In 1929, he became an associate professor of architecture at Northeastern University, teaching sculpture history and English. In that year, Zhang Xueliang offered a prize to collect the emblem design of Northeastern University, and Lin Huiyin's design of "White Mountains and Black Waters" won the prize. 1930, he went to Shuangqing Villa of Fragrant Hills in Beijing to recuperate from a lung disease, and was recruited to be a member of the China Construction Association in 1931.
From 1931 to 1946, during the period of China Construction Society, participated in the investigation and research of Chinese ancient architecture, covering Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi and other places.
After 1946, he became a professor in the department of architecture of tsinghua university, teaching "history of chinese architecture" and opening "general introduction to housing" and other special courses for graduate students. 1949, he participated in the design of the emblem of the people's republic of china, and in 1951, he designed the ornamentation and relief pattern for the pedestal of people's heroes monument in tian'anmen square, and in 1951, he investigated and studied the cloisonné production process and designed a number of new cloisonné designs in a national style. Cloisonné production process in 1951 and design a number of new patterns with a national style of cloisonné, but also personally involved in the test.
In 1950, he was appointed as a member of Beijing Municipal Urban Planning Committee and an engineer, and in 1953, he was elected as a member of the First Council of the Architectural Society of China, an editorial board member of the Journal of Architecture, and a member of the Architectural Research Committee of China.
Participated in the design of the project are Peking University Geological Museum, gray building student dormitory. Yunnan University student dormitory, Tsinghua University faculty housing. Decoration project of Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, etc.
She published papers on architecture, mainly "on several features of Chinese architecture", "Ping suburban architecture miscellany" (co-authored with Liang Sicheng), "Qing-style building rules", the first chapter of the introductory essay, "Jinfen ancient architecture pre-checking the chronicle" (signed by Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng), "by the Tennyson Temple on the identification of the age of the building problem" (signed by Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng), "Chinese architectural history" (Liao, Song part), "Chinese architectural development" (signed by Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng), "Chinese architectural history" (Liao, Song part), "Chinese architectural development" (Liao and Song part), "Chinese architectural history" (Liao and Song parts). ), and Historical Stages in the Development of Chinese Architecture (co-authored with Liang Sicheng and Mo Zongjiang).
Her literary works mainly include dozens of poems such as Who Loves This Unceasing Change, Laughing, Qingyuan, One Day, Stirring, Day Dreaming, and Close Thoughts; the play Mei Zhen with Them; the short story Dilemma. In Ninety-Nine Degrees, etc.; essays Beyond the Window and A Piece of Sunshine. The People's Literature Publishing House published Lin Huiyin's Poems (1985); the People's Literature Publishing House and Hong Kong's Sanlian Bookstore jointly edited and published Lin Huiyin (one of the series of anthologies of modern Chinese writers).
Lin Huiyin was a talented woman in Chinese architecture in the 20th century.
In the 1930s, when Lin Huiyin lived in Beijing's Dongcheng Zabu Hutong, the living room of her house was called "Mrs. Living Room". At that time, a group of literary celebrities, including Zhu Guangqian, Liang Zongdai and Jin Yuelin, used to gather here, with a cup of tea and some snacks, to talk about literature and art, from the south to the north, from the past to the present and from China to the future. Lin Huiyin was always the most active person in the "wife's living room", reading poems, debating, and her eyes sparkled because of such spiritual meals. Her friends were an important part of Lin's life, and her excellence was due to their appreciation and inspiration.
