This article investigates one of the earliest attempts to systematically construct a building tradition and incorporate it into modern Chinese architectural design. These efforts were put forth by Liang Sicheng (1901–1972), one of the most distinguished Chinese architects and architectural historians, in the 1920s and 1930s in China, informed by the strong collective intention to honour the Chinese past. This article provides a historical and critical reflection on this collective intention that is still shared nowadays by architects and architectural theorists.

This article examines in depth the evolution of the different ways Liang used the building past and constructed the Chinese architectural traditions in different crucial stages of his architectural career in the 1920s and 1930s. It uses architectural drawing as both the research subject and the research method. Three of Liang’s representative drawings from these crucial professional stages are juxtaposed and investigated to reveal this evolution using the iconography and iconology method.