How did the foreign building evolve into the only embassy in Hutong in the early years of the Republic of China?

During the "Beijing Design Week" this year, I came to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street again, just in time for the opening of the Luxembourg Embassy in this hutong during the International Design Week. Walking into this yard, I can't help but be attracted by the deja vu scenery here. Isn't this the realistic version of the "Yishoutang Blueprint" I have seen? The mysterious Yishoutang in the old archives finally revealed its true colors.

I came across an English garden with a lighthouse.

It's exactly the same as the architectural drawings in the old archives.

The Luxembourg Embassy is located in the middle of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street in Dongcheng District, Beijing, on the west side of Beijing No.2 Middle School, facing south. Walking along the tunnel through the gate guarded by the armed police, you can see that the walls on both sides are made of high-temperature refractory bricks. On the right side of the door is a row of bungalows. On the left side of the wall, you can vaguely find traces of filling holes with ordinary red bricks. Obviously, there used to be a doorway leading to the west yard, and then another door led us to the palace garden and a two-story building.

It is really strange that such a unique house appears in a traditional hutong in Beijing. In front of the foreign building is an English garden, with a lighthouse in the middle and a sundial in the south. Looking around, the garden is surrounded by China's traditional verandah on three sides, and you can enjoy beautiful foreign buildings and all kinds of flowers from any angle of the verandah.

On the west side of the building, there is a path connecting the veranda and the building. In front of the path, there is a rare bamboo forest in the north, and the trunk of this bamboo forest has mostly shown the appearance of a polished rod. The staff of Luxembourg embassy told me that according to the growth cycle of bamboo, it is estimated that this bamboo forest has a history of more than 70 years. This bamboo forest blooms this spring, which indicates that their lives are coming to an end.

Walking into the small building in front of us, the wooden ornaments in the entrance hall have obvious European decorative characteristics, and the terrazzo floor is inlaid with patterns similar to the artistic style of Buddhist mandala, but it can present Italian colors. The wood carvings leading to the stairs on the second floor also have strong European decorative elements. But the roof still maintains the Chinese triangular roof structure. Whose masterpiece is this building that blends East and West? What special background and legendary experience did the owner of this Yishoutang have in the past?

I can't wait to find traces of the identity of this quadrangle around the foreign building. Under the guidance of the staff of the Luxembourg Embassy, I saw a marble cornerstone on the ground floor of the building, on which the construction time of the building was engraved in Chinese and English. I wrote the seal script in Chinese: 1 March 9371day, the Gregorian calendar era, from which I learned that the time when the cornerstone was engraved was roughly the same as the time marked on the architectural blueprint I saw.

At that time, this property had 1 13 rooms.

Why is the owner of this mysterious garden so rich?

According to the historical records of archives, the room number of No.21Neibu Street before 1965 was 1 1. It belongs to Tong Mingzhen and Tong Mingda before 1936 1 1. At that time, the Tong family lived in this hutong for a long time. Even this 18 Hutong (old house number) was built in Tianqi Temple in Dongyue during the Yuan Dynasty to Mindfulness, and it was also his temple. Tong Mingzhen and Tong Mingda not only own the property of No.2 Babao Hutong (East Gate of Neibu Street 1 1 0), east of No.8 10 and east of No.0/kloc-0, but also own/kloc-0. According to statistics, there are 25 tiled houses with verandahs, including 47 general tiled houses, 27 grey houses, 65,438+00 verandahs, 4 chessboard houses and 65,438+065,438+03 houses, with a total area of 6 mu and 72 cents.

For some unknown reason, Tong Mingzhen and Tong Mingda sold all their properties atNo. 10,10, No.2 Babao Hutong and No.60 our Hutong to Wang Shaofan, a businessman living at No.35 Xichenggen outside Xuanwu Gate, at the price of 950 yuan per mu.

According to the records, Wang Shaofan paid the house price and land price of 16923 yuan at one time, and also paid the tax of 338 yuan and 44 cents. This was an expensive figure at that time, which was beyond the affordability of ordinary people. Who is Wang Shaofan? Why so rich?

It is known that Wang Shaofan is not an ordinary businessman. His grandfather, Wang Zhanyuan, was once the governor of Hubei in the Beiyang period, and he was also a man with a good business mind. He once monopolized the production of military uniforms, set up a bank to sell gold, and set up Prudential Company to sell leather goods. He was called a chaebol at that time. 19 17 He built a house in the depression around Ping 'an Street in Tianjin and became an alley, and named it Li Huaiyin after its hall number "Sanhuaitang". 1920, a number of simple bungalows between Xiangjia Hutong, Jianguo Road and Sanjing Road in Tianjin were demolished and built, which became a part of Huaiyin Lane and was later called Dahuayinli.

