Chapter 27 24. Honor in 1947

Liang Sicheng's family returned to Beijing, and the war had been over for more than a year.The Ministry of Education ordered him to establish a new Department of Architecture at Tsinghua University and serve as the head of the department.The Ministry of Education also plans to send him to the United States to study architecture teaching in contemporary American universities. Fresh off years of poverty and isolation, burdened by both a heavy family burden and administrative tasks, Si Cheng is relieved that his old university offers a respectable position and a family home.On the other hand, the planned trip to the United States would require him to commute between many universities with limited funds, which sounds very strenuous.

While he was worrying about this, he received invitation letters from Yale University and Princeton University.Yale University invited him to teach Chinese art and architecture in New Haven as a visiting professor in the 1946-1947 academic year, and Princeton University hoped that he would participate in the leadership of the International Symposium on "Far Eastern Culture and Society" in April 1947.Both invitation letters praised Sicheng's tenacious perseverance in researching the history of Chinese architecture and publishing research results despite all kinds of difficulties and obstacles.His pre-war papers attracted international academic attention, and two wartime issues of the Transactions won praise.He suddenly became an internationally renowned figure, noticed by his Western counterparts.Going to the United States as a guest of two of the most authoritative universities also gave his trip a completely different meaning.

However, before he left, he still had a lot of troubles to settle his family and prepare for the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University.When he went to Tianjin to retrieve the negatives and other important items stored in the underground vault of a bank by the Construction Society in 1937, he was surprised to find that these precious materials stored nine years ago had been lost in a flood in the port city. All destroyed. Fortunately, he has brought to Kunming and Lizhuang the photos of the Construction Society that he now uses to give lectures at Yale and make slides.With these and the large architectural drawings completed in Lizhuang, he has image materials for teaching Chinese architectural history.In addition, he also brought the English manuscript that he wrote in Lizhuang to be completed for the trip to the United States. The picture above is the illustration of the book.He named it "Images of Chinese Architectural History", and hoped to finish the draft and find an American publishing house for it during his stay in the United States.

Sicheng was supposed to arrive at Yale in September, but he was once again delayed by waiting in line, this time for a seat on a trans-Pacific cruise.As a result, he did not arrive in New Haven until November.As soon as he settled in at Saybrook College at Yale University, he had the school make slides of the photographs and architectural drawings he had brought with him, which later became the unprecedented collection of the Yale University Fine Arts Library. Not long after he arrived at Yale, he met Wu Jinlu, a young teacher in the Yale Department of Architecture.Wu Jinlu was a graduate of the Harvard School of Architecture in 1945. He came back to Yale to do urban planning research. Despite the huge age difference, the two hit it off.Wu Jinlu has been assigned to redesign the Chinese campus of Yali University in Changsha, which was destroyed by the war. I also want to know from this new graduate what the two famous American architecture schools are teaching now.

Wu Jinlu took Sicheng's class on Chinese art and architecture in the spring semester.He made important contributions to Sicheng and Tsinghua University: he listed famous works on European and American architecture and urban planning based on his recent research, and believed that these should be prepared for the newly established department library.These books were sent to Tsinghua University after purchase, and have been preserved to this day.Sicheng liked Wu Jinlu very much and invited him to teach in the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University.However, Wu Jinlu was too busy with Yale's Changsha construction project.He worked in Changsha for 8 months from 1947 to 1948 on Yale University's architectural project in China.Eventually the project was halted because of the civil war that had engulfed China, and he returned to Yale, where he is now a professor of architectural design.

Sicheng's one-year lecture at Yale was cut short due to inevitable troubles, and he only stayed in the United States for seven months.The long wait for the ship in Shanghai shortened the autumn semester by three months, and the bad news from home forced him to cut some teaching plans for the next semester.Yet in the limited time he had between teaching and presenting slides at Yale, he was able to participate in events outside of New Haven that expanded his influence and his own knowledge of the profession after a long isolation. Familiarity with the latest trends. Above all, renewing his friendship with the famous architect and urban planner Clarence Stein, at whose New York apartment Si Cheng often stayed and stayed overnight.Secondly, he participated in the United Nations New York Headquarters Building Design Advisory Committee as the designated Chinese representative.The third is that he participated in Princeton University's "Far Eastern Culture and Society" symposium as a leading figure in early April and the award ceremony for awarding him an honorary degree held thereafter.The fourth is that he and I have been working hard to finalize the English version of the history of Chinese architecture that he wrote in Lizhuang so that it can be submitted to an American publishing house.

