Songmen Villa

Songmen Villa

Songmen Villa is a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangxi Province.

No. 602 Henan Road — Songmen Villa, where Chen San Yuan lived from 1929 to 1933. It is well known that Qi Baishi was world-renowned for his paintings of flowers, plants, insects, and birds, but did you know he also painted figure paintings in traditional Chinese style? He did — one of them was of the elderly Chen San Yuan. That portrait incorporated techniques from Western painting, emphasizing light and shadow as well as anatomical structure. In the painting, Chen San Yuan is depicted with flowing white beard and piercing eyes. Qi Baishi was not someone who would paint just anyone — Chen San Yuan was a renowned scholar and poet during the Republican era. In 1922, when the Indian literary master Rabindranath Tagore visited China, he also expressed a desire to meet with him.

Songmen Villa was built in the 1920s. Covering an area of about 170 square meters, it features a large German-style sloping roof. In 1929, Chen San Yuan came to Mount Lu and resided here. He himself named the place Songmen Villa. Chen San Yuan was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations of the Qing Dynasty, once served as an official in the Ministry of Personnel, and was a participant in the Hundred Days' Reform.

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Jiangxi Province