A Farmhouse Built to Last:
Luchou Lee Family Mansion (蘆洲李宅) in the west of Taipei city center is a rare farmhouse that posses the Imperial Palace quality of how it was laid and designed when it grew to this present size during the early days of Japanese Formosa. It was inscribed by the Home Office of Taiwan as a Grade III Listed Heritage in 1985 soon after Taiwan passed its first own Cultural Heritage Protection Act, and this became one of the first historic private homes in the country to gain such status as a national treasure. The cultural authority in the 1980's even devised new rule to bypass strong development demand in order to keep the entire mansion property intact from the threat of urbanization. There seems a secrete code of longevity and eternity for this lovely stately home to get hold on to the present day through a series of mindful designs that can go all the way back of how ancient capital cities of China laid their own.
Figure: Less decorated and humble looking of farmhouse complex of Taiwanese Luchou Family Mansion lies a secrete code of its grandeur and eternity in historical royal burgh of ancient China
The site of this historic mansion lies in the rather outskirt of city center Taipei where historically the areas of lower ground land level developed for agrarian for centuries at the junction where two rivers meet and frequent floods form, and it is now the modern day urbanized Luchou District city center. Luchou is formerly known as the floating island of the rivers filled Taipei basin and was given a name of sediment island above the rivers (河上洲) which can be identified as early as shown in the late 18th century map. The name implies a shallow ground level of this area where the future Lee's Family mansion to be built with additional mindful design that it has to tackle potential flooding.
Figure: (click to enlarge) An ancient Han Chinese map of northern Taiwan and a floating sediment island of old time Luchou in the 18th century Taipei, the map of Imperial Military frontiers set up in Formosa in 1775. The Luchou was name as Hershangchou (和尚洲), literally an island of deposition above the rivers (河上洲). The Taipei basin is clearly outlined by the surrounding mountains centered around the round island of Luchou. Source: Reading Digital Atlas, Academia Sinica Taiwan, and British Library.
Luchou Lee's start at current site in 1857 originated through the hands of their second generation arrival to Taiwan, Lee Chinshui (李清水), who at the time Lee was a tenant farmer. A simple and humble house was laid on this leased land. It was until the his 7th son Lee Shuhua (李樹華), a Han Chinese teacher, decided to further expand to accommodate the wider family members in 1895, the time when Taiwan was relentlessly acquired by Japan. It is questionable whether the Lee's hidden intention to rebuild their property to protect their family from any invasion in that circumstance. The Lee's ultimate farmhouse grew to fully extended in 1903 to a sheer size of seven halls, six courtyards and 56 chambers which is what is seen in the present day scale.
Figure: The height of stone wall section for the first row(lowest ground level) of the Lee's house reached unusually high compared to most of the farmhouses in the country. This is a design to prevent flooding that will cause red brick walls falling apart in the event of the house being trapped in water.
Figure: The main central gate of the mansion is engraved with a plaque of the Chinese Scholar title of Waihan (外翰) which was gifted to the 1895 house refurbishment leader Lee Shuhua by an important Imperial Chinese Examiner to honour the contribution for his Han Chinese teaching career.
The 1903 refurbished Lee's Mansion was not built to showcase their wealth with elaborate craftsman and decorations which are seen a norm in mid 19th century elegant Taiwanese country homes of successful tycoons. It was built to keep the family safe through solid brick and stone walls on a gently higher ground. There is even no stone pillar erected throughout the entire house but all made of brick pillars.
Figure: The red brick pillars are the only type of supporting structure of the house making it very budget minded design compared to most of the elegant residential manor in the prospering mid 19th century Taiwan.
Figure: The horse-back shape(馬背) in the roof top in the traditional Taiwanese houses suggests a plain social status of the household. There is not much wood carving and walls decorations throughout the entire properties and a sign of a farmhouse. The stones on the sidewall were those ballast stones coming along with the small trade ships from Foochien province of China.
Figure: A model of Luchou Lee residential complex and reveals its highly symmetrical layout with three interconnected courtyard houses.
