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The entrance hall, theater and viewing buildings on both sides of the Qin Ancestral Hall complex are the first entrance. (Profile picture)
Ancient Chinese architecture has a long historical tradition and brilliant artistic achievements. After the baptism of time, every preserved ancient building is a precious treasure.
Liang Sicheng, a well-known architectural historian and master architect, once said: “The disappearance of a cultural relic is not only the disappearance of that building, but a piece of history that matches it.” ”
Ancient buildings are a carrier of cultural spirit, through ancient buildings, you can discover the rich cultural connotation of a city. It can be said that ancient buildings are the historical memory symbols and cultural development chains of the city.
A few days ago, the Tianyi Pavilion Museum launched the Qin Branch Ancestral Building Repair Project. As a national key cultural relic protection unit, the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall will be overhauled on the occasion of the “100th birthday”. This renovation comes more than 30 years after the overhaul in the 90s.
Repairing ancient buildings is to protect Ningbo’s historical features and local characteristics. How will the Qin Ancestral Hall be repaired? How can a national treasure building be “reborn”? The cultural protection experts of Tianyi Pavilion Museum made a professional interpretation for everyone.
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The ridged beast on the building of the Qin family ancestral hall. (Profile picture)
Preserving ancient buildings is a respect for history
The Qin Ancestral Hall has historical, artistic and scientific value
On the west bank of Moon Lake, north of Maya Street, the Qin Ancestral Hall, which was founded in 1923, is located here. People who visit the Tianyi Pavilion Museum are all attracted by its exquisite architectural craftsmanship.
The Qin Branch Ancestral Hall covers an area of 2199.04 square meters, with a total construction area of 2246.24 square meters. The whole group of buildings integrates wood carving, brick carving and stone carving, especially featuring Zhujin wood carving, which is a representative work of modern Jiangnan traditional architecture and a masterpiece of folk architectural craftsmanship. In 2001, as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units announced by the State Council, the Qin Ancestral Hall was merged into Tianyi Pavilion, and has now become a landmark classical building complex of Tianyi Pavilion Museum and even Ningbo.
Ancient building is not only a technology, but also an art. Ancient Chinese architecture has been passed down by successive generations of craftsmen, absorbing the characteristics of other traditional art categories, especially carving, painting, and arts and crafts, so it has multiple values in history, art, science and other aspects, as well as the Qin Ancestral Hall.
According to the relevant experts of Tianyi Pavilion Museum, the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall is an outstanding representative of the sacrificial architecture of the Republic of Ningbo period, and it is also a materialized reflection of Ningbo’s modern commercial economic development, Ningbo’s giant values and blood patriarchal system, so it first has important historical value. Chongwen heavy commerce, constitutes the heritage of Ningbo’s traditional culture, modern “Ningbo gang” businessmen after going out to do business to get rich, influenced by traditional Confucian thought and values, will return to their hometown to build roads, bridges, businesses, ancestral halls, etc. Founded in 1923, the Qin Ancestral Hall has clear architectural era characteristics and distinctive regional characteristics, and its magnificent architectural shape and gorgeous carved decoration are embedded in the process of Ningbo’s modern history like pearls, witnessing the rise and fall of giants and clans, and the changes of the city and society.
According to the relevant experts of Tianyi Pavilion Museum, the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall is an outstanding representative of the sacrificial architecture of the Republic of Ningbo period, and it is also a materialized reflection of Ningbo’s modern commercial economic development, Ningbo’s giant values and blood patriarchal system, so it first has important historical value. Chongwen heavy commerce, constitutes the heritage of Ningbo’s traditional culture, modern “Ningbo gang” businessmen after going out to do business to get rich, influenced by traditional Confucian thought and values, will return to their hometown to build roads, bridges, businesses, ancestral halls, etc. Founded in 1923, the Qin Ancestral Hall has clear architectural era characteristics and distinctive regional characteristics, and its magnificent architectural shape and gorgeous carved decoration are embedded in the process of Ningbo’s modern history like pearls, witnessing the rise and fall of giants and clans, and the changes of the city and society.
Third, it has extremely high scientific value. The original designer designed the theater platform as an outer and inner circle according to the traditional Chinese theory of Yi Xue “Tianyuan Place”, the “ground” is a 5.5-meter-square square theater, “Tian” is a dome-shaped algae well made of thousands of carved tenons and tenons spliced, and 16 floors of Ruyi Dougong of different sizes spiral up step by step, silk interlocking, until the dome converges, covered with “mirrors” in the middle. The whole theater is ingeniously conceived and exquisitely crafted, which is a physical testimony of the typical style of Ningbo’s local characteristic theater.
