
LiZhuang 李庄 is an ancient village with over 1000 years of history and the birthplace of Yan from Inkston. LiZhuang played an extremely important role in the first half of the 20th century, however, due to political reasons, the village was ‘hidden’ from Chinese history till early 21st century. Because of such reasons, the village seemed to be isolated from modern world when Chinese economy had been booming for decades. During wartime, these temples were used as libraries, laboratories, or classrooms. Later between 1949 and 1992, they were either used as government office or warehouses.
LiZhuang is located by Yantze river 长江. Traditionally, the Bo people 僰人 minority group (famous for their hanging coffins) lived here until virtually eliminated by the Ming Dynasty army. The village seems to be a museum of traditional Chinese architecture. There are over 40 temples which were built between Ming and Qing Dynasties and all had been preserved very well till Cultural Revolution. Therefore, the village is so important in traditional Chinese architecture history and had attracted quite a few great architects. The History of Chinese Architecture was written by famous architects Liang SiCheng 梁思成 and Lin HuiYin 林徽因 during their time in LiZhuang. In this book, they referred to quite a few ancient buildings in LiZhuang. For example, Luo Xuan Dian螺旋殿, which was built in 1596, was a completely wood-structured temple. It is a perfect example of traditional Chinese building structures. In 1940s, it was used as anatomy laboratory of TongJi University’s Medicine School.
In 1940s, when Japan was invading China, top Chinese universities had no place to move to. At this moment, this village made a great decision to invite these universities to come. The village mailed out the message which said: LiZhuang welcomes Tongji University to come and will provide all the facilities you need. (“同济迁川,李庄欢迎;一切需要,地方供给”). Suddenly this village of 3,000 population attracted over 12,000 scholars and students from Tongji University and top research institutes in China. During 1940s, quite a few academic achievements were made in LiZhuang.
In order to help universities continue with daily teaching and researching activities, the village converted its ancient temples into classrooms, libraries, and laboratories. LuXuan Dian which was mentioned before was used as anatomy laboratory by Tongji University. Overnight, the ancient temples which had been used to host gods started to host modern science. It seems no one disagreed with this change. I am always very much surprised by this harmonious change of temples’ functions in this village. During this time, many foreign scholars were working in LiZhuang and some of them died and were buried in this village forever. The famous British biologist Joseph Needham was teaching and researching here in 1940s.
Later as Japan deployed more resources to invade China, Japanese started to ‘check on’ valuable Chinese antiques which were mostly collected by Qing Dynasty Royal Family in the Forbidden City. In order to protect these precious Chinese antiques, Chinese central government secretly moved them as fast as possible out of Beijing by rail to hide them in South-west China where Japan had not yet penetrated. Soon, Li Zhuang was one of these few secret places which were chosen by government and scholars to hide these treasures. Overnight, a large number of trains were filled with precious antiques and sent to LiZhuang. This is why nowadays, if you go to visit LiZhuang, you can still see one place was named as National Central Museum. It is said that later, some of these antiques were sent to Taiwan.
In the recent ten years, this village started to ‘appear’ in Chinese official history. It is still quiet and calm but soon it will attract many tourists. I hope tourism will not disturb the calm and beauty. I also hope more and more people will know what was happening here in the 20th century.
























Traditional Chinese architecture uses a lot of patterns. Owen Jones once edited the book Examples of Chinese Ornament. This book collected beautiful traditional Chinese patterns. Inkston also have traditional handmade art materials which resembles these traditional beauty.