It was in the "wife's living room" that the writer Xiao Qian met Lin Huiyin. It was in 1930, when Xiao Qian was editing the periodical China Bulletin with An Lan in the United States, and through the introduction of his teacher Yang Zhensheng, Xiao Qian visited Shen Congwen. In the fall of 1933, Xiao Qian sent his first novel Silkworm to Shen Congwen for his guidance. At that time, Shen Congwen was compiling "Ta Kung Pao - Literature and Art Supplement", he made some modifications on Xiao Qian's manuscript and published it, which benefited Xiao Qian a lot. Xiao Qian's manuscript is now on display in the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. That day, or Yanjing University third-year student Xiao Qian wore a newly washed blue cloth coat, and Shen Congwen together to the "Mrs. living room". Xiao Qian has long heard that Lin Huiyin's lung disease is very serious, imagine that she should be a sick face; who knows when he saw Lin Huiyin, can not help but stay. He saw her wearing a horseback riding outfit, which made her look beautiful and like an athlete. It turned out that from time to time she and her friends went to the club run by foreigners to ride horses. The first thing Lin Huiyin said to Xiao Qian was, "You write with emotion, which is rare." These words gave Xiao Qian great encouragement. Shen Congwen was a frequent visitor to Lin Huiyin's home, he grew up in western Hunan and had a very rich life base. Lin Huiyin liked his works very much, because there are very strange plots, very special characters, are unheard of. When Shen Congwen encountered something, he would also run to Lin Huiyin's house to seek comfort. One day, Shen rushed to Lin Huiyin's house almost in tears, saying that his wife Zhang Zhaohe had gone to her mother's house in Suzhou, and that he wrote to her every day but could not get any understanding. Lin Huiyin felt that this was life, and that life should have its joys and sorrows. Lin Huiyin met Shen Congwen and Xiao Qian in her living room, but this pair of teachers and students turned against each other after her death, which she never expected.
In 1932, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng became acquainted with American friends Fei Zhengqing and Fei Xinmei, whose families happened to live in the same hutong, and Fei said, "China has had a great influence on us, and the Liangs played an important role in our experience of sojourning in China." Sometimes, when Mr. and Mrs. Fei went to Liang's house together, they saw Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng reciting classical Chinese poems in the "wife's living room," and their staccato, rhythmic cadences mesmerized the guests. Moreover, they were able to compare Chinese poems with the works of British poets Keats and Tennyson or American poet Vichel Lindsay. Fei has talked to them about Harvard Square, New York artists and exhibits, American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Baggs campus of Cambridge University. Since Fei Huimei has a hobby of restoring topiaries, she has even more **** with the Lin Huiyin couple in the same language.
Expedition Discovers Tang Dynasty Architecture
After Liang Sicheng wrote "Qing Style Construction Rules and Regulations," which came off the press in March 1932, it wasn't until 1934 that it was published by the China Construction Society. In addition to writing the Introduction to the book, Lin Huiyin spent a great deal of effort on the several additions, deletions, and revisions from the beginning to the end of the book, as well as on the taking and selection of photographs. Liang Sicheng wrote in the preface: at least, she is half of the author of the book is right. Lin Huiyin was an ancient architect, but she combined the meticulousness of a scientist, the philosophical thinking of a historian, and the passion of a literary artist, and was highly accomplished in this science. At that time, most of Liang Sicheng's thesis and investigation report through her processing and embellishment, so later Liang Sicheng often told people, his article "eyes" is Lin Huiyin "point" on most of them.
In early 1935, the Nanjing government decided to repair and maintain the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong Province. Liang Sicheng went to Qufu to survey the temple and make repair plans. Just then, Lin Huiyin's tuberculosis recurred. The hospital doctor asked her to take bed rest for three years, but Lin Huiyin only agreed to rest for six months. Every day, Lin Huiyin wrote, and in February, her poem "Memories" was selected for inclusion in the Yearbook of Chinese Literature and Art, edited by Yang Jinhao and published by Beixin Bookstore in Shanghai, and on June 1, her poem "Hanging Wei De" was published in Literature and Art Monthly, Volume 7, Issue 6, and her novels "Bell Green" and "The Literature of the World" were published in the Chinese Literature and Art Monthly. Her novels Zhong Green and Jigong, her poem On the City Floor, and her essay Commemorating the Fourth Anniversary of Xu Zhimo's Death were published in Ta Kung Pao - Literary and Art Supplement. She also wrote the poem "Inspiration", which was unpublished during her lifetime and was later included in Lin Huiyin's Collected Poems, published in 1985.In May 1936, Lin Huiyin, feeling that she had recovered, arrived in Luoyang with Liang Sicheng, and together with Liu Dunzhen and Chen Mingda, inspected the Longmen Grottoes. Then they went on to inspect Guan Yu's tomb in the southern suburb of Luonan, and traveled to Kaifeng to inspect the Fan Pagoda of the Song Dynasty, and to Tai'an to inspect the Dai Temple at the foot of Taishan Mountain - a place where emperors and kings of the past have been worshipped.
