┃The cheating family I.M. Pei’s family comes from Suzhou, Jiangsu. Since the first generation of ancestors left Lanxi, Jinhua, Zhejiang to work hard to become a wealthy family, it has been the fifteenth generation of I.M. Pei, and many talents, especially the fifteenth generation

Category：hotcomm

2025-06-15

Author: Zhuoyan

The ancestors were medicinal tycoons, and their fathers were financial giants. They lived in the Lion Forest and built the Louvre. The family has produced many talents in fifteen generations, and I am recognized as the leader in the construction industry. Such a "private brother" who comes from a famous family but does not become a playboy is the architect who left dozens of masterpieces - Mr. I.M. Pei .

┃The family of cheating

I.M. Pei’s family comes from Suzhou, Jiangsu. Since the first generation of I.M. Pei’s ancestral home has been in the fifteenth generation since his ancestral home from Lanxi, Jinhua, Zhejiang, to become a wealthy family, it has been the fifteenth generation of I.M. Pei. There are many talents, especially the 15th generation of I.M. Pei’s ancestral branch, never cut off.

[Is.M. Pei]

I.M. Pei’s ancestor and the first ancestor of the Bei family in Suzhou were named Beilantang. He was originally from Lanxi County, Jinhua Prefecture. He was originally a doctor who collected and sold medicines in the local area. Since it was the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and the economy of Suzhou was prosperous, Belantang resolutely moved his family to Suzhou and continued his business as a medicinal material and doctor in Suzhou.

Until the sixth descendants, Bei family was always a wealthy family in Suzhou. Although they were not noble enough, they lived a wealthy life and had no worries about food and clothing. When it comes to the sixth generation of Beiqian Valley, the family business has begun a qualitative leap. Unfortunately, Beiqian Valley did not have time to witness his family becoming a wealthy family. This wish was fulfilled by his son, the seventh descendant of Bei's family.

Bei Muting is not like a young master from a wealthy family of six generations. Instead, he is dedicated to his family's business. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the Bei family and three other major families in Suzhou were collectively called "Suzhou Four Fu". Because the four furniture lives in Nanhao Street, Suzhou, and also known as "Suzhou Four Fu", it became one of the richest families in Suzhou.

If the previous six generations were not rich enough to trigger the condition of "wealth not exceeding three generations", the Bei family after Bei Muting still inherited the fine traditions of their ancestors. Not only did they not squander all their family wealth, but instead used their wealth to cultivate their descendants, and enabled the Bei family to reach another peak after another six generations.

Bei's family has born again from six generations after the seventh generation Beimuting and the thirteenth generation, and two of them have emerged at once.

One is Bei Runsheng, a descendant of Bei Muting's brothers who was passed down to the thirteenth generation. Bei Runsheng is a famous "pigment king" in modern times and is the person who introduced the famous dye "Yindanshilin" during the Republic of China period to China. The most far-reaching thing that Bei Runsheng did was to buy a famous garden lion forest that was abandoned and had a long history due to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and carefully decorated it to lay the foundation for the current appearance of the lion forest. The Lion Grove, which was once the "back garden" of the Bei family, was a place where many descendants of the Bei family lived and took vacations, including I.M. Pei, and his days in the Lion Grove when he was young, profoundly influenced the future architectural philosophy of this architect.

Another outstanding descendant of the 13th generation is I.M. Pei’s grandfather, Litai. Belitai was young and smart. He passed the exam for the scholar, but because of his sudden death, he had to return to his hometown to take over the business. Bei Litai, who had been reading the books of sages since childhood, unexpectedly managed his family business only in an orderly manner, which made him hired as an aide by the magistrate of Wuxian County and continued to serve as the finance department of Wuxian County Government after 1911. This work process allowed Bei Litai to meet Chen Guangfu, a famous modern banker who returned from studying abroad and assisted Cheng Dequan, the governor of Jiangsu in the Republic of China, to establish Jiangsu Bank. Because of this friendship, Belitai helped Chen Guangfu find Shanghai Bank together.

