Former Residences of Wen Yiduo and Zhu Ziqing

In 1941, the Tsinghua University Literature Institute established its headquarters inside a newly built, two-story earth-and-timber residence in Sijiaying Village, Kunming. Constructed around 1940 by a local villager named Si Rongxin, this structure follows the traditional "Yikeyin" or "One Stamp" style, featuring a compact footprint of 236 square meters. Within these modest walls, under the direction of philosopher Feng Youlan, some of China's greatest minds sought refuge from wartime air raids.

Step into the central square courtyard, where the cold blue stone slabs still bear the quiet weight of history. On the ground floor, the communal kitchen once filled the air with the scent of boiling cabbage and bean dregs. Here, Wen Yiduo’s family of eight shared a simple "one-pot cook" meal, while the right-hand kitchen served the institute's collective staff. Upstairs, the central main room became a library. Scholars stacked wooden book crates transported from Beijing to form makeshift bookshelves, filling the rooms with the dry, comforting scent of old paper.

In the upstairs research room, eight simple desks stood side by side. At these tables, lit by the dim, flickering glow of oil lamps, Wen Yiduo labored over his Annotations on Chu Ci, and Zhu Ziqing drafted his lectures on Literary Criticism. To support his family, Wen spent his evenings carving stone seals, his hands working by lamplight. Twice a week, these professors walked thirty kilometers round trip to teach at the National Southwest Associated University in the city, returning to the quiet of Sijiaying to write.

Today, the residence preserves the physical traces of this intellectual endurance. Visitors can view the personal belongings left behind: a wooden chest, a traditional "dou" measuring vessel, a riding jacket, hats, a briefcase, and the very seals Wen Yiduo carved. These objects, housed within the restored timber frame, connect us directly to a time when academic survival was an act of quiet resistance.