There was a scene in the popular TV series "Cliff": Zhang Jiayi and little Song Jia were walking in Sofia Square in the winter snow. Zhang Jiayi said, "When poems and legends are silent, Only the architecture still speaks."

Stills from "The Cliff"

Hagia Sophia

This sentence is a famous saying by Gogol. It means that architecture carries contemporary cultural memory and can be passed on more permanently than poems and legends. Architecture is the annals of the world, and when nothing speaks of the dead people anymore, only architecture still speaks.

Liang Sicheng, the son of Liang Qichao, devoted his life to the research and protection of ancient Chinese architecture. He is an architectural historian, architectural educator and architect, and is known as the father of modern Chinese architecture.

Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin

In the early 1939s, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, who worked in the Architecture Society, were determined to save ancient Chinese buildings. They planned to save special buildings scattered across the country. Those unknown ancient buildings with protection value and cultural relics were found one by one and recorded in pictures and texts.

More than 2,700 ancient buildings preserved from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty have been surveyed, mapped and photographed on the spot, including Zhaozhou Bridge and Foguang Temple in Mount Wutai. Through their inspection and publication, they became known to the world, and were therefore re-protected, preserving first-hand precious information for future generations to study ancient Chinese architecture.

Zhaozhou Bridge

Architecture is first of all the material home of human beings, and at the same time it is also its spiritual home. This home allows people to "dwell poetically". From the majestic Great Wall of China to the serene Egyptian Pyramids, from the elegant Greek Parthenon to the gorgeous Roman Arc de Triomphe, etc., there are no exceptions.

Perhaps many people do not understand that outdated things can have any practical significance to contemporary people? Thinking about it carefully, in addition to the important traditional cultural factors, we probably still have to experience the spiritual world.

Animals live just to "eat", and animals "eat" food just to live. In addition to living by "eating", human beings also need to find the meaning and fun of spiritual life. Just like some people like to play games, some people like to travel and see the mountains and rivers, and some people like to dance, even if they are crazy about shopping. When you buy something, you are satisfying your inner needs.

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And various cultures and civilizations are the products of the most precious spiritual world of mankind. Architecture is a huge, solid time-space cultural form in which the material, institutional and spiritual civilization created by human beings are displayed on the vast horizon. Architectural culture is an important part of human culture.

If you want to be more specific about the practical significance, think about why Lin Huiyin finally chose Liang Sicheng instead of Xu Zhimo (cover your mouth and laugh)