A generation of talented women Lin Huiyin, a great architect, designed the Monument to the People's Heroes

In people's impressions, Lin Huiyin' identity as a generation of talented women is more prominent, and the poems she writes are familiar to everyone and are often overwhelmed by her literary talent.

In fact, what she loves and has worked for all her life is actually a career in architecture. She was one of the first architects in New China and made immortal contributions to the research and education of Chinese architecture.

Auditor in Penn's Department of Architecture

Lin Huiyin (1904-1955) was born in Hangzhou in a scholarly mendi, and when she was a teenager, she lived in London with her father, and traveled to the European continent to see the natural customs and folk customs of various parts of Europe.

In her days in London, Lin Huiyin was indissoluble with architecture, and the buildings of the European Renaissance deeply attracted her. She was so passionate about this that she had a strong desire to become a female architect in the future.

In 1924, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng, who had already made a marriage contract, came to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States to study together, Liang Sicheng entered the Department of Architecture, and because the Department of Architecture of Penn University did not accept female students at that time, Lin Huiyin failed to study in the Department of Architecture as desired, and had to enter the Department of Fine Arts, but her good skills and achievements made her enter the third grade as soon as she entered the school. It just so happened that the Department of Fine Arts and the Department of Architecture belonged to the Same Academy of Fine Arts, and Lin Hui was able to conveniently observe the architecture course.

In two years, she obtained a bachelor's degree in fine arts on schedule, and as an auditor in the department of architecture, she was hired as an assistant to the architectural design teacher in less than two years, and soon became a tutor for this course.　　

In 1927, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin both graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Liang Sicheng received a bachelor's degree in architecture and then a master's degree. Lin Hui completed four years of study and three years, and obtained a bachelor of fine arts degree with high scores. Liang Sicheng went to Harvard to study, determined to return to China to study ancient Chinese architecture.

On March 21, 1928, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin were married at the Consulate General of Canada. This day is the date on the monument of the Song Dynasty architect Li Jie, who chose this date to commemorate this great ancient Chinese architect. It can be seen that Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng love architecture. They went to Europe for their honeymoon and conducted field trips to ancient buildings in Western European countries.

Coached the first architecture department

On August 18, 1928, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin returned to Beijing after finishing their European tour. Previously, they had accepted an offer from Northeastern University, and Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin rushed to take up their posts at Northeastern University. Liang Sicheng is the head of the Department of Architecture, and Lin Huiyin is the professor.

Northeastern University was founded in 1923, and after Zhang Xueliang became president in 1926, the original four subjects of literature, law, science and engineering were changed into the College of Arts, Law, Science and Engineering, and the Department of Architecture was set up in the School of Engineering. It was one of only two architectural training centers in the country at the time.

Teaching in the Department of Architecture at Northeastern University is Lin Huiyin's first attempt to engage in architecture, which provides her with a broad world of architectural creation. The Department of Architecture has only two of their teachers, teaching more than forty students, and the task is very heavy.

Lin Huiyin taught art classes and architectural design, and soon opened a course that integrated Western and Chinese architectural history, using a completely British and American teaching method. Lin Huiyin often takes students to the Zhaoling Tombs and the Imperial Palace in Shenyang to take classes, using existing ancient buildings as teaching aids to talk about the relationship between architecture and beauty. Then, she told everyone the legend of the Eight Flags system. Lin Huiyin's profound knowledge, very sharp conversation, and cheerful humor make students listen to it.

Many years later, her students have not forgotten the story of the Eight Flags system that opened the door to their artistic thinking. Because of his heavy teaching tasks, Lin Hui often tutored students in English and was busy until late at night every day. At that time, she was pregnant, she did not care about herself, and often went to Beiling with Liang Sicheng to survey and map various ancient buildings.

In the summer of 1929, Liang Sicheng and others established the "Construction Office", and soon received two projects, the first was to design the entire campus building for Jilin University, and the second was to design the campus building of the Jinzhou Branch of Jiaotong University, which was later destroyed in the war, and Lin Huiyin participated in the design from beginning to end. She also collaborated with Liang Sicheng on a "public design" to design Xiao He Garden, a park on the outskirts of Shenyang, and designed private homes for some military generals in Shenyang. This is a rare architectural design opportunity for Lin Huiyin.

At that time, Zhang Xueliang, president of Northeastern University, set up a bonus to solicit the "Northeast University Emblem Pattern", Lin Huiyin designed it with all his efforts, and the "White Mountain and Black Water" pattern she designed was elected as the emblem of Northeast University, and also won a 400 yuan bonus. Lin Huiyin's architectural talents were first displayed at Northeastern University, which made her interest in architecture more and more intense.

