Lao She’s former residence is at No.10 Fengsheng Lane in the eastern side of Beijing, bordering on the downtown area. One advantage of the location is its balance of both liveliness and tranquility. Vehicles and people come and go along Jiu Cifu Avenue, which is by no means a major traffic artery and isn’t too noisy. Moreover, the house is walled in and the trees inside also help to shelter the dwelling from any external disturbance. Normally, the silence inside is only broken by the sound of bees dancing around flowers and the birds chirping on in the branches. The entrance gate opens towards a small lane running from North to South, which is named “Fengsheng” after a princess of the Ming Dynasty. The house is located on the west side, and one can easily find it at the first door. After Mr. Lao She passed away, Fengsheng Lane was renamed as Fengfu Lane, and the house number was changed to No.19.
Stepping into the entrance one finds a brick wall and two southern facing houses. In winter, pomegranate trees and oleanders would be moved here to escape the freezing winds. There is a jujube tree growing by the gate and behind the screen wall grows a piece of Beijing mock orange. Mr. Lao She had particularly requested it as it was a flower that used to only be found in the imperial gardens. Delightfully enough, this imperial flower didn’t resist the caring commoners; it flourished and bloomed in the courtyard.
Behind the brick screen wall lays an independent external courtyard, consisting of a main house (two rooms), a washroom and a store room. The main house is positioned to the north and faces the south, serving as the living quarters for the son of the family and the office of Lao She’s personal secretary, Mr. Nan Renzhi. Sometimes, it was also used as guest room for visitors from afar. The external courtyard happens to form a Siheyuan, or Chinese quadrangle dwelling, together with the internal courtyard. One gate of the external courtyard opens to today’s West Dengshikou Road, but the gate is not in use today.
In the internal courtyard there are five northern houses and three eastern and western houses respectively, all of which are covered with tiles, forming a standard square courtyard. By the Beijing mock orange stands a “second-entrance” leading to the internal courtyard, behind which stands a green wooden screen wall. Houses on the north, east and west side are connected by cross pathways. Mr. Lao She favored a piece of land by the south pathway, for he was able to practice gardening there, a life-long hobby, yet barely realized due to lack of proper conditions. There he was free to exert his creativity in planting and decoration.
His first work was the two persimmon trees planted along either side of the pathway. Friends did him the favor to transplant them from West Mountain. The saplings were only thumb-thick at the beginning, while ten years after the stem had grown thicker than a large bowl. When autumn comes, the trees provide a fabulous view, being loaded with shining fruits. The persimmons, called “Fire Persimmon” in Henan province, are of a very special breed: small size of a half-fist, thin skin, reddish orange in color, abundant sugar, but without a core. Yu Feian, an aged painter once came to sketch the trees and produced a traditional style painting which would later be judged to be one of his masterpieces and was snapped up by National Art Museum of China. Lao She’s wife later named the courtyard “Dan Shi Garden”, literarily meaning a garden of reddish persimmons. The studio was also named “Room of Couple Persimmons”. After Mr. Lao She passed away, Mizukami Tsutomu, a famous Japanese writer, wrote three essays to lament his friend, with all three titles named after the two trees. The courtyard then became famous for this persimmon friendship.
On the north side, three rooms form the main house, with two rooms serving as the living room and another for the hostess’s bedroom and studio. The eastern side house was used as the washroom, equipped with a toilet and tub. Behind the eastern side house there is a small boiler room, serving as a heating facility for the whole house in winter. The west side house is Mr. Lao She’s bedroom and studio, where he spent 16 years during his old age and produced 24 dramas and 2 novels. Among his works the most famous are Long Xu Gou (Dragon’s Beard Ditch), Liu Shu Jing (Willow Well), Xi Wang Chang An (An Overlook of the Changan City) , Cha Guan (Teahouse), Nv Dian Yuan (The Waitress), Quan Jia Fu (Family Photo), and Zheng Hong Qi Xia (The Pure Red Banner). He was awarded the honor of “People’s Artist” for his play Long Xu Gou, and Cha Guan later became a repertoire of Beijing people’s Art Theatre. Cha Guan was the first Chinese drama performed on overseas stages and was well-received throughout Europe, America and Asia.
Two items in the bedroom are worthy of mention: one is a cabinet designed by the host himself. Embedded in the wall and occupying around six or seven m3, the cabinet stores Lao She’s collection of calligraphy, paintings and antiques. The other is Mr. Lao She’s bed, made from mahogany. Large and heavy, the bed is girdled with marble and the plank is made of coir ropes. Suffering from hip rheumatism, he was unaccustomed to soft beds, which was the reason he bought this bed from a store selling wooden furniture. The bed was confiscated together with some other mahogany furniture during the Cultural Revolution, and was luckily protected from destruction as the authorities appreciated its relic value. After the revolution, the bed was returned home and thereafter remained the only original furniture used by Mr. Lao She.
Layout and decoration of the living room are both designed by Lao She, reflecting his hobbies, interests and character. Apart from a few pieces of modern furniture, e.g. a double seat sofa, two single seat sofas and a round tea table, all the furniture is in traditional mahogany style. The full-length mirror was from his wife’s dowry, and others were bought after they moved into this new residence, including a book cabinet, an antique shelf, a long narrow table, a round table and a backed chair. Mr. Lao She favored them so much that he wiped them clean everyday in person. He placed few things on the table except two: a vase and a bruit bowl.
Besides blooming flowers, the other attraction in the living room is the paintings. On the wall, are always about ten traditional paintings, mainly works of Qi Baishi, Fu Baoshi, Huang Binhong and Lin Fengmian, sometimes he also substituted works of Chen Zengshi, Wu Changshuo, Li Keran, Yu Feige, Shen Zhou, Yan Bolong or Hu Peiheng. The west wall of the living room was designated as a place to hang paintings. It was just like a mini art gallery and welcomed every visitor to the house. Painting-viewing thus became a joyful must when visiting Lao She’s house.
The former residence of Lao She has been labeled as a “Beijing Key Protected Cultural Relic”. With a marble monument erected, the residence is forever protected from demolition.
(Source:bjchinese.bjedu.cn)
