Chen Mingda

Chen Mingda

Chen Mingda is a famous architect, an architectural historian and a member of the construction society.

Profile

In 1932, he was introduced by Mo Zongjiang to work in China construction society as Liu Dunzhen's assistant. He also participated in the investigation of ancient buildings and the compilation and drawing of materials. He was promoted to graduate in 1935. In 1940, with Liang Sicheng and Liu dunjia, he inspected the ancient buildings in more than 40 counties in Southwest China. In 1942, he took part in the excavation of Pengshan cliff tomb and drew the topographic map of the cliff tomb and the architectural structure map of the tomb. In 1944, he was a research fellow of the central design bureau of Chongqing. In 1945, he participated in the planning and design of Chongqing road network and zoning. In 1946, he was an engineer of the Construction Committee of the capital. After the founding of new China, the office building of Southwest Bureau of CPC and Chongqing municipal Party committee were designed. In 1953, he worked as an engineer in the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of culture. In 1960, he was transferred to the Cultural Relics Publishing House as an editor. In 1971, he was transferred to the Institute of history and theory of the Academy of Architectural Sciences as a researcher. He retired in 1987. His main works include Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, research on the construction of large French wooden works, ancient Chinese structural construction technology, and Chen Mingda's history of architecture and sculpture. Mr. Chen Mingda died in Beijing in August 1997.

Family history

Chen Mingda was born in Changsha, his hometown is Qiyang, Hunan Province. In 1925, his family moved from Changsha to Beijing. When the society moved to Changsha, Chen Mingda returned to his hometown of Qiyang. In the repaired ancestral hall, Chen Mingda found that all the brackets of the ancestral hall had been removed and piled on the wall. Dougong is a unique structure of ancient Chinese architecture, which has been used for more than 2000 years. In the Qing Dynasty, the structure of Dou Gong degenerated and was only used as decoration. "Such examples can be met but not sought," Yin Lixin recalled.
After the victory of the Anti Japanese War, Chen Mingda returned to his hometown for a short time and planned to rebuild the burned ancestral temple of Chen family. However, the local Chen people negotiated that it was more meaningful to build a new university than a private ancestral hall. Therefore, Chen Mingda did his best to complete the school's design and construction drawings in a short time, and even prepared a detailed project budget. Later, the school was built, but due to changes in the current situation, it failed to become a university, and the building complex was transformed into a middle school. Today, Qiyang No.2 Middle School is the school designed and founded by Chen Mingda. The auditorium of Qiyang No.2 Middle School was originally the ancestral hall of the Chen family. The design cost Chen Mingda a lot of effort. Chen Mingda once mentioned that the school designed for Qiyang at that time was the ancestral hall of Chen family. There is no ancestral hall near the old house, but Qiyang No.2 Middle School (formerly Chonghua middle school) located in Longshan street of Qiyang city. The Chen family of Qiyang was born in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty (from outangchong, xiamadu Town, Qiyang city), named kezhai and posthumously named Wensu. From 1702 to 1751, although they were often excluded because of the suspicion of Manchu dignitaries to Han officials, their descendants were not willing to sink since they were great grandchildren, and they have been constantly striving for self-improvement for more than 200 years. They have successively emerged many talented people who have made great achievements in their respective fields, such as Chen Wenxuan, Chen BINGSHU, Chen pingjie, Chen Mingda, etc Besides the scenic spots, there are the old house and ancestral grave of Chen family in otang Chong and the library of Qiyang No.2 Middle School which are not listed as cultural relics protection units. Today, the Wenchang tower in Qiyang is a religious building with ornamental value higher than practical value. In the era of its construction, it directly served the educational cause. Today, it has become one of the most famous pagodas in China. There is no need to say more about it. The reconstruction of Wenchang pagoda, written by Chen dasheu, has been handed down to the world. It has become a precious historical material to record the tradition of folk craftsmen and a rare document to reflect the traditional cultural concept of "Confucianism based, inclusive Buddhism". In addition to the extant copy of the remains of Duke Chen Wensu, the remains of the original tablet are still scattered in the bushes near the Wenchang tower. The tomb of Chen Da Shou in otang Chong is very simple, and the old houses of Chen family are more simple and incredible: there are many large houses with carved beams and painted buildings and winding paths in China, and the prime minister's residence with adobe wall as the main structure seems to be an isolated example. It is far from luxury, but in the simple and poor, with the details of window lattice, beam frame and column foundation, it casually shows the high cultural taste of farming and reading people. According to records, Chen dasheu donated 1500 liang of silver for the reconstruction of Wenchang tower in Qiyang at that time, while only 300 Liang for the repair of his old house. As for today's Library of Qiyang No.2 Middle School, it is the material evidence of Chen Clan's righteous act of transforming the ancestral hall into a public educational institution. Chen Da was selected by the government, lived in the earth house, and passed on his descendants only poetry and books; he sponsored the public welfare of his hometown, spared no expense, and extended the responsibility of farming and reading to the countryside. Such a family tradition is inherent in his descendants Chen BINGSHU and Chen Mingda. When the country is in a state of waste, they seek the development of public welfare education with the loss of private property, which is full of the humanistic spirit of their ancestors. Chen Mingda once mentioned the rise and fall of the Chen family's warning to future generations: "all the witch doctors and craftsmen can be the foundation of their own lives", "live and die on their own, just be pragmatic, and never live by the shadow of their ancestors". These spirits can be said to be immortal family wealth, and can also be regarded as one of the cultural genes that formed Qiyang's heroic, honest, self-supporting and education oriented folk customs. Therefore, it is no accident that Chen Mingda embarked on the road of studying ancient architecture.

