Ｆｏｒｍｅｒ Ｒｅｓｉｄｅｎｃｅ ｏｆ Ｑｉａｎ Ｚｈｏｎｇｓｈｕ ｉｎ Ｗｕｘｉ

The former residence of late Qian Zhongshu is in 30 Xinjie Lane， Wuxi City of eastern China’s coastal Jiangsu Province. Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998)， a literary scholar， translator and writer of the 20th-century China known for his sharp wit and formidable erudition， spent the first part of his life here until he went to college.

The restoration of the former residence was completed in May， 2002 and officially opened to the general public on October 1， 2002. The residence is now a cultural legacy under the provincial protection of Jiangsu.

The restoration， executed in the principle of restoring the original appearance in the original style， did its best to maintain the architectural and local features of the residence in the early years of the 20th century. With impressions of western architecture， the main structure of the residence measures 504 square meters. There is a patio inside the residence and a garden in the back.

The residence now is an exhibition of Qian Zhongshu’s life and his erudition. Visitors can see his works in electronic form. Photos show Qian and his wife Yang Jiang. A huge model book represents Qian Zhongshu’s landmark book Guan Zhui Bianwritten in classic Chinese. A couplet by Zhang Jian， the last number one scholar of the Qing Dynasty， indicates a prophecy on the basis of an event in the early life of Qian Zhongshu. At the age of one， Qian Zhongshu was given a group of things to see which he would pick. He grabbed a book， presumably indicating that he would grow up to be a great scholar.

The residence is by no means merely the former residence of the great scholar who published his satiric novel Fortress Besieged in 1947. Qian Zhongshu grew up with his cousins in the large residence. Qian Zhongshu’s father Qian Jibo and his uncle Qian Jicheng and his grandfather Qian Fujiong also lived there. Qian Zhongshu and his cousins all grew up to be somebody in their respective fields. A room in the residence mentions their names and achievements. Qian Zhongshu’s father was also a professor. During school vacations he came back to the residence and tutored his son and his brother’s sons to study Chinese classics.

The residence reveals more than the life of Qian Zhongshu and his family. For those who are curious about the architectural style in the early 20th century or history， they can look around and examine the two boundary markers at the external corners of the residence in the lane. In early decades of the 20th century， large private houses and residences built in cities still had such stone boundary markers to indicate ownership. Carved on the each stone marker are four Chinese characters 錢繩武堂， which can be paraphrased as the Shen Wu house of the Qian family. The four Chinese characters were inscribed by the governor of Jiangsu Province Han Guojun.“Shen Wu” comes from a carol of the Book of Songs， a collection of Chinese classic poetry which is about 2，500 years old， and means “following the ancestral footsteps”， implying to King Qian Liu (852-932) who set up the Wuyue kingdom in today’s Zhejiang and later expanded his kingdom to include some areas of today’s Jiangsu Province in the north and Fujian Province in the south. The king ruled wisely for decades， bringing peace and prosperity to his people. The king has been proudly recognized by the people surnamed Qian as their common ancestor for centuries in this part of the country.

And what is more， the architecturally curious thing about the residence is that whole structure of the two-row houses inside the residence compound does not stand in a normal rectangle. The houses are arranged in the shape of a slanted rhomboid. The slanted rhomboid is still a puzzle for researchers.

Since its opening to the general public in October 2002， the residence has attracted a lot of visitors. Nowadays， the residence registers about 2，000 visits in a normal day and more than 5，000 a day during holidays. The preservation of the residence， some scholars comment， is a praiseworthy government project. It not only maintains a cultural legacy of Wuxi but also reflects a time-honored cultural tradition that has run through the city since ancient times.□