The Lei family has seven generations as the chief designers of style houses, and designed and built a series of royal buildings, such as temples, gardens, tombs, mansions and palaces, including Yuanmingyuan, chengde mountain resort, the Forbidden City (part of it), the Summer Palace, the Qing Dongling and the Qing Xiling.

In the early Qing Dynasty, Lei Jia's woodworking skills were passed on to Lei Fa, and the glory of a legendary architectural family began.

The first generation: Lei Fada

In the 22nd year of Qing Emperor Kangxi, in order to build a palace, the Qing royal family ordered the recruitment of folk craftsmen to Beijing. At this time, Lei Fada, who was already famous in Nanjing, was called to rebuild the three halls of the Forbidden City with his cousin Lei. Soon, Lei Fada stood out from many craftsmen.

When Lei Fada presided over the renovation design of the Forbidden City, he boldly innovated and kept the strict symmetry of the main hall building on the central axis, but the architectural layout on both sides of the central axis only sought general symmetry, while seeking changes and differences in details.

In his later years, he wrote Examples of Engineering Practice of the Ministry of Industry and Records of Engineering Construction, which became the ancient architectural design of China? A model of guidance? .

Legend has it that on the day when the beam was set off in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Kangxi personally saw the beam lifted, but it could not fall down because of the tenon and mortise. Kangxi was about to get angry when he saw an iron axe hanging around his waist, and several axes climbed up the beam and made it return to its original place. Kangxi was overjoyed. Build a long class for his Ministry of Industry on the spot? This man is Lei Fada, and later he was promoted to take charge of the case of Yufeng House.

The second generation: Lei Jinyu

Legend has it that his? Come out? It begins with saving a crisis. At that time, the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City was being repaired. Due to the lack of big wood, officials removed a golden nanmu from the Ming tomb and replaced it with the material of the beam of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. On the day of project completion, a beam installation ceremony will be held.

On this day, Emperor Kangxi personally watched the battle. Unexpectedly, an accident happened at this juncture, and the ridge purlin could not be closed, and the officials of the Ministry of Industry were sweating with fear.

Fortunately, an official was alarmed and rushed to Lei Jinyu. Lei Jinyu went up with an axe, snapped a few times, and the girder slammed into place. Kangxi exultation, appointed Lei Jinyu as an imperial minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for the case. ? Reward seven officials and eat seven salaries.

He turned his unique craft into a reappearance of Lu Ban, which has been used since the Song Dynasty? Improvement of bucket arch, with mortise width as the basic size, by? Bucket arch change? Cardamom? The new model makes the design and construction more scientific.

From then on, the thickness and height of columns and beams used in buildings are based on? Cardamom? Calculated in basic units. Until now, this woodworking skill has not been shaken.

After Yongzheng ascended the throne, he began to build Yuanmingyuan on a large scale. At this time, Lei Jinyu was over 60 years old and was appointed as the chief designer of Yuanmingyuan style houses. Since then, the Lei family has ushered in the era of controlling the royal architecture.

The third generation: Lei Chengcheng

After Lei Jinyu's death, the Lei family lost? Style room? Zhang, Lei Jinyu's sixth wife, stayed in Beijing with her three-month-old son Lei Chengcheng.

Regardless of the ethical constraints, he cried in the Ministry of Industry with his young son in his arms, and finally won the qualification for Lei Chengcheng to return to the style of adulthood, and the glory of Style Lei was continued.

As an adult, Lei Chengcheng took over the style room and became the successor of the third generation style room. Although he is in charge of the work in the style room, due to the lack of expert guidance and help, his skills are mediocre and he has not made great achievements.

The fourth generation Leijiaxi

Lei Jiaxi, Lei Jiawei and Lei Jiarui became a powerful iron triangle in the design field at that time.

Qianlong prosperous time, the most prosperous era of royal architecture in Qing Dynasty. After six trips to Jiangnan, the exquisite landscape of Jiangnan made him unforgettable. He wanted to reproduce the gentle and beautiful scenery in the south of the Yangtze River with the landscape in the western suburbs of Beijing, so the project of "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" began excitedly.

Among the three brothers, Lei Jiaxi was particularly outstanding, so he made a case of style room. The three brothers are best at planning the layout of articles, designing garden projects such as Wanshou Mountain, Yuquan Mountain and Xiangshan Mountain, and expanding the famous chengde mountain resort.

