Posted on: June 07, 2018 | 
| 中文
China Bookstore Publishing Group united with Yang Jiaxuan to publish this work
As stated in the Hong Kong film Echoes of the Rainbow, “In ever-changing life, time is the biggest thief.” Similarly, for tangible cultural heritage, time is the strongest competitor that can wipe out their original glamour, or even cause them to be ruined. Fortunately, there is a group of people racing against time, doing their utmost to sustain the vitality of these material cultures, so that the present-day and coming generations will still have the privilege of experiencing the wisdom of our ancestors, and the brilliance of Chinese civilization.
In November 2017, the re-engraving of Tang Dynasty Poems with Pictures was formally published and launched in the market. It was the first reproduction in 400 years, since the original show in Emperor Wanli’s time (1573-1620 AD) of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD).
Bounded in folding pages, the book was full of traditional and classic Chinese poems. Works of famous poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Zhang Ji, Yuan Zhen, Wang Changling, Gao Pian, etc., in Tang Dynasty (618-917) were presented side by side, with pictures of pavilions, terraces, towers, mountains, rivers, moon, and social gatherings, encompassing a vivid presentation of lives, temperaments and interests of ancient Chinese people.
The amazing work was a full-size reproduction of the original ones, made by wood-block engraving crafters in Yang's Village, Weifang city of Shangdong Province. According to Yu Huagang, general-manager of Zhongguo Shudian (China Book Store), after the engraving of the wooden piece, the skillful printers in Yang's adopted the best quality rice paper (Chinese art paper). Then, they hand-printed the books, bound them together and published them through Zhongguo Shudian Publisher. “The project started in 2012, and was completed in 2017; a whole five years later.”
Archaeologists have proven that the original Tang Poems with Pictures was edited by Hung Fengchi, a book dealer and collector of antiques in Ming Dynasty, and as a perfect combination of poems, calligraphies and traditional Chinese paintings, the book was first published in Emperor Wanglii’s period of Ming Dynasty.
Since Ming Dynasty, Yang's ancestors had grasped at the superb engraving and printing techniques, which have been passed down for several hundred years. The Wood-block Engraving Festival Paintings by Yang was enlisted in the Masterpieces of National Intangible Cultural Heritages in 2006. In 2012, the recreation of Tang Poems with Pictures was entrusted to Yang's craftsmen, and in 5 years, they experimented with 157 blocks for the drafts.
Yu Fetang, a master of folk handicrafts, with 40 years of experience in engraving wood-block paintings, used 18 craving knives. The smallest one was less than 1 mm in width and the biggest one was 2 cm. While using these to fulfill his task, he said that different knives were used for different lines, to vividly represent the essence of the classic.
Ma Zhiqiang, president of Yang's Festival Painting Academy, disclosed that there were less than 5 crafters who could accomplish the mission of reproduction of Tang Poems with Pictures across the country, and they were all over their 60s. “We want to make the best use of their time, when they are still capable of doing the stressful engraving, so more valuable pieces can be made.”
For the project designer, Peng Xinglin, the publication of Reproduction of Tang Poems with Pictures was just the beginning of his grand plan: a full representation of all ancient engraving pictures in ten years.
Recently, pictures of a three-floor building in Yuanmingyuan Park, made by using building blocks won extensive attention on the Internet. Mr. Wang, the team leader, introduced it as, “We're trying to resume the fading ancient architectures, with building blocks.” They had started with the sceneries in Yuanmingyuan Park in 2017. In half a year, they finished some buildings in Fountain Watching Section, Grand Fountain and Faraway Pond, with 660,000 odd blocks. The model sand box took up 4.47 square meters.
There were 3 major members in the team, and Mr. Wang was in charge of innovation, revision and examination. The main designer, who was in his 20s, focused on references, research and restoration while an assistant builder worked as material purchase.
“It took us more than 4 months to do the field investigation and references reading, and it cost hundreds of thousands of yuan for materials, all of them coming from funds raised by the studio.” Wang cited some detailed examples, “We used rulers to measure the ratios at the Park. For those places where we were not allowed to enter, we managed to find the starting and ending point, and measured the distance. In this way, we calculated the size of the model at a 1:50 ratio.” They also went to Zhuhai city and Hengdian Filming Resort, to get better references for their versions of representation of Yuanmingyuan Park scenes.
