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
Dates 1916 CE–1999 CE
- 1930Society for Chinese ArchitectureTook partage 14
- 1937Liang and Lin Date Foguang Templeage 21