Hidden in the deep mountains of Lishui, Zhejiang, the ancient county town of Songyang has four scattered ancient villages, mottled old houses, old streets and traditional customs. Time seems to stand still, and tourists walk through history.

　　However, this "last secret realm in the south of the Yangtze River" once faced the embarrassing situation of old dwellings turning into dilapidated houses, and once these old houses become ruins, no matter how beautiful the humanistic scenery is, it will lose its popularity and aura.

The rescue operation of old houses in Songyang, which was piloted first in the country, has brought the old villages back to life. More importantly, veteran craftsmen have returned to their hometowns one after another, leaving a team of craftsmen traveling among the ancient buildings in these villages.

　　"Big carpenter" saves 160 old houses in six years

　　"It is more difficult to repair an ancient building than to build a new one. There are too many hidden structures in it." Ye Yanjie, 26, took over the craftsmanship of his father Ye Changxian after he retired from the army. Questions will be asked from time to time to "Master".

　　His father, Ye Changxian, is 57 years old this year. He studied with a teacher at the age of 16. He has decades of experience in repairing ancient buildings. Since 2016, he has repaired more than 160 local ancient buildings and old houses. He is a highly respected "big carpenter".

The big carpenter is different from the woodworking in modern decoration. Because the local buildings in Songyang are mostly wooden structures, the big carpenter is a real master who was inseparable from the local people in building houses in the early days. The craftsmanship can determine the quality of the whole building.

　　In Ye Yanjie's memory, his father was not very popular in his early years in this line of business.

Before he was born, his father had to change his career and find another way out. It was not until 2008 that he picked up this craft again and started repairing various ancient buildings including old houses.

　　In the first days of learning craftsmanship, Ye Yanjie actually didn't take his father's old woodworking work seriously. He even thought, "Just fix it with iron nails." However, this idea was severely criticized by his father, "You don't understand this. Now, you can't use iron nails to repair cultural relics."

　　In the process of participating in the operation to save the old house, Ye Yanjie and the team in charge of his father obtained repair qualifications. Now there are 38 craftsmen in the father and son team, with an average age of over 50 years old. Young people like Ye Yanjie are very rare. There are too few peers in this craft, and it is more difficult to work in this industry, and it takes two and a half to three years of apprenticeships to become a teacher.”

　　Trek dozens of kilometers to find old tiles

　　Among the old houses that Ye Yanjie participated in repairing, there is an old house in Yuyan Village with 19 families and more than 100 permanent residents.

It took seven months for the team of craftsmen to repair the house alone. "Need to communicate with each villager to understand their needs."

　　Ancient buildings usually do not have design drawings, and various renovations for hundreds of years often make old houses unrecognizable, leaving only the main structure.

In 2021, when Ye Yanjie was repairing an ancestral hall in Qicun, he found some unidentifiable traces.

In order to find out the specific structure, after communicating with the elderly in the village many times, I learned that there used to be a pair of symmetrical cranes in the ancestral hall, and now there are only a few traces left on one side. .

　　Most of the old houses are locally sourced from the villagers.

In Songyang, most of the buildings are made of fir wood. In order to ensure that the original state of the cultural relics is not changed, the craftsmen have strict requirements for repairs, ranging from the size of a window frame and roof tiles to the overall style.

Sometimes in order to find suitable old tiles, the father and son would go to villages dozens of kilometers away to find them for several days or even half a month.

　　After Songyang's operation to save the old house, "it can be repaired but not replaced" has become the consensus of local craftsmen, and it is also a principle that is strictly adhered to.

　　In the Ye's Ancestral Hall in Dalingjiao Village, Yuyan Town, there is a beam with a diameter of 75 centimeters.

The craftsman Wu Bingsong was in trouble and suggested to replace it directly, and the villagers also proposed a new one.

However, the "Old House Office" required "guaranteeing the safety of the structure and preserving the value of cultural relics", forcing Wu Bingsong to study the technology of splicing and splicing, and finally completed this seemingly impossible task.

Wu Bingsong said that even the clansmen couldn't tell that the beam was repaired.

　　Artisan repatriation keeps technology local

　　Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, Songyang has always been a place for construction craftsmen. In recent years, local factions and skills have been lost.

In the operation to save the old house, these old craftsmen have a wave of returning home.

During this period, Songyang County has cultivated more than 2,000 traditional craftsmen and more than 30 teams. There are more than 1,000 "Songyang Craftsmen" who have participated in the project.

　　In Sandu Township, there are a group of traditional craftsmen called "Sandu Gang", the typical representative is Zeng Ronghua's team.

Craftsman Zeng Xinliang is a master carpenter in Sandu Township with more than 30 years of experience. After his hometown began to save the old house, he brought his son back. In more than a year, he took over five old house projects, and the original team also increased to 20 people.

　　Huang Guiqiang, director of the Fifth Heritage Office of Zhejiang Ancient Architecture Design and Research Institute, said, "The project of saving old houses has not only repaired the houses of ordinary people, but also cultivated local craftsmen." In 2021, Songyang County also recommended Ye Changxian to Songyang Vocational Technology The school serves as a teacher and teaches the craftsmanship of repairing ancient buildings. Now Ye Changxian goes to the school once a week to teach more than 40 students.

　　In Songyang, Ye Yanjie and his father's craftsmanship are already well-known.

Recently, they are repairing the old house of a big family in local history. The wood carvings on the house are intricate and exquisite, with a sense of age.

　　"Instead of making money, we craftsmen are more concerned about our reputation." Ye Yanjie said that craftsmen sometimes "leave marks" on buildings. The craftsmen will mark when the pillars were made and when they were assembled. Naming, and this kind of "naming", makes repairing old houses no longer just a job for craftsmen. "As if participating in a history, the traces of our work will continue with these old houses. down".

　　Written by B06-B07/Beijing News reporter Geng Ziye