a typical Beijing courtyard house.The porch with hanging flowers is paved with square bricks, and the yard is planted with pomegranate trees, locust trees, crabapple flowers and lantana flowers. In the spacious living room, there are hardwood furniture selected by Huiyin and Sicheng from thrift stores.Next to the sofa, there are damaged stone carvings that they picked up during field trips.The sun shines into the house from the south window, shining on the bookshelves and desks full of Chinese and English books.On the wall is a banner written by Liang Rengong for them:

Hibiscus comes out of clear water, and it is naturally carved; The white gull is not mighty, who can train it thousands of miles away. Huiyin and Sicheng started working in the Construction Society.During his stay in the United States, Sicheng established his own research direction with the development history of Chinese architecture.Architecture in China has always been considered a craft, which is passed down from master to apprentice by craftsmen, without leaving any written records.In ancient China for thousands of years, there were only two books on architectural technology, one was "Building French Style" by Li Jie in the Song Dynasty, and the other was "Engineering Practice Rules" in the Qing Dynasty. Due to the long history of "Zao Fa Shi", many architectural terms are confusing to modern people.Sicheng started his analysis and research from the relatively close "Engineering Practice Rules" in the Qing Dynasty.

The site of the Construction Society is in a row of bungalows in Zhongshan Park.It is far away from tourists and the environment is very clean.Liang Sicheng found two old carpenters who had been doing building maintenance in the Forbidden City all his life, and compared the "Engineering Practice Rules", he began to analyze and study ancient buildings.He said: "With "Engineering Practice Rules" as the textbook, carpenters as teachers, and Qing Dynasty palaces as teaching aids, the research on the construction methods and rules of the Qing Dynasty began to have a solid foundation."

Huiyin assisted Sicheng in collecting materials, drawing and photography, researching historical classics, and making sorting cards.Sicheng's desk is stacks of sketches of ancient building components. He pointed to the drawings and told Huiyin that this is called "grasshopper head" and that is called "Sanfuyun".Huiyin felt that those distant and unfamiliar names suddenly became close and clear, and she said excitedly: "How vivid these names are! The imagination of ancient craftsmen cannot but be admired." Their work is complex and trivial, but necessary and practical, just like one must understand and be familiar with the language of a country before appreciating its literary works.To study the history of Chinese architecture, one must be familiar with the evolution of Chinese architectural construction techniques and methods in the past dynasties, so as to accurately locate the age and value of architectural art in the past dynasties.

They plan to go to other places to investigate and map the remains of ancient buildings scattered all over the place once the work at hand has a clue. One cool morning, Jin Yuelin was reading in his room when he suddenly heard someone calling him outside.When he went out to see, there was no one there. "Lao Jin, Lao Jin", the cry seemed to come from the air.He looked up and saw Sicheng and Huiyin standing high on the roof of the main house in the front yard, smiling and calling him.Lao Jin knew that this was Sicheng and Huiyin learning to climb and go to the house, preparing for their future inspections.He was a little worried that the roof of the house was not strong enough, so he said repeatedly: "Get down for me quickly!"

Huiyin thought it was fun, and walked up the room smiling.Sicheng helped her out of the room and came to Lao Jin's house. Lao Jin had already ordered his servants to make tea.During the chat, Lao Jin said: "I'll give you a pair of couplets: the first couplet is 'Liang Shangjunzi', and the second couplet is 'Beauty under the forest'." The surnames of Sicheng and Huiyin are ingeniously embedded in Lao Jin's couplet.Sicheng said happily after hearing this: "I just want to be a 'gentleman on the beam', otherwise how can I open up a new research path, don't I still have to talk on paper?"

Huiyin's reaction was different. She said: "It's disgusting, what beauty is not beautiful, as if a woman has nothing to do, as if she is only worthy of decoration!"