Liang Sicheng | |||||||||||
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Liang at Tsinghua University, 1950
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Born |
Tokyo, Japan |
20 April 1901||||||||||
Died | 9 January 1972 Beijing, China |
(aged 70)||||||||||
Alma mater |
Tsinghua University University of Pennsylvania |
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Political party | Communist Party of China | ||||||||||
Spouse(s) |
Lin Huiyin Lin Zhu |
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Children |
Congjie Zaibing |
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Parent(s) | Liang Qichao | ||||||||||
Chinese name | |||||||||||
Chinese | 梁思成 | ||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Liáng Sīchéng |
Wade–Giles | Liang2 Ssu1-ch'eng2 |
IPA | [li̯ǎŋ sɨ́ʈʂʰə̌ŋ] |
Liang Sicheng (Chinese: ; 20 April 1901 – 9 January 1972) was a Chinese architect and scholar, often known as the father of modern Chinese architecture. His father, Liang Qichao, was one of the most prominent Chinese scholars of the early 20th century. His wife was the architect and poet Lin Huiyin. His younger brother, Liang Siyong, was one of China's first archaeologists.
Liang authored the first modern history on Chinese architecture, and he was the founder of the Architecture Department of Northeastern University in 1928 and Tsinghua University in 1946. He was the Chinese representative of the Design Board which designed the United Nations headquarters in New York City. He, along with wife Lin Huiyin, Mo Zongjiang, and Ji Yutang, discovered and analyzed the first and second oldest timber structures still standing in China, located at Nanchan Temple and Foguang Temple at Mount Wutai.
He is recognized as the “Father of Modern Chinese Architecture”. Princeton University, which awarded him an honorary doctoral degree in 1947, issued a statement praising him as “a creative architect who has also been a teacher of architectural history, a pioneer in historical research and exploration in Chinese architecture and planning, and a leader in the restoration and preservation of the priceless monuments of his country.”
Liang Sicheng was born on 20 April 1901 in Tokyo, Japan, where his father, prolific scholar and reformist Liang Qichao, was in exile from China after the failed Hundred Days' Reform. During the waning years of the Qing Dynasty, China’s last Imperial dynasty, the empire endured a series of foreign invasions and vicious domestic struggles, beginning with the first Opium War in 1840. Foreign powers soon divided China into spheres of influence, while the weak and corrupt Qing Dynasty could do little to stop them. In 1898 the Guangxu Emperor, led by his circle of advisers, attempted to introduce drastic reforms to stem the decay and bring China onto the path to modernity. Liang Qichao, a well-educated and energetic man, was a leader of this movement. However, in the face of opposition from conservatives in the Qing court, the movement failed. The Empress Dowager Cixi, the emperor's adoptive mother and the power behind the throne, imprisoned the emperor, and executed many of the movement's leaders. Liang Qichao took refuge in Japan, where his eldest son was born.