The article was first published on the WeChat public account: Shanghai Library. Author: Zhang Mengyuan.
• Ieoh Ming Pei •
Fifteenth family
Those who do not seek to be rich are the richest, and those who do not humiliate others are the most precious, and only with this rich and noble quality can people demonstrate the nobility of life.
There is a family, a famous local family in Suzhou, who made a fortune by practicing medicine and medicine. By the Qianlong period, it has become one of the famous "Four Riches of Suzhou", which has been passed down for fifteen generations since the Ming Dynasty, and has not faded from generation to generation, which is the family of the famous Chinese-American architectural design master, a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and known as the "last master of modern architecture" I.M. Pei - Wuzhong Pei family.
『 The Last Master of Modern Architecture 』
I.M. Pei stands in front of the entrance to the glass pyramid he designed for the Louvre Source: IC Photo
On May 16, 2019, 102-year-old Chinese architect I.M. Pei passed away. The death of I.M. Pei has made countless people lament, the superstar has fallen, and the world architecture world has since lacked a palace-level figure. This Chinese master builder from a prestigious family has created countless legends.
I.M. Pei is the fifteenth member of the Pei family, descended from the Qiangu Gong sect. Originally from Suzhou, he was born in Guangzhou. At the age of 10, he came to Shanghai with his father Bei Zuyi to study, and graduated from the Affiliated High School of St. John's University. At the age of 18, he went to the United States to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He designed the National Gallery of Art, the Kennedy Library, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the Louvre Pyramid in France, the Fragrant Hills Hotel in Beijing, and the Suzhou Museum. He has won more than fifty awards and is one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century.
In designing the entrance to the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris, Mr. Pei was questioned, and in an interview with reporters, he said in his usual low profile: "The criticism of this project makes it difficult for me to bear it alone." But that's not to say that my insistence and requirements will be reduced, I and my building are like bamboo, no matter how big the wind and rain, just bend over. In the end, his work conquered the French, and his persistence and tenacity gradually made this glass pyramid a new landmark in Paris.
The Fragrant Hills Hotel in 1979 was pei's first design when he returned to his homeland. The work has a deep heart, and the whole building has both the exquisiteness of the Jiangnan garden and the openness of the northern garden. Completed in 1997, the Mihide Museum of Art in Japan once again showcased Pei's talent. "Suddenly, the peach blossom forest, hundreds of steps between the shores, no miscellaneous trees, fresh herbs, and colorful falls." Then there is a mountain, and the mountain has a small mouth, as if there were light. In Tao Yuanming's "Peach Blossom Origin", these few words of text have become his inspiration muse.
"Creativity is the co-crystallization of human ingenuity and nature, which I learned from suzhou gardens." Traditional Chinese architecture has always left a deep impression on I.M. Pei's heart, and the long corridors of Suzhou gardens, the artificial landscape and water pavilions, especially the pattern of buildings and buildings complementing the surrounding natural landscapes, have been traced in his decades of architectural design career. In addition to the inspiration of traditional Chinese architecture left to him by Suzhou, the blood of the financial family and the tradition of the business family have made him famous in New York with Chinese wisdom.
『 Fifteen Generations of Noble Families 』
"Wu Zhongbei Family Tree" Source: Shanghai Library Collection
According to the "Wuzhong Bei Family Genealogy", the ancestor of the family, Beilantang, moved from Lanxi County, Jinhua, Zhejiang to Wu County, Suzhou, Jiangsu in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and at the beginning set up a stall in the Nanhao area outside the Jinchang Gate, selling herbs while practicing medicine. After two or three generations of struggle, the Pei family opened a pharmacy until the son and grandson of Bei Lan Tang.
Passed to his grandson Pei Renyu, because he had no biological children, he passed on his nephew He Dingcheng as an heir, and changed his name to Pei Qizuo, not wanting this branch to be the most important branch in the continuation of the Wuzhong Bei family.
Pei Qizuo had four grandsons, Bei Jian, Bei Yu, Bei Quan, and Bei Lu, which were the four major branches of the Duke of Zao'an, the Duke of Yuan, the Duke of Sushan, and the Duke of Qiangu, of which the Duke of Qiangu was the most prosperous.
By the sixth and seventh generations, the father and son of Bei Qiangu and Bemuting finally made the ancestral small business bigger and became a famous local medicinal herb shop. According to the notes of the people of the time, Bei Qiangu was already "trading for a living, and doing good for generations", and Bemuting set up a righteous warehouse to help the victims, and in the famine year, he would sell his own stored grain to the citizens at a price lower than the market price. Bemutin opened up business in Hangzhou, Nanjing and even to Hebei, Beijing and other places, and finally let the family have deep roots, becoming a huge wealth in Wuzhong and ranking among the "four rich people of Nanhao". After Bemutin, the children of the Bei family were more interested in reading, and their pursuit of art and culture gradually unfolded.