Life anecdotes

In the eyes of many architectural historians, Chen Mingda was once a mystery. In the early 1980s, Wang Qiheng, a doctoral advisor in the Department of architecture of Tianjin University, wanted to consult Mr. Chen about some problems in the book "building fashi". However, he heard that this "outstanding scholar who has made great achievements in the study of Chinese architectural history after Liang Sicheng and Liu Dunzhen" has been behind closed doors for many years. So Wang Qiheng went to Chen's house with great anxiety. Unexpectedly, he found that Mr. Chen, who is very young, is actually very happy to talk with his peers. He is by no means the "pedantic man who reads only ancient books" in the rumor. Later, people gradually began to understand that this architectural historian lived in a simple place for 30 years just for a "matter that doesn't matter to ordinary people.". In 1953, Chen Mingda was appointed secretary of the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of culture, in charge of the protection of ancient buildings throughout the country. Once, the Beijing Municipal Party committee organized a discussion on whether to demolish a historic site. Just when Chen Mingda wanted to speak up and persuade the participants to preserve the historic sites, a leader of the Beijing Municipal Party committee waved to him: "the comrades of the Bureau of cultural relics don't have to say that. I know all your opinions." Then, the leader repeatedly stated why he wanted to tear it down, and "drew bursts of applause.". the historic sites will eventually be demolished. Before long, Chen Mingda took the initiative to transfer to the Cultural Relics Publishing House for editing. Some people said that he "ruined his future", but he said with disdain that he would have quit if it had not been for the purpose of completing the list of the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units. As a result, in his prime, Chen Mingda withdrew from officialdom and devoted himself to the study of the most complete book on Architectural Technology in ancient China, which was "building fashi" written by craftsman Li Jie of the Northern Song Dynasty more than 900 years ago. Since then, there have been rumors that he stayed at home for 30 years. in fact, since joining the construction society in 1932, Chen Mingda, an apprentice, has been fascinated by the construction method. It's just that the Hunan man, who was praised by Liang Sicheng as "brilliant and fantastic", was also perplexed and depressed. Mo Zongjiang, a close friend, once recalled that during the Anti Japanese War, Chen Mingda was visiting Yibin with the construction society. First came the news that his mother and eldest sister, who stayed in Peiping, died of poverty and illness. Soon after, his fiancee, who took part in the underground resistance against Japan, died of his country. Since then, Chen Mingda has often been drunk, and then he has been crying uncontrollably. When he is drunk, he cries out that he wants to go to the front line to kill the enemy. Sometimes, he recites Du Fu's poem "three months in a row, letters from home are worth ten thousand gold". Even so, the book never left. He even spent a few years copying the whole book "creating French style" and drawing all the illustrations in it. In 1962, Chen Mingda, who was the editor and editor of the Cultural Relics Publishing House at that time, went to Shanxi to investigate Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, and thus wrote his first architectural monograph Yingxian Wooden Pagoda. This book was published on the eve of the cultural revolution in 1966, but in the view of this architectural historian, it is only "one thirtieth" of the "preparatory work" for the study of "building a French style". He failed to carry on with his work. During the cultural revolution, Chen Mingda, who was over 50 years old, was sent to the "May 7th cadre school" to receive ideological transformation. First, he was arranged to make clay and adobe, which was said to be "the professional counterpart of architecture". Then, he was arranged to go to the canteen to give a hand to the master. It's just that many years later, when Chen Mingda and others recalled this experience, they were very "open-minded" to say that they had learned hard Kung Fu because of a blessing in disguise - they could cut more than ten kilograms of very thin shredded meat in two hours. "My treatment is quite good. A gentleman graduated from Waseda University in Japan and was naturally asked to plant rice." Then he burst out laughing. But no one knows what the old man really thinks. In that "ten years of delay", he had planned to study the Foguang temple in Shanxi, dule temple in Tianjin and other ancient buildings, and finally completed only a small part. When Chen Mingda died in 1997, his nephew Yin Lixin was surprised to find that he had been searching for the answer to a question all his life: "Westerners put forward the three principles of" applicability, firmness and beauty " So is there a Chinese architecture which is quite different from the western architecture In a previous conversation with visiting students, Chen Mingda clearly pointed out that the answer lies in "creating a French style". Some researchers also pointed out that from 1932, Chen Mingda copied the complete version of Ying

Chinese PinYin : Chen Ming Da