Chinanews client, Beijing, January 13th (Reporter Shangguanyun) Recently, a documentary film "I was in the Forbidden City for 600 years", which was broadcast on New Year's Eve, attracted many audiences.

Poster for the documentary "I was in the Forbidden City for six hundred years".

Picture courtesy

　　It is known as the sister chapter of "I repaired cultural relics in the Forbidden City", focusing on the story of the planning, change, repair and protection of the Forbidden City. It travels through 600 years of time to exhibit and nourish the heart with "Dan Chen forever". The palace overhaul project and the annual repair and maintenance are clues. Through the work perspective of the ancient construction department of the Palace Museum, the Engineering Management Office and other departments, an interesting Forbidden City is displayed in front of people.

Brick by brick, telling the story of the Forbidden City

　　The first episode of the documentary mentioned the exhibition "Dan Chen Yonggu-Six Hundred Years of the Forbidden City" held in the Wumen Exhibition Hall, and used it to talk about the protection of ancient buildings.

　　The Ancient Construction Department of the Palace Museum was established in December 1958 to be responsible for the research and protection of ancient buildings.

In the "Dan Chen Yong Gu" exhibition, the palace building itself also became an exhibit.

Therefore, the curatorial task has become an important task of the Ministry of Ancient Architecture.

　　From the perspective of ancient buildings, the secrets of "Danchen's immortality" include solid foundations, strong traditional wooden buildings, and wind and rain-proof tiles, etc., and bricks and tiles are actually telling the story of the Forbidden City. story.

　　For example, there is a set of ceramic tiles, which are a set of building materials left over from the Lingzhao Xuan that year, and come from far away Germany.

Lingzhao Xuan is located in Yanxi Palace, with a rare Western architectural style.

But it was not built until the Qing Dynasty fell.

　　But now, the ceramic tiles repaired by the staff can lie quietly in the corner of the exhibition hall, silently telling the history of the construction of the Forbidden City.

Image source: video screenshot

　　From a technical point of view, the reason why Dan Chen is immortal is also related to "inheritance."

It is specifically mentioned in the film that the big exhibition is just around the corner, and Xia Rongxiang was invited to guide the design of the exhibits. As the third-generation carpenter of the Forbidden City, he participated in the renovation of two turrets.

　　After retiring, Xia Rongxiang has been focusing on teaching craftsmanship courses to young people in the Forbidden City.

In this way, the ancient skills continue with the efforts of generations of young people.

Discover the secret of Yangxin Temple

　　In Qing palace dramas, the Hall of Nourishment appears quite frequently.

At the end of 2015, the Palace Museum opened the first overhaul of the Hall of Yangxin in more than a hundred years, turning this “net celebrity” palace into a star project for research renovation projects.

　　It is mentioned in the film that the Engineering Management Office is a management department specially established by the Palace Museum for the restoration and research of ancient buildings.

More than a year after the start of construction, technicians from the Engineering Management Office inspected more than 100,000 tiles in the Temple of Yangxin, rubbed and recorded more than 10,000 of them with inscriptions.

This information provides a unique window for people to understand the past and present lives of the Temple of Yangxin.

　　During the overhaul of the Hall of Nourishment, people also made unexpected discoveries.

　　For example, the apse is the emperor's bedroom.

As the repairs progressed, the workers found that the wooden structure of the apse roll shed-style hard top was greatly simplified compared with the conventional French method, and it did not meet the engineering standards of the time.

　　And this, I am afraid that even the emperor did not know.

Image source: video screenshot

　　The Engineering Management Office also pays attention to the camp experience accumulated by the senior craftsmen. Since the start of the repair project of the Temple of Yangxin, the old craftsmen are often invited back for guidance.

The Engineering Management Office recorded these processes with images, leaving valuable information for generations of repairers in the Forbidden City.

　　Perhaps it can be said that behind the overhaul of the Hall of Nourishment is the painstaking effort of generations of the Palace Museum.

The daily routine of "year-old repair and maintenance"

　　Compared with the exhibition and the overhaul of the Hall of Nourishment, "year-old repair and maintenance" has been a daily operation since the completion of the Forbidden City: no matter the brick, tile, wood, or stone, people will repair and replace it in time.

Generations of craftsmen have become apprentices, and gradually become skilled in this process.

　　They need to do a lot of very trivial work, and the test is also patience and carefulness: cutting bricks and preparing materials is a good opportunity to hone their crafts; digging and repairing floor tiles is a common skill in tile making.

　　For example, there is a detail mentioned in the film, "The final plastering course for the exposed wall was completed under the guidance of Li Zenglin, the national inheritor of the Repair Skills Department." Master Li rolled up his sleeves and personally demonstrated the plastering technique.

After he finished work, the palace wall was as smooth as new.

　　As the time sequence alternates, the age of the Forbidden City is gradually increasing, but the palace walls, green tiles... have been shining so far, relying on the continuous "year-old repair and maintenance" of the Forbidden City craftsmen for hundreds of years.

Image source: video screenshot

Behind the building, the years are hidden

　　From a popular exhibition to the end of the most daily maintenance of the Forbidden City, this film "I was in the Forbidden City for 600 Years", jointly produced by China Central Radio and Television and the Palace Museum, has received a score of 9.2 on Douban.

　　Some people say that this documentary continues the warm, daily and interesting details of "I repaired cultural relics in the Forbidden City", and has more meaning for special nodes. Others say that after watching "I was in the Forbidden City for six hundred years", I want to be a craftsman in my next life.

　　Its content production is completed by the creation team of the Central Radio and Television Central Station's Film and Television Documentary Center and Qingying Studio of Tsinghua University.

Liang Junjian, one of the directors of the film, explained the title as follows: First, 600-year-old ancient buildings, second, generations of people who maintain, repair, and study ancient buildings, and thirdly, 600-year history and culture carried by ancient buildings.

　　"When shooting, we hope to put these knowledge and skills in people's daily life. So many times, the real working conditions of the people on the scene are used to show how skills are passed on through people." He explained, "We always feel that people It is the most alive. Using human life to pass on skills and continue history is one of the meanings of this film."

　　As the film tells, "In the Forbidden City, what we see are buildings; behind the buildings, the years are hidden. Six hundred years of construction and annual repairs, history has accumulated into cascading buildings, and the stories of each generation are kept. To today and the future." (End)