Yan Xishan Former Residence Introduction
Yan Xishan (1883-1960), courtesy name Bochuan, experienced significant events in modern Chinese history, including the Tongmenghui's anti-Qing movement, the Xinhai Revolution, the Hongxian Empire, the establishment of the Republic of China, the Central Plains War, the Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War, up to the Kuomintang's relocation to Taiwan. He played a crucial role in nearly all major historical events of modern China. He served as the President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of National Defense before the Kuomintang moved to Taiwan. After his resignation, he led his subordinates to live in Yangmingshan. In the last ten years of his seclusion in Yangmingshan, he focused on research and writing, completing works such as "The Great Unity of the World" and "China in Three Hundred Years." He was a practitioner of Confucianism, embodying the principles of virtue, service, and scholarship. In his later years, longing for his hometown and based on military defense needs, he chose to build stone houses named "Zhongneng Cave" and "Red Brick House" on the wind-protected slopes overlooking the Tamsui River estuary and the Taipei Basin. "Zhongneng Cave" is designed in the style of the Shanxi cave dwelling, incorporating features from Chinese, Japanese, and Western architectures, differing significantly in age, scale, and layout from typical historical sites; it is the main structure of the Yan residence, personally named by Yan, reflecting his cosmological observations of the universe through the concept of 'Zhongneng'. This fortress-like residence became the final abode of this important figure in modern history. The "Red Brick House" served as an air-raid shelter, with walls three feet thick, reinforced steel plates on doors and windows, and designs for camouflage and lookout posts. The "Red Brick House" and "Zhongneng Cave" were designated as a city historical site "Yan Xishan's Former Residence" in 2004, and the nearby Yan Xishan's tomb was designated as a monument in 2010.