And the son of Beretta, the descendant of the 16th generation of the Bei family, is one of the most shining financial giants in modern China. The young Bei Zuyi learned financial knowledge due to his father's influence, and therefore joined Sheng Xuanhuai's Hanyeping Coal and Iron Company as an accountant. Due to this relationship and his strong ability, Bei Zuyi planned to establish the Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of China and served as general manager. In 1923, he transferred him to the bank of Song Ziwen for loaning 500,000 yuan to support him in the establishment of the central bank of . In 1946, Bei Zuyi served as the president of the central bank at that time under the recommendation of Song Ziwen, becoming the first person in charge of the financial lifeline of the Republic of China. After resigning, he served as Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Branch of Shanghai Bank and Hong Kong, and is still a top figure in the financial industry.

┃Growing up and becoming famous

Grandfather helped raise the Shanghai Bank, and his father was the president of the central bank. I.M. Pei, who came from such a family, had no need to say about his life since childhood.

[Young I.M. Pei]

I.M. Pei (English: Ieoh Ming Pei; signature: I. M. Pei, April 26, 1917 - May 16, 2019), won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983, and was known as the "last master of high modernist architecture".

Although the family is a prominent family in Suzhou, his father was born in Guangzhou when he was born.

1918, due to the melee of domestic warlords and the situation was unstable. In order to avoid the fight, Bei Zuyi moved his family to Hong Kong. Therefore, the young I.M. Pei had always spent his early life in Hong Kong.

After the situation stabilized slightly in 1927, Bei Zuyi was appointed as the manager of the Shanghai Branch of the Bank of China. During this period, I.M. Pei often had the opportunity to return to Suzhou. Therefore, every summer vacation, I.M. Pei would return to his uncle Bei Runsheng to buy the lion forest as the family's ancestral home. During the years when he often returned to Lion Forest to live, I.M. Pei became interested in architecture, which directly affected his future study direction, and also affected his philosophy and concepts of architectural design after he was engaged in the construction industry. The concepts such as "coexistence between man and nature", "cohesion and history" were all formed at that time.

In 1935, 18-year-old I.M. Pei went to the United States to study, first studied architecture at Pennsylvania University, and then transferred to MIT . He obtained a bachelor's degree in architecture from MIT in 1940 and a master's degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1946.

In 1948, I.M. Pei, who left campus, joined the real estate development company Webb and Knapp as the director of the construction department. This was the first time that a Chinese architect had been found in the construction industry.

In 1955, I.M. Pei left Qi Weiner to set up his own architecture firm and began his independent journey into the construction industry. I.M. Pei made good use of steel, concrete, glass and stone, and was deeply influenced by German modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Roh . Later, I.M. Pei, who made good use of concrete, became more perfect in this regard, and his works began to have the sculptural sense of the architecture of Li Corbusier, a master of functionalist architecture.

[Is.M. Pei before the Louvre]

The architectural concept of "coexistence between man and nature" that I realized in the Lion Forest runs through I.M. Pei's lifelong architectural design. It integrates nature into architecture, focuses on the input of natural light, combines light and space, and changes in space. This is the main feature of I.M. Pei's works. It also made I.M. Pei gradually gained favor and praise from the entire architectural community, and various awards came one after another.

1963, The Medal of Honor, New York Branch of the American Institute of Architects

1970, The Golden Door Award, Boston International Academy, USA,

1978, The Elsie de Wolfe Award, American Interior Designers Association,

1979, The Gold Medal for Architecture of the American Academy of Arts and Letters,

1979, AIA Gold Medal)

1981, , French Academy of Architecture, "Gold Médaille d'Or" (La Grande Médaille d'Or)

1983, Pulitzer Prize

1989, Japanese Palace Highness Takamatsu Commemorate the World Culture Award "Lifetime Achievement Award"

1994, Chinese Architecture Society "Gold Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Architecture)

1996, Italy "Premio Internazional Novecento La Rosa d'Oro)

2006, German Erwin Victor Foundation's "Orient and Western Award" (Orient und Okzident Preis)

2009, Royal Gold Medal, British Royal Institute of Architects (Royal Gold Medal)

┃Historized masterpieces

I.M. Pei has many works in his life, such as the Franklin National Bank of New York, the Town Heart Square residential area, and the East and West Cultural Center of Hawaii; and the National Atmospheric Research Center, Iverson Art Museum , Demoy Art Center Sculpture Museum and Cornell University Jiang Sen Art Museum, etc. But the most famous ones are the following ones.

1. Kennedy Library

This is the architecture that truly made I.M. Pei famous and ranked among the world-class architectural masters. It is also one of I.M. Pei’s earliest works.

