Chen Congzhou / 陈从周

Chen Congzhou is the architectural historian and conservation figure cited in No.209 晋商往事：走西口到乔家大院然后煤了. The episode uses his phrase “老城老到底，新城新到家” as the planning principle behind Pingyao Ancient City / 平遥古城 preservation: keep the old city genuinely old while allowing new development to happen elsewhere.

The source uses Chen’s principle to distinguish preservation from decorative nostalgia. A heritage city cannot survive if old buildings are selectively replaced while tourism branding pretends continuity; it needs a spatial plan that protects the old fabric and moves incompatible modern functions outside it.

Key Claims

• Chen’s phrase gives the episode a compact rule for preserving old urban fabric without freezing all development.
• The principle supports Ruan Yisan / 阮仪三’s planning intervention around Pingyao.
• It helps connect architectural preservation to later Heritage Tourism Commercialization without treating tourism as the original reason to preserve.

Connections

• Pingyao Ancient City / 平遥古城 — primary case.
• Ruan Yisan / 阮仪三 — conservation counterpart in the source.
• Heritage Tourism Commercialization — later economic layer built on preservation.