Of course, during Sicheng's stay in the United States, there were also many interesting and happy sporadic things that happened to him, including his return to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and informal contact with some old classmates. He went to Cranbrook to visit him. Ariel Saarinen, author of his book, traveled to Tennessee to see the remarkable architecture and engineering of the just completed Tennessee Valley Authority.He returned to Cambridge to report his discovery of Chinese architecture at the Fogg Museum of Harvard University where he had studied as a graduate student in 1927-1928.There and elsewhere he saw from time to time long-lost relatives and friends who had settled or had recently arrived in the United States.

His happy reunion with Clarence Stein and Eleanor McMahon after a decade apart is really timely.Appointing Sicheng to establish the Tsinghua Department of Architecture will undoubtedly prevent him from continuing his 15 years of painstaking research on the history of Chinese architecture.He will not completely give up this subject he is so passionate about, but his current duty is to prepare a curriculum at Tsinghua University to train a group of young architects and engineers who can play a role in the modernization of post-war China.From Stein, he learned first-hand about both the possible and the difficult in urban planning.When he returned to Beijing later, he added urban planning to the courses of Tsinghua's Department of Architecture, proving that such guidance was invaluable.

Participating in the design of the United Nations Building gave Sicheng the opportunity to meet outstanding architects from all over the world.His colleagues on the Design Advisory Board came from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Sweden, Great Britain, Soviet Russia and Uruguay.Among them, Le Corbusier from France and Oscar Niemeyer from Brazil are the most famous in the world.Sicheng's teaching assignment at Yale limited his participation in the work of the United Nations, but he still spent as much time as possible in New York, lived at the Stein home, and learned a lot from the committee's discussions.George Dudley, then a young American architect who assisted Wallace K. Harrison of the New York architectural firm in mastering the United Nations Headquarters project, wrote in 1985 his recollections of Mr Liang in 1947:

"His presence on the UN Design Council is a great thing, even though few of us know him or his cause. He brings more history to our meeting than anyone else, and it goes way beyond Le The immediate sense of history insisted on by Corbusier - his unique distance from the style of French artists or the inconclusive response to our cultural changes. Sicheng has suggested that the United Nations Secretariat Building is like important Chinese buildings in the past dynasties Sit north and face south, so as to leave a warm south-facing facade for the long front lobby entrance. But since the building is located on the bank of the East River, the 40-story building is best located at the end of 42nd Street on the foundation, To allow direct access for most civil servants, the conceivable design meant that the whole area to the north would be permanently shrouded in shadow. So he quietly (and graciously) withdrew his advice."

