You are the blossom of that tree

Lin Huiyin

Fuzhou Municipal Committee of Culture, Literature, History and Learning, together with the Fujian Provincial Museum of Art (Fujian Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center), launched a special exhibition with the theme of "Lin Huiyin - Guardian of Cultural Heritage of Fuzhou Ancient House" in the Ye's Ancient House, a national cultural relics protection unit in Sanfang Seven Lanes, Fuzhou, and since its launch on June 10, 2021, the audience has received rave reviews, which shows that Lin Huiyin, as the first female architect in modern China, is still as beautiful as a blooming flower, attracting people at present. Stop and linger in front of the wonderful shadow of her life.

Lin Huiyin was born in Hangzhou, lived in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beiping (Beijing) for a long time, and only returned to Fuzhou Province for a few days in August 1928, and never returned to his hometown. Nearly a hundred years later, in what way will the hometown welcome back this outstanding daughter who has been admired by the world?

In July 2019, Chen Xiumei, director of the Fujian Provincial Art Museum, participated in a grand event in Shanghai to commemorate Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, and when she learned that many provinces and cities where Liang Lin traveled had held various commemorative activities to pay tribute to this pair of academic leaders and cultural elites, she deeply regretted and was uneasy, because Fuzhou, Lin Huiyin's hometown, had never had a similar commemorative activity, although Lin Huiyin's "body flowed with the blood of Fuzhou, and her bosom reflected the feelings of the Lin family's scholars. Fuzhou, a famous historical and cultural city with profound cultural heritage, is the source of Lin Huiyin's outstanding achievements" (Chen Xiumei).

In order to make up for Lin Huiyin's regret of being absent from his hometown in Fuzhou for a long time, Director Chen Xiumei returned to Fuzhou and consulted with Lu Ling, deputy director of the Cultural and Historical Committee of the Fuzhou Municipal COMMITTEE, and took the opportunity of Fuzhou to host the 44th World Cultural Heritage Conference to organize a special theme exhibition for Lin Huiyin. I remember that in the summer and autumn of 2019, Ms. Lu Ling asked my opinion on the planning of the exhibition, and I was quite surprised and surprised at the time, and said to her: "Of course, it is very good that Fuzhou can hold this exhibition for Lin Huiyin." However, I am worried that the content of the exhibition can be a comprehensive, profound, systematic and accurate reflection of Lin Huiyin's rich and wonderful life and her outstanding achievements. Her main identity is an architect, and her main achievement is also in the protection of ancient buildings, if the information in the exhibition is not enough to reflect and support this aspect, but to highlight her hobby poetry creation, etc., like a TV series, relish her connection with Xu Zhimo and others, and describe their relationship as extremely shallow and vulgar, it is better not to do it. ”

Ms. Lu Ling nodded and said yes, "Rest assured." This time, the person in charge of the protection of an ancient house in Sanfang And Seven Lanes offered to hold this exhibition, and a private collector was willing to provide his private collection of documents, letters and photos about Lin Huiyin. "I asked which ancient home unit was willing to hold an exhibition for Lin Huiyin. Ms. Lu Ling said: "It is the Fujian Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, that is, the Ye's Residence in Nanhou Street..." I immediately laughed and said, "It couldn't be better." I look forward to your hosting of this exhibition. ”

In the mid-1990s, I stumbled upon Lin Huiyin's father, Lin Changmin's handwritten "First Yan Lamentation Qi" in the Fujian Provincial Library, and in front of the long-sealed yellowed paper, my mood was difficult to calm down for a long time, so I immediately tried to take pictures and copy and punctuate them, and later included it in the humble book "Gradually Not Confused Literary Preservation" published in 2006. For more than 30 years, I have used the convenience of the teaching chair to teach Lin Huiyin's individual poems in Fuzhou, Japan, and the United States, to give lectures on Lin Huiyin and Fuzhou Cainu in some "lecture halls" in Fujian, and to compile and publish the "Lin Huiyin Reader" in 2016.

