As a generation of academic masters, Mr. Cao spent his life studying architectural history and garden history, and was rigorous in his academic research and extensive writings. He established an academic system based on historical origin and chronology. At the same time, he also

Author: Jia Jun (Professor and PhD supervisor of the School of Architecture, Tsinghua University)

Friends who are familiar with Cao Xun know that the teacher loves chatting and especially likes to make comments on Yuedan. When it comes to ancient and modern figures, you must be excited and talk endlessly.

As a generation of academic masters, Mr. Cao spent his life studying architectural history and garden history, and was rigorous in his academic research and extensive writings. He established an academic system based on historical origin and chronology. At the same time, he also dabbled in many fields such as archaeology, literature, history, and art, and made great achievements. He usually comments on academic people and is the most harsh in his opinion of his peers, criticizes his predecessors' mistakes, and is relatively tolerant of his juniors.

"Chronology of Mr. Lin Huiyin" by Cao Xun Wenjin Publishing House

For the predecessors, Mr. Cao admires the most the master of historians Mr. Chen Yuan , as well as architects Mr. Liang Sicheng and Mr. Lin Huiyin . Every time I mention it, I accept all my arrogance on my face and look full of respect.

In July 1955, Mr. Cao was admitted to the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University. Just three months ago, Mr. Lin Huiyin died of illness and failed to have the opportunity to see him with his own eyes. Shortly after entering the school, Mr. Cao saw a design manuscript by Mr. Lin in the department, which was greatly impressed and regarded it as an idol since then. He has been paying attention to Mr. Lin's various historical materials for a long time, vigorously collected and reviewed Mr. Lin's life and deeds and lost works, and gradually established a goal: to compile a chronology for Mr. Lin Huiyin.

chronological biography is essentially a chronological biography. It is usually believed that it began in the Song Dynasty and pays the most attention to clear context and conclusive historical facts. In the past 40 years, dozens of books have been written by Mr. Lin Huiyin, and some of them are also accompanied by chronology or chronology, but almost all are from authors in the field of architecture. If the verification is not detailed, there are inevitably many mistakes and missing. In terms of professional background, research ability, academic proficiency and literary style, Mr. Cao is undoubtedly the best candidate to compile Mr. Lin Huiyin's chronology.

Mr. Cao has been doing this work for decades and has made significant discoveries in the middle. For example, he found the translation "Nightingale and the Rose" first published by Mr. Lin when he was 20 years old in 1923; for example, he inferred that several collections of covers of the "China Creation Society Exchange" were designed by Mr. Lin himself. In 2009, Mr. Cao published a long article "Chronology of Mr. Lin Huiyin" in the first volume of the Journal of Chinese Architecture History and Theory, which is a phased summary. In the following ten years, it continued to search and sort out, and completed the manuscript of "Mr. Lin Huiyin's Chronicle". In 2020, it was awarded the National Publishing Fund and handed over to Beijing Publishing Group for editing and processing, and prepared for publication.

During this period, Mr. Cao's health was getting worse and he was admitted to the hospital and still paid attention to this book on his sickbed. On December 6, 2021, Mr. Cao unfortunately passed away. Two young scholars, Huang Xiao and Liu Shanshan, have a long-lost friendship with Mr. Cao. They once collaborated on the study of Changzhou Zhiyuan. With the assistance of Mr. Cao's family and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Beijing University of Architecture, they did a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the "Chronology of Mr. Lin Huiyin", including verification of information, proofreading text, supplementary illustrations, etc., and sent the bound sample books to him before Mr. Cao died, which was enough to comfort him.

In July 1937, Lin Huiyin surveyed and mapped the pagoda in Foguang Temple in Wutai County, Shanxi. Selected from "Chronology of Mr. Lin Huiyin"

In July 2022, the book "Chronology of Mr. Lin Huiyin" was officially published by Wenjin Publishing House as a book in the "Grand Arts and Stories" series.

It should be noted that Mr. Lin Huiyin's real name is Lin Huiyin, which was taken by her father Lin Changmin's . The allusion comes from a sentence in "The Book of Songs·Daya·Siqi" " Dasi Heir Huiyin, then he is a man." In the 1930s, there was a boring male writer named Lin Weiyin in Shanghai. In order not to be confused, Mr. Lin Huiyin was forced to change his name to Lin Huiyin in 1935. After that, the academic community generally referred to as "Lin Huiyin". However, Mr. Cao always insisted on using the original name of "Lin Huiyin". This book respects Mr. Cao's opinion. The title of the book is the name "Lin Huiyin", and the text adopts different names according to different periods.

