Ingenious inheritance of "resurrection" ancient clocks and watches (new country tide)

　　In the melodious music, the umbrella cover slowly turned, and the unicorn carrying the dial shook its head left and right; the roller shutter on the middle square stage arch slowly rose, the ape walked out of the arch, and stretched out his hands to open the peach to offer his longevity, and two little ones on the left and right. The ape also moved his arms up and down to hold a peach shape, and the water column simulated by the silver chain at the four corners began to rotate, like a dragon spraying water... This is the copper gilded unicorn bell of the Palace Museum in Beijing, the ancient clock restorer of the Palace Museum Qi Haonan The video was posted on the Douyin platform and was praised by netizens.

　　Six years ago, the documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" brought watch restorers Wang Jin and Qi Haonan to the public eye.

Today, Master Wang Jin has retired and re-employed, and the "post-80s" apprentice Qi Haonan has inherited the baton. He has popularized the knowledge of clocks and clocks through short videos, and displayed various clocks and cultural relics, so that more people can see history and traditional culture.

　　Qi Haonan has now initiated the restoration of ancient clocks in the Forbidden City.

When graduating from an undergraduate degree in 2005, out of the mentality of "learning a craft", Qi Haonan applied for the examination and entered the cultural relic restoration department of the Forbidden City.

At that time, it was very unpopular to work in the Forbidden City, and even for a long time, there were only him and his master Wang Jin in the ancient clock restoration room of the Forbidden City.

Qi Haonan's undergraduate major is mechanical automation, and he doesn't know much about the restoration of ancient clocks.

　　In the first year of entering the Forbidden City, it is not allowed to touch cultural relics.

This year, Qi Haonan specialized in theoretical knowledge and laid down basic skills.

After Master Wang Jin gave the tips, Qi Haonan insisted on repeated practice: disassembling and assembling modern desk clocks and wall clocks to familiarize themselves with the mechanical system, and recruiting old-fashioned clocks from friends to practice... After passing the assessment, they will have the opportunity to contact under the leadership of Master in the second year. real artifacts.

From a simple timekeeping movement to a complex operating system, Qi Haonan can gradually complete the restoration of a clock independently.

　　Most of the Forbidden City clocks have performance functions, but the internal dynamic structures required by different performance functions are quite different.

Many of these precious palace clocks and watches are from abroad, and most of them are orphans or only a pair of surviving clocks, and there are no drawings to refer to.

Even an experienced restorer can at best make a preliminary judgment based on appearance, but "seeing is believing" as to how the real internal system works.

For restorers, how to disassemble the external structure of each ancient clock, restore the mechanical system, and reproduce the performance function is a new challenge.

"I will try to figure out the internal design structure of the clock, and sometimes after disassembling it, I find that the design of the ancients is more subtle than I thought." For Qi Haonan, the process of repairing the clock is like a dialogue with the ancients across time and space, which belongs to the craftsman. Companionship and sparring.

　　In 2019, Qi Haonan began to display watch cultural relics on Douyin to popularize watch knowledge, and now there are more than 800 videos.

The greatest charm of the restoration of ancient clocks is to restore the timekeeping and performance functions of "dead" clocks.

However, due to objective conditions and the protection of cultural relics, the restored clocks are often presented to the audience in a static form.

At this point, the advantages of short videos are obvious: in a few minutes of video, the performances of ancient bells such as water method, changing pairs, blessings from heaven officials, immortals offering longevity, and music performances can be presented.

Qi Haonan hopes that with the help of new media, more people, especially children in remote areas, have the opportunity to see how ancient clocks turn and appreciate the charm of court clocks.

Through the short video platform, Qi Haonan also met a group of new friends: some are watch collectors, and some are watch history researchers.

Everyone communicates and learns online to form a positive interaction.

　　The documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" brought fire to the restoration of cultural relics, which attracted more people's attention to the profession of ancient clock restorers, and attracted many young people to join.

Now, there are 7 members in the ancient clock restoration room of the Forbidden City.

Qi Haonan found that these young watch restorers have their own research expertise on the basis of mastering traditional restoration techniques, which has injected fresh vitality into the watch restoration skills.

　　In 2014, ancient clock repair skills were included in the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

As the inheritor, Qi Haonan deeply feels that he has a long way to go: "My most fundamental responsibility is to pass on the craftsmanship, so that this craftsmanship can be passed on to future generations." Today, the Palace Museum in Beijing and Chengde Mountain Resort, Summer Palace, Shenyang Palace Museum and many other museums A joint restoration room for ancient clocks and watches has been established to train more clock restoration talents for various institutions.

Qi Haonan hopes that in this way, a structure from point to line to surface can be established, so that ancient clocks can "live" in more places.

　　For a long time, there has been relatively little research on watches and clocks in China, and the information on the history of watches and clocks is relatively limited.

Many people do not know that China has the ability to manufacture watches and clocks independently in ancient times.

Qi Haonan hopes that through his own efforts, we can establish our own standards for the restoration of cultural relics and watches and enrich the history of Chinese watches and clocks.

　　Our reporter Huang Jingwei