To the thirteenth generation of the grandson's Beilitai (no. Zha'an) and Pei Renyuan (No. Runsheng) two branches, so that the Bei family business expanded outwards, from medicine to diversified operations. The father and son of Belitai and Pei Zuyi are known as the "financial family", and Pei Runsheng is the "king of pigments". "Rich and teach", the Pei family finally passed on the family with poetry, advancing with the times, and then extending to the modern economy, science and technology, there are famous poet Pei Qingqiao, bibliophiles Pei Yong, Pei Xinsan, China's earliest architect Pei Jimei who studied in the West, Kunqu opera expert Pei Jinmei, financial giant Pei Zuyi, world-famous architect Pei I.M. Pei, senior educator Pei Jiyao, female painter Pei I.M. Zhao, scientist Pei I.M. Qu, Pei I.M. Milling, economist Pei Shihong and so on.
Such a rare family of prestigious families, people can't help but want to explore it, what makes them pass down to this day? Attaching importance to education and charity are the two most significant characteristics.
『 Cultural Inheritance in Family Training 』
"Mu Tinggong Testament" Source: Shanghai Library Collection
In the history of the Wuzhong Bei family, the seventh Bemutin is an important figure who inherits the past and the future, and his contribution to the family is not only to accumulate more wealth and make the family gain fame, but more importantly, to "make a statement", leaving behind the "Muting Gong Self-Order" and "Muting Gong Testament", which are passed down from generation to generation as family training.
Bemutin died in the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong (1769), and he composed the "Testament of Mu Ting" when he was dying of illness. The posthumous training mainly reviewed his life, including how he abandoned Confucianism and business under the guidance of his father, worked hard to start a business, cared for the orphans of the clan, prepared to build the Beijie Filial Piety Temple, how to keep filial piety for his parents, raised the children left by his deceased wife and urged them to go to school, and also told his experience of funding the rebuilding of Ciyun Nunnery and Faluo Temple, and donating grain to help build a society warehouse. Finally, he left five precepts for his children and grandchildren to remember and practice.
Articles 3 and 4 are as follows:
Third, treat the world with modesty as precious, do not treat others with arrogance, put generosity first, and do not be mean. The house is rich and frugal, and everything is harmonious and discretionary.
4. The children and grandchildren are required to read diligently, and those who have high-ranking officials must not attach importance to assets.
The third is the principle of self-cultivation and family management: to be humble and generous to others, to govern the family with diligence and frugality as the rule, to be frugal and suitable, and to live in harmony with brothers.
The fourth is to educate future generations, study diligently, and obtain meritorious names, which also conforms to the "mainstream consciousness" of that era, that is, the so-called "reading is high". He also warned the descendants of even those who succeeded in the scientific expedition to become officials: We should not put our wealth first and remain upright and clean.
It can be seen from the "Testament of Mu Ting" that Bemu Ting's testament made it clear to the younger generations, and he hoped that his descendants would remember his advice and ensure that the Bei family would prosper for generations and not insult the prestige of the Bei family.
"Our Bei family does not emphasize the inheritance of money, but emphasizes education and family style construction. The Pei family training, which has been passed down from the Ming Dynasty, put forward: 'Attach importance to science and cultivate future generations.' Dedication and love of work, hard work... Modest and prudent, generous and sincere. Put an end to evil ways, Guangzong Yaozu... Cultivating abundance reads the manifestation, and the etiquette is heavy and benevolent. Law-abiding, helpful...'" When Pei was a hundred years old, he could recite his family's precepts with his mouth open.
It is precisely because of this family discipline of "re-education and persuasion of good deeds" that the children of the Pei family have been positively guided from an early age and passed down from generation to generation, and I.M. Pei's descendants are still continuing the excellent family style and tradition of their fathers and creating a long-standing family legend.
『 Related Recommendations 』
The Complete Works of I.M. Pei
Author: [American] Philip Judy Dior /
Janet Adams Strong
Publisher: Beijing United Publishing Company
Long press the identification QR code to view the collection resources
This book selects 50 architectural projects in chronological order of I.M. Pei's tenure or architectural designer in various periods, and introduces the projects that Pei has been commissioned, showing Pei's inner architectural ideas from specific architectural projects.
The pictures in the book include architectural drawings, design plans, section drawings, architectural process drawings, etc.; colleagues who have worked with Pei for nearly 20 years have written articles that bring our understanding of Pei and his architectural works from a unique perspective.
100 years of I.M. Pei
Author: Li Jing / Jia Dongting
Publisher: Life• Reading • Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore
This book is a biography of I.M. Pei based on field interviews, adapted from the cover story of I.M. Pei in Sanlian Life Weekly.
In the process of organizing the manuscript, the two authors went to Shanghai and Suzhou to explore the life history of I.M. Pei and the Pei family, and visited Pei's works in China in his later years in an attempt to restore his thinking and practice of modern Chinese architectural language.
This book presents I.M. Pei's life from the perspective of a valuable journalist, and by reading I.M. Pei to reflect on himself and the world around him, it can give us, especially young readers, real inspiration.