How to reasonably protect, display and utilize the ruins
The collapse of the masonry during the restoration and protection of the city wall of the Mingqin Palace in Xi'an attracts attention from experts
□ Our reporter Han Dandong
□ Su Xinyu, an intern from our newspaper
Not long ago, under the influence of continuous rainfall, the repair and protection masonry of the Mingqin Wangfu city wall site located on the west side of Xincheng Square, Xincheng District, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province collapsed. A bus and three private cars were damaged at the site, and four people were injured. The masonry splashed when it collapsed was scratched. Experts' on-site investigation indicated that the collapsed part was newly built protective soil and outsourcing brick masonry at the original city wall site, which did not damage the rammed earth of the original Ming Dynasty city wall. The cultural relics department implements emergency protection measures on site.
Why are there hidden dangers in cultural relics? When cultural relics have safety incidents, which departments should bear the responsibility? How to better protect, display and utilize cultural relics? A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily conducted an interview.
Lack of disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities
Cultural relics have hidden safety hazards
In fact, it is not uncommon for cultural relics such as ruins and relics to collapse or be damaged by humans.
On October 17, 2004, a 15-meter-long ancient city wall at the south gate of the ancient city of Pingyao in Shanxi suddenly collapsed. The cause of the collapse was perennial water accumulation, severe wall erosion, loose soil, and long-term disrepair.
On August 18, 2014, an old tree in Yuelu Academy, located at the foot of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha City, Hunan Province, suddenly broke its roots. The tree fell to the Dacheng Hall of the Confucian Temple, causing about half of the building of Dacheng Hall to collapse, causing three people to be crushed on the spot. A female tourist died without rescue, and another tourist and a college staff were injured.
On May 23, 2018, a fire broke out in Kanbitai at the Summer Palace, covering an area of about 20 square meters without casualties. After investigation by the fire department, factors such as man-made and lightning strikes were excluded, and the factors that caused fires due to electrical faults were not excluded.
Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management, Communication University of China, believes that insufficient research on disaster prevention and mitigation technology is one of the reasons for the hidden safety hazards of cultural relics. In addition, the overall capability of disaster prevention and mitigation is not strong, and the work of disaster prevention and mitigation for cultural relics in some places has not received due attention. Disaster prevention and mitigation of cultural relics has not been included as an important and special content in the local natural geological disaster monitoring and early warning and disaster prevention and mitigation system. The weak construction of the grassroots cultural relics departments and cultural relics protection management agencies in various regions, the general lack of personnel strength, and the long-term lack of maintenance and protection are all reasons for the hidden safety hazards of cultural relics.
In Zheng Ning’s view, relevant departments need to further improve the emergency mechanism for disaster prevention and mitigation of cultural relics, guide localities to formulate emergency plans for disaster prevention and mitigation and rescue and relief of cultural relics based on actual conditions, and improve the monitoring and early warning of cultural relics disasters, risk assessment and judgment, disaster prevention, disaster handling, A series of emergency response procedures and measures, such as information reporting and post-disaster repair and restoration, effectively enhance the emergency response capabilities of cultural relics.
Zheng Ning believes that disaster prevention should be considered in the restoration of cultural relics. On the premise of adhering to the principle of not changing the original state of the cultural relics and not affecting the safety of the cultural relics and the environment, the building should be reinforced, earthquake-proof, anti-seepage, flood-discharge and other cultural relics should be protected against Disaster prevention measures shall be considered, designed and implemented simultaneously as the content of cultural relics restoration. At the same time, relevant departments should carry out special systematic research to dig deeper into the unique disaster prevention systems and anti-disaster functions of some ancient cities, ancient villages and ancient buildings, and give full play to their important role in modern urban and rural disaster prevention and mitigation.
Zhou Rong, director of the Institute of History and Culture of the Xi'an Academy of Social Sciences, Shaanxi Province, believes that relevant departments should increase active protection, inspection and monitoring of cultural relics, use scientific and technological means to carry out the settlement of cultural relics, and timely monitor and process changes in the appearance of cultural relics. Use modern technology to take precautions and deal with problems at the embryonic stage to avoid greater disasters. Fully make advance plans. For cultural relics, especially in the handling of extreme weather or special conditions in the central area of the city, strengthen active monitoring and maintenance management. One is to eliminate hidden dangers as much as possible, and the other is to solve problems even if they occur. The damage caused is minimized.
Safety incidents in cultural relics
Management takes responsibility
According to Article 8 of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, the cultural relics administration department of the State Council is in charge of the national cultural relics protection work. Local people's governments at various levels are responsible for the protection of cultural relics within their administrative areas. Departments of local people's governments at or above the county level undertaking the protection of cultural relics shall supervise and administer the protection of cultural relics within their respective administrative regions. The relevant administrative departments of the people's governments at or above the county level shall be responsible for the protection of relevant cultural relics within the scope of their respective duties.
According to Zheng Ning's analysis, the local cultural relics administrative department and the local government should bear the responsibility when the ruins are not artificially collapsed or damaged.
According to Article 21 of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, users of state-owned immovable cultural relics are responsible for the repair and maintenance; non-state-owned immovable cultural relics are repaired and maintained by the owner. If the non-state-owned immovable cultural relics are in danger of damage, and everyone does not have the ability to repair, the local people's government should provide assistance; if the owner has the ability to repair and refuses to perform the repair obligation in accordance with the law, the people's government at or above the county level can provide rescue and repair, as needed The cost is borne by everyone.
According to Zheng Ning's analysis, the users and owners of the relics should bear the statutory responsibilities of repair and maintenance; if they do not have the ability to repair, the local people's government should provide assistance.