The Japanese once asserted that wooden buildings of the Tang Dynasty no longer existed in China, and that to see Tang-made wooden buildings, people could only go to Nara, Japan. However, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin believed that in such a big place as China, there must be wooden buildings of the Tang Dynasty existed. They went to the library and pored over a lot of materials, which resulted in a significant discovery. In the Atlas of the Dunhuang Caves, written by the French sinologist Bergschwer, a study of two Tang dynasty murals caught their attention. These two murals depicted a panoramic view of the Wutai Mountain, a sacred Buddhist site, and labeled each temple by name. Liang Sicheng also came across a copy of the Journal of Qingliang Mountain (Wutai Mountain, Shanxi) in the Peking Library, which contained an account of the Buddha's Light Temple. Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin estimated that this place was more conducive to the preservation of ancient buildings due to the inconvenient transportation and the lack of people entering the incense. They decided to try their luck.
In June 1937, Liang Sicheng took a train to Taiyuan with Lin Huiyin, Mo Zongjiang and Ji Yutang. Afterward, they took an automobile, and halfway there, they switched to riding pack mules and marched to Wutai Mountain. In the treacherous mountain road meandering, sometimes even the animals refused to move forward, they had to pull the donkey on foot. So walk for two days, only to arrive at is located in wutai county northeast 60 miles of the Buddha light temple. Only to see there the Tang Dynasty wooden structure, clay sculpture, stone carving, murals, ink, as well as inside and outside the temple Wei (or Qi) Tang tomb tower, stone carvings, gathered in one place, depending on each other. This is the treasure of our country's historical relics.
Liang Sicheng, in his article "In Search of Ancient Architecture," described in detail some of the things they did at the Buddha's Light Temple. He said they began a careful investigation the next day. The arches, the beams, the algal wells and the carved column bases were all looked at closely, and both individually and in general, they unmistakably showed the characteristics of the Late Tang period. When they climbed into the dark space above the wells, they saw there a roof structure that used double "principal rafters" (a term borrowed from modern roof frames), a practice found only in Tang dynasty paintings. This "attic" was inhabited by thousands of bats, which were clustered around the ridge purlins, making it impossible for him to find the dates that might have been written on them. In addition to this, the wood was filled with thousands of bedbugs that ate the blood of the bats. Wearing thick masks to cover their mouths and noses, they spent hours in the darkness and unbearable filth taking measurements, drawings and flash photographs.
On her third day working in the hall, Lin Huiyin noticed a very faint writing in Chinese ink under the root of a beam. The discovery had an electrifying effect on everyone; there is nothing more joyous than a date actually written on a temple beam or carved into a stone. While everyone was busy trying to figure out how to set up scaffolding in the cluster of Buddha statues in order to clean the beams and examine the inscriptions close by, she tilted her head back as far as she could and did her best to identify the writing on the beams from all different angles. After some effort, Lin Huiyin recognized a number of vaguely personal names with long Tang official positions. The most important of these was on the beam on the far right, which was vaguely recognizable at the time: "Ning Gongyu, female disciple of the Lord of the Buddhist Temple." The stone pillar in front of the steps outside is dated "11th year of Dazhong of the Tang Dynasty", which is equivalent to 857 AD. After they returned to Beiping, Lin Huiyin met Zhu Ziqing and Xiao Qian, and described the expedition to them with great interest. The main hall of the Buddha's Light Temple, which Lin Huiyin and her companions discovered, was the oldest known wooden structure in China at the time.
