Chapter 95 Complete Chinese Architecture History

The Guest House of Academia Sinica is located in Shangqing Temple, Chongqing, where the conditions are very simple.All the experts who come here to stay here are experts from the highest academic institutions in China, but the several large houses are filled with canvas camp beds one by one, orange peels are thrown in a mess on the floor of the rooms, children running around and all kinds of The loud noise made it look more like a refugee camp. After meeting each other seven or eight years later, and in such an extraordinary period, the two old friends were extremely excited. They held hands tightly and refused to let go for a long time.At this time, Fairbank was already an influential expert on China issues in the Washington government of the United States. Although Liang Sicheng looked very tired and thin, weighing only 102 pounds, in Fairbank's eyes, he "has the power of an aristocrat in any situation." modesty and charm".

Fairbank wanted to go to Lizhuang immediately to visit Huiyin and some old friends of Academia Sinica. Sicheng told him that it takes three days to go from Chongqing to Lizhuang to get on the water, and two days to go back to the water. There is no way to shorten the travel time and improve the transportation mode, and the boat does not run according to the schedule.If Fairbank confirmed the date and ship to Lizhuang, he could send a telegram to inform him first, although it is uncertain whether the telegram was received before or after that. Fairbank was accompanied by sociologist Tao Menghe to Lizhuang. He caught a cold on the way and lay in bed with a fever for the first few days in Lizhuang, separated from Huiyin's hospital bed in the hall.Sicheng was busy taking his temperature and taking medicine between the two beds.Fei Zhengqing witnessed the predicament of the Liang family, and saw Huiyin's book case and the piles of materials and manuscripts in front of the sick bed that had lost her former beauty.They persisted in academic research in such an almost primitive living environment, and Fairbank was deeply moved.He remembered what he saw in Kunming a few days ago: Dr. Mei Yiqi, the president of Southwest Associated University, seemed exhausted; He is the most outstanding intellectual in China.

After returning to Chongqing, Fairbank immediately embarked on a three-year plan for the US government to aid Chinese scholars.In his report to the U.S. government, he pointed out that the professors of Tsinghua University and the talents in various fields of Chinese academia who had studied in the United States are the essence of Chinese academia and the tangible investment of the United States in China.But they were suffering from poverty and malnutrition, and the Kuomintang government's corrupting morality and socially sapling inflation left them in a desperate situation.Therefore, he appealed to the U.S. government to intervene to help them. He believed that "this kind of intervention is in line with the dual needs of politics and morality."

At this time, there was only one thing that Sicheng and Huiyin urgently needed Fairbank's help, and that was to make microfilms of the 80 pictures they had drawn about ancient Chinese architecture.In this way, first of all, there is at least one set of reproductions of these formal drawings that cost them a lot of effort before publication; second, in this war-torn era, microfilm is easy to carry and store.They can take it with them, looking forward to the publication of their work after the war is over. This matter is not difficult for Fairbank to do.At that time, he assisted in the implementation of the Sino-US cultural exchange program at the US embassy.Due to the weight limit of the plane flying over the hump at that time, various publications had to be transported in the form of microfilm. Fairbank specially hired a technical assistant from the United States to complete this work.

Sicheng completed the writing of "History of Chinese Architecture" in the humble studio of Lizhuang Construction Institute, under the dim light of vegetable oil at night, and in a half-starved state.In this book, the 12-year research and investigation of Chinese ancient architecture by the Construction Society has been systematically summarized.The book consists of eight chapters. Liang Sicheng divides the 3,500-year history of China into six architectural eras, and clearly introduces and demonstrates the architectural remains of each era.