Dudley said that Liang Sicheng enthusiastically supported Nimeyer's north-south high-rise plan, which was finally approved unanimously by the committee. Sicheng is very serious about UN projects.His interest in urban planning and the relationship between the built and the natural environment was greatly enhanced not only by the general discussions of the committee, but also by the opportunity to come into contact with people from such diverse backgrounds.In later years, when he traveled to Europe and Central and South America to attend architectural conferences, he would meet some of his colleagues on this committee again. A Princeton symposium on "Far Eastern Culture and Society" in early April 1947 was part of the university's year-long commemoration of its bicentennial.About sixty experts were invited, most of them related to China studies.Among them are leading figures in this field in the United States as well as some famous scholars in Eurasia.For example, Professor J.J.L. Duwei Wendake of Ritton University, Sweden's Oswald Hironin and Oxford University's Professor E.R. Hughes, and China has Chen Mengjia, Feng Youlan, Chen Da, Qu Dong Famous scholars such as Zizi and Liang Sicheng participated.The ambitious conference agenda touches on every facet of China studies, but for the conference's organizer, Professor George Lawley, an expert on Chinese art at Princeton University, Liang Sicheng was at the top of his game.Lawley had visited Beijing in the mid-thirties and was impressed by Liang Sicheng's restoration of Chinese architectural remains and his interest in wider Chinese art.Lawley's close collaborator, Professor Alexander Sopel, an American expert on Chinese and Japanese architecture, has followed Sicheng for many years through the Chinese version of the Architecture Society's "Hui Kan", including the last two issues printed by Li Zhuang. discovery.Both of them admired Sicheng's pioneering spirit and his persistent pursuit in the hardships and scarcity of wartime.They were delighted to introduce him to fellow colleagues at the event, many of whom knew about his research and some had met him in Beijing before his eight years of seclusion.An exhibition of his pictures and photographs was held during the meeting, he gave a lecture on his architectural discoveries, and another lecture on the previously unreported Dazu Rock Carvings in Sichuan.He also attended lectures by others and participated in discussions. At the end of the symposium, Princeton University held a special ceremony in Nassau Hall to award honorary degrees to J. J. L. Du Weiwendak and Liang Sicheng in recognition of Du Weiwendak's traditional Sinology and Liang Sicheng's Chinese architectural history remarkable research results.The ceremony began with college students marching in line led by the principal and faculty members in tuxedos.The tall, gray-haired Duvewendak, in his medieval headdress and robe, stood in stark contrast to Liang Sicheng, who was smaller and younger-looking, in an overgrown black robe and cap provided by Princeton.The tribute to Sicheng is written as follows: "Liang Sicheng, a doctor of literature: a creative architect, but also a lecturer of architectural history, a pioneer and restorer in the historical research and exploration of Chinese architecture, and the protection of his own country. He is the leader of architectural heritage.” Compatible with this praise are his numerous titles, some of which are conspicuous enough to mention: Academia Sinica, director of China Architecture Research Institute, director of Tsinghua University’s Department of Architecture , director of Tsinghua Institute of Architecture, member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Building, and visiting professor of fine arts at Yale University. A letter written by Liang Sicheng to President Dodds on accepting an honorary degree is preserved in Princeton University.His words are characteristically polite, modest, and tactful: "The reward is too high for a man who simply spends too much time and energy pursuing perhaps merely the gratification of his leisurely curiosity. " I also attended the seminar in Princeton and saw that Sicheng was healthy and in high spirits.The affirmation he received during his time in America made his blood boil. Just before I left China, I rushed from Nanjing to Beijing to say goodbye to Huiyin, the children, Lao Jin and other friends.What I can bring to Sicheng is news that will reassure him.In the Tsinghua Garden residence that he had never seen before, Huiyin's bedroom was full of sunlight, with a soft spring bed inside, and a bathtub with hot and cold water pipes.Dear friends are close at hand, "Family gatherings have moved from Kunming to Tsinghua." Other news was not so good.Inflation had reached horrendous levels, daily life required the sale of some valuables to buy food, and the civil war situation was dire for the Nationalist government. After a busy spell at Princeton, he spent a few weeks wrapping up his Yale stint and commuting to and from New York to attend meetings of the United Nations Advisory Committee.Nevertheless, he managed to come to Cambridge and spend some time with us.He told us that no matter how the civil war ended, he wanted to stay in Beijing.His professional career left him with little interest or experience in politics.He himself knew little about the Communists.But like many of his countrymen who suffered from extortion and corruption under Chiang's regime, he found it hard to believe that things could get any worse. On his schedule, the most urgent thing before returning to China is to finish his English manuscript of "Images of Chinese Architecture History", and he asked me to help him.We worked together for several days then and later, editing and rewriting the English manuscript and preparing it for finalization.I had to write inquiries and find a suitable publishing house.At the same time, according to our plan, he also checked the manuscript and added some chapters to make the manuscript meet the finalization requirements before publication. At this moment, Sicheng unexpectedly received a telegram from Beijing.Huiyin's tuberculosis condition deteriorated rapidly, and she was considering an operation, and Sicheng had to participate in the decision-making.For Sicheng, nothing about his affairs in the United States is more important than his return to Huiyin as soon as possible.Thankfully the Yale class is over.Meetings of the UN Advisory Committee are still going on, but what Sicheng can do has been done, and the Nimea plan he favors seems to be gaining majority support.The books he bought for Tsinghua University have also been arranged for shipping.Relatives and friends came to help him pack his personal luggage.Many of his luggage are small gifts for family members.The Stanins, who helped him with his final shopping in New York, were rather surprised by his penchant for gadgets, or as Sicheng puts it, "advanced American technology" that could surprise his recipients in China.As for the unfinished matters after he left, he entrusted them all to me. He had brought pictures and photographs for his book from New Haven, and placed them in my care.As for the manuscript we finished, he decided to take it away.He said the two-week sea voyage across the Pacific was the perfect time to finish it, and he promised to mail it back soon.Neither he nor I thought to leave me a handy copy.That may seem unthinkable today, but that was forty years ago.Either way it was a fatal mistake.I deposited a thick packet of illustrations in the Fogg Museum of Art at Harvard University, but the manuscript has never returned to me. When he came hastily to say goodbye, we talked of reunion the way old friends always do.However, we all understood that it was unlikely that the four of us would ever get together again.Thinking of this, I am eager to learn from Sicheng about the part of Sicheng and Huiyin's life experience that is not shared by the four of us, otherwise there will be no chance.I felt intuitively that revisiting the early years would lessen the sense of impending loss that had clouded our last moments together.He politely agreed that I should interview him this way and record his responses.The interview should have lasted a full day or preferably a week, but we only had a few hours—an afternoon and an evening.As I expected, his memories intoxicated not only me but him as well.Years later, the transcript of this interview provided the original framework for this book.