Lin Huiyin and Lin Su
In the fall of 1948, a girl named Lin Su came to Lin Huiyin's home. She was small in stature, with a goose-egg shaped face and straight features.Lin Huiyin died in 1955, and Lin Su married Liang Sicheng in 1962.
Lin Su came to Tsinghua University with her boyfriend Cheng Yingquan after graduating from high school in 1948. Cheng taught in the architecture department, and Lin Su wanted to study in the advanced class. After being introduced by Cheng, Lin went to visit Lin Huiyin. As soon as she entered the door, she heard a violent cough from inside. When Lin Huiyin asked Lin Su about her university entrance examination, Lin Su said that she had failed to get in, and felt that math, chemistry and language were okay, and the most difficult thing was English. Lin Huiyin laughed at this and said, "You're the opposite of our kids, they're all afraid of math, why are you afraid of English?" She told Lin Su that English was not scary. Then Lin Huiyin talked about the history of Beijing and talked about the Summer Palace. She said, "The front hill of the Summer Palace is too tacky, the essence of the Summer Palace is in the back hill. Shen Congwen is now living in the Harmonious Garden; you can go to him and ask him to be your guide."
Since Tsinghua University did not offer prerequisite classes, Lin Su had to do her own revision, sometimes listening to Liang Sicheng's lectures on the history of Western architecture and several other professors' classes. Knowing this, Lin Huiyin decided to teach Lin Su English herself, and made it a rule to hold classes on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. Lin Huiyin was very strict in her lessons, which enabled Lin Su to make rapid progress. Lin Huiyin's health was getting worse and worse. When winter came, the room had to be heated, so Liang Sicheng burned the heaters for Lin Huiyin every day. It was a very tiring job, adding coal to the big furnace, pouring slag, and mastering the temperature, and Liang Sicheng didn't dare to leave this job to others. In addition, he gave Lin Huiyin injections regularly every day, both intramuscular and intravenous, and Liang Sicheng knew them all. In order to make Lin Huiyin sit comfortably, Liang Sicheng put all kinds of cushions and washers for her. When Lin Su saw these, she thought, "He is really a good husband!
Lin Su's first marriage was organized by Lin Huiyin for her. At that time, Lin Su received a letter from her parents, who had sent her a letter from Hong Kong, asking her to marry Cheng Yingquan as soon as possible. In order to prepare for the marriage, Lin Su was ready to sell her jewelry. When Lin Huiyin found out about this, she said to her, "There is an earmarked fund for sponsoring young students in the Construction Society, so you can use this money first and pay it back later." With that, he gave Lin Su the bankbook. The next day, when Lin Su went to the bank to withdraw the money, she found that Liang Sicheng's name was written on it. When Lin Shu wanted to pay back the money later, Lin Huiyin always changed the subject. It was not until the "Cultural Revolution" that Lin Shu realized that when Lin Huiyin gave her the money, the Society had long been closed down, and it was in fact Lin Huiyin's own money!
On December 13, 1948, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered the Qinghua Garden in the suburbs of Beijing and pushed into the city of Beiping. Late one night, an old friend, Zhang Xiruo, came to Lin Huiyin's home with two soldiers, who turned out to be the head of the liaison office of the political department of the 13th Corps of the People's Liberation Army. The visitors opened the door and said, "Professor Liang, I have been commissioned by the People's Liberation Army's siege force to come and ask you for advice on what famous buildings and cultural relics and monuments in the city need to be protected, and I would like you to accurately mark their locations on this map, so that our army can avoid them during the siege of the city." Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin were touched. Liang Sicheng not only accurately marked the locations of key cultural relics in Beiping on the military map of Beiping, but also took out the "National Compendium of Architectural Relics" recorded when he led his students to collect ancient architectural literature, and gave them to the PLA cadres along with a detailed explanation. Later, that military map of Beiping turned into the Map of Key Cultural Relics of Beiping, in Xibaipo, and hung on the wall of Mao Zedong's command post.
