LI SHIQIAO

National University of Singapore

Writing a Modern Chinese
Architectural History
Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao

This paper delineates a broader intellectual agenda in Liang Sicheng’s seminal writings on Chinese
architectural history in the 1930s and 1940s, by linking them to the historiographical writings of his
father Liang Qichao, an insightful and hugely inuential Žgure in early twentieth-century China. This
broadening of understanding of Liang Sicheng’s work is vital not only to the understanding of his
architectural writings themselves, but also to grasping some of the most far-reaching intellectual
concerns of Chinese architecture in the twentieth century, to which Liang Sicheng’s contributions are
most crucial.

Introduction Liang Sicheng’s writings on Chinese architec- 1930 by a retired government ofŽcial, Zhu Qiqian.
Liang Sicheng (Liang Ssu-ch’eng, 1901–1972) is tural history owes a substantial debt to the Liang Sicheng’s research was intimately connected
one of the most inuential Žgures in twentieth- historiographical thinking of his inuential father, to an extraordinary builder’s manual for the con-
century Chinese architecture due to his writings on Liang Qichao (Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, 1873–1929). It is struction of palaces in the capital of the Northern
Chinese architectural history and his education of important to cast Liang Sicheng’s writings in Song dynasty (960–1127), the Yingzao fashi,
architects in China. He was among the Žrst Chinese Chinese architectural history in the light of a greater written in 1103 by Li Jie. Zhu Qiqian discovered a
students to study architecture in America, and he task of compiling histories of Chinese culture copy in 1919 and reprinted it in 1925, and Liang
was deeply inuenced by the historical imagination ardently advocated by Liang Qichao. This construc- Qichao sent a copy to Liang Sicheng who was in
and technical competence of the beaux-arts tradi- tion of a national history into a conceptual context America. Liang Sicheng was completely bafed by
tion prevalent in America in the 1920s. As an of global geographical space, largely inspired by the obscure archaic terms used in the manual to
architectural historian, he pursued a form of Western concepts of “historical knowledge,” was the describe Song dynasty rules of construction,
historical knowledge of Chinese architecture through centerpiece of Liang Qichao’s intellectual enterprise and the confusion was not helped by his lack of
of bringing China into the modern world. Yet, while knowledge of Song dynasty buildings. Liang
greater accuracy of documentation and presenta-
embracing Western knowledge, Liang Qichao Sicheng and his team decided to focus Žrst on
tion, which was an unfamiliar idea in China at the
thought it necessary to sustain Confucianism at the a later Qing dynasty (Ch’ing dynasty, 1644–1911)
time. He situated an understanding of Chinese
center of his conceptualization of a national rebirth. construction manual, the Qing Gongbu gongcheng
architecture in a global geographical context and
He argued that imperial China’s failure to assert its zuofa zeli (1734), because buildings surviving from
advocated a rebirth of a national architecture
global presence in the late nineteenth century must this period were plentiful. With the completion
through adhering to the best principles of Chinese
result in a renewal, and not an abandonment, of of an annotation of the Qing Gongbu gongcheng
architecture in history. His writings on Chinese Chinese traditions. zuofa zeli in 1932, Liang Sicheng moved closer to
architectural history were groundbreaking and they knowing the Song dynasty manual.
continue to be valued today in Chinese architecture Liang Sicheng and Chinese Another major breakthrough to understanding
scholarship. As an educator, Liang Sicheng founded Architectural History the Yingzao fashi was the discoveries of buildings
and taught at two departments of architecture: the Born in Japan during his father’s political exile, surviving from periods closer to the Song dynasty in
National Northeastern University in Shenyang Liang Sicheng studied architecture at the University remote parts of China. Between 1932 and 1937,
(1928–1931) and Tsinghua University in Beijing of Pennsylvania and Harvard Graduate School of Liang Sicheng and his team traveled to 137 coun-
(1946–1972). He shaped generations of architects Arts and Sciences between 1924 and 1927. Liang ties in northern China and meticulously surveyed
and educators who helped create some of the most Sicheng’s research on Chinese architecture began in thousands of monuments dating back to various
notable architecture for China in the twentieth 1931, after he joined the Society for Research in periods in Chinese history, publishing them in the
century. Chinese Architecture, a private society founded in quarterly bulletins of the Society for Research in

35 li shiqiao Journal of Architectural Education,

pp. 35–45 © 2002 Li Shiqiao
 1. Rules for structural carpentry according to Ying-tsao-fa-shih
(Yingzao fashi ), illustration for A Pictorial History of Chinese
Architecture.

papers on various aspects of Chinese architecture

appeared in Pencil Point, Asia Magazine, and Ency-
clopedia Americana in the 1930s and the 1940s.2
Liang Sicheng’s achievements were recognized
in a variety of ways, including an invitation to found
the Department of Architecture at the prestigious
Tsinghua University in 1946, an invitation to lecture
at Yale and Princeton, and an honorary doctorate
awarded by Yale in 1947. Also in 1947, he repre-
sented China to take part, together with Le
Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, in the design of the
headquarters of the United Nations. The works of
Liang Sicheng and his team constituted a solid
foundation for a history of Chinese architecture that
was further developed after the unproductive years
of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and after
his death in 1972.3
One outstanding feature in Liang Sicheng’s
writings on Chinese architectural history is a
conception of historical knowledge of Chinese archi-
tecture through greater accuracy of documentation
and delineation of historical development. This
seems hardly remarkable today, but it was a
profoundly signiŽcant concept for early-twentieth-
century China. At the center of this historical
knowledge is the crucial notion of veriŽable
“historical facts” and their connections as the
cornerstone of history. In his “Architecture and the
Restoration Plan for the Temple of Confucius,”
Liang Sicheng remarked that “the only objective of
past repairs was to replace the old building with a
glorious and sturdy new building; if this meant the
demolition of the old building, it would be all the
more praise-worthy as virtuous achievements of an
high order.“ 4 His proposal for the restoration of the
Temple of Confucius, Liang Sicheng continued,
Chinese Architecture. The culmination of Liang however, were published during his lifetime. The aimed to maintain the old buildings as they were. In
Sicheng’s research career was no doubt the comple- Chinese version, History of Chinese Architecture a newspaper article in 1934 deriding the sloppiness
tion of the annotations of the most important part (Zhongguo jianzhushi), which was printed unofŽ- of the recently published History of Chinese Archi-
of the Yingzao fashi, Structural Carpentry cially in the 1950s to assist teaching at Tsinghua tecture by Le Jiazao, Liang Sicheng suggested that
(Damuzuo), and the manuscripts for a history of University, was Žrst published in 1985,1 and The the author confused his personal speculations with
Chinese architecture both in English and Chinese in MIT Press published the English version, A Pictorial accurate documentation and periodization. 5 Works
1944. None of Liang Sicheng’s manuscripts, History of Chinese Architecture, in 1984. His English on history of Chinese art and architecture by Japa-

Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: 36

Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao
2. Illustration from Zhu Qiqian’s proof copy of the 1925 edition
of Yingzao fashi.

nese and European historians, Liang Sicheng

realized, were undermined by their lack of docu-
mentation of buildings; he thought that Osvald
Siren used his materials “carelessly” in his writings
on Beijing architecture, and that both Siren and
Ernst Boerschmann often relied on secondary
sources and gave inaccurate descriptions of build-
ings due to a lack of understanding of the
“grammar” of Chinese architecture. Japanese histo-
rian Ito Chuta’s research in Chinese architecture was
based largely on literary sources and focused only
on ancient history, whereas the best examples of
Chinese architecture in the Tang and Song dynas-
ties, such as the main hall of Foguangsi (857) and
the timber pagoda (Shijiata) of Fogongsi (1056)
discovered by Liang Sicheng, were yet to be
studied.6
Liang Sicheng’s desire for greater accuracy of
documentation and presentation was certainly well
served by his newly acquired architectural knowl-
edge and skills from his American education.
Liang Sicheng valued Banister Fletcher’s A History
of Architecture; to him, it represented the “highest
international standards” in architectural history.7
While illustrating the Yingzao fashi, he and his team
indeed set a new standard for Chinese architectural
drawings; this is clearly seen by putting them
(Figure 1) next to the drawings commissioned
by Zhu Qiqian for his 1925 edition (Figure 2).
The extensive notes and sketches made by Liang
Sicheng and his team during their expeditions are
also exceptional in this regard (Figure 3). This
emphasis on precise visual representation, essential Paris École and who re-created this model of archi- student, he wrote to his father complaining about
to Western architectural traditions since the devel- tectural education at Pennsylvania, 8 Liang Sicheng the craftsmanship-like nature of the beaux-arts
opment of orthographical projections and per- won two gold medals 9 and was often at the top of training, 12 and, later in his life, he expressed his
spective from the Renaissance, differed profoundly his class.10 While in Pennsylvania, Liang Sicheng’s regret to have just missed the growing inuence
from the traditional representations of the built exercises included copying plates from works such of Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe while he
environment in China that relied more on literary as Fletcher’s A History of Architecture and Paul was studying in America.1 3 Between 1947 and
descriptions than on accurate pictorial depictions. Letarouilly’s ÉdiŽces de Rome Moderne, published 1952, after meeting several leading modern archi-
Other presentation techniques are related to in Paris in 1840.11 Despite his obvious talents in tects of international stature during his travel to
the beaux-arts tradition. While studying under Paul drafting and watercolor, his attitude toward the America in 1947, Liang Sicheng experimented with
Philippe Cret (1876–1945), who excelled at the beaux-arts tradition remained ambivalent; as a a Bauhaus-inspired curriculum at the Department of

37 li shiqiao
3. Survey sketches of the ground oor plan of the timber pagoda
(Shijiata) of Fogongsi (1056), Society for Research in Chinese
Architecture, 1933.

Architecture of Tsinghua University.14 Nevertheless,

while writing his history of Chinese architecture, the
beaux-arts tradition of visualization— exquisite
drawings as the all-powerful tool both in the estab-
lishment of its canons of form derived from Greek
and Roman antiquity (such as the survey drawings
by Prix de Rome winners) and as a supreme medium
of imparting established rules to students —was
very much the dominant mode of presentation.
One of the main ambitions of Liang Sicheng
and his team was to situate Chinese architecture
into a global geographical context and historical
development; for this reason, Liang Sicheng consis-
tently stressed the idea that Chinese architecture is
a system (xi) among other systems of architecture in
the world, with its historical roots evidenced in
sculptures from Chinese antiquity. The development
of its forms are codiŽed in the builders’ manuals
and exempliŽed in the monuments found in their
Želd trips. Lin Huiyin (Phyllis W.Y. Lin), Liang
Sicheng’s wife and intellectual partner, described
Chinese architecture, together with Indian and
Arabic architecture, as one of the three Asian
systems, 15 and Liang Sicheng stressed that the
Chinese system of architecture is among the most
ancient systems of architecture in the world,
comparable to those of Egypt, Babylon, Greece and
Rome, and America. 16 Liang Sicheng was delighted
to point out that Greek architecture, through Indian
Buddhist architecture, inuenced the design of
podia and pedestals of Chinese buildings; this was
a most interesting example of the Chinese system
being part of the development of the architecture
of the world.17
Liang Sicheng’s extensive knowledge of
Western architecture led him to present Chinese
architecture in ways in which comparisons with, and
thus connections to, Western architecture could be
easily invoked. The idea of a “Chinese Order”—the
combination of wooden brackets and column func-
tioning as primary vertical and lateral supports in

Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: 38

Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao
 4. The Chinese “Order,” illustration for A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture.

Chinese timber-frame buildings —is a revealing

example of such a deliberate connection18 (Figure
4). Like his creation of the Chinese Order, Liang
Sicheng’s use of the beaux-arts techniques of
presentation, with their endless capacity to absorb
stylistic and cultural differences, served the same
purpose of seeing Chinese architecture as situated
in a global geographical context and historical
development. In rendering Chinese timber-frame
buildings in a way comparable to the monuments
from Greek and Roman antiquity (Figure 5), Liang
Sicheng had unmistakably placed Chinese archi-
tecture on the world architectural map.
This placing of Chinese architecture in a global
geographical context and historical development
leads to Liang Sicheng’s claim of Chinese architecture
as possessing valuable lessons for the architecture of
his time, despite the extensive destruction and the
need of a renewal. Liang Sicheng and his team were
eager to point out aspects of Chinese architecture
that seemed to indicate comparable principles found
in the ancient and modern European architectural
practices. The size of the standard timber for all
construction (cai) in the Yinzao fashi and the width
of timber set by the timber brackets (doukou)
as the standard measure in the Qing Gongbu
gongcheng zuofa zeli demonstrated the same spirit
of modularization and reŽnement seen in that based
on the diameter of a column in the classical tradi-
tion in the West.19 The Chinese timber-frame
structural system was seen as having foretold the
evolution of our structural knowledge from solid
walls to framing structures that culminated in
the practice of modern concrete-frame structures
and curtain walls.20 The exposed structural members
in Chinese architecture, at least in examples from
the Tang and Song dynasties, celebrated the same
principle of structural honesty found in modern
architecture.21 Above all, Chinese architecture, at
least in some periods of Chinese history, so argued
Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, stood well in meeting