-
Glasses Case
Rigid glasses case lined with silk and covered with Chinese Silk Brocade hand-stitched silk embroidery. Lightweight practical alternative to the standard metal glasses case, and the only one with hand-made silk embroidery. Size 17x6.5x3cm (6.69x2.56x1.18 inches) made in one size, to fit almost all standard spectacles. Available in a variety of colours and designs, including playful re-interpretation of traditional design…$22.55 – $31.46
Glasses Case
$22.55 – $31.46 Choose -
圆十二生肖古墨 Black 12 Animals Chinese Zodiac Ancient Inkstick
This is a set of famous ancient Chinese inkstick designs. Price is for one animal inkstick. Each inkstick shows a different animal from the Chinese Zodiac along with its name in traditional Chinese writing of seal script. The design is the Chinese zodiac. This a classification scheme that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating…$8.07 (USD)
Brand: 老胡開文墨莊 Old Hu Kai Wen Ink Workshop
Colour: Black
Packaging: Glass Box
Recommend to: Beginners, Collectors, Medium Level
Suitable for: Calligraphy, Chinese Painting, Collection圆十二生肖古墨 Black 12 Animals Chinese Zodiac Ancient Inkstick
$8.07 (USD) Choose -
松鹤图 Pine and Crane Quan Soot Black Inkstick
松鹤图 Pine and Crane Quan Soot Black Inkstick$14.09 (USD)
Brand: 老胡開文墨莊 Old Hu Kai Wen Ink Workshop
Colour: Matt Black
Materials: 全烟 Quan Soot
Packaging: Traditional Cardboard Box
Recommend to: Beginners, Medium Level
Suitable for: Calligraphy, Chinese Painting
Product Size: 11 × 3 × 1.2 cm
Product Weight: 60
Shipping size: 13 × 4.5 × 1.8 cm松鹤图 Pine and Crane Quan Soot Black Inkstick
$14.09 (USD) Add -
松鹤延龄 Pine and Crane Jing Soot Black Inkstick
Decorated with very fine picture of fine flowers, pine trees, cranes, clouds, etc.$10.40 (USD)
Brand: 老胡開文墨莊 Old Hu Kai Wen Ink Workshop
Colour: Black
Materials: 净烟 Jing Yan
Recommend to: Beginners, Medium Level
Suitable for: Calligraphy, Chinese Painting
Product Size: 12 × 3 × 1.3 cm
Product Weight: 62
Shipping size: 13 × 4 × 2 cm松鹤延龄 Pine and Crane Jing Soot Black Inkstick
$10.40 (USD) Add -
福禄寿喜 Birthday Set (Fu Lu Shou Xi)
A set of four black inksticks carved with Chinese gods for happiness, longevity, luck, and fortune. Net Weight of the Inksticks: 35g * 4 pieces Size of each inkstick: 9.5 * 1 * 2.5 cm Packaging: traditional blue decorative card box
$14.61$13.01 (USD)
Brand: 老胡開文墨莊 Old Hu Kai Wen Ink Workshop
Shipping size: 11 × 10 × 1.2 cm
Shipping weight: 150 g福禄寿喜 Birthday Set (Fu Lu Shou Xi)
Sale!$14.61$13.01 (USD) Add -
黄山松烟 Yellow Mountain Pine Soot Black Inkstick
It is decorated with yellow mountain and pine trees. $4.40 (USD)
Brand: 老胡開文墨莊 Old Hu Kai Wen Ink Workshop
Materials: 松烟 Pine Soot
Packaging: Traditional Cardboard Box
Recommend to: Advanced Level, Beginners, Medium Level
Suitable for: Calligraphy, Chinese Painting
Product Size: 9.6 × 2.3 × 1 cm
Product Weight: 32.5
Shipping size: 11 × 3 × 1.2 cm黄山松烟 Yellow Mountain Pine Soot Black Inkstick
$4.40 (USD) Add
If you want to paint these beautiful ancient Chinese buildings, we recommend you to try inkston Gongbi Xuan papers because these papers will help paint details of the building.
-
INKSTON Gongbi Plus, Sized Xuan Paper
Sized papers with added Mica to create the Shimmer effect, made with alpine rushes, deliberately less absorbent than unsized raw Xuan tree bark paper to facilitate different styles of painting such as GongBi. These papers are 熟宣 Shu Xuan sized or cooked Xuan paper made with Eulaliopsis binata called in Chinese 龙须草 "Dragon beard grass" also known as Chinese alpine rush. They…$27.39 – $137.50
Brand: inkston
Materials: Eulaliopsis binata, MicaINKSTON Gongbi Plus, Sized Xuan Paper
$27.39 – $137.50 Choose -
INKSTON Shimmer Plus Xuan Paper Mica Sized
Sized papers with added Mica to create the Shimmer effect, made with alpine rushes, deliberately less absorbent than unsized raw Xuan tree bark paper to facilitate different styles of painting such as GongBi. These papers are 熟宣 Shu Xuan sized or cooked Xuan paper made with Eulaliopsis binata called in Chinese 龙须草 "Dragon beard grass" also known as Chinese alpine rush. They…$20.90 – $121.00
Brand: inkston
Materials: Eulaliopsis binata
Suitable for: 工笔画 Gongbi PaintingINKSTON Shimmer Plus Xuan Paper Mica Sized
$20.90 – $121.00 Choose
very interesting !
Toujours très intéressant de le relire. Merci
Toujours très intéressant de le relire. Merci
norman bourgeois,
USA
1-31-2019 Every time I visit site I learn more about your beautiful China, and the fine craftsmen,people !
Someday I hope to see for myself.