Liang Sicheng's vision for historic city can be revived

Liang Sicheng is one of China's greatest 20th century architects. The Beijing native was the son of Liang Qichao, an influential intellectual and key figure in the 100-Day Reform movement. However, Liang chose to study architecture, becoming the first Chinese person to do so overseas when he went to the University of Pennsylvania in the 1920s.

After returning to China later that decade, Liang spent the next 20 years writing his monumental study, A History of Chinese Architecture.

The book provided a much-needed corrective to the then prevailing Western and Chinese wisdom, which held that the Middle Kingdom's cultural greatness was defined by its literature and fine arts, not its buildings.