They also had the assistance of experts. Liu Yang, a member of China Yuanmingyuan Park Academy Professional Committee, had offered them quite a number of pictures and files, accelerating the speed of work.
In August 2017, Liu Yang came across the news in the microblog, that some people were making models of Yuanmingyuan Park scenes. Deeply attracted to the idea, he contacted Mr. Wang and his team. Liu said, "By that time they had already finished two thirds of their models, and I think their initiative was really amazing." After their communication, Liu decided to provide them with high resolution pictures on Yuanmingyuan Park for their reference.
With help of the high-quality scenic pictures, Wang and his team made several adjustments to details and partial improvement. Last October, Liu saw the solid model for the first time in the studio. Deeply impressed by the perfect representation of the famous spots in Yuanmingyuan Park, including the Grand Fountain, Fountain Watching Section, and Faraway Pond, Liu took photos of the model and published them in his microblog, yet again attracting wide attention in the netizens.
Wang said that the team was making a model of Haiyan Hall, and in the next phase, they will adopt new display techniques, such as light and sound effects, internal structure presentation, historical events play-back, etc. They hope that in the future they can exhibit the works in Yuanmingyuan Park, to tell more people about Chinese culture.
The documentary Masters in the Forbidden City helped make the people working in antiques restoration famous on the Internet. In the Tianyi Library and Museum of Ningbo City, Zhe Jiang Province of China, some ancient book restoration workers are doing their best to get rid of the worm damage, mildew, and wear and tear, and give new life to the ancient books.
Dong Jie, an ancient book restoration master is turning the severely damaged yellow pages on the desk with great care. This is one of the 150 pages of Taidongjian River Bao’s Family Archives (Volume One). Due to the degree of the damage, one piece of same size template paper was placed under the plastic film beneath the original book, for comparison and record. Dong is quite skillful and at ease with the cotton paper, which is as thin as a cicada’s wing. Before too long, a corner which needed enhancement was repaired perfectly.
Dong became a book tinker in May 1999, and he has taken part in the restoration of uncountable books in fifteen years. "You can't count the pieces you have finished for book restoration as you can in some other jobs, because sometimes it would take a whole day to recover only one page of a book,” Dong said.
The work not only required dab hands with years of practice but also the help of various simple tools, such as spray bottle, hairbrush, tweezers, awl, big needle, etc.
Xie Longlong, who majored in ancient book restoration and graduated from Jinling College of Science and Technology, has worked in the studio for four years since his graduation. In recent months, his focus was on the restoration of a book, “A Taidong Family Archives.” The book is in bad form and severely damaged. Besides the requirements for comprehensive quality of restoration staff, the work’s success depended on choosing the right papers and pastes. On the working desk of Xie Longlong, there was a light paste made of wheat starch, and blended with hands several times to reach a satisfactory thickness.
Firstly, he would take a thin slice of bamboo paper. Then he dipped an artist’s knife or his hand into the paste. Then he attached it to the back of the hole in the damaged page. Finally he wiped out the spare paste with a hairbrush, finishing the whole procedure skillfully. “The bamboo paper has only 2mm spare margin at most, and any tiny fault or ignorance can be detrimental to the storage of these old books.”
However, ancient book restoration doesn’t exclude the adoption of modern technology. There are various modern apparatus in the lab, including paper thickness meter, paper tension tester, paper acidity tester, constant temperature and humidity box, vacuum dryer, etc.
Xie held up the repaired page gently towards the light. The trace of repair could only be seen from the back, like the original one itself. “I have a strong sense of achievement and contentment every time I finish the restoration of an ancient book,” Xie said.
Wang Jinyu, Director of Restoration Department of Tianyige Library, explained, “Adoption of digital technology to apply reproducibility protection towards the ancient books stored in Tianyige, is an important direction for our present work. We hope that through our efforts, the present-day and coming generations will get to know the wisdom of our ancestors, and learn about the brilliance of Chinese civilization through the books we have restored.”
Translated by Wu Jinying
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