According to Article 70 of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, if any of the following acts does not constitute a crime, the administrative department of cultural relics of the people’s government at or above the county level shall order corrections and may also impose a fine of less than 20,000 yuan. Any illegal gains shall be confiscated Illegal income: The cultural relics collection unit fails to provide facilities for preventing fire, theft, and natural damage in accordance with relevant state regulations.
Therefore, Zheng Ning believes that in the case of the collapse of the masonry during the restoration and protection of the walls of the Ming Qin Palace, in the face of repeated damage signals and obvious disaster environments, only measures such as setting up canopies and adding drainage ditches were adopted. Failure to take protective measures for places with obvious hidden dangers shall be ordered by the cultural relics department of the people’s government at or above the county level to make corrections in accordance with the above-mentioned provisions, and a fine of less than 20,000 yuan may be imposed. If there are illegal gains, the illegal gains shall be confiscated.
In Zhou Rong’s view, there are two main situations in which cultural relics and relics are damaged: one is subjective and intentional. The state has relevant laws to impose a series of treatment and punishment on offenders. This kind of damage is relatively better to hold accountable, such as Cultural relics and relics are not allowed to be altered, destroyed or destroyed, and this situation can be handled in accordance with the Cultural Relics Protection Law and other relevant laws and regulations. Another type of non-human damage is more difficult to deal with. Take the collapse of the city wall of the Mingqin Palace in Xi’an as an example. The cause of the collapse is indeed due to the fact that Xi’an has a lot of rain this year, which exceeds previous precipitation conditions, and is not deliberately caused by some individuals or groups. . Another example is the floods in the south and the destruction of bridges in some cultural relics. These damages to the protection of cultural relics caused by non-human factors are not easy to be held accountable.
Therefore, Zhou Rong believes that the non-human collapse or damage of the ruins is more troublesome, and there are many problems in connection. For example, the day-to-day management and maintenance of a cultural relic of a certain place is in charge of the district cultural relics protection department. They have discovered the problems of this cultural relic and need to be dealt with. The funds for processing need to be applied for, and the allocation of higher-level funds needs to be reviewed, checked and maintained by experts. A series of approval processes such as the determination of the plan resulted in a time gap between the occurrence of the incident and the process of government work, and these times are incompressible, so it is difficult to judge the main fault party. Therefore, it is still necessary to take the initiative in prevention and monitoring to avoid incidents of cultural relic damage. Responsibility is only a kind of compensation after the fact. It is more about learning experience and lessons from the process, but it does not help the value of cultural relics.
If there are tourists or citizens who suffer personal and property losses due to cultural relics safety accidents, Zheng Ning believes that according to Article 6 Paragraph 1 of the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases", the local cultural relics administrative department is responsible for culturally proper The obligation of management and safety guarantee, if the failure to repair in time causes personal and property losses, it shall bear the responsibility and make compensation.
Optimize the cultural relic protection system
Reasonable display and utilization of cultural relics
Regarding how to better protect, display and utilize the relics, Zhou Rong put forward three suggestions: First, the display and utilization must be placed behind the protection, and protection first, and all the display and utilization of cultural relics must be built on Under the premise of destroying cultural relics, appropriate and reasonable use will be carried out afterwards; second, upholding the principles of minimal intervention, foresight and non-damaging cultural relics, long-term monitoring of cultural relics, timely handling of minor problems, and avoidance Major disasters have occurred; the third is to use modern technology such as video surveillance and settlement monitoring to establish a normalized active protection and monitoring system.
Zheng Ning suggested that the State Administration of Cultural Heritage should take the lead to set up a special working group to first sort out the laws, regulations and policies related to cultural relics protection responsibility, investigate and evaluate related issues, and finally formulate specific methods for the lifelong accountability system of cultural relics protection responsibility , And put it into practice as soon as possible. In addition, for the existing relevant typical cases, actively carry out notifications and publicity, play the exemplary role of "according to the case", strive to implement the lifelong accountability system of cultural relics protection as soon as possible, and give play to its due warning and education role.
Zheng Ning believes that, first of all, we must adhere to the principle of equal emphasis on ancient building protection and urban construction, and rationally plan the protection scope of ancient buildings. Urban construction should be in harmony with the style of ancient buildings on the whole, so good urban planning is the top priority.
Second, enhance public protection awareness and improve relevant laws and regulations. Cultural relics are non-renewable human resources. Therefore, the protection of cultural relics should be elevated to the level of participation of the whole people. With the government as the lead, improve the legal system of cultural relics protection, so that the whole people can actively participate in the protection of ancient buildings. At the same time, the use of modern media to fully publicize the cultural value of ancient buildings, so that people can pay attention to and trust them, and do a good job of protecting them fundamentally, and can also better play the value and role of traditional culture.
Third, improve the technical content of cultural relics protection. Different types of cultural relics should be distinguished, and the method of combining traditional technology with modern technology should be used for regular maintenance and restoration. In the process of restoration and protection, it is necessary to fully understand its particularity and maintain the historical and aesthetic characteristics of the cultural relics themselves and the representations. Every restoration activity requires correct theoretical guidance and relevant multidisciplinary cooperation.
Fourth, strengthen the disaster protection of ancient buildings. The repair work of ancient buildings must be prevented in advance and minimize the impact of natural disasters such as fires. Strengthen the management of power and fire sources, rationally arrange different fire fighting equipment according to different fire fighting needs; increase the application of fire prevention technology, and use various effective detection and alarm systems.
Fifth, comprehensively consider the interactive relationship between ancient buildings and the surrounding environment. The protection of cultural relics and historical sites should not only focus on the cultural relics themselves, but also fully consider the interaction between ancient buildings and the surrounding environment, especially ensuring safety.