Former Residence of Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin in Kunming

In the spring of 1940, two of China‘s greatest architectural historians, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin, completed a modest home in Zongpiying Village, Kunming. They had begun building it the previous year, having fled Peiping in 1937 to seek refuge from the war. They leased a plot of land from a local villager, Li Yincun, agreeing to hand over the property to the landowner after five years.

Wartime inflation tripled their construction costs, exhausting their savings. To finish the home, the couple hauled materials, laid masonry, and worked as carpenters. The resulting earth-and-wood structure adapted the traditional Yunnan “Yikeyin” layout, placing two rectangular buildings across a narrow stone-paved pathway.

The main house faces east on a strip-stone foundation. Its walls consist of sun-dried mud bricks, supporting a timber frame. Overhead, local clay tiles cover the roof, ending in curving, upturned ridges known as linwei. Inside, the west end features a living room with a brick fireplace. The center served as a study and bedroom, while the east end housed Lin‘s mother and their daughter. In the spring of 1940, they built a small annex on the southern side of the main house for their close friend, the logician Jin Yuelin. Outside, Liang personally decorated the backyard pathway, pressing broken tiles collected from nearby Wayao Village into the earth.

The family lived here for eight months before relocating to Lizhuang, Sichuan, in late 1940. Today, the rural landscape has vanished, replaced by a dense urban village. In May 2025, a partnership with Puyu Bookstore revived the site, opening it to the public on International Museum Day. Visitors can walk the gravel pathways, touch the rough mud-brick walls, and view replicas of the couple's furniture and manuscripts. The small fireplace and the broken tiles underfoot remain, preserving the physical labor of two scholars who built a sanctuary during a time of ruin.