39 li shiqiao
5. Ink rendering of the timber pagoda (Shijiata) of Fogongsi
(1056), Society for Research in Chinese Architecture, 1934.

the Vitruvian criteria of Žrmitas, utilitas, and

venustas so fundamental to Western architecture.22
Liang Sicheng also postulated a decline of
Chinese architecture and its immanent rebirth. Ming
and Qing dynasty architecture represented a period
of stagnation and rigidity (approximately 1400–
1900) inferior to the golden age in the Tang and
Song dynasties (approximately 600–1400) when
architectural forms were true to structures and full
of elegance.23 Like an organic body whose develop-
ment encompasses birth, adolescence, maturity, and
old age, Chinese architecture had gone through the
cycle of growth and decline, and reached an insipid
period, tired and uninventive. Yet, this “regression”
was precisely the moment for a rebirth of Chinese
architecture.24 In his preface to Pictorial References
for Architectural Design, Liang Sicheng saw the
emergence in China of the “new architect” who
would engage in the “conscious creations” of archi-
tecture, just like the new architect of the European
Renaissance who emerged out of the “drifting and
unconscious craftsmanship” of the medieval times.
The publication of the pictorial references offered,
Liang Sicheng claimed, guidance to the new
architect in the creation of a new architecture for
China. 25

Liang Qichao and New Historical

Knowledge in China
Liang Sicheng’s quest for greater accuracy of docu-
mentation, his awareness of the global geographical
space and historical time, and his advocacy of a
renewal of an ancient tradition are, it may be
argued, inextricably linked to a wider intellectual
framework that is articulated in the proliŽc and
inuential writings of his father, Liang Qichao. Like
thinkers in many modernizing nations, Liang Qichao
struggled to reconcile the impact of new knowledge
coming from other nations and the need to sustain
a national identity in deep-rooted traditions.
Liang Qichao has been described as “the mind
of modern China” 26 for several reasons. His life

Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: 40

Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao
spans a period of profound change in China from on the attainment of “humaneness” (codiŽed in the otism.”3 2 Much of the successes of European
the Imperial Qing dynasty to Republican China character ren) as an ideal of virtues and as the civilizations, Liang Qichao thought, could be attrib-
(1911–49). Born in 1873, he belonged to the last substance of “rituals.”2 9 It may be suggested that uted to solid national histories. In his seminal essay,
generation brought up to follow the conventional this is essentially an ethical vision of civil life rather “The Research Method for Chinese History,” written
Confucian gentry-literati career, but he was among than a religion invoking supernatural forces with in 1922, he stated that the ultimate purpose of a
the Žrst who embraced Western knowledge to envi- teleological underpinnings. In rethinking Confu- new Chinese history was to see China as a nation
sion a future for China in the modern world. As a cianism, Liang Qichao was able to separate the with its past, its characteristics, and its position in
pupil, Liang Qichao was steeped in a tradition essentially reformist moral framework of “humane- relation to humanity as a whole. 33 “Writing a new
whose only conceptualization of a territorial spatial ness” from the conformist “moralizing rules” history may be said to be the most urgent task for
entity is “all under the heaven” (tianxia), referring embodied in family relationships, social structures, the scholars in our country.“34
to the sphere of inuence of Confucianism. The state institutions, and forms of scholarship. This was The idea of a “new” history is of vital impor-
violent conicts between China and Western powers a crucial shift for Liang Qichao and indeed for many tance here. China, Liang Qichao hastened to
in the late nineteenth century initiated a “contrac- Chinese reformers of his generation, and it enabled emphasize, had perhaps the longest history of
tion” in Chinese thought from “all under the them to stress the reformist side of Confucianism collecting records of past events; this tradition had,
heaven” to a “country in the world” (guojia).27 At and come to an understanding of “knowledge” as for over thousands of years, accumulated a vast
this time of profound change, Liang Qichao’s life redeŽned by Western scholars since the Renais- amount of materials. Traditionally, the historian ofŽ-
seems to have been a series of rapid positioning sance. Liang Qichao saw empiricist traditions since cials (shiguan) were highly respected consultants to
and repositioning of political and cultural visions for Francis Bacon and rationalist traditions since René kings and ministers.3 5 Liang Qichao lamented that,
China as he rapidly absorbed Western knowledge. Descartes as two shaping forces of modern knowl- although it is vital to know Chinese history, it is
From a broader perspective, his early reformist edge. Through the synthesis of Immanuel Kant, almost impossible to navigate through the vast
career (1895–98) effectively redeŽned the “self- they deŽned the modern world intellectually. This ocean of records from the past.36 The Chinese tradi-
strengthening” initiative of the Qing court ofŽcials knowledge resembled nothing that Liang Qichao tion of setting the start of a reign from year zero
to strengthen China’s military capability in the face learned in his traditional training, but, to him, it (yuannian) and announcing ofŽcial reinterpretations
gave rise to the strength of Western civilizations of history by suppressing the previous versions of
of several crushing defeats by Western powers in
through intellectual enlightenment, economical past events only added to this confusing heap of
the late nineteenth century. During his Japanese
strength, and military power: “The most important materials through collapsing space and time.
exile following the failed One Hundred Days Reform
difference between the modern period and the Liang Qichao gave four main reasons for the
(1898–1912), he quickly built up his knowledge of
ancient and medieval periods is the reform in failure to develop a solid history in China. The
Western cultures from Japanese sources. Although
knowledge. With new knowledge, there appeared ancient records narrated court events and paid no
ambivalent toward political revolutions, he never-
new ethics, new politics, new technologies, and new attention to such collective entities as countries
theless inspired a new generation of intellectual
machines; with these, there appeared new countries (guojia), they focused on biographical details of
revolutionaries; he played a part in Chinese politics
and a new world.”30 individual rulers and did not account for societies
as a government minister following the Republican
The uneasy dichotomy between rethinking (qunti), they dwelt on old relics with no thoughts
Revolution in 1911. Later in life, he advocated a
Confucianism and embracing new knowledge was on engagement with current reality, and they
renewed appreciation of Confucianism, alarmed by
always present in various periods in Liang Qichao’s recounted events with no regard to the connections
the calls of wholesale Westernization in China
life. Yet, in his constant intellectual adjustment, we among them.37 Ancient Chinese records, such as the
(1917–1929). He was hugely inuential in modern can perhaps argue that at the core of Liang Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu) by Confucius
China; 2 8 this is perhaps less attributable to his origi- Qichao’s desire to establish new knowledge in China (551–479 a.d.), lacked factual precision; they were
nality and depth of scholarship, and more to his was the knowledge of history and geography. 3 1 generally too brief, lacking in focus (“running-water
passion and vision for a new Chinese nation History, particularly since Hegel’s formulation, accounts” of events) and dealing with only the
conveyed in a simple and clear style. establishes time through patterns of meaningful ruling class. These records, moreover, were often
Perhaps the most fundamental issue that Liang development and change. With this concept of distorted to justify moral frameworks and political
Qichao struggled to come to terms with was the time, which is rather indistinct in Chinese scholarly regimes (yin’er yangshan, or hiding the evil and
fate of Confucianism, which had been the unques- traditions, one is able to grasp the crucial concepts propagating the good).3 8 For these reasons, Liang
tioned intellectual pillar for shaping China’s family, of past, present, and future. On the other hand, the Qichao concluded, none of these tens of thousands
society, and the state for more than two thousand geography of the world establishes a global space of volumes can truly be called history.
years. The Confucian vision of human happiness and within which history is able to make connections Liang Qichao’s new approach was predicated
dignity may be seen to have been predicated on the and explain differences. on the crucial notion of a greater accuracy of
idea of “ritualizing” civilized and cultured patterns In his “New Historiography,” published in 1902 historical facts and their identiŽcation, collection,
of human relationships accumulated through gener- in the New Citizen Journal, one of several journals and analysis. History, in this new deŽnition, is to
ations (codiŽed in the character li). This had been founded by him during his exile in Japan, Liang document the movements of human society as a
developed into highly strict rules of family relation- Qichao claimed that “historiography is the greatest whole, to assess achievements, to discern logic of
ships, social structures, and state institutions. On and most urgent among all areas of scholarship. It is developments. In his “Compendium to the Research
the other hand, the same vision is also dependent a mirror of the citizen, and the source of patri- Method for Chinese History” written between 1926

