Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
2 min readSun Yat-sen Mausoleum is located in south foot at Zijin Mountain in eastern suburb of Nanjing. It is a mausoleum for revolutionary pioneer Sun Yat-sen. It is a model for combining modern building materials and national architectural forms, which has important signif cance of the milestone in Chinese architectural history Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum refers to the technology of ancient imperial tombs, and successfully creates solemn atmosphere. In the overall layout, it focuses on the combination with mountain trend. Pine trees and cypress tree are plated everywhere, which seem approachable. Its main buildings go along central axis, namely, the archway, tomb gate, mausoleum gate, monument, great stairway, worshipping hall and coff n chamber. They are simple and dignif ed, which are very harmonious with the environment.
In worshipping hall, there are 12 black granite columns and black marble walls engraved with the text of posthumous work Principles for National Reconstruction handwritten by Sun Yatsen. Whole-body sitting white marble stone statue of Sun Yat-sen stands in the middle.
This is a traditional three-opening archway. With grand style and beautiful carved pattern, it is inscribed with two Chinese characters “Bo Ai” by Sun Yatsen in person.
Architecture in modern China
A r c h i t e c t u r a l a r t i n modern China undergone tremendous changes. Many of industrial plants, governments, schools, public and commercial buildings adopted the Western architectural styling, which were built from the late 19th century to the early 20 century. From the 1920s to 1940s, “combination of the Chinese and the Western elements” and “Nationalism” became two popular architectural styles.
Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
Sun Yat-sen is the great pioneer in modern Chinese democratic revolution. He ever founded the Revive China Society, Chinese Revolutionary League, the KMT and other revolutionary groups and political parties. He put forward the Three People’s Principles (Nationalism, Democracy, the People’s Livelihood), “Association With The Russia, Association With the CPC and Assistance to Peasants and Workers” and other revolution advocates and political guiding principles. He served as provisional president, prime minister, marshal, etc. On March 12, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of illness in Beijing.
Lv Yanzhi (1894-1929)
Lv Yanzhi was a famous architect in the modern China. After graduating from Tsinghua Preparatory School for Study in the United States in 1913, he majored in architectural design in the US. Finishing his schooling, he returned to China and took part in the design for Jinling Women’s University (Nanjing) and Yanjing University (Beijing). In 1921, he founded “Yanji Architects”, which won in the international contest for design of Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in 1925. In 1928, he became the successful bidder for Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall. Then he fell sick from overwork and died young.