After returning from disarmament, Wang Zhanyuan hid in Tianjin, regardless of political affairs, concentrated on real estate in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Baoding and other places, and also invested in finance, minerals, textiles, grain, electricity and other industries.

Wang Zhanyuan has four sons: the eldest son Zekuan; The name of the second son is unknown; The third son Savano; The fourth son, Zehe. In addition, there are Wang Zhanyuan's eldest brother's son Zepei and his daughter Shine Wong. Zepei, who had studied in the United States, founded a woolen mill after returning to China. My niece Wang Hui married Yuan Shikai's grandson when she grew up. When Wang Zhanyuan divided the property, all other properties, banks and cash were divided equally according to four sons, one nephew and five shares, except the land and houses in his hometown in Guantao County, Shandong Province, the real estate in Tianjin Wandezhuang, the big house in Yantai Road and Baoding Ganyi Flour Company.

Most of Wang Zhanyuan's descendants have their own industries in Tianjin, Baoding and Shijiazhuang. It is said that several foreign houses on Dali Road in Tianjin were built in the early 1940s after Wang Zhanyuan's three sons divided their property. But among Wang Zhanyuan's four sons and nephews, I don't know which one is Wang Shaofan's father.

At that time, "Yishoutang King" was also proud of owning such a mansion.

1April, 936, 29-year-old Wang Shaofan came to Beiping from Tianjin to be a businessman. He first bought the property at No.35 Xichenggen outside Xuanwu Gate in Beiping at a low price, and then inquired about the property information in the central city of Beiping, waiting for an opportunity to choose a house.

It was obvious that Wang Shaofan had thought carefully about buying real estate in Beiping's Ministry of Internal Affairs Street, because in the Republic of China, the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street was not only the seat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but also very fashionable and international at that time because it was located near Dongdan and adjacent to Dongjiaomin Lane, which used to be the embassy district. Many officials and businessmen are scrambling to buy real estate here.

However, Wang Shaofan, who once lived in Xiaoyanglou, Tianjin, did not continue to use the traditional architectural form of the old Beijing quadrangle after purchasing the real estate here. He plans to raze all the old houses here. He wanted to build a villa-style building in the center of this ancient capital to realize his ideal of living, and gave the building a nice name "Yishoutang" from the beginning.

However, in Peiping at that time, there were few wood factories or construction factories that could build garden-style houses. So Wang Shaofan found Pingcheng Engineering Company, which is famous for building Xiaoyanglou in Tianjin, to undertake this business. As the project is in Beiping, Wang Shaofan also found the "Hutchison" construction factory at No.30 Fangjiayuan Hutong, not far from the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street, as the supervision unit of the project.

Liang, the architect of Tianjin Pingcheng Engineering Company, is responsible for this design task. It happens that Liang is related to the Feng family at No.39 Hutong (Old House) on the south side of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street. The Feng family is also a famous rich man in Hutong. All three brothers in the family graduated from university, two of them work in Ping Jin Railway Bureau, and the eldest brother works in China Airlines. Liang came to Feng's house and devoted himself to drawing the design and construction instructions of Yishoutang, and then submitted them to Beiping Municipal Engineering Bureau for approval. Not long after, the design drawings and construction instructions were approved by Beiping Municipal Engineering Bureau.

1 937 March1day, this large-scale construction project started. This group of buildings is divided into front yard and backyard. The building in the front yard is mainly used to receive guests. It's a group of western-style bungalows. Guests can enter the front yard through the front yard gate, and the host can turn right from the backyard through the aisle and enter the side door on the east side of the front yard to receive guests. The main building in the backyard is a two-story villa, with a "Tian"-shaped garden in front and a traditional veranda in China on three sides. Behind the building is a row of bungalows for servants to live in and flower beds for storing and cultivating nurseries. There are two sewage wells between the northwest side of the building and the bungalow to treat the sewage generated by this yard.

In order to ensure the engineering quality, the requirements of beams on building materials and construction technology are almost harsh. He asked that the foundation of the building be made of 30% white lime of Xishan Mountain and 70% fine-screened loess, stirred evenly with clear water, rammed ten-inch-thick soil three times to make it six inches thick, sprinkled with appropriate amount of water, rammed twice with the weight of more than 80 kilograms, and then filled layer by layer, with each layer being eight inches thick, and tamped with a rammer until it reached a solid level. ...

The exposed part of the brick wall is all made of square-burned red Ryukyu cylindrical bricks, and the interior of the wall is made of ordinary red bricks. All bricks are suitable for those with hard texture and loud knocking. Before building a wall, the bricks should be soaked in water. Oil paper, linoleum and ointment should use American brands; Concrete mortar, to use the brand of Tangshan Qixin Lime Factory or China Taishan brand; Use the best Yongming brand paint. ...