41 li shiqiao
and 1927, Liang Qichao began to emphasize the ance into private and foreign collections. “Today’s opposed change.51 Furthermore, Kang believed that
writing of “specialized histories” (zhuanshi), those historians must change their outlook and realize the Confucius had long envisioned an age of “great
of people, events, artifacts, localities, and periods, importance of such relics, survey them, collect harmony” (taiping)—an age of globalization,
and written by specialists as vital components of a them; their history would be renewed if the monu- democracy, equality, and welfare —in the idea of
general history of China. Specialization leads to ments [buildings] could be tabulated, compared, the “three ages” (sanshi) in the Gongyang
increased depth of historical knowledge of special- and abstracted.”45 Whereas the discovery of Pompeii Commentary on the Confucian text Spring and
ized areas, which in turn leads to a deeper sixty years before renewed our understanding of the Autumn Annals (Chunqiu). This reinforced a strong
understanding of general history. This, Liang Qichao Roman Empire, the discovery of the Song dynasty belief that Confucianism contained visions that
claims, is the very basis of progress of knowledge. 3 9 Jülu City (built in 1108) only resulted in the encompassed the goals of modern global politics.
The identiŽcation and analysis of the development discovery being looted and ruined. 46 We must not, In embracing these ideas, Liang Qichao may be
and decline of the main systems (zhuxi) and their Liang Qichao exclaimed, let such important cultural seen to have given an intellectual framework of
inuences, Liang Qichao pondered in 1926/27, relics disappear again. global space and time to the tiyong thinking
remains the Žrst important task of specialized Liang Qichao’s deep desire for a new historical (Chinese learning as essence and Western learning
historians. 4 0 knowledge is inextricably linked with his awareness for utility), which was developed to build up military
One signiŽcant difference between his “New of global geographical space and its intellectual power when China’s military weakness was obvious
Historiography” of 1902 and his writings on histori- implications. The change of a spatial concept for to the Qing rulers since the Opium War in 1844.52
ography in the 1920s was that Liang Qichao began China from “all under the heaven” to “a country in Caught by complete surprise by Western powers,
to emphasize specialized histories of “cultural arti- the world,” as we have seen, had produced the Qing ofŽcials such as Zeng Guofan (1811–1872)
facts” (wenwu) in the 1920s; histories of cultural most profound effect on Liang Qichao’s imagina- and Li Hongzhang (1823–1901) perceived their
artifacts, he claims, are the most important and the tion. “Geography and history are inextricably relative weakness as one of weapons instead of
most difŽcult part of all specialized histories. 41 In linked,” Liang Qichao asserted in 1901 in a paper knowledge; they began a “self-strengthening”
explaining the meaning of historical materials outlining issues concerning a history of China, and program of purchasing weapons, warships, and
(shiliao) for his specialized histories of artifacts, this is demonstrated by the connections among the machines to manufacture them, as well as sending
Liang Qichao referred to a wide range of examples development of cattle farming and plateaus, agri- young Chinese pupils to study these subjects in
of the built environment, from the pyramids in culture and plains, and commerce and coasts and America and Europe. But China’s dismal defeat in
Egypt and the cities in Renaissance Italy, to the city riverbanks. 47 It was the coastal nations in recent the Sino-Japanese war in 1894–1895 and further
of Beijing and the well-known sculptures at times that had taken over the peoples on the plains loss of territories to Japan strengthened Liang
Yun’gang and Dunhuang caves.42 Buildings as well to be the prime movers of history. China’s lack of Qichao’s conviction that China’s weakness lay in an
as bridges, pilasters, balustrades, stone gates, land understanding of global geography was aptly outdated intellectual tradition. In 1895, Liang
contracts, and tiles and bricks (the lack of stone in demonstrated by the absence of a Chinese name for Qichao and his mentor Kang Youwei took the
China, Liang Qichao explained, resulted in extended China as a country: the current use of “the Middle course of petitioning the Emperor, which resulted in
use of tiles and bricks as building materials) are all Kingdom” (Zhongguo) seemed rather arrogant, the so-called One Hundred Days Reform in educa-
materials for histories of cultural artifacts. Liang whereas “China” (Zhina) was a name used by tion, commerce, industry, agriculture, armed forces,
Qichao drafted a brief history of Chinese cities foreigners and would be an insult to the Chinese and personnel changes in the Qing court in 1898.
based on studies of ancient texts as a chapter in his people to use it.48 His increasing knowledge of the Appropriately, Liang Qichao was appointed director
“History of Chinese Culture” in 1927, which deals world allowed him to develop a much greater deŽ- of a translation bureau on his advocacy of trans-
with areas of Chinese culture such as ancestry, nition to the previously hazy concept of “the West” lating Western books into Chinese. 53
family and marriage, class, and administration by grasping other countries as political and racial In afŽrming the fundamental guiding values of
systems. 43 Chinese cities, Liang Qichao speculated, entities, thus making a clearer place for China in the Confucianism, Liang Qichao was keen to illustrate,
were always part of a central administration whereas world; this is clearly demonstrated in his “Discourse with examples of inventions in ancient China such
European cities grew out of free trade and indepen- on the New Citizen”49 and “New Historiography.” as navigation and printing, that the Chinese antici-
dent governance; the study of Chinese cities must From 1917 (when Liang Sicheng was sixteen) pated many of the modern Western achievements.
keep this important difference in mind.44 He claimed to his death in 1929, Liang Qichao stressed the idea In this view, the Chinese people can claim to be the
that, whereas Chinese cities in remote antiquity of Chinese culture as possessing the potential to rightful heirs to modern civilization. In his attempt
were places to store food, the more recent cities overcome inherent problems in the European to narrate modern civilization as equally a Chinese
could be grouped into political, military, and cultures of science and capitalism, seen in the development, Liang Qichao was fascinated by the
economical cities. In ancient Chinese cities, legal destructions of World War I.50 This renewed appreci- European Renaissance, the idea of a profound
and municipal frameworks and facilities such as land ation of Confucianism was perhaps made possible modernization taking the form of a rebirth of tradi-
contracts, policing, ŽreŽghting, and civic positions through the teachings of Kang Youwei (1858– tions or, in his words, “liberation through looking
such as mayor had existed long before their Western 1927), a Confucian reformer who turned Qing back to antiquity”; this could to a great extent
counterparts emerged in history. scholarship of Confucian antiquity, largely inu- vindicate his reformist ideas in a revolutionary era.
Although recognizing the vast number of enced by Western philology and textual criticism, Perhaps in stressing the importance of the idea
cultural relics in China, Liang Qichao was saddened into a doctrine of reform. It was Confucian of a “renaissance,” Liang Qichao saw the potential
by their fate of destruction, neglect, and disappear- forgeries, not authentic works by Confucius, that of meaningful and profound intellectual change

Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: 42

Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao
without the destruction of violent political revolu- inherit this biological metaphor of history which is comfort of Western buildings greatly impressed the
tions. In 1920, Liang Qichao wrote a preface for a always visible in his narration of Chinese architec- Chinese public and young Chinese architects.61
history of the European Renaissance written by his tural history. On the other hand, the Society for Liang Sicheng discussed his initial thoughts on a
close associate Jiang Baili, highlighting the achieve- Chinese Lectures engaged leading intellectual research into a history of Chinese palaces in 1928,
ments of the European Renaissance as the discovery Žgures in the world such as John Dewey, Bertrand and Liang Qichao suggested that his son work on a
of humanism and the global space.54 At the same Russell, Hans Driesch, and Rabindranath Tagore to history of Chinese art with more readily identiŽable
time, Liang Qichao presented, in his “Outline of speak to Chinese audiences. The last speaker, historical materials.62
Qing Scholarship,” a view of a decline of Confucian Tagore, whom both Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin Liang Qichao’s love of tabulations to allow fast
learning, and likened the Qing dynasty scholarly accompanied in Beijing, caused a particularly comprehension of complex historical developments
interest in Confucian antiquity to that in Greek and emotional stir in China because he, as a recent (he claimed to have used more than twenty of them
Roman antiquity in Žfteenth-century Italy; to him, recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, was both in his “History of Buddhism” 6 3) may have inuenced
this was symptomatic of a “rebirth” of the Chinese an Asian Žgure and a global one. It is in this Liang Sicheng’s prominent use of pictorial tables.
culture. Liang Qichao pointed out that, whereas the symbolic Žgure of Tagore that Liang Qichao saw the Liang Sicheng’s claim of the Greek inuence in the
European Renaissance was driven by the rebirth of future of Chinese culture, at once national and use of bases and pedestals of Chinese buildings 64
the arts, the “Qing renaissance” focused on literary global. may be seen to conŽrm Liang Qichao’s view of the
studies; this, Liang Qichao quickly suggested, was Mindful of the purpose of renewing Confu- Greek inuence in Indian and subsequently Chinese
due to the “culture of the varied landscapes” in cianism in China through studying Western Buddhism. In 1928, when his son was contem-
Mediterranean countries and the “culture of the knowledge, Liang Qichao lectured to his children on plating writing a history of Chinese palaces, Liang
plains” in China. We must therefore introduce the Confucian classics in the summers of the early Qichao told his son that he had done some ground-
achievements in the arts from Western nations so 1920s, a practice that began as storytelling at after- work on the subject, and Liang Sicheng could
that new schools and traditions can be developed dinner family gatherings while he was in exile in further develop it into a more systematic history of
out of our own cultural heritage. Dwelling on the Japan. Liang Qichao instructed Liang Sicheng to early Chinese architecture.65 In his Chinese version
European Renaissance, Liang Qicaho predicted that memorize Confucian classics after the son was of History of Chinese Architecture, Liang Sicheng
injured in a motorcycle accident in 1923, just before consistently cited descriptions of the built environ-
there would be Chinese scholars in the future who
he was to go to America and had to postpone his ment in ancient texts and records in a similar way to
would employ the most-advanced “scientiŽc
plans for a year.58 After Liang Sicheng departed for that found in Liang Qichao’s brief history of Chinese
methods” to categorize and study old records in
Pennsylvania, Liang Qichao’s letters to him are full cities.66 Perhaps in an attempt to emulate the clarity
China, discarding the valueless shell and maintaining
of pride and gentle guidance that assumed a liberal of Western empiricist scholarship, Liang Qichao had
its essence.55
version of the unquestionable virtue of paternal cultivated a simple and clear literary style in
wisdom and Žlial obedience that is so fundamental Chinese, which combines Han and Wei dynasty writ-
Liang Qichao and Liang Sicheng
to the Confucian view of social structure. His strong ings with common language and foreign grammar, a
A towering Žgure in Liang Sicheng’s intellectual
sense of paternal responsibility also extended to much-imitated “new style.”67 Liang Sicheng’s terse
horizon, Liang Qichao shaped his son from more
advising Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin on their texts in English and in Chinese certainly did not
than one perspective. Liang Qichao charted Liang
honeymoon itinerary: the newlywed couple should depart from such deliberate emphasis on logic and
Sicheng’s intellectual growth by sending him to an
visit Scandinavia because there was “interesting simplicity.68
Anglican School in Beijing (1913) and to Tsinghua
modern architecture,” and they should go to Turkey Although the idea of architecture as a profes-
College (1915), a school based on the model of to see Islamic architecture.59 It was during their trav- sion and an academic discipline was unfamiliar in
American high schools to prepare outstanding eling in Europe that Liang Qichao had decided for early twentieth-century China, Liang Qichao’s
Chinese students to study in America. In 1920, his son to accept the job of founding the Depart- awareness of architecture was increasingly visible,
Liang Qichao involved his son in the activities of the ment of Architecture of National Northeastern particularly since his travels in Europe in 1918.
two societies, the Society for Common Learning and University in Shenyang, apparently without the son’s Whereas his descriptions of his travels to North
the Society for Chinese Lectures, that were set up knowledge. America in 1903 seem to have paid little attention
to promote Western knowledge in China. The Liang Qichao’s focus on the specialized histo- to the built environment (perhaps with the excep-
Society of Common Learning was devoted to the ries of cultural artifacts, it may be argued, became tion of Washington, DC),6 9 his descriptions of
task of translating Western books; Liang Qichao the driving force behind Liang Sicheng’s life-long European cities in 1918 display a deeper perception
instructed Liang Sicheng and his brother to under- pursuit in writing about modern Chinese architec- of the idea that the built environment is linked to
take the translation of H.G. Wells’s all-embracing tural history. In his application to conduct research sustaining cultures and nations. This signiŽcant shift
Outline of History in the summer of 1921 to expose on a history of Chinese palaces for his Ph.D. at the was indicated by himself in describing the interior
them to an example of European historical knowl- Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in spaces of the Houses of Parliament in London as
edge.56 Ding Wenjiang, a close associate of Liang 1927, Liang Sicheng already regarded his studies on grim and having the atmosphere of an old person,
Qichao who helped the Liang brothers translate Chinese architecture as of “supreme importance.“6 0 reserved yet containing a kind of inner energy.
Wells’s history, had long developed a view of This conviction to renew Chinese architecture “Westerners often say that art is the reection of
historical developments being comparable to those seemed all the more exceptional at a time when the the characters of nations. I did not understand this
of biological organisms; 57 Liang Sicheng was to apparent higher standards of hygiene, safety, and in the past, but here in Europe I am beginning to

