[Commentary] On April 12, in the Qinglong ancient town of Taiyuan, Shanxi, tourists were scarce on the streets in the off-season. In a quaint small courtyard, Su Dashu is decorating his ancient construction studio. "Post-80s" Su Dashu has loved old objects since he was a child and has been in the ancient construction industry for more than ten years. Recently, he started a series of live webcasts of ancient architecture in Shanxi on social platforms, bringing netizens to "cloud tour" ancient Chinese architectural skills.

[Same period] Su Dashu: In the early 1980s, what did we do about a statistic? Shanxi has a total of more than 3,000 theaters of different sizes, and now there are only more than 1,000. Generally speaking, it belongs to the official works. For example, some of the stage in the temple are relatively large. If you like this stage, its structure is relatively small. The so-called stage at the top of the hard mountain belongs to some stages in a village of this kind. In Shanxi, we basically have a place where there are villages. In the past, there were stages. You can basically infer from the size of a stage, how many villages there are People, the stage is big, there must be many people.

【Explanation】 Shanxi is known as the "Chinese Museum of Ancient Architecture". In daily life, Su Dashu, who loves ancient architecture, is most fond of leisure by driving without a destination, looking for ancient buildings hidden in the folk.

[Same period] Su Dashu: Basically it means that there are 20 days of running outside every month, because there are too many ancient buildings in Shanxi, you can see everywhere you go, so I do n’t have to find a map, I just go, as long as there is a way I'll go first, when there is no way, then I will retreat. So in this case, you will always find something that you haven't seen before, or that there is no record in some parts of the book (ancient building).

[Explanation] Su Dashu was shocked by the ancient construction skills during his many years of visit. The tiles, wood, stone and other parts and details can reflect the wisdom of the ancients. However, nowadays, ancient construction skills are lacking.

[Same period] Su Dashu: (in my workshop) The oldest batch of masters with craftsmanship is also now, when they are younger, they are also 50 years old. It is modern and belongs to modern carpentry. For example, you basically use an air nail gun now. We used to have a tenon-and-mortise structure. For example, one of our tables can be said to be as few as a few decades, but as many as a few hundred years. It won't be bad.

【Explanation】 Su Dashu is gratified that nowadays, more and more people love ancient architecture. For this reason, on the basis of the original ancient construction workshop, he also opened a studio in Qinglong Ancient Town, Taiyuan, on the wall of the studio It is full of various tools, and a model of a bucket arch is placed on the table. There are also plaques, tiles, ink fountains and other objects in the room, so that people can observe and understand the ancient construction skills at close range. In the next month, Su Dashu will walk into several ancient buildings in Shanxi to show the ingenious place among them.

[Same period] Su Dashu: We are preparing for the second game at Yanmen Pass, where there are also ancient buildings, such as the Great Wall, some large gate buildings and castle towers that pass the gate. The third phase is Shanhua Temple. The Shanhua Temple is a building from the Liao and Jin dynasties. The fourth phase is Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, a tower made of all-wood structure and the tallest tower in China and the world. Game 5 is about the repair of our ancient buildings. In the sixth game, a building in the Republic of China, Zunsheng Temple, and the other one, the Qujia compound, was a compound of Jin merchants in the Qing Dynasty. Then the last scene is Foguang Temple. Foguang Temple is one of the earliest existing Tang Dynasty buildings in China. I think this is a good promotion of Shanxi culture and ancient architecture in Shanxi.

Reporter Qu Lixia from Taiyuan, Shanxi

Responsible editor: [Luo Pan]