At the beginning of the project, the fledgling I.M. Pei was not the first choice of the Kennedy family. But I.M. Pei impressed Kennedy's widow, , Jacqueline, , Kennedy through vivid descriptions and sincere attitudes. Jacqueline once said: "No one can compare to I.M. Pei's aesthetic world, I chose him after thinking about it after repeated consideration."

Library consists of a 10-story triangle tower, a 2-story display base and a 110-foot-high memorial curtain. Although it is avant-garde and bold, it is harmonious and consistent. It took more than ten years from design to construction, and it was not truly completed until 1979. It is recognized as one of the best masterpieces in the history of American architecture. It was also in this year that I.M. Pei won the Gold Medal of the American Academy of Architecture of the Year and was declared by the American architectural community that 1979 was the "Year of I.M. Pei".

2. Xiangshan Hotel

Xiangshan Hotel is the first work designed by a foreign architect after the reform and opening up, setting off a wave of combining Chinese traditional architecture with modernism in the Chinese architectural community. It was completed and opened in 1982 and won the "American Architecture Society Honorary Award" in 1984.

Xiangshan Hotel's main building is a white modernist building. Changchun Hall lobby is the most distinctive part of Pei. It uses a glass roof for natural lighting, making the inner courtyard a light courtyard and blends nature into the building. Liuhuachi behind the main building is a typical Chinese garden design, with winding paths, pebbles paved with the ground, and rockery surrounding it, showing the huge impact of the lion forest on I.M. Pei's design.

3. Louvre

Among the most important works in Pei's career, there must be a place for the reconstruction of the Louvre.

1989 commemorates the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Therefore, the French government has planned to renovate or repair the top ten major buildings in Paris since 1981, and the Louvre is also one of these ten projects.

At that time, then French President Mitterrand invited the directors of 15 famous museums in the world, nearly 90% of whom recommended the same person to Mitterrand, that is I.M. Pei, who had just completed the East Hall of the Washington Museum of Art.

Mitran accepted the opinions of many museum directors and personally commissioned I.M. Pei to take charge of the reconstruction of the Louvre, the only major project in France that was directly awarded to architects without competition.

But this has aroused strong criticism from Paris and even the entire French society, especially the most iconic " Glass Pyramid ", which has set off a larger wave of opposition once it was announced, and some even mocked it as "a cold diamond".

But I.M. Pei did not give up. He lobbyed himself and patiently explained his design concept to all sectors of France. He even built a one-to-one model at the preset location to build a glass pyramid to allow the French people to vote. In the end, his design conquered all sectors of France, and time also proved the beauty and classic of this design. In 1989, the Louvre, which had a glass pyramid, opened its arms again to the world. This once despised "broken diamond" has now become one of the most dazzling landmarks in France.

4. Suzhou Museum

Among the newly renovated museums in modern times in China, the Suzhou Museum designed by I.M. Pei for his hometown Suzhou is undoubtedly the most distinctive one.

Suzhou Museum was built in 1960. Its former site is the royal palace site of Li Xiucheng, the king of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 2002, the government of Suzhou City decided to expand the museum, so it sent an invitation to I.M. Pei, who was 85 years old at the time.

Because of his age, I.M. Pei's youngest son, who is also a famous architect, wanted to take over the project for his father, but I.M. Pei was determined to design it himself. I.M. Pei once said: "If I can't do this design, my son can't do it." I.M. Pei devoted great emotion to this work that was about to stand in his hometown.

This new museum designed by I.M. Pei is inspired by the traditional slope-top landscape of Suzhou. It contrasts the glass roof and the stone roof. In addition, Pei's unique light and shadow design allows natural light to enter the event area and the museum's exhibition area, making light and shadow a part of the building.

In 2006, the new Suzhou Museum was completed. This is the last work designed by I.M. Pei himself called his favorite "little daughter". This museum is the best example of the fusion of modern and classical.

On May 16, 2019, Mr. Pei, a master of architecture, passed away. This last "modernist architect" left behind countless classic modernist works. His sons, , Bei Jianzhong, , and Bei Lizhong, have followed his father's footsteps and have now become famous architects in the industry. The Bei family has not only not declined in the hands of Mr. I.M. Pei, but has continued to carry forward in new fields.

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