After liberation, Lin Huiyin was hired as a first-class professor at the architecture department of Tsinghua University, where she participated in the design of the national flag and national emblem and the Monument to the People's Heroes, along with Liang Sicheng and others. At that time, literary troupes often went to the university to perform. Lin Su had never come into contact with those rice-planting operas that showed peasants and found them very new, so he told Lin Huiyin about them. Lin Huiyin was very interested in them, and once when a large-scale rice-planting opera "Tears of Blood and Vengeance" was performed at Tsinghua University, Lin Huiyin insisted on going there. Lin Su had to reserve a seat for her, but Lin Huiyin had to go home and lie down after she had taken only a few steps from her house, coughing and wheezing.
In the early 1950s, the leaders of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee decided to tear down the great city wall and the city gate buildings in large numbers, and people remembered that Liang Sicheng had put up a bitter fight for this, but in fact Lin Huiyin did her best. By 1954, Lin Huiyin was already very sick, she still dragged her trembling body to the then municipal party committee leaders to debate. She told them with full of emotion, "What you are demolishing is a real antique with 800 years of history, and in the future, sooner or later, you will regret it, and at that time, what you are going to build is a fake antique!" History proved that what she said was right.
Lin Huiyin died on April 1, 1955, at the age of 51, after a long illness.
Since the 1930s, Lin Huiyin was renowned in both the poetry and architecture worlds. Her talent and love legend became a household name again with the TV series "April Day on Earth". Scholars, friends and family have criticized the show for its distance from historical facts, sparking the interest of readers at home and abroad to explore the story.
Remembering Lin Huiyin Inside and Outside the Window is the first collection in China of many people's recollections of Lin Huiyin. Nearly 30 essays by famous writers, architects and students from friends and relatives are collected, documenting from different perspectives her close and extraordinary friendships with Liang Sicheng, Xu Zhimo, and Jin Yuelin, as well as her dedication to her career.
Almost everyone who visited Lin's home appreciated her famous "living room".
The hostess's tea parties were to Xiao Qian, a young literary man, "like a kindly whip on the hind legs of a newborn colt." In order to retain such a healthy vividness, Liu Xiaoqin in the "Chinese Literary Artist" 2000, No. 6, deliberately different professions, different ages, different nationalities, different times of the "living room" of the memory of the narrative class into a piece of guidance to readers "into Huiyin's living room".
You will find that when the "real" is not recorded for the sake of the unreal, the past speaks for itself.
The following is a selection of excerpts from the book.
Breadth of characters
There were tea parties at Mr. Kim's house every Saturday afternoon for 10 years before the war. Mr. Jin lived in the city of Beijing until the war, and for six or seven of those years he lived in a small courtyard in North Zongbu Hutong in the eastern city. The house had two courtyards, front and back. In the front yard lived Mr. Liang Sicheng and Mrs. Lin Huiyin. Mr. Jin lived in the back yard. He often invited friends to his house on Saturday afternoons for tea. Over time, this became a habit. Every Saturday afternoon, he prepared some refreshments at home and waited for his friends to come, and his friends often came to his home on that day as uninvited guests. Some of them were regulars, some were rare, some were new. Sometimes there are also guests he invited on a whim. I was one of them. Among the regulars, of course, there were most of them from the academic world. And of course, the academic community in the Peking University, Tsinghua University, Yanjing school colleagues are the most. But students were not excluded either. I remember that on one or two occasions when I was a regular visitor, I met some female students from Yanjing University.
One of them was Ms. Han Suyin, a Chinese-American writer who is now a frequent visitor to China. There were also expatriate academics in the academic community. I once met Dr. Walter B. Cannon, President of Harvard University in the 1930s, at a Saturday tea party at his home. He was accompanied by his daughter Wilma and son-in-law John K. Fairbonk. In addition, his guests included literati, poets and literary figures from the Pingjin area at that time. On one occasion, I met several young actors who were blossoming in the theater world at his tea party. Another time, I met some old men playing cricket. The breadth of characters is a hallmark of this tea party.
