Nancy Berliner - Yin Yu Tang

Yin Yu Tang

Nancy Berliner

Yin Yu Tang

The Architecture and Daily Life
of a Chinese House

TUTTLE PUBLISHING
Boston Rutland, Vermont Tokyo

First published in 2003 by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A.

Copyright 2003 Nancy Berliner
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utiilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from Tuttle Publishing.

Printed in Singapore
Design: Mind, London

Library of Congress Cataioging-in-Publication Data

Berliner, Nancy Zeng, 1958
Yin Yu Tang: the architecture and daily life of a Chinese house/
Nancy Berliner,
p. cm.
Yin Yu Tang will open to the public in the Peabody Essex Museum,
June 2003.
Included bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0941-4 (ebook)
1. Architecture, Domestic-China-Huizhou Diqu. 2. Vernacular architecture-China-Huizhou Diqu. 3. Huizhou Diqu (China)-Social life and customs. 4. Huang family. I. Title: Architecture and Daily Life of a Chinese house. II. Peabody Essex Museum. III. Title.

NA7449.H85B47 2003
728'.372'0951222dc21

2002041621

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Front cover: The skywell of Yin Yu Tang, from the second floor and (inset) cousins of the 34th generation dressed in their best clothes and gathered around Huang Zhenzhi, circa 1926. From left to right: Huang Zhenzhi's cousin Huang Zhenxin, his yonger half sister Huang Aizhu, Huang Zhenzhi, his younger female cousin Huang Xianying, and Huang Zhenxian.

Front flap: Yin Yu Tang's tianjing," sky well," courtyard with fish pools.

Spine: The front gate of Yin Yu Tang, looking into the forecourt.

Back cover: (from left to right) Front facade and entryway of Yin Yu Tang while still located in Huang Cun; a small porcelain teapot with overglaze design of bamboo and rocks, given as a present to Huang Zizhi by his cousin in 1902, when he was nineteen years old; Huang Zixian, 1910s.

Title page: Front facade and entryway of Yin Yu Tang while still located in Huang Cun.

Photo Credits
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and artworks courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum.

Front cover (skywell), front flap, spine, frontispiece, back cover (facade), and Figs. 35, 37, 39, 164, 175, 180, 187, 190, 210: Photograph by Cheng Shouqi; Figs. 2, 3, 15, 21, 22, 31, 98, 108, 124, 181, 182, 195: Photographs by Nancy Berliner; Figs. 6, 8, 45, 167: Photographs by Richard Gordon; Figs. 10, 11; Photographs by Hedda Morrison, courtesy of Harvard University; Figs. 12, 54: Photographs by Jeff Dykes; Fig. 16: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of John M.Crawford, Jr., 1988. (1989.363.39) Photograph by Malcolm Varon. Photograph 1990 The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fig. 17: Collection of Rev. Richard Fabian, San Francisco. Photograph by Donald J. Felton; Fig. 23: Photograph courtesy of the Huang family; Figs. 25, 53, 65, 83, 84, 92, 95, 120, 166, 170, 197: Photographs by Mark Sexton; Fig. 36: architectural students of Dong Nan University; Figs. 119, 132, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 151, 152, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 165, 172, 191, 192, 193, 201, 206: John G. Waite Associates, Architects PLLC; Fig. 129 and maps pages xi and xiv: Bohoy Design/Michael Yurkew; Figs. 134, 135, 136, 137: Photographs by Richard Howard; Fig. 140: Photograph by Mark Sexton/Jeffrey Dykes

Contents

Foreword

Chinese civilization spans more than 4,000 years, and its accomplishments in literature, science, technology, the arts, architecture, and many other endeavors stand among the finest and most significant in human history. China is now re-emerging as a nation of world influence. Yet many people in America and elsewhere have a relatively limited understanding of China's past and present. The Yin Yu Tang project, and this publication, create unique opportunities to help illuminate a part of China's rich and complex heritage as revealed through a merchant's home built in the Qing dynasty and the lives of the family who inhabited it over many generations into the late twentieth century.

The Peabody Essex Museum has many reasons for undertaking the unprecedented endeavor of acquiring a historic Chinese house and many of its furnishings, carefully dismantling the house, transporting it from Huang Cun in southern China's Anhui Province to Salem, and preserving, re-erecting, and interpreting it to the public.

This project represents a perfect convergence of PEM's longstanding interests and commitments to Asian art and to architecture. The museum began collecting Asian art in 1799, the year it was founded. Our Asian collections, acquired over more than two centuries, include more than eighty thousand works of art and culture, both domestic and export, representing China, Korea, Japan, India, Bhutan, and other Asian nations.

PEM also has a long and distinguished commitment to architecture. The Museum helped to pioneer the historic preservation movement in America, starting in the nineteenth century. Today the Museum possesses more than twenty-three historic buildings, including four National Historic Landmark buildings and eight others on the National Register of Historic Places representing five centuries of New England architecture.

The Yin Yu Tang house and its associated interpretive galleries open to the public in June 2003. The project is part of a complete transformation of the Peabody Essex Museum that features more than 250,000 square feet of galleries and a public spaces; entirely new installations of the museum's collections of Asian, Oceanic, African, Native American, Maritime, Asian export, and American decorative art; and a dramatic new addition designed by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie. Like the Yin Yu Tang project, the transformed museum reflects our conviction that art and culture are inextricably interconnected and that the museum should present and interpret art and the world in which it was made.

Successfully meeting the logistical and interpretive challenges involved in the Yin Yu Tang project required exceptional leadership on the part of many people. Ms. Nancy Berliner, Curator of Chinese Art at PEM, played a central role in making this project and this publication a reality. Mr. Wang Shukai, also a member of the Chinese Art Department, served as a stable and effective bridge between the museum and our colleagues and officials in China. Ms. Vas Prabhu, Deputy Director for Interpretation at PEM, played a key role in developing the interpretive program. John G. Waite Associates, Architects, one of America's leading historic preservation architecture firms, provided outstanding guidance to a complex architectural preservation program. Tuttle Publishing has produced a compelling book, and the Longbow Film Group did exceptional film work. I also wish to thank for their support the many members of the museum's staff and the numerous consultants and advisory groups with whom we have worked.