After the completion of the whole hospital, there are 265,438+0 rooms in the small building. 3 tile houses with corridors; Generally, there are 40 semi-tile houses; 2 semi-gray rooms; 5 western-style platform rooms; 1 ash shed; 3 greenhouse; 5 chessboard atrium; There are 2 underground pits in the whole yard 106. In addition, there is a motor well in the northwest of Xiaoyanglou.

When this luxurious and chic building was completed, people honored Wang Shaofan as the "King of Yishoutang", and Wang Shaofan was proud of having such a beautiful mansion. Subsequently, Wang Shaofan sold his property at No.35 Xichenggen outside Xuanwu Gate to Pinghan Railway Bureau, and Pinghan Railway Bureau leased the property to Wang Shaofan's family business, Ganyi Flour Company.

Yishoutang changed hands after the Japanese invaded Beiping.

The original owner died in his early forties.

Shortly after the completion of this mansion, the Japanese invaders occupied Beiping, and Wang Shaofan's career in Beiping was greatly affected, so he left Beiping and went to Tianjin. Around 1940, a group of buildings similar to Beiping Interior Street 165438+ appeared in Wang Shaofan's hometown-Dali Road, 10th District, Tianjin. During this period, Wang Shao and Fan Ceng worked in Jardine Matheson Bank in Tianjin, Lufeng Cotton Mill in Jinan and Ganyi Flour Company in Baoding. At the same time, he also opened an "Oriental New Clothes Shop" in Xinxing Road, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, which specially tailored suits for people.

1944, Wang Shaofan rented the courtyard of Yishoutang East 10 in Beiping Interior Street to his doctor friend Qiu Zuyuan. Qiu Zuyuan is a doctor of medicine from Peking Union Medical College. He studied at the University of Minnesota in the United States, and went to Britain, France, Switzerland and Italy to inspect the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. At first, Qiu Zuyuan's family of five lived here. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Qiu Zuyuan, on behalf of Peking Union Medical College, established the "Peking Institute for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control", and he served as the president. Later, Peking Union Medical College bought this 10 hospital. From 65438 to 0947, Qiu Zuyuan was a professor at Peking Union Medical College, and concurrently served as the director of the First Health Center in Beiping and the director of tuberculosis clinic. Later, Qiu Zuyuan also served as the dean of Peking Union Medical College.

No.60 Bensi Hutong (old house number) behind Neiwufu Street 10 was used by Wang Shaofan to entertain relatives in Guantao County, Shandong Province and relatives in Tianjin, and the rest houses were used for rent. 1In August of 949, Wang Shaofan, who was only in his early forties, passed away. There is no record of his death. After 1950, Wang Shaofan's family moved away and they settled in Tianjin.

195 1, this western-style house was rented to the Pakistani embassy. In the first half of this house, Wang Shaofan's living room was originally used to receive guests, but it was used as a family dormitory by relevant departments. People blocked the doors leading to gardens and foreign buildings with bricks, forming a lonely yard. 1965, the house number of Hutong in the Ministry of Internal Affairs Street was changed. 1 1' s old house became No.21,and the courtyard used by Wang Shaofan to receive guests became No.21. The courtyard in the east of No.21Street of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, together with the back of this courtyard, the former Hutong No.60 of our company was taken over by the health department and later turned into a hotel.

In the future, Yishoutang became the embassy in China and the only resident of foreign envoys in Hutong.

Since then, the Pakistani Embassy in China has been located here and experienced the "Cultural Revolution" until it was withdrawn at the end of 1978. During this period, Chairman Mao launched the famous ping-pong diplomacy. The establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States promoted by table tennis was originally mediated by Pakistan, and some negotiations between American and Chinese officials are likely to take place here.

1980, courtyard number. 2 1 Ministry of Internal Affairs Street was leased to the Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in China, becoming the only foreign embassy still in the Hutong.

Looking at these bamboos planted by Wang Shaofan more than 70 years ago, I wonder what kind of person Wang Shaofan is? He insisted on changing Beijing's traditional buildings into western-style villa courtyards, and decorated the courtyards with many traditional China architectural elements. Despite the monsoon climate in the north, he insisted on moving bamboo growing in the south to the north, which shows that he is a man with western thoughts and loves China traditional culture. Perhaps, at the beginning, Wang Shaofan would look at his own building under this bamboo forest and face the projection of those bamboo leaves, giving birth to beautiful poems. Now, this flowering bamboo forest is swaying in the autumn wind, which makes people sigh for his fate.

The past is the past. People are lucky enough to enjoy the courtyard of the Luxembourg Embassy during the International Design Week, and you can also see the historical pictures of this "Yishoutang" in the veranda. In order to promote the culture of Luxembourg to China, photographers from Luxembourg also displayed their photographs reflecting the friendship between China and Luxembourg in the hutong of the main street of the Ministry of the Interior. The "Yishoutang" in front of us has been completely transformed in the contemporary era.