Investigate and study ancient Chinese architecture

However, the September 18 Incident made it difficult for Northeastern University to continue teaching, and Lin Hui had to leave Shenyang for treatment in Beiping due to lung disease. In September 1931, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng returned to Beiping to accept the employment of the China Construction Society, with Liang Sicheng as the director of the French Department and Lin Huiyin as the school director and counselor.

The China Construction Society is an institution specializing in the study of ancient Chinese architecture, and is also the earliest academic group in China to study ancient architecture.

In April 1932, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin began their first field expedition to the Construction Society, the first stop was to investigate the Dule Temple in Jixian County, about 90 kilometers from Beiping.

Dule Temple was built in the second year of the Liao Dynasty (984) and has preserved many Tang Dynasty architectural styles. Dule Temple is located in the foothills of the mountain, and bandits often appear in the deep mountain ravines at that time. However, Lin Hui, despite the fact that his lung disease had not yet healed and was pregnant, resolutely went to carry out investigation work with Liang Sicheng.

Lin Huiyin once recorded the situation at that time: "Everywhere I went was a sweaty trek, and when I walked and worked, I always had the hottest time from eight to six in the evening, and these three days were really tired and happy, and I didn't eat well, and the weather was too hot to eat, so we were much worse than last week's spirit... I was flustered by fleas all day, and I sat in the third-class train and was embarrassed to reach out and scratch everywhere on my body, and I ended up with a bag!"

The conditions of surveying and mapping are extremely simple and dangerous, they still use surveying and mapping tools borrowed from the Department of Civil Engineering of Tsinghua University, and the safety protection during work is not guaranteed. It was under such extremely difficult conditions that Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng insisted on the complex and heavy surveying and mapping work of ancient buildings, and together they did a solid and meticulous job of surveying and mapping, leaving no regrets.

During the inspection of the Yungang Grottoes, what was presented in front of Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng and the team members was a desolate scene, the surrounding mountains were bare, they did not even have a hotel to live in, they had to live in a house where the farmers did not even have doors and windows for three days, the local climate made them unbearable, the noon heat, the evening cold, eating potatoes and corn batter cooked for them by the farmers, the working environment was difficult, but the charm of Yungang art deeply attracted Lin Huiyin to them.

Lin Huiyin and others ignored the wind and sun every day, climbed to the grotto to conduct serious investigation and mapping, made many sketches and rubbings, and made systematic studies of the architectural art of the Yungang Grottoes, including the layout, structure and age of the grottoes, as well as the towers, columns, foreheads, arches, roofs, railings, steps, and algae wells of the grottoes.

In the five years from 1932 to 1937, the members of the Construction Society, mainly Lin Huiyin, walked through 137 counties and cities, and there were 1823 ancient buildings and halls that were investigated, 206 groups of buildings were surveyed and mapped in detail, and 1898 surveying and mapping drawings were completed, leaving a set of scientific and complete precious materials for China's later ancient construction research.

Participated in the writing of the history of Chinese architecture

After the anti-Japanese war began, Lin Huiyin's family lived in exile. From 1940 to 1944, Lin Huiyin, together with Mo Zongjiang, Lu Sheng, and others, participated in the writing of the "History of Chinese Architecture" under the responsibility of Liang Sicheng, which was the long-cherished wish of Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng for many years, and for the writing of this book, they began to collect materials and prepare for it several years ago.

Previously, in 1939, tianjin was flooded, and the underground vault of the Bank of Tianjin, where they kept precious building materials, was flooded, and almost all the stored materials were destroyed. Still, they are not discouraged. At that time, Lin Huiyin moved with Liang Sicheng's work unit, the Central Research Institute, to Lizhuang near Yibin, Sichuan Province, and lived in a low, dilapidated farmhouse.

They invited local carpenters, made a few primitive white wood painting tables, spread out their existing materials, and decided to begin a comprehensive and systematic summary of the results of their pre-war investigations and began to write a history of Chinese architecture.

At the same time, in order to realize their long-cherished wishes over the years, they decided to write and draw a "History of Pictorial Chinese Architecture" in English in order to scientifically introduce the mysteries and achievements of ancient Chinese architecture to the Western world.

At that time, Lin Huiyin's lung disease was also getting more and more serious, often coughing up blood in a big mouth, and when her condition was slightly better, she lay on a small canvas bed to sort out materials, read the twenty-four histories and various materials, made reading notes, and did various supplements, modifications, and editing for the manuscripts.

With the assistance of Lin Huiyin and other members of the Construction Society, Liang Sicheng finally completed the compilation of the History of Chinese Architecture. This is not only the success of Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng's architectural career, but also an important result of the field investigation of ancient architecture by members of the China Construction Society over the years.