The Lee's residential complex is made up of three connected and individually formed Han style courtyard house or Shihoyuan (四合院), the rectangle enclosure form of farmhouse with inner courtyards. The central one is the largest and highest in its magnitude as well as ground and rooftop level asserting the social hierarchy of the household with two flanking courtyard houses grown entirely symmetrical. Major functional space are on the central courtyard house while the residential space are mostly spreading all over the flanking two houses with each chamber partition arranged with a minimal size for living.
Figure: The first row of the house right after the main property gate is connected with stone pavement, an spatial arrangement like the royal passage, the formidable route before seeing the intimidating imperial palace.
Figure: The house of extremely symmetrical, looking from the inside toward the outer space. The Door Gods on the either side of the main door are few to be seen Taiwan for being inside the residential properties but temples. The current replica painting was a restoration in 1980's.
Figure: The ascending ground level of the grand mansion can be seen through entering each row of the complex. The central row hall is served as the public meeting venue of the entirely family members and the museum display has a restoration of how past common vis-a-vis at the central row hall, the public hall(公廳). Courtesy of the Luchou Lee Family museum.
Figure: The social room at the second row served as a common social room for family members where major decisions were taking place. Another courtyard is accessible through the two doors from the central social room. This is one of the the only two rooms with paintings and decorations in the entire property.
Figure: The central court house at the final row of the house is where the altar of the ancestral shrine is placed with the highest ground level of the entire site. This is the room with Chinese paintings on walls.
Figure: The final row of the house for the ancestral altar occupies at the highest terrain of the entire site. The backyard terrain was a later made mount during the 1980's restoration with soils excavated from the front crescent pound. Prior to the 1980's, the backyard used to house a fruit garden for the Lee family.
Figure: Left Courtyard house is made purely for residential units with almost each chamber partition accessible for courtyard and sunlight. The old time well still intact standing on the precinct and a reminder the farmhouse built at the time before the modern tapped water.
Figure: To accommodate whole family members under one roof, the budget minded design for each chamber room partition came along with a space extended into a duplex house.
Figure: The Right courtyard house is also similar replica of form, dimension and materials of its Left courtyard house and almost filled with living quarters for the family members.
Figure: The pond at the outer gate was first laid not in the current crescent shape. It was told that there connected with a waterway leading to the nearby river to facilitate shipping building materials. The pound got extended to current shape and the soils were dug to make risen terrain at the back of the entire Lee family mansion.
Figure: The present day Lee's Mansion with widest front row of such farmhouse in one property. The surrounding blocks were being developed for urbanized residential properties since 1980's.
The highest ground level, a meter higher than surrounding, located at the central rear hall(后廳) which housed with the ancestral altar of the final row of the mansion complex suggests an ascending nature for the fortune for the household.
The whole Lee's residential quarter is bounded by stone walls with a central gatehouse accessible to the crescent fishing and reservoir pound in the front of the property. However, unlike most of the traditional houses built to face south to receive better sunlight, the upside energy of Fensui, the Lee Family residential compound is laid toward northern looking and faced with a splendid mountain scene in a distant. How this was a mind change for layout a house like Luchou Lee Mansion? This lies a secrete code to be explored from the imperial palace built to last in northern China in the 13th century Ming dynasty.
The backyard is a raised mount (化胎), a typical Hahka tradition for the family cottage design that is to support the home like sitting in a chair holding firm all the family members.
Figure: The family ancestral altar is situated at the highest and final row of the mansion complex and is backed by a raised mount terrain like sitting in a cozy chair, a tradition in Hahka cottage seen throughout Taiwan.
The Unusual Orientation of Luchou Lee Mansion House
Traditionally the houses in the north hemisphere are oriented to southern facing, namely the door and window opened toward the south to receive bright sunshine and positive energy. However, the Luchou Lee's 1903 completed residential complex does not follow that long praised principle. Instead it faces slightly northwestern and the projection of the house ends at the Mt. Guanyin (觀音山) which can be seen through the mirror pond right north of the farmhouse.
Figure: A Lee's descendant Lee Cheng (李蓁) had left a painting in the museum central hall to retrospect the once natural beauty of the rural surrounding at the Luchou Lee's farmhouse. Courtesy of the Luchou Lee Family Mansion museum.