This is a very wonderful book with elegant binding. A hollow flower window on the title page reveals Mr. Lin's face as he stares and looks sideways, reminding people of her famous essay "Outside the Window".In the order of year and month, the text records in detail Mr. Lin's short and glorious life story: he was born on June 10, 1904 in Luguanxiang, Hangzhou; in 1912 he moved to Shanghai with his family; in 1914 he moved to Beijing; in 1916 he entered the Peihua Women's Middle School run by the British Church with his cousins; in 1920 he accompanied his father to Europe for inspection; in 1922 he agreed to a marriage with Liang Sicheng; in April-May 1924 he received Indian literary talent Tagore visiting China, and in June he went to the United States to study; in September 1927 he went from Pennsylvania Graduated from at Nia University, and obtained a bachelor's degree in at ; in March 1928, Liang Sicheng married Liang Sicheng in Ottawa, Canada, and then traveled to Europe for a honeymoon. In August, he returned to China and served as a professor in Department of Architecture at Northeastern University. In 1930, he joined China Construction Society ; in 1931, he returned to Peking to recuperate. On June 25, his family settled in the Hutong, the headquarters of North; from 1931 to 1937, he joined with Liang Sicheng to participate in ancient construction. In July 1937, he discovered the main hall of Foguang Temple in Wutai Mountain as a Tang Dynasty architectural remains, and then moved to the rear due to the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. In 1938, he arrived in Kunming in 1938 and served as the design consultant for the new school building of Southwest Associated University; in 1940, he moved to Lizhuang, Sichuan, and lived in extreme difficulties, plagued by illness, but was determined. In 1946, the whole family Returning to Peking, he settled down on the Tsinghua University campus and assisted in the establishment of the Department of Architecture; in 1949, he founded in New China, and continued to serve as a professor at Tsinghua University, presided over the design of the national emblem; in 1950, he studied and restored the cloisonné craft; in 1952, he was responsible for designing the floral patterns of the People's Monument; in 1954, he was elected as a representative of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, and made generous speeches at the meeting, advocating the protection of ancient Beijing buildings; in 1955, he was seriously ill and was hospitalized, and died in the early morning of April 1.

Lin Huiyin's opinion manuscript on Chinese architectural color painting patterns. The China Construction Society Memorial Hall provides

to read the complete book. I believe that all readers can know a real Lin Huiyin, a great woman with a sense of family and country, dare to act, serious and hardworking, talented and independent personality. The legendary romantic love is not worth mentioning at all. Mr. Cao is good at essays and speaking, both in his writing and in a slewy way. However, the text of this book is contrary to the old style and is concise and concise. He only tells stories with facts and does not perform subjectively, and reads very smoothly.

More importantly, the compilation of this chronology adheres to the norms of historians. Most of the texts have exact sources of historical materials, and the details are particularly rigorous, and the writings of previous generations are corrected - such as page 33: "Huiyin and Xu Zhimo 's first encounter will not be earlier than the spring of the year (1921). The old saying that the two met in 1920 is not accurate. It is also not accurate to say that the two met in the autumn of 1921." Page 39: "It is generally believed that Lin Huiyin began to publish her works after participating in Crescent Society in 1931 under the influence of Xu Zhimo in 1931. The product is really inaccurate. … In that year, Xinyue Fan had some small family dinners, but the Xinyue Society had not yet been established. According to legend, there was Xinyue Society in 1923, which was really inaccurate. "Pages 157-158: "The History of Chinese Architecture... The manuscript was last copied, in addition to the five pages of the first catalog and the seven pages of the illustration catalog, there are two comments in total, and there are also eight pages in total, and the title of Chapter 6 Section 2 "Pattern Palaces, Gardens, and City of Northern Song Dynasty" was also written by Huiyin. This is the last batch of brushes left by Lin Huiyin regular script , which is extremely precious. "In these places, Mr. Cao fully demonstrated his expertise in textual research, which is impressive. For some statements that do not have direct evidence, we also made corresponding explanations and never draw conclusions. For example, on page 81: "In May (1932), we sent a letter from Hu Shi, saying that she "feels very sick and doesn't move much. Later, she rushed to two or three project patterns for several days and nights, and it became more and more difficult to get tired.' The so-called "two or three projects" is known to be a part of the interior and exterior decoration and color painting project of Renli Carpet Company's shop renovation, which was made in 1932, and the rest is unknown. It may be said that Peking University Girls' Dormitory and Geology Museum were also designed this year, but there is no confirmation."

There are two rare things in this book.First, the inner pages of the small open book were included in the form of "books in books", and the representative poems, essays and academic papers of Mr. Lin Huiyin were published to confirm with the main text of the chronology; second, a large number of first-hand exquisite pictures were obtained from the China Construction Society Memorial Hall, including old photos, image surveys, book shadows, manuscripts, etc., which also added a lot of color.

The end of the book is accompanied by "The Proud Glory - Mr. Lin Huiyin and Her Architectural World" written by Mr. Cao, which is equivalent to Mr. Lin's biography, which is accompanied by narrative and discussion, and describes the author's mind in detail to readers. Mr. Cao likes Mr. Lin’s two lines of poetry very much: “One of the shoulders is carried two harbors of clouds, and the glory is arranged in the calm sky.” The so-called “two harbors of clouds” refer to architecture and literature, which are the two major art categories that Mr. Lin loved in his life, and have achieved great achievements. Mr. Cao is also an architect with profound literary attainments. He resonates with Mr. Lin in many aspects and enthusiastically praises: "How should we evaluate Lin Huiyin's life? Her works are extraordinary, and her personality is even more extraordinary. She is full of poetry, full of hot blood, and "carrying two burly clouds"... She is extremely talented and has long been known as the "genius woman of a generation". It is not just one generation, but extraordinary, rare. ... She is also a tragic figure. Her life is radiating strange brilliance. The evil invasion of Japanese imperialism destroyed her, making her talent unable to be fully displayed. After the founding of New China, she was reborn, devoted herself to the light of life..." If Mr. Lin knew about it in the spring, he would also attract Mr. Cao as a soulmate.

This "Chronicle of Mr. Lin Huiyin" that has been built for many years is the best record of Mr. Lin's life journey so far. It has both high academic value of and an excellent reading template. Between the pictures and texts, the poetry is in full bloom, and the two clouds are dazzling. I am looking forward to the appreciation and analysis of readers.

"Guangming Daily" (11th edition, September 19, 2022)

Source: Guangming.com - "Guangming Daily"