43 li shiqiao
realize this connection everywhere; are Westminster welcoming Tagore to China, Liang Qichao put archi- specialized histories of cultural artifacts became a
Abbey and the Houses of Parliament not the living tecture before painting and sculpture in listing the crucial force to formulate Liang Sicheng’s works.
reections of the entire British nation?” 70 arts in China that had been inuenced by Indian Treading between the radical divide of conservatism
In London, Liang Qichao studied the history of culture, as in the case of the Indian stupa having and revolution in early twentieth-century China,
Westminster Abbey before visiting the site, and saw inuenced Buddhist temples and pagodas in Liang Qichao articulated a reformist agenda that is
the Gothic cathedral as an embodiment of a China. 75 In discussing specialized histories, Liang rooted in Chinese traditions and that was in one
“national spirit” to make use of the achievements Qichao saw architecture as also belonging to the sense brought out with remarkable commitment in
handed down from different periods in history.71 “living” part, together with “food” and “clothing,” Liang Sicheng’s modern Chinese architectural
While inspecting the World War I battleŽelds in which constitute an “economical specialized history.
Alsace and Lorraine in France, Liang Qichao history.“76
reected on the connection between the planning In a lecture delivered in Tsinghua University in Notes
1. As vol. 3 in Liang Sicheng, Liang Sicheng wenji (The Collected Works
of straight roads and idealism in France, and that 1926, Liang Qichao listed the Yingzao fashi, among
of Liang Sicheng) (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, 1985).
between winding roads and pragmatism in England. seven other ancient texts, as an example of archae- 2. Liang Ssu-ch’eng, “China’s Oldest Wooden Structure,” Asia Maga-
Traveling northeast from Paris along the Marne ological achievement in ancient China. 77 Before zine, July 1941, 384– 387; “Five Early Chinese Pagodas,” Asia
river, Liang Qichao arrived at Reims where he Liang Qichao mentioned the Yingzao fashi in his Magazine, Aug. 1941, 450– 453; “China: Arts, Language, and Mass
Media,” Encyclopedia Americana (1948 edition); “Open Spandrel Bridges
admired the cathedral, a splendid example of lecture, he already sent the 1925 edition to his son of Ancient China– I, the An-chi Ch’iao at Chao Chou, Hopei,” Pencil
opulent Gothic architecture where monarchs of who was studying architecture in Pennsylvania; the Points 19 (1938): 25– 32; and “Open Spandrel Bridges of Ancient
France were traditionally consecrated. Liang Qichao passing of the Yingzao fashi from Liang Qichao to China– II,
the Yung-t’ung Ch’iao at Chao Chou, Hopei,” Pencil Points 19 (1938):
found it to be in ruins after the war, but the beau- Liang Sicheng was instrumental to initiate the most
155– 160.
tiful carvings of the Gothic style were still visible. persistent and important focus of Liang Sicheng’s 3. A later fruition of Liang Sicheng’s research may be seen in Liu
The contrast of architectural styles between the new life-long intellectual preoccupation. SigniŽcantly, Dunzhen (Liu Tun-tseng), Zhongguo gudai jianzhushi (History of Ancient
Chinese Architecture) (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe,
city around the train station and old areas next to Liang Qichao wrote on the copy of the Yingzao
1980). Liu had been a major contributor to the research at the Society
the cathedral in Metz revealed to him the contrast fashi for Liang Sicheng that he was overjoyed to see for Research in Chinese Architecture.
between German and French cultures. He was highly such a highly accomplished masterpiece from one 4. Lin Zhu, Jianzhushi Liang Sicheng (Architect Liang Sicheng) (Tianjin:
impressed by the Strasbourg cathedral (he called it thousand years before; for him, the manuscript was Tianjin kexue jishu chubanshe, 1997), p. 64.
5. Liang Sicheng, Zhongguo jianzhushi (History of Chinese Architecture)
“the red cathedral”), particularly the cluster piers as evidence of both China’s achievement in the past (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 2000), p. 316.
rare examples of reŽnement in stone carving. He and the need for renewal of a tradition. 6. Ibid., p. 315.
described the “Renaissance style” buildings dotted 7. Lin Zhu, Koukai Lu Ban de damen — Zhongguo yingzao xueshe shilüe
(Opening the Gate of Lu Ban— A Brief History of the Society for
around the old city of Strasbourg and commented Conclusion Research in Chinese Architecture) (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye
that the new city displayed a sense of grandeur and The intellectual insight in Liang Sicheng’s works of chubanshe, 1995), p. 32.
seriousness that seemed to him to be German in Chinese architectural history —seen in a crucial 8. General discussions on École des Beaux-Arts include Arthur Drexler,
ed., The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (New York: The
character. In Cologne, he marveled at the grand understanding of historical knowledge, an aware-
Museum of Modern Art, 1977) and Robin Middleton, ed., The Beaux-
scale of the Hohenzollerbrücke, and visited the ness of a global geographical context, and a desire Arts and Nineteenth-Century French Architecture (Cambridge, MA: The
Cologne cathedral, which he regarded as a building to renew an ancient tradition in architecture— MIT Press, 1982). More detailed discussions on Cret include Theo B.
White, Paul Philippe Cret: Architect and Teacher (Philadelphia: The Art
of a combined “Gothic and Renaissance styles.“72 helped create a deŽning framework for Chinese
Alliance Press, 1973) and Elizabeth Greenwell Grossman, The Civic Archi-
In his proposals for an ambitious general architecture in the twentieth century both as a tecture of Paul Cret (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
history of China, perhaps began in 1918, he profession and as an academic discipline. This intel- Cret’s defense of the Beaux-Arts system can be seen in Paul Cret, “The
Ecole des Beaux-Arts: What Its Architectural Teaching Means,” Architec-
included a history of architecture as a separate lectual imagination in architecture can be seen to
tural Record 23 (1908): 367 –371.
volume.73 In 1922, in a paper discussing educational form part of a much broader intellectual framework 9. Wilma Fairbank, Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China’s Architec-
reform, Liang Qichao included “achievement of articulated in Liang Qichao’s general vision for a tural Past (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), p. 26.
10. Lin Zhu, Jianzhushi Liang Sicheng, p. 22.
architecture” as one of the lessons for standard modern Chinese nation. Liang Qichao’s commitment
11. Some of the drawings are published in Liang Sicheng, Liang Sicheng
secondary school education on Chinese history.74 In to building the modern Chinese nation through jianzhuhua (Architectural Drawings of Liang Sicheng) (Tianjin: Tianjin
a speech at Peking Normal University in 1924, intellectual enlightenment and through writing kexue jishu chubanshe, 1996), pp. 4– 85.

Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: 44

Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao
12. Lin Zhu, Jianzhushi Liang Sicheng, pp. 21 –22. 29. These ideas are traditionally canonized in the so-called Si Shu, or 53. Levenson, Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, pp. 27– 28, and footnote 63.
13. Fairbank, Liang and Lin, p. 26. Four Classics, and popularized in San Zi Jing, or Three Character Clas- 54. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 5, p. 3065.
14. Liang Sicheng’s letter to the Vice Chancellor of Tsinghua University sics, the authenticity of which Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei contested. 55. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 5, “Qingdai xueshu gailun”
Mei Yiqi requesting such change of direction in architectural education, See Feng Yu-lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (New York: The (“Outline of Qing Scholarship”), pp. 3106– 3109.
dated 9 March 1945, was published in Zhao Bingshi and Chen Yanqing, Free Press, 1948), Herbert Fingarette, Confucius— the Secular as Sacred 56. Fairbank, Liang and Lin, pp. 15 –16. Liang Qichao’s close associate
eds., Qinghua Daxue jianzhu xueyuan (xi) chengli wushi zhounian jinian (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1972), and Raymond Dawson, Confucius Ding Wenjiang (Ting Wen-Chiang) and Liang Sicheng’s classmates in
wenji 1946– 1996 (Collected Papers to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anni- (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). Tsinghua College Xu Zongsui and Wu Wenzao also helped.
versary of the Founding of the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua 30. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Jinshi wenmingzu 57. Charlotte Furth, Ting Wen-Chiang, Science and China’s New Culture
University, 1946 –1996) (Beijing: Zhongguo jianzhu gongye chubanshe, erdajia zhi xueshuo” (“On the Two Great Figures of Modern Civiliza- (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970), pp. 80– 81.
1996), pp. 3 –4. tion”), pp. 1030 –1035. Also see “Lun xueshu zhi shili zuoyou shijie” 58. Fairbank, Liang and Lin, p. 19.
15. Liang Chongjie, ed., Lin Huiyin wenji: jianzhujuan (Collected Works of (“On the Power of Knowledge to Change the World”), pp. 557– 560. 59. Ibid., p. 31.
Lin Huiyin: Architectural Writings) (Tianjin: Baihua chubanshe, 1999), p. 1. 31. For a discussion on the signiŽ cant contribution of Liang Qichao to a
60. Ibid., p. 28.
16. Liang Sicheng, Zhongguo jianzhushi, p. 3; and Liang Liang Ssu- production of “anthropological space” in his reimagining of the global
61. Lai Delin, ““Kexuexing” yu “minzuxing”: Jindai Zhongguo de
ch’eng, A Pictorial History of Chinese Architecture (Cambridge, MA: The space, see Tang Xiaobing, Global Space.
jianzhu jiazhiguan” (“Science and Nationalism: On the Values of
MIT Press, 1984), p. 3. 32. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Xinshixue” (“New Histo-
Contemporary Chinese Architecture”), Jianzhushi 62 (Feb. 1995): p. 51.
17. Liang Sicheng and Liu Zhiping, Jianzhu sheji cankao tuji (Pictorial riography”), p. 736.
62. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 10, Liang Qichao’s letter to
References for Architectural Design) (Beijing: Zhongguo yingzao xueshe, 33. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa”
Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin on 26 April 1928, pp. 6290 –6291.
1935), vol. 1, pp. 5 –6. (“The Research Method for Chinese History”), pp. 4091 –4092.
63. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi
18. Liang Ssu-ch’eng, A Pictorial History, p. 10; and Liang Sicheng, 34. Ibid., p. 4087.
yanjiufa,” p. 4144.
Zhongguo jianzhushi, p. 7. 35. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Xinshixue,” p. 736, and
64. Liang Sicheng and Liu Zhiping, Jianzhu sheji cankao tuji, pp. 5– 6.
19. Liang Chongjie, ed., Lin Huiyin wenji, p. 94; and Liang Sicheng, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa,” p. 4092.
Zhongguo jianzhushi, p. 5. 36. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Xinshixue,” p. 737, and 65. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 10, Liang Qichao’s letter,
20. Liang Ssu-ch’eng, A Pictorial History, p. 8; Liang Chongjie, ed., Lin vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa,” p. 4087. p. 6290.
Huiyin wenji, p. 93; and Liang Sicheng, Zhongguo jianzhushi, p. 4. 37. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Xinshixue,” pp. 737 – 66. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 9, “Zhongguo wenhuashi,”
21. Liang Chongjie, ed., Lin Huiyin wenji, p. 99. 738. p. 5109.
22. Ibid., pp. 98– 101. 38. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi 67. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 5, “Qingdai xueshu gailun,”
23. Han Baode highlighted Liang Sicheng’s preconceptions by providing yanjiufa,” p. 4102. p. 3100.