Figure: (Right) An early photography of the Luchou Lee Family Mansion complex before the surrounding rice paddies later filled by the 1990's converted residential blocks suggests a direction toward the spiritual northwestern Mt. Guanyin of Taipei. (Left) The Pond of the quadrangle of the Luchou Lee Mansions. Courtesy of the Luchou Lee Family Mansion Museum
Mt. Guanyin(觀音山) in the northwestern Taipei basin has a distinctive splendid skyline like a lying female God, Guanyin (觀音). For centuries it is believed by locals as a destination of good spirit and harmony. According to the curation display of the Luchou Lee Museum, facing the distant Mt Guanyin is one of the key reason to change the orientation from south facing to the northwestern facing. The reference to a fixed as solid as rising mountain can also be sought through examples found inside Taipei. The orientation of 1879 laid Taipei walled city was adjusted from being right at north to slightly degree toward the peak of Mt Chishin. It was even an consideration when Ming Empire of ancient China put up their Imperial City
Figure: The Google Earth 3D view reconstruction of the former landscape that the Lee's Mansion right faced the Mt. Guanyin through endlessness of rice paddies and rivers. Source: Google Earth.
Figure: (click to enlarge) Site placement of Taipei walled city planned in 1879 had a strong orientation of alignment of the northern mountain peak of Mount Chihsin, a slightly degree difference of exact 90 degree north. Same strategy for Luchou Lee Family Mansion toward the Mount Guanyin. The 1976 laid Chiang Kai shek's super scale memorial hall occupied original military camp site and was facing to the Mainland China where he came from. Source: Background from Google Earth
A Royal Forbidden City under the Heaven
The first ever recorded city planning of ancient China can be found at West Chou (西周) (770~476 BC) in the Book of Diverse Crafts, Kao Gog Ji (考工記) part of Rites of Chou(禮記) ever published from the Warfare period (戰國時期) to Chinese Han Period around 220 BC. Eastern Chou derived from the agricultural civilization of West Chou (1029~771BC) (西周) which was famous for their capability to make use of iron instead of bronze of its predecessor of Shan(商周) (1657~1029 BC). The original West Chou laid their capital city Haojing (鎬京) near the present day Sian(Xi'an)(西安) and an Eastern Capital at Luoyi (洛邑), the present day Luoyang (洛陽). As barbarian invasions and internal riots, the Imperial Chou eventually moved to their Eastern Capital at Luoyang since 770 BC. Although the two capital cities are still being investigated for how they were laid and constructed, the Kao Gong Ji published by the Confucius fellows revealed the principle of how a Chou cities were laid. It is stated as:
"匠人營國，方九里，旁三門，國中九經九緯，經涂九軌，左祖右社，面朝後市"
- The design principle of laying an imperial city is scaled at a rectangle city with each side measured with nine Chou's mile(1800 meters), length of 16.2km in modern day with three city gates on each side of the city walls.
- Inside the walled city, the entire quadrant is subdivided by streets and 9 boulevards and the imperial courthouse sits right at the center.
- Temples laid to the left and bureaus laid to the east.
- South front of imperial palace stood the royal mile of government officials and north rear to the court allocated for the markets.
Figure: The earliest urban plan design of Chou Imperial City (周王城圖) revealed in Chou Dynasty(776 BC) of Ancient China with extreme symmetrical design in all direction. Source: Book of Diverse Crafts, Kao Gong Ji, part of Rites of Chou published around 200 BC. (page 37. 劉敦禎, 中國古代建築史, 明文書局, 1982)
The earliest and ancient Chinese Chou city design recorded by the Kao Gong Ji does reflect at the archaeological discoveries of some excavated cities in the East Chou for their grid pattern of streets revealed and the idea of the city planning at the book is not skeptical. It is the form of early Chinese city which were largely theoretically followed by the imperial cities since the Chinese Han Dynasty (208 BC ~ 800 AD). The defensive and watched towers above the gates (闕) of the royal cities was also documented in the Book of Rites of Chou and a cascading gates erected before entering the royal palace. The defensive gates were hung with royal and administrative announcements for the city and such form is also still a design in later Tang (唐) (618-936 AD). The watched towers gates still evolved to the Noon Gate(午門) inside the Forbidden City of Beijing during the more recent dynasty of Ming(明)(1368~1644) and Manchu Chin (1616-1911).
The Forbidden city in Pekin, Beijing, was the last and survived ancient Chinese imperial palace and city to be built based on the Chou's principle. It was designed and laid at the very beginning of 15th century by the first monarch of Ming's Empire. It is consisted of many single buildings and courtyard houses served for the royal and staff residences, administrations offices, space for amenity, temples, leisure and gardens and everything for royal families to survive without getting cross the border. This gave the name of being forbidden as it is of no need to get across the fence.
Figure: (Click to enlarge) Indication of an artificial mountain (景山) right behind the royal palace on the central axis of the forbidden city, the royal burgh of Ming and Chin Empire at modern day Beijing. Source: 1747 map of Forbidden City, British Library, Reading Digital Atlas of Academia Sinica Taiwan. 中央研究院數位典藏 https://sinica.digitalarchives.tw/
While the decision came to build a vast royal palace complex in a fairly flat land with virtually no natural border coming from the north where the most barbarian might come to attack, an artificial hill built by earlier dynasty kingdoms as a royal resort destination was considered. The artificial hill was gradually piled up when a nearby lake was built part of the the Liao (遼代) Dynasty summer palace and later formed as another royal resort by the Yuan Empire for their Yuan Dadu (元大都) Capital near the modern day Beijing. The mount was eventually put up as a higher ground as 45 meters high to oversee the newly erected imperial city to be laid in the south of the raised terrain through a moat. The construction of the moats around the Ming Empire's city were also added up to the artificial mount making it reaches over 45 meters. This purposely built terrain plays significantly in ancient Chinese Fenshui environment theory but also a symbol for safeguarding landscape of eternity.
Figure: Stepping up to top of the Artificial Mountain(景山) at the back of the Forbidden City around 6 to 7 floor tall and enjoy a panoramic view of the entire royal palaces under a single view. The made made terrain mount at the back provides a strong protection for a safety and sustainability of a Chinese city. Source: Willie Chen
Figure: An 18th century Chin Dynasty painting of Receiving Diplomats through the royal mile of the Imperial court of Forbidden City (萬國來朝) shows the architectural wonder of the royal court as a transformation through ladders.
Figure: The classic residential courtyard house in Beijing in which the front door is not opened at the central axis as what is done in royal palace inside forbidden city. This creates a theme that only royal palace or temple is permitted to see through exterior from its central court house in classic architecture of Chinese civilization.
Han Chinese design of royal palace and city are found references throughout many culture of the East Asia, particularly Korea, Japan and even Vietnam where the dissemination of the influence throughout transition of the dynasty of ancient China. The central alignment and fairly high degree of symmetry, groups of building forming in quadrants and rectangle courtyards, ground level reflecting the social hierarchy of the occupants, oriented with a raised higher point of terrain are some Figure: An illustrative reconstruction of the 1780 year Indian Delhi Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage in India inscribed in 2007. Source:
A Living Museum for the Nation
An activity venue for Asian Child first birthday party (抓週) and a museum for farming past and the heroic General Lee Yobang (李友邦將軍) who is a key offspring of the Lee's and a key reason of receiving a heritage status.
As the cottage shared an immense size in an urban zone, a new legal approach was also introduced to save the entire property from unblocking and made it the very first landmark case stay integrated and made it available for private home moving their right of development elsewhere.
Reference:
1. 李重耀, 蘆洲李宅研究修護計劃, 台北縣政府, 1989-08,
2. 蔡佳明、彭揚凱, 無中生有的土地，到底肥了誰？──容積轉移的真相, https://opinion.cw.com.tw/blog/profile/411/article/6053, 天下雜誌獨立評論, 2017-08
3. 東粉的研究生筆記(aimee7703@gmail.com), 古蹟容積移轉(TDR)---台北蘆洲李宅, http://culture-notes.blogspot.com/2012/04/tdr.html, Accessed 2021-2
4. 劉敦禎, 中國古代建築史, 明文書局, 1982
5. 古建網, 中國古建網四合院建築形制, http://www.gujian.cn/post/1178.html, 2014-09
6. 威克, 台灣的抗戰：晚來一步的「民族英雄」, https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2015/07/150706_tw_national_hero, BBC Chinese. 2015-07.
7. 若淵, 一等人忠臣孝子 - (2007.05.20蘆洲李友邦將軍紀念館), http://blog.udn.com/jinyiw/8961450, 2007-05.
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