(Chen Daisun, "Recollections of Mr. Jin Yuelin")
Not Gossip
I first met Lin Huiyin in early November 1933 on a Saturday afternoon. After posting my novel Silkworms in Ta Kung Pao - Literature and Art, Mr. Shen Congwen wrote to say that a superbly intelligent young lady loved my novel and asked me to come to her house for tea.
On that day, wearing a freshly washed blue cloth coat, I first rode my bicycle to the Shen family in Daziying, and then stepped into the famous "wife's living room" of Huiyin in North General Cloth Hutong together with Mr. Shen.
I heard that Huiyin had a very serious lung disease, and often had to rest in bed. But she was like a patient, wearing a horseback riding outfit. She often went horseback riding with Fei Zhengqing and his wife Wilma (i.e., Fei Yuimei, editor's note) to the Foreigners' Club. The first thing she said to me was, "You write with emotion, which is rare." It gave me great encouragement. When she spoke, others could hardly intervene. Not to mention Mr. Shen and me, even Liang Sicheng and Jin Yuelin just sat on the sofa baring their pipes and nodding their appreciation. Huiyin's talkative is never a married woman that kind of gossip, but often learned, insightful, sharp and quick criticism. I often thought later: If this lady who described but did not write, like Dr. Johnson in the 18th century in England, there is also a Boswell beside her, those full of wit, funny words recorded one by one, it would be what a wonderful book ah! She never beat about the bush or equivocate. No one ever held a grudge for such purely academic criticism, either. I am often impressed by Huiyin's exceptional artistic understanding.
(Xiao Qian, "A Generation of Talented Women, Lin Huiyin")
The Centerpiece of the Gathering
When Huiyin went to her friends' gatherings during the period when we first arrived in Beijing, she often brought us along. We were welcomed by Lao Jin, and the others, of course, talked, whispered and laughed in Chinese as they told their stories, tolerating the presence of us "foreigners". When Fei became a faculty member at Tsinghua the following year, and we became more fluent in Chinese, we were no longer outsiders.
On Saturday afternoons, the Lao Jin party often moved to a Chinese restaurant. One evening in particular is memorable, when Huiyin told her friends an offbeat story at the table. In the chaotic lifestyle of the Liang family parlor, something was always happening, especially when the devoted maid, Chen Ma, often had to go out and in, telling Huiyin about troubles and asking her to make up her mind. Every troublesome thing, no matter whether it happened in the house or in the house next door, Hui Yin was asked to think of a solution.
Here's how Huiyin's story begins: Chen Ma came in one day in a panic and said that the neighbor who lived along the west edge of the Liang family's high fence had a big hole cracked in the roof. She said that the tenant there was so poor that he could not afford to repair the roof, and begged Huiyin to speak to the landlord. As usual, Huiyin immediately put down the work at hand and went to investigate the matter in person. She spoke with the landlord and found that the tenant lived in three rooms and paid only 50 copper plates (ten cents) a month for rent. The landlord said that the current tenant's ancestors had rented the house two hundred years ago during the Qianlong period and paid a fixed monthly rent. Since it was the same family that had always lived there, the landlord could not raise the rent according to Chinese law. Huiyin recounted the story in vivid and detailed detail, ending with Huiyin's donation to the landlord of a sum of money to repair the roof. We laughed and applauded. "You have shown us that the Beijing of the past still exists in a heady way, Huiyin is really something!"
Hui-Yin's living room, which faces south and is flooded with white sunlight, is often as crowded as Lao Jin's Saturday "house parties," and all kinds of people come to the door. In addition to the children and servants running around, there were also relatives coming in and out of the house, and a few nieces of the Liang family, who were attending university at the time, loved to bring their classmates to this vibrant home. Here they often met some famous contemporary poets and writers, who came because they admired Huiyin's works and lingered because they were fascinated by Huiyin's personal charm. (Note: Lin Huiyin was so talented that Xu Zhimo once called her "China's Mansfield").