Around 2006, a sculpture of Lin Huiyin was erected at the Fish Viewing Office of the West Lake Flower Harbor in Hangzhou, and the Hangzhou Library asked me to write about the relationship between the Lin clan in Fuzhou and Hangzhou for the publication of the library, so I wrote a long article "The Lin Family in the End of the Lake and The Ancient Family - The Hangzhou Love of the Lin Clan in Fuzhou", which set up a special section to write "Lin Huiyin's Grandfather and Daughter III Hangzhou Love". Soon, at a cultural development consultation meeting in Fuzhou, I eagerly said to the city leaders at that time: "Now Hangzhou says that Lin Huiyin is the daughter of Hangzhou, but what about Fuzhou?" Now Fuzhou can't find a trace of her and her father Lin Changmin and her grandfather Lin Xiaogong, what to do? "We got a reply on the spot: we found a place to place her and commemorate her." After that, the relevant parties quickly hung photos of Lin Changmin and Lin Huiyin's father and daughter on the wall of the left and right corridors of the first courtyard of Lin Juemin's former residence, as well as simple text introductions.

Under the historical conditions at that time, this was already the most ideal way to commemorate Lin Huiyin, and many tourists and people were able to know that Lin Huiyin was the daughter of Fuzhou, Lin Changmin and Lin Juemin, Lin Yinmin and Lin Hanbi (Lin Beili's father), Lin Gengbai, etc. were not only relatives, but also the pioneers of Haojie who promoted China to end the imperial system and move towards democracy and republicanism. In February 1935, Lin Beili inscribed the poem "Jinghe Jia Ci Title Mr. Lü Wancun's Original Rhyme", in which the Taoist family was "innocent of loyalty and righteousness", and she noted herself after this sentence: "Yu Jia's uncle Changmin, Juemin, Yin Min, and Xiankao Liangqigong were all revolutionaries and martyred by their bodies." What Bei li did not expect was that after the outbreak of the Pacific War, because her husband Lin Gengbai called on the Kuomintang to resolutely resist Japan, she and Lin Gengbai were attacked by Japanese gendarmes on the streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong, and Lin Gengbai was killed on the spot by random guns and martyred.

Nowadays, the special exhibition "Lin Huiyin - The Guardian of Cultural Heritage in Fuzhou Ancient Home" has been extremely successful, and the hometown of Fuzhou has finally accepted her daughter and her relatives in the most decent and elegant way! Since its inception, I have wandered around the Ye's house five or six times, either alone or accompanied by relatives and friends, in order to pay tribute to this special exhibition that is enough to make the alleys empty! I said to Ms. Xiumei, "In Hangzhou in the mid-1980s, I had a relationship with Mr. Liang Congjie. At that time, he came to Hangzhou to participate in a small but highly influential cultural seminar, living with the famous philosopher Mr. Huang Kejian. His gentlemanly charming smile and the distinctive crisp and clear voice of the Lin family have remained in the depths of my memory. If Mr. Liang Congjie is still alive, he will be extremely relieved to see this exhibition. ”

Lin Huiyin, as an internationally renowned cultural elite, she is a symbol of the beauty, kindness, wisdom and courage of Chinese civilization. With her outstanding academic achievements and deep concern for the people's livelihood of the society, she is different from ordinary talented women and beautiful women. Her architectural papers, essays, poems, novels and correspondence are all poured into her compassion of "the people and my compatriots, the things and the people" and the deep concern and responsibility for the fate of the country and the nation, and it is in this sense that after more than half a century of ups and downs, she is still like a pearl that never sleeps, shining in the long river of time.

Her fiery zeal to protect cultural heritage is either transformed into elegant words, or incorporated into beautiful cloisonné, or carved into the majestic Monument to the People's Heroes, or painted into the solemn national emblem. Her otherworldly life practice and beautiful feelings are love, warmth, and hope, just like the endless colorful blossoms of one tree after another, which makes generations of newcomers fascinated and pays tribute forever. (The author is a professor at the Party School of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee)