With frequent rainstorms, how to "support an umbrella" for ancient buildings
The roofs and walls of some traditional houses in the ancient city of Pingyao, Shanxi, collapsed due to heavy rain.
Photo by our reporter Li Yun/Guangming Picture
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The continuous autumn rain has made the ancient buildings in Shanxi that have been standing for thousands of years to withstand a huge test.
At 6:30 on October 5th, affected by heavy rainfall (precipitation of 120 mm from October 3rd to 5th), the internal wall of Pingyao City Wall No. 84 collapsed, which caused great social concern.
Pingyao is not the only "injured".
As of 19:00 on October 11, a total of 1,783 cultural relics in Shanxi have suffered roof leaks, wall cracks and collapses, and foundation collapses to varying degrees. 9 museum memorials (historical architecture museums) also have small areas of rain leakage.
Severe dangers mostly appear on low-level and unrated cultural relics
"Please rest assured, the Pingyao city wall is still there!" Shao Shuai, a technician from the Pingyao County Cultural Relics Institute, replied when asked by reporters.
As the most complete ancient city in the Han ethnic region of China, a national key cultural relics protection unit, and a world cultural heritage, the ancient city of Pingyao has undergone many repairs in its history.
There were 51 wall passages that collapsed and slipped down this time, of which 15 were collapsed by the rammed earth on the inner wall, the parapet of the inner wall and the top seawall were suspended, and the rammed earth on the lower part fell in 36 places.
Shao Shuai told reporters that Pingyao is working with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to formulate a repair plan. After the repair is completed, everyone can still see the original Pingyao ancient city wall.
At about 17:00 on October 7, the Xinjiang section of the lower Fen River encountered the largest flood peak in nearly 40 years, and nearly 20,000 people were urgently transferred.
On the second day, when Wang Jianhua, a staff member of the Xinjiang County Cultural Relics Protection Technology Center, came to the site to investigate, the Kuixing Building was destroyed by heavy rain.
"As national and provincial cultural relics protection units have taken certain preventive measures, most of the problems encountered this time were small-area roof leakage and surrounding slope protection rock landslides, which were relatively minor; low-level and unrated cultural relics had wall collapses. There are more serious dangers such as the dumping of beams and frames.” Regarding the damage to the cultural relics in Shanxi this time, Ren Yimin, the director of the Academy of Ancient Architecture and Painted Sculptures Conservation of Shanxi Province, said.
Among the 28,027 ancient buildings in Shanxi, the city and county-level cultural preservation units and the general immovable cultural relics that have not been approved and announced as cultural preservation units account for a large proportion.
Large quantity, high value, and wide distribution are the biggest challenges facing Shanxi's cultural relics protection.
The Kuixing Building destroyed in heavy rain is not in the list of county-level cultural relics protection units in Xinjiang County.
Zhang Peng, associate professor and deputy director of the Department of Architecture, Tongji University, pointed out that for cultural relics with low protection levels and historical buildings that are not included in the category of cultural relics, the input of the local government is far from meeting the protection needs.
Climate change brings new challenges to the protection of ancient buildings
"We touched little by little with our hands, and finally found the 1mm wide crack on the surface. Taking advantage of the clear weather, we should rush to repair it." Pujindu and Zhang Chaoyang, the person in charge of the ancient city site in Puzhou, said that the rain caused the ceiling of the exhibition hall. Rain leakage has adversely affected the protection of anchor piles.
Like these small problems, they report in the form of pictures and texts every day to prepare for repairs as soon as possible.
According to Tang Guohua, a professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of Guangzhou University and an expert on restoration of ancient buildings, the heavy rainfall is not only a test of the daily maintenance and repair of Shanxi's cultural relics and ancient buildings, but also a warning for China's traditional cultural preservation work.
Water disaster is one of the most common and most destructive disaster types faced by architectural heritage.
Zhang Peng pointed out that its damage mechanisms to ancient buildings include roof leakage caused by daily rainfall, damp walls, decay of wooden elements, damp walls and columns caused by surface water and groundwater, and indirect decay and panic. Alkali, weathering, and structural damage to ancient buildings caused by floods, mudslides, and foundation settlements caused by heavy rainfall.
"When this kind of damage is small, it will generally not bring danger to the building temporarily; but when the damage reaches a certain level, it may cause partial flashover, collapse, or even collapse as a whole. For ancient buildings in Shanxi, its regional construction Skills such as rammed earth walls and flat roofs of cave dwellings are adapted to long-term dry and low-rain conditions. In recent years, climate change, especially the increase in rainfall, has brought new challenges to the protection of ancient buildings." Zhang Peng pointed out.
Tang Guohua said that Shanxi has always had little rain, and the protection of cultural relics seldom considers rain protection.
The roofs of many ancient buildings are single-slope roofs. The roof tiles are only upside-down tiles and no tiling. Even with tiling, the density of shingles is not as large as in rainy areas, and it is difficult to withstand heavy rains.
The drainage system around the building is not wide or deep, and the drainage function is relatively weak, causing a large amount of rainwater to enter the building foundation and foundation, causing uneven settlement of the foundation, and even the load-bearing wall cracking, tilting and collapsing.
Therefore, in the restoration of cultural relics in the future, efforts should be made to strengthen emergency measures to deal with storms.
Transition from rescue protection to preventive protection
The safety of Shanxi's ancient buildings affects the hearts of the people across the country.
The topic #风雨中山西古建正被力量# rushed to the hot search on Weibo, and a series of caring comments were "screened" on the Internet.
Sichuan Museum, Chengdu Museum, Chengdu Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum, etc. have also spoken out, calling for "an umbrella for Shanxi."
The Henan Museum, which also experienced the torrential rains not long ago, stated, "Henan's Yu, you all have'Jin' and retired."
Huang Pengyu, a 2020 graduate student majoring in archaeology at the Yellow River Civilization and Sustainable Development Research Center of Henan University, noticed that many social forces were involved in the emergency repairs in the late stage of this heavy rain disaster.
In recent years, Shanxi has concentrated a large amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources into the protection of cultural relics. The annual investment in cultural relics protection in the province has increased from 10 million yuan in the earlier period to 170 million yuan.
However, contradictions such as the large inventory of cultural relics and insufficient human and financial resources still restrict the effectiveness of cultural relics protection.
In 2017, Shanxi launched the "Civilization Watch Project", intensively introduced a series of supporting policies, and actively mobilized social forces to participate in the protection and utilization of cultural relics.
After several years of exploration, a total of 238 cultural relics adoption projects in the province have attracted social funds of about 300 million yuan.
"This is a good attempt, but the effect is only a drop in the bucket." According to Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, the rainstorm not only gave Shanxi a "required question" for cultural protection work, but also reflected our country. The reality that the overall capability of disaster prevention and mitigation of ancient buildings needs to be improved.
Zheng Ning called for the establishment of a long-term mechanism for the protection of ancient buildings, "amend the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics, improve the ancient building protection system, and expand the law enforcement team for cultural relics protection; raise funds from multiple sources to encourage social capital to enter the field of ancient building protection. Public protection should also be strengthened. Awareness, let the whole people consciously participate in the protection of ancient buildings".
Zhang Peng said that in the face of sudden disasters, local cultural relics departments have limited strength and cannot complete rescue work alone.
“Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the daily inspection and maintenance of cultural relics at the institutional level, to discover and resolve risks as soon as possible. The attention to the safety of cultural relics should be extended from the cultural relics to the environment in which they are located."
"The restoration of ancient buildings should be transformed from rescue protection to preventive protection, so that minor illnesses can be treated early." Zhang Jianwei, deputy dean of the School of Archaeology, Culture and Museum of Peking University and director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, believes that the cost of preventive restoration is much lower than that of temporary rescue. "In many cases, prevention is not complicated. When it rains, an umbrella for an ancient building or a temporary shelter can be used as a temporary shelter."
"Whether the restoration can not change the original state of the cultural relics is also very important." Tang Guohua said that if the raw materials, original structure and original process are changed, even if the appearance is good after the restoration, it will bury potential safety hazards.
"Let’s think about it: Many of the ancient buildings in Shanxi have a history of more than 500 years. Over the past few hundred years, they have suffered heavy rainfall once in a hundred years. Why have they always stood upright? It is inseparable from the advantages and traditions of traditional materials and structures. The wisdom of craftsmanship."
(Reporter Yang Jue, Zhang Sheng and Li Jianbin)
(Project team: our reporter Zhang Sheng, Wang Simin, Yang Jue, Chang He, Ding Yan, Wang Shengxi, Li Jianbin, Li Yun our correspondent Wang Yue)