a different appraisal of Ming and Qing architecture in his Ming Qing 39. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 8, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa 68. Liang Qichao’s “Tongcheng School” style is dicussed in Hsia Chu-
jianzhu erlun (Two Essays on Ming and Qing Architecture) (Taibei: Jing (bupian)” (“Compendium to the Research Method for Chinese History”), joe, “Yingzao xueshe— Liang Sicheng jianzhushi lunshu gouzao zhi lilun
yu xiang chubanshe, 1982). p. 4876. fenxi” (“Society for Research in Chinese Architecture — An Analysis on
24. Liang Chongjie, ed., Lin Huiyin wenji, p. 111. 40. Ibid., p. 4878. Liang Sicheng’s History of Architecture”), Taiwan shehui yanjiu jikan (A
25. Liang Sicheng and Liu Zhiping, Jianzhu sheji cankao tuji, preface. 41. Ibid., p. 4876. Radical Quarterly in Social Studies) (Spring 1990): p. 17. This literary
26. A characterization by Joseph R. Levenson in Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and 42. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi inuence of Liang Qichao on Liang Sicheng is more obvious in Chinese
the Mind of Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, yanjiufa,” chapter 4, “Shuo shiliao” (“On Historical Materials”), than in English.
1953). pp. 4106– 4120. 69. In his account of his travels in North America, “Xindalu youji jielu”
27. Levenson quoted in Tang Xiaobing, Global Space and the Nation- 43. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 9, “Zhongguo wenhuashi” (“Extracts on the Travels on the New Continent”), Liang Qichao, Liang
alist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao (“History of Chinese Culture”), pp. 5079– 5129. Qichao quanji, vol. 2, pp. 1153 – 1154. On Washington DC, Liang Qichao
(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 2. 44. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 8, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa wrote that he was impressed by the Capitol and the Library of Congress,
28. Liang Qichao was described as “clearly the intellectual leader in a (bupian),” p. 4857; and “Zhongguo wenhuashi,” p. 5109. which he noted to be one of the most beautiful libraries in the world.
manner unknown to China since the Opium War,” in Levenson, Liang 45. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongguo lishi 70. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 5, “Ouyou xinying luji”
Ch’i-ch’ao, p. 82. Hu Shi, for instance, claimed that Liang Qichao yanjiufa,” p. 4108. (“Impressions of Travels in Europe”), p. 2997.
“attracted our abundantly curious minds, pointed out an unknown 46. Ibid.
71. Ibid., p. 2993.
world, and summoned us to make our own explorations” (ibid., p. 83). 47. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 1, “Zhongguoshi xülun”
72. Ibid., pp. 3021– 3029.
The May Fourth Movement owes much of its intellectual thinking, if not (“Outline of Chinese History”), p. 450.
73. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 6, pp. 3600– 3602.
its revolutionary fervor, to Liang Qichao’s work; see Philip C. Huang, 48. Ibid., p. 449.
74. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Zhongxue guoshi
Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Modern Chinese Liberalism (Seattle: University of 49. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 2, “Xinshixue,” pp. 736 –
jiaoben gaizao’an bin mulu” (“Reform Proposal and Catalogue of History
Washington Press, 1972), chapter 1, pp. 3– 10, and Tang Xiaobing, 753.
of China for Secondary Schools”), pp. 3971– 3977.
Global Space, pp. 169 –174. For example, Chen Duxiu (1880 – 1942), the 50. See Hu Shi’s account in The Chinese Renaissance (New York:
75. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 7, “Yindu yu Zhongguo
founder of Chinese Communist Party and editor of the May Fourth Paragon Book Reprint Corp. , 1963), p. 91.
journal, New Youth, claimed “the fact that we today have some knowl- 51. Levenson, Liang Ch’i-ch’ao, pp. 34– 37. wenhua zhi qinshu de guanxi” (“On the Close Relation Between Indian
edge of the world is entirely the gift of Mr. K’ang and Mr. Liang.” Mao 52. Discussions on tiyong include Ding Zhiwei and Chen Song, Zhongxi and Chinese Cultures”), pp. 4253 –4254.
Zedong named his student organization Xinmin xuehui (New Citizen tiyong zhijian (Between East-West and Tiyong) (Beijing: Zhongguo 76. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 8, “Zhongguo lishi yanjiufa
Society) in 1918, paying tribute to Liang Qichao’s work on the new shehui kexue chubanshe, 1995). A summary of the history of late Qing (bupian),” p. 4857.
citizen. Liang Qichao’s writings are recently reprinted in Liang Qichao Dynasty can be found in Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern 77. Liang Qichao, Liang Qichao quanji, vol. 9, “Zhongguo kaoguxue zhi
quanji (Complete Works of Liang Qichao), in 10 volumes (Beijing: China, chapter II, “Fragmentation and Reform,” (New York: W.W. Norton guoqu ji jianglai” (“The Past and Present of Archaeology in China”),
Beijing chubanshe, 1999), to which all references here are made. and Company, 1990), pp. 137– 268. p. 4919.

45 li shiqiao