In addition, the construction of the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall reflects profound social value and reflects the “Confucian” cultural characteristics of the “Ningbo Gang” merchants. Ningbo is an industrial and commercial city, and the modern Ningbo merchant gang has made great contributions to the development of Chinese commerce, and Qin Jun’an, a recipient of the Qin Branch Temple, is one of them. Qin Jun’an has been studious since childhood, and later made a fortune in business, and after becoming a wealthy businessman in Yongshang, he did many good deeds, often provided disaster relief and poverty relief, and was once awarded the Hualing Zheng Sanpin Seal by the Qing Dynasty for flattening rice prices and coastal defense disaster relief, and served as an assistant director of the Ningbo Chamber of Commerce. While engaging in business activities, the “Ningbo Gang” merchants are often influenced by traditional Confucian ideas and values, so after they succeed in business, they will return a large amount of savings to their hometown and use them to build ancestral halls, temples, academies, schools, bridges, roads, etc., which reflects their spiritual thoughts of glorious ancestors and love for mulberry Zi and the folk customs of not inseparating from Confucianism and business, which continues to this day.
The Qin Ancestral Hall is grand in scale, exquisite in craftsmanship, intact and well protected, and these buildings concentrate on the local characteristics of vermilion wood carving, brick carving, stone carving and other crafts, carrying the essence of local traditional carving technology. Among them, Zhujin wood carving, as a traditional Chinese craft that emphasizes both carving and lacquer, was approved by the State Council in 2006 to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. In addition, the Qin Ancestral Hall is also a typical representative of the ancestral hall culture in eastern Zhejiang, and the historical Qin Branch Ancestral Hall has been held every year since its construction until 1949, which is a specimen of the study of the patriarchal system of old China.
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The vault-shaped algae well of the Qin Ancestral Theater. (Profile picture)
Actively renovate ancient buildings
Promote the protection of Ningbo’s historical and cultural heritage
The Qin Branch Ancestral Hall was built by the Qin clan from 1923 to 1925, costing more than 200,000 yuan, and was restored in the 90s of last century according to the original appearance of the Branch Temple. With the passage of time, after the baptism of wind and rain, the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall has also experienced varying degrees of natural aging, corrosion and damage. Although the main structure and form of the building are still in good condition, the wooden structure cannot resist natural aging and wind and rain invasion after all: the roof breeds plants, and the local cornice settles; Pulling and decaying in some wooden structures; The doors and windows were also twisted and deformed due to the sun and rain; The most important part of the decorative surface of the building – raw lacquer, gold has faded phenomenon. All this has affected the safety and appearance of this beautiful building, and repair measures are urgently needed.
The protection of ancient buildings is to prevent their destruction and extend their life through scientific methods, and it is necessary to preserve their historical, artistic and scientific value to the greatest extent.
“This maintenance project is not salvage protection, but active repair after some problems, which is a positive protection process.” Zhang Liang, vice president of Tianyi Pavilion Museum, introduced that in order to eliminate the potential safety hazards of the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall and enhance the effect of cultural heritage display, Tianyi Pavilion Museum decided to launch the Qin Branch Ancestral Repair Protection and Exhibition Enhancement Project. The project was approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and the construction plan has been approved and approved by the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau, and the construction began in March this year with a construction period of 250 calendar days. After the completion of the building repair, the exhibition construction will also be carried out, which will play a positive role in promoting the protection of Ningbo’s historical and cultural heritage.
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The master cleans the old paint surface of the doors and windows to prepare for the re-application of raw paint. (Photo by Lin Qingqing and Li Xiaohang)
Adopt a research conservation engineering model
Maximize the restoration and presentation of historical information
The repair of ancient buildings is a meticulous scientific research work, its professional requirements are extremely high, and each repair has a strict process flow.
The author understands that according to the review opinions of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Heritage Bureau on the restoration plan of the Qin Branch Ancestral Hall, this repair should follow the repair principles of “no change in the original state of the cultural relics”, “minimal intervention”, “recognizability” and “reversibility”. To this end, Tianyi Ge Museum plans to adopt the research protection project model in the repair process, that is, “the means of protection, the attitude of research to the repair of ancient buildings, so that the project can restore and display historical information to the greatest extent while ensuring quality”.
Tianyi Pavilion Museum also invited experts from the Department of Ancient Construction of the Palace Museum to conduct online lectures, drawing on the experience of the research protection and repair project of the Palace Yangxin Hall for the restoration project of the Qin Family Branch Temple.
According to relevant experts, the project team will try to carry out the restoration project of the ancient building according to the “original technology, original shape and raw materials”. In this process, the spatial characteristics, materials, structure, structure, structure, historical documents and construction techniques of the Qin Ancestral Complex will be fully recorded, systematically studied and scientifically restored. At the same time, the project will be carefully managed by professional ancient building repair management personnel, so that the repair work will be carried out in a scientific, reasonable and orderly manner; Using multidisciplinary research and cross-departmental cooperation methods, scientific and true disclosure of historical information of ancient buildings, disease removal and structural reinforcement of buildings.
It is worth mentioning that the project will also enhance the preventive protection of ancient buildings through the combination of traditional skills and modern technology. For example, oblique photography technology is used to build three-dimensional models to evaluate the effect of building roof maintenance before and after; Use optical technology to monitor the displacement of important areas such as theater and wall. At the same time, the professional photography team will also make all-round and scientific records of important processes to provide historical data for subsequent research and conservation work.
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The working team surveyed the roof of the Qin Ancestral Hall. (Photo by Lin Qingqing and Li Xiaohang)