I often rode my bicycle or rickshaw to Liang's house in the dark. When the red-lacquered double gates were locked and the servants unlatched the courtyard entrance, I walked through the inner garden to Huiyin. Sitting down in a cozy corner of the living room and making two cups of hot tea, we couldn't wait to tell the stories and ideas we kept for each other. We sometimes analyzed and compared the different values and lifestyles of China and the United States, but then turned to each other's many ****ing interests in literature, art, and adventure, and talked about friends the other didn't know.
The genius poet Xu Zhimo was certainly one of them. She talked about him to me from time to time and never stopped thinking about him. I have often thought that the words we spoke to each other in fluent English on a variety of subjects and with great passion might have been the echoes of a lively conversation between Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin. I think she could never forget him when she was a little girl in London and Xu Zhimo opened up a wider world for her, guiding her to recognize the subtleties of English literature and the English language.
The philosopher Jin Yuelin, a friend of Xu's known as "Lao Jin," was actually a later addition to the Liang family and lived in a small room next door. There was a small door in the Liangs' living room that led through "Lao Jin's yard" to his house, and he often went through it to attend the Liangs' parties. The flow was reversed on Saturday afternoons when Lao Jin was at home with old friends. At this time of year, the Leongs cross his small yard into his inner sanctum and stir with their guests, who are also close friends of theirs.
The group were Lao Jin's close colleagues at the university, including two political scientists. Zhang Xi Ruo, a man of principle, blunt and impressive; and Qian Duan Sheng, a sharp analyst of the Chinese government with an interest in international affairs. Chen Daisun, a tall, dignified and unsmiling economist. There were also two older professors, each prominent in his field: Li Ji, a Harvard-born anthropologist and archaeologist who led the Academia Sinica team that excavated the Yin Ruins in Anyang; and Tao Meng-he, a sociologist who had studied in London and was the director of the Institute for Social Research at the Academia Sinica. None of these men, like the architect Liang Sicheng and the logician Lao Jin, were modernists. Modernizers who aspire to study China's past and present in a scientific way. On Saturdays, the wives of some of them are present to join in the lively conversation.
Every old friend will remember how Huiyin gabbled and monopolized the conversation.
She was known to be a good talker, but what was striking was that she was equally good at writing, and her conversations were as creative as her writings. Topics ranged from witty anecdotes to perceptive analysis, from wise counsel to sudden anger, from frenzied enthusiasm to profound disdain, and she was always the center of the party. When she spoke eloquently, admirers always fell for the pithy aphorisms that burst forth from her sky-high inspiration.
(Fei Xinmei, "Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin")
Tea Party at Liang's House
Since the prerequisite classes at Tsinghua were discontinued, Lin Huiyin decided to tutor me in English herself and made it mandatory for me to attend the classes on Tuesdays and Fridays in the afternoon. I was happy and worried, because I could not wait to have such a good teacher to tutor me. At the same time, I could see that she was very strict, and would bluntly criticize anything that did not satisfy her, and her language was sharp, so I was worried that I would inevitably be criticized in the future.
After each class, Mr. Lin invited me to have tea with him, and at that time, those who often came to Liang's house to have tea were Mr. Jin Yuelin, Mr. and Mrs. Zhang Xiruo; Mr. and Mrs. Zhou Peiyuan and Mr. Chen Daisun also often came with them. Others were mostly professors from Tsinghua University and Peking University, and several young teachers from the Department of Architecture were also frequent visitors. Mr. Jin Yuelin always came to Liang's house at 3:30 every day, rain or shine, and started to read various books for Mr. Lin, most of which were in English, including philosophy, aesthetics, urban planning, architectural theories, and the English version of Engels' works. They often peppered their recitations with discussion.
The Liangs began their daily tea at 4:30 p.m. Mr. Lin was naturally the center of the tea party, and Mr. Liang, who didn't talk much, always listened attentively, occasionally interjecting with simple, lively and witty language.
