Zhang Tiankan
On the evening of August 6, the Wan'an Bridge in Pingnan County, Ningde City, Fujian Province, a national key cultural relics protection unit, caught fire. Almost all the bridge body was burned down, and no casualties were reported.
The relevant departments of Pingnan County said that the next step will be to evaluate the fire situation and make every effort to do follow-up work such as repairs.
(For related reports, see version A5)
Wan'an Bridge was built in the fifth year of Yuanyou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1090 AD) and has a history of more than 900 years. It is regarded as "the longest wooden arch bridge in China".
Because of its preciousness and uniqueness, in 2009, the "traditional construction techniques of Chinese wooden arch bridges" were included in the "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Protection" by UNESCO.
It is distressing that the Wan'an Bridge was burned down, and it once again raised the question of how to protect the buildings and cultural relics with unique Chinese engineering technology characteristics and wisdom, such as wooden arch bridges and wooden buildings.
For the protection of ancient buildings, the state has long established regulations. On February 28, 1984, the "Rules for Fire Control of Ancient Buildings" issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Public Security made specific and clear regulations, including fire prevention and fire fighting, because wooden buildings Besides being easily damaged, the biggest enemy is fire.
The regulations require that all management and use units of ancient buildings must strictly manage all fire sources, power sources and various flammable and explosive materials.
The specific cause of the fire is under investigation, and whether there are violations of relevant regulations still needs to be investigated by relevant departments.
The "Rules for Fire Control of Ancient Buildings" also has specific provisions for fire fighting, requiring that ancient building protection areas must be equipped with a considerable amount of fire fighting water.
However, the firefighting video circulating in the media shows that there are no fire hoses on Wan'an Bridge, and fire extinguishers are scarce. The people involved in the firefighting are drawing water from buckets to put out the fire, which cannot stop the raging fire at all. burn.
The Wan'an Bridge accident investigation will not only provide experience and lessons for the Wan'an Bridge that may be rebuilt after the protection, but also provide experience for other cultural relics protection.
This also involves another kind of protection. In theory, it is necessary to emphasize the safety of the ancient buildings, but whether they can be repaired in case of accidental burning or damage.
Now it is estimated that Wan'an Bridge can be repaired, and it has been repaired many times in history.
In the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was burned in the forty-seventh year of Kangxi, and rebuilt in the seventh year of Qianlong (1742).
In the 25th year of Qing Daoguang (1845), it was rebuilt as a 34-bay 136-column bridge house.
It was burnt down again at the beginning of the Republic of China and rebuilt again in the 21st year of the Republic of China (1932).
In 1952, the northwest end of Wan'an Bridge was swept away by the flood and destroyed 12 bays. In 1954, the local government funded the reconstruction.
In December 2014, Wan'an Bridge underwent extensive renovations.
Therefore, it is very important to inherit the technology of repairing bridges, which is the second dimension of the protection of wooden arch bridges.
The key is to give special protection to professionals and technology, and to let this technology pass on.
Wooden arch bridges are a unique category in the history of bridges in the world, and their construction techniques are called "living fossils" of Chinese bridge construction technology, representing the highest technical level of ancient Chinese wooden bridges.
However, due to social changes, wooden arch bridges are no longer the mainstream bridges now, so more and more traditional arch bridge craftsmen have given up their old jobs, not only ordinary craftsmen and technicians are hard to find, let alone skilled craftsmen. It is also a top priority to remind technicians and craftsmen of protecting wooden arch bridges and other tenon-and-mortise structures.
There is also culture and cultural heritage built on the wooden arch bridge.
The covered houses on covered bridges all over the country are generally equipped with stages, stools, beds, stalls, etc. They are important places for villagers to drink tea, enjoy the cool air, watch operas, gather, rest, watch, trade and other important activities.
Many opera performances on covered bridges are local, and they can also be passed down through the space and stage of covered bridges, which can also be called covered bridge operas.
If there is no covered bridge, there will be no unique local cultural carrier, and the covered bridge opera may die out.
This is also an element that needs to be considered in the protection of covered bridges.
The preservation of the wooden arch bridge requires a multi-faceted plan, otherwise, this unique building may wither or die, and the technology and culture connected to it will also shrink and disappear.