No matter what era, the dispute between the old and the new has always been a hot topic for everyone to discuss, and Dai Yannian of the Qing Dynasty felt that the act of pushing out the old and the new was very unique, although the dispute between the old and the new has always won the victory of the new, but there is an exception. There is a famous case in history, that is, the demolition of the ancient city wall of Beijing, in this matter, the dispute between the old and the new has been reversed differently. Guo Moruo advocated the demolition of the ancient city wall of Beijing, and Lin Huiyin made harsh remarks to him, and many years later it was indeed fulfilled
Although the ancient city wall of Beijing has a long history, from the Yuan Dynasty to the Republic of China, in the early 1950s after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the whereabouts of the ancient city wall still caused disputes in the academic community, and the whole country was reorganizing the old and building the new, and I don't know how to deal with this ancient city wall. The final result of this incident has forever changed the overall historical style of the ancient capital of Beijing, so that this ancient city wall that has stood for more than 700 years disappears into the long river of history.
In this case, the innovators advocated the demolition of the ancient city wall because it hindered traffic, which was the premise of economic development. However, the ancient city walls still have extremely important historical value, so the people at that time were divided into two factions. In Guo Moruo's view, the city wall is only a defensive measure in ancient times, used to block the enemy army, and now that new China has been founded, the ancient city wall naturally loses all its value, at the same time, Beijing is the capital of China, and the establishment of economic development and transportation cannot be delayed and cannot be hindered by the ancient city wall.
People who sided with Guo Moruo felt that the ancient city wall should be demolished, urban transportation should be developed, roads should be built, and a thorough transformation should be carried out. At that time, the national situation was like this, the country needed to develop, so this faction also had the support of the majority of the people. But there are also people who oppose it, such as the writer Lin Huiyin and her husband Liang Sicheng, who are called the main retention faction. Because Liang Sicheng, as an architect, loves architecture himself, he cherishes these buildings very much. During World War II, with this sincere love, he also succeeded in preventing the BOMBING of Nara and Kyoto by the Us army, and the Japanese also honored Liang Si as the ancient capital benefactor.
And Lin Huiyin is not only a writer, but also an expert in architecture, so on this issue, the two united fronts. The ancient city wall is a symbol of the nation, is a part of the historical capital that cannot be demolished, its historical value is equivalent to the Great Wall, especially the ancient capital ruins preserved in China are not many, as an ancient civilization with a history of five thousand years, the preservation of this ancient city wall is not only for the sake of architectural value, but also a sense of national mission.
However, when it is the trend of the times, the situation is almost determined, the whole country is anti-feudal and anti-old is very extreme, and the act of protecting monuments can easily be labeled as a remnant of feudalism. But Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng still did not give up, they ran up and down, visited many officials, and did their best to hope to leave the ancient city wall.
Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanxiang jointly proposed the "Liang Chen Plan" in February 1950, which also represented Liang Sicheng's desire to protect and was also an extremely bold act of his architecture. However, the two sides still argued endlessly, and Lin Hui even suffered from lung disease and was sick all day long. But in the end, the ancient city wall was demolished, and they still did not protect the monument. Lin Hui was so angry that she said that even if this ancient city wall was restored in the future, it would no longer have the weight of history.
Since then, the ancient city wall has become two mottled and dilapidated broken walls, and although this debate is finally over, the changes in history will not stop. Years later, Lin Huiyin's original words were fulfilled, and the development of tourism allowed the role of the ancient city wall to be excavated, and really began to decide to rebuild. Although a new section of the city wall was finally built, it was not the same thing, but it was incompatible with the entire ancient city of Beijing.
This incident also reminds us that when developing the economy and paying for modern civilization, we must not forget to protect the monuments of civilization. Many times, demolition is not necessary, civilized monuments have historical value, carrying our past and origins, if you can only see the restored monuments in film and television works in the future, it is really a sad thing.