The Summer Palace is the masterpiece of three brothers. At that time, the Summer Palace was called Qingyi Garden. 1750, Qianlong started Qingyi Garden Project to celebrate his mother's 60th birthday. Style ray? Responsible for design.

Jiaqing? Changling? It became the first masterpiece of Lei-style mausoleum designed by Lei Jiaxi in Taipinggu, Xiling, Qing Dynasty. Qing Xiling is located in Yixian County, Hebei Province, 20 kilometers away from Beijing/KLOC-0. There are four emperors, nine queens and 27 concubines buried here. Changling underground palace has a magnificent structure, fine carving, four doors and nine coupons.

The top of the tomb voucher is made of bricks. It is quite difficult to close such vouchers, but it is a miracle that Lei Jiaxi successfully closed the gold voucher.

Fifth generation thunder

Ray became a key figure in the family.

His greatest project in the world is to preside over the Qing Xiling, Mu Dongling and Yuanmingyuan projects.

Lei sorted out the design drawings and hot samples handed down from his ancestors and built three rooms for collection. When the British and French allied forces burned the Yuanmingyuan, Lei quickly transferred the drawings and hot samples of the style room of the Ministry of Industry to his home for proper collection, and the sample files were preserved.

For a long time, due to the lack of historical materials, no one can tell exactly how the ancient architecture in China was completed step by step. Therefore, many foreign experts have always believed that the ancient buildings in China were built entirely by the experience of craftsmen, and there is no need for design drawings, let alone construction drawings.

The survival of style mine maps in the world completely overturns this statement. In the era when drawing was based on plane, Lei Jia creatively drew a perspective view of architecture to reflect the complex relationship between architectural structures, which proved that the level of ancient architecture in China far exceeded that of his contemporaries.

In 2007, the architectural drawings of the sample mine were selected into the UNESCO Memory of the World List, becoming the fifth world memory heritage project in China.

Sixth generation leisiqi

Resch took over the case. He experienced Daoguang, Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors in his life, and presided over the construction of Dingling, Ding Dong, Hui Ling and Xiyuan, as well as many palaces, gardens and tombs of princes and nobles.

Dingling is the representative work of Lei Siqi. The architecture of Dingling is layered, which is not only full of rhythm, but also forms a kind of ups and downs of luxury momentum, which is very shocking whether looking down or looking up. Lei Siqi was awarded five titles for his meritorious service in building a mausoleum.

1873, Cixi rebuilt the Yuanmingyuan, which was burnt down by the British and French allied forces. For reconstruction, the construction period given by Emperor Tongzhi is only one year. Require Reqi to finish all drawing and ironing within one month. Rebuild Yuanmingyuan, but there is no money to allocate. Emperor Tongzhi ordered his ministers to donate 232,000 yuan for repairs, which was only a drop in the bucket for repairs.

1In September, 874, Emperor Tongzhi was forced to issue an imperial edict: The Yuanmingyuan project was immediately stopped. ? Although the project stopped, Lei Siqi was exhausted and died soon at the age of 50.

The Seventh Generation Lei Tingchang

Lei Ting has become a new case. He presided over the reconstruction of the Temple of Heaven, the Taihe Gate of the Forbidden City, and the observation deck of the Empress Dowager Cixi's 10,000-year celebration. Due to the closure of the Golden Voucher and Liang's meritorious service in Long 'entang, he was awarded the second prize by the court, and the glory of the Lei family reached its peak.

Eighth generation thunder

1897, Cixi started the reconstruction project of Yuanmingyuan again, and Lei Tingchang's son made a case of the Yuanmingyuan style.

However, in 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded again, and all kinds of royal buildings inside and outside Beijing were destroyed again.

Since then, Lei Tingchang and Lei Caixi have carried out large-scale restoration and reconstruction. 1907, Lei Tingchang died. In the late Qing Dynasty, major projects such as the Mausoleum and the Regent's Palace were completed by Lei.

Eight generations under one roof? Style ray? The architectural tradition is over. In the troubled times that followed, the Leishi family declined rapidly. Forced by their livelihood, they began to sell mine samples, causing some of them to live overseas.

Fortunately, this attracted the attention of Zhu Qiqian, an architectural expert. He hurriedly put forward suggestions for purchasing Tibet to the Cultural Foundation, which entrusted Beiping Library to purchase it.

On June 20, 2007, UNESCO recognized? Style ray? Selection of architectural drawings? World Memory Heritage List? Let this magical family live in human history forever!