More than a brick in the wall
Baoyun Lou, or the Hall of Embodied Treasures, stands out among other parts of the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, which was the seat of power in imperial China.
Inside the complex of about 861,000 square yards in the heart of Beijing, the Western-style villa is prominent. It was constructed by the western gate of the Forbidden City as a warehouse for cultural relics in 1914.
On April 18, the International Day for Monuments and Sites, Baoyun Lou and five other conservation projects were given this year’s award for “outstanding monument restorations in China”.
The award, based on professional assessments and a public poll, is given by the Chinese committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites in Paris.
Recalling his experience of working on the Baoyun Lou project, Wu Wei, an engineer, says the project is a mix of archaeology, historical research and restoration.
“We used digital methods to record all the information held by the architectural components of the hall before we took any more steps.”
Wu’s team did research in the surrounding areas of Baoyun Lou, which was built on the foundation of an old palace. The palace was destroyed in a fire in 1912, but the front gate of the courtyard survives. The archaeological research found the gate dates to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
“This is different from what is recorded in files saying the original gate came up since the mid-Qing Dynasty (1644-1911),” Wu says. “We may have more discoveries.” Surprises keep popping up. For example, the tiles, which Wu describes as “beef tongues” because of their shape, were found to be imported from Germany after he went through records that indicate that a German architecture firm worked in the Forbidden City in 1914.
“We cannot find any similar counterparts of such tiles in China,” Wu says. “It’s a pity we can’t identify the specific workshop that made them.”
As a compromise, the team worked with a workshop in Tianjin to mimic the original material. New “beef tongues” were made to fix the broken ones.
“But we will make sure these newly added parts are recognisable from the original,” Wu says. “We have also left information about where they were produced on the tiles to help the future generations to renovate this place again.”
The Baoyun Lou project has also created a chance to revitalise disappearing traditional craftsmanship, he says. For example, some doors of this place were painted in a kind of dye made from ash found at the bottom of cooking pots, but the technique is almost lost today.
“Some restorers had suggested that it be replaced with asphalt, but we stuck to using the old formula. We found the right craftsman in Beijing. That saved the skill from dying.”
The Palace Museum began largescale renovations in 2002, and the plan is to complete most projects by 2020 to mark the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City.
However, before the Baoyun Lou project, many such projects suffered from a lack of detailed investigation, and the award for the project marked a mind-set change for restorers.
The renovation of Dagaoxuan Dian, a Ming-era royal Taoist temple under the administration of the Palace Museum, and Yangxin Dian (the Hall of Mental Cultivation), the residence of the last eight Qing emperors, followed the same disciplines — comprehensive archaeological research, records of historical information and laboratory analysis from the beginning.
“We’ve seen more renovation projects of heritage sites that make academic research a priority,” says Song Xinchao, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, who is also head of the Chinese committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites. “That is what will be widely promoted nationwide. Conservation of the sites cannot be simply treated as construction work. They should be seen as rigid studies. Plans need more evaluation before action is taken.”
Over the past few decades, a common practice in renovating historical sites in China has been to give structures a new look, but the winners of the recent award indicate a shifting trend.
“The relics may look as good as ‘newborn’ after renovation,” Du Qiming, an ancient architecture expert and deputy director of Henan Museum, says. “But historical information present in the architecture is also erased through such methods.”
He compares the scenario to ancient Chinese paintings.
“Inscriptions left by collectors throughout history are as important as the paintings per se because they show how the art piece got circulated,” Du says.
“It is also suitable for old architecture. The broken parts with abundant information should be kept. They are part of history.”