Mr. Lin, on the other hand, is always engaging no matter what she talks about, and her language is lively. She also often imitated some of her friends' speech and learned it perfectly. She once introduced herself to her students as Mr. Zhu Changzhong, saying, "I (éo) know the singing (Zhu Changzhong)." This caused laughter in the hall. Once she introduced me to Mr. Chen Daisun and said, "This girl is from Fuzhou and from Shanghai, and I have not been able to figure out whether she is a Fuzhou girl or a Shanghai lady." Then she learned the Kunming dialect, "Yan Lai envoy Yinnan population Luo (it turns out she is Yunnan population Luo)." It made us all laugh.
She was so knowledgeable that no matter what she talked about, she had a wealth of content and her own unique insights.
One day Mr. Lin talked about the art of Hmong clothing, from the Hmong pick flower pattern, and talked about the decorative patterns of the building, she introduced China's ancient prevalence of curly grass pattern of the production, circulation; pointed out that China's curly grass pattern originated in India, which originated from Alexander's eastern expedition. She also pointed to the pieces of flower-picked earth cloth on the sofa and said that she had bought them from a Miao girl at a high price. That turned out to be a pair of sleeve heads and pant legs to be made into a wedding dress. Her eyes suddenly lit up and she pointed to Liang Gong, who was leaning against the sofa, and said:
"Look at Si Cheng, he's lying on the Hmong girl's pant legs." I couldn't help but giggle.
At this time, Mr. Liang also talked to us about his anecdotes during his investigation in Sichuan and Yunnan. He said that when he was in Chuxiong, Yunnan, he was once invited to a wedding banquet as a guest of honor. He saw a marvelous couplet posted on the door of the new house. The first couplet read: "Shake hands and perform the ritual of equality" and the second couplet read: "Sing the song of freedom with one heart". Then he dragged out his voice and said with a smile, "The horizontal couplet is: 'Love - of - essence - sincerity '." The guests all burst out laughing. He himself laughed and said,
"It's a crying shame."
I remember at a tea party at Liang's house, Lin Huiyin talked to her guests one day about the culture of the Land of Heaven. Lin Huiyin said Liang Sicheng had recorded a thick book of Sichuan folk proverbs, collected along the way on his journey to investigate ancient buildings. Liang Sicheng said that during the journey, he seldom heard the sedan chair bearers carrying the sliding poles conversing in ordinary language, and they were almost always talking out of their mouths. When two people carry a slippery pole, the person behind cannot see the road, so the two people in front and behind have to work well together. For example, if there is a pile of cow dung or horse dung on the road, the person in front will say, "Iris flies in the sky," to which the person in the back will immediately reply, "A pile of cow shit on the ground," and carefully avoid the cow dung. Many of the roads in the southwest mountainous areas are paved with stone slabs. After a long time, the stone slabs are movable, so people will accidentally step on them and fall, or splash the mud in the cracks of the stone onto their bodies, at which time the person in front of them will sing, "Live shake live," to which the person behind them will immediately respond, "Step on it and don't step on the horn (jǒu). "There are countless dialogues like this. Sometimes when they were happy, they sang a mountain song with a rich vocabulary and beautiful language. Liang Sicheng said:
"Don't look at the palanquin bearers living in poverty, but there is no lack of sense of humor, and they will never let go of any opportunity to have fun. If they met a girl they would make all kinds of jokes. If the girl had a bit of pimples, the one in front would say 'there is a flower on the left (right) side', and the one at the back would immediately follow up with 'a bit of pimples is what makes it Ba Jia'."
Lin Huiyin took over and said, "If you run into a great girl, you will immediately talk back and say 'it's your mom'." Everyone laughed. Lin Huiyin added: "Sichuan proverbs and ballads are really beautiful! With a little organizing they would make great poems and ballads, and could be compiled into a book of Slippery Pole Songs." It is a pity that the God of Life did not give Lin Huiyin time to accomplish this meaningful work.
I never saw the notebook either.
The teachers of the Architecture Department and I were often overwhelmed by the erudition and optimism of Mr. Liang and Mr. Lin on our way home after listening to a stomach full of anecdotes and all kinds of insightful insights and arguments at Liang's house. I have never heard them complain about their illnesses or life troubles.
Their old friends