Makers › Engineer / Architect
Mo Zongjiang
Architectural historian who joined the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture at fifteen as Liang Sicheng's assistant, helped survey Foguang Temple and later taught architecture at Tsinghua.
Mural of the event “Society for Chinese Architecture”, which this person took part in.
In the early twentieth century China's old building manuals were hard to read and hard to match with standing buildings. In February 1930 Zhu Qiqian founded the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture in Beiping; Liang Sicheng led its field measurement and Liu Dunzhen its textual research, and the Society both edited the old texts and measured buildings in the field. Between 1932 and 1937 its members surveyed many buildings across north China, Dule Temple among them, and in July 1937 Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin confirmed that the East Hall of Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai had been built in 857, under the Tang. In 1940 the Society moved to Lizhuang in Sichuan and carried on its work.
Also known as Mo Tsung-chiang (Wade-Giles)
Mo Zongjiang, from a Xinhui (Guangdong) family, was born in Hong Kong in 1916. In 1931 he joined the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture as Liang Sicheng's assistant, valued for his drawing and photography; he became a graduate student in 1935 and an associate researcher in 1942. He took part in the Society's surveys of early buildings in north China, and in 1937 on Mount Wutai, with Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin and Ji Yutang, confirmed that the East Hall of Foguang Temple was a Tang building. In wartime Sichuan he and Lu Sheng surveyed the tomb of Wang Jian of the Former Shu at Chengdu. From 1946 he taught in the architecture department of Tsinghua University, becoming professor in 1961, and for decades taught architectural history and the measuring of historic buildings. He died in 1999.
Life and times
- 1916 CEBorn
Republican Era
Modern Era - 1930Society for Chinese Architecture
Took partage 14Zhu Qiqian founded the Society for Research in Chinese Architecture in Beiping, where Liang Sicheng, Liu Dunzhen and their colleagues combined field surveys with textual study and made Chinese architectural history a modern discipline.- Liang and Lin Date Foguang Temple1937age 21In 1937 Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin and their colleagues established that the East Hall of Foguang Temple on Mount Wutai was built in 857, under the Tang.
- Liang and Lin Date Foguang Temple
- 1999 CEDied