Lin Huiyin undertook the proofreading and supplementation of all the manuscripts of the History of Chinese Architecture, and wrote the sixth chapter of the book, the Five Dynasties, Song, Liao, and Jin.

In this huge work, although the number of words written by Lin Huiyin is only 150,000 words, the information is rich and informative, and the materials and related books she cites are as many as 50 kinds, plus the first-hand information they obtained during field investigations, so the article arguments are rigorous, solid, and quite academic. Lin Huiyin was in the harsh environment of the war at that time, coupled with her own physical condition, but she completed this work with a hundred times the perseverance, which was really valuable.

Liang Sicheng later said in the preface to the mimeographed history of Chinese architecture: "This manuscript is the fruit of a collective labor... In addition to Comrade Lin Huiyin's responsibility for collecting and writing materials for the literature of the Liao and Song Dynasties, the entire manuscript has been supplemented by her proofreading. ”

Compilation of a compendium of buildings for the protection of cultural relics

In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the exile life of Lin Huiyin's family finally ended. In 1946, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng returned to Beijing after a decade of absence. Liang Sicheng served as the head of the Department of Architecture at Tsinghua University, and immediately went to the United States to investigate and lecture.

At this time, Lin Huiyin's condition was already very serious, her lung disease had reached an advanced stage, and one kidney had been infected, and her life was in danger. It was not until a successful operation in December 1947 that it improved. Almost in her hospital bed, she did a lot of organizational work for the establishment of the Department of Construction, and established a close colleague relationship with young teachers.

In December 1948, the People's Liberation Army entered Tsinghuayuan to prepare for the liberation of Beijing. Soon, representatives of the People's Liberation Army, accompanied by Zhang Xiruo, came to the door and asked Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng to mark the ancient buildings that needed protection on the military map of Peiping, and to demarcate areas where artillery bombardment was prohibited. They were very excited to hear this, saying that this is what they are worried about day and night, you have come so well, thank you so much!

In January 1949, Beijing was peacefully liberated, and the ancient buildings of Beiping were preserved. Since then, the battle to liberate all of China has continued, and in order to protect ancient buildings and cultural heritage throughout the country, the People's Liberation Army has sent people to ask Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng to list the ancient buildings that need to be protected in various places for protection.

They did not hesitate to agree, and immediately summoned some teachers and students of the Department of Construction, according to the information they obtained from their years of investigation, and at the same time mobilized everyone to jointly collect relevant documents on architecture, and everyone worked day and night, from turning books and checking materials, to engraving steel plates, origami paper, binding, just like the publication of the seven volumes of the China Construction Society, just like the publication of the seven volumes of the China Construction Society, forced to use manual labor, only one month, compiled a thick "National Important Cultural Relics and Buildings Compendium" and "Instructions for the Protection of Ancient Buildings".

In the brief catalogue, Beiping City, forbidden city, Dunhuang, Longmen Grottoes, Shandong Qufu Confucius Temple and other ancient buildings are listed as first-class protected cultural relics, and everyone who adds four small circles to the head of the entry is jokingly called "four star generals", followed by three small circles, and so on, with a total of more than 450 entries, and nearly 200 important circles. Detailed locations, the nature of the artifacts, the dates of construction and restoration, as well as special significance and value are attached to the entry.

Lin Huiyin reviewed the entries of the whole book one by one, and suggested that the note should be specifically pointed out: "The main purpose of this compendium is to protect cultural relics in the event of the People's Liberation Army's combat and takeover. These two pamphlets, printed by the Library and Cultural Relics Department of the North China Higher Education Commission in June 1949, were issued to all the liberation armies and became the instructions and basis for the People's Liberation Army to turn to the north and south to protect cultural relics and buildings from destruction in the fires of war.

Not only that, these two books also became the original blueprints for the "List of the First Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units" and the "Interim Regulations on the Protection and Administration of Cultural Relics" promulgated by the State Council in April 1961.

Lin Huiyin also participated in the design of the national emblem pattern and the physical relief of the national emblem; together with Liang Sicheng, he presided over the organization and design of the Monument to the People's Heroes, and personally designed a full set of ornaments on the stele and the stele and a series of garland reliefs on the monument Xiaosumi; she also participated in the innovative design of China's traditional craft cloisonné, and devoted herself to the protection of the ancient city of Beijing, making outstanding contributions to the preparations for the beginning of the founding of New China and the period of socialist construction.

Lin Huiyin is not only a writer and poet, but also the first female architect in modern China and the pioneer of modern architectural education. Her persistent pursuit of China's architectural cause and her warm concern for young students have great appeal to encourage young people to love their professions, establish a good learning style and dedicate themselves to the construction cause of the motherland, and education has influenced a generation of architects in New China.