Why was the 800-year-old Song Jin Ancient Temple just discovered?
Reporter/Ni Wei
Published in China News Weekly, Issue 1027 on January 3, 2022
A high school geography teacher, following the clues of clues, found a northern Song Dynasty and Jin Dynasty ancient temple hidden in the village. The matter was quickly reported to the local government and experts on the ancient construction of Peking University, and the appraisal, surveying and mapping were immediately launched, and the repair and protection were also about to be put on the agenda. What makes people wonder is that such a conspicuous ancient building has been registered in the cultural relics survey more than ten years ago, but why the real age and identity have only been discovered so far?
Named Yuanrong Temple, the temple is located in Zhongcun, Shennong Town, Gaoping City, under the jurisdiction of Jincheng City, Shanxi Province, and is over 800 years old, at least 200 years before the Forbidden City. According to expert appraisals, Yuanrong Temple should be built in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, and large-scale reconstruction in the middle and late Jin Dynasty.
In China, the Jin Dynasty and the pre-Jin Dynasty wooden structures were built, and there are only more than 200 existing ones in the country. Xu Yitao, an expert on ancient construction at Peking University who went to identify the Yuanrong Temple, said that the "invisible" Song Jin building found one less, and "there is always a definite number." Local cultural relics departments have been understaffed for a long time, and non-governmental people with certain professional knowledge have become a force for the discovery and protection of cultural relics.
In this discovery, relying on the small network of private relationships formed by the private, official, and academic circles, information is rapidly transmitted and advanced in it. This is a unique phenomenon formed in southeastern Jin, a place rich in ancient buildings.
(The corner paving exposed by the roof of Yuanrong Temple is a sign of the Song Jin Xie Mountain style roof, which was changed to a hanging mountain style during the Ming and Qing dynasties.) Photography / Li Qiang)
An ancient temple that has been misidentified
"Which dynasty doesn't know, it knows very early." Villagers over 60 years old remember that the gables and back walls of the apse of Yuanrong Temple were once full of murals of Buddha statues, and they often came to play when they were young. "Now it's buried in the mound."
Some temples in the village still have incense sticks, but Yuanrong Temple has no such luck. After 1949, pigs were raised in the apse of Yuanrong Temple, and the gate hall was used as a warehouse. Locals say that if it were not for the warehouse, the gate hall would have long ceased to exist, and the abandonment would have accelerated the collapse. The brick walls built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, although detrimental to the ancient charm, also played a role in reinforcing.
Zhang Jianjun, a geography teacher at a high school in Zezhou, Jincheng City, recently came across the information about this ancient temple by chance. On September 13, 2021, during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, he and his friends drove to Nakamura and found the long-abandoned Yuanrong Temple in the middle of a field of houses. Millstones were parked in front of the door, tiles were piled up in the corners of the walls, the roof was overgrown with weeds, and gas pipes crossed the eaves. The door was locked, and they climbed through the window of the temple to enter the temple.
At a glance, he recognized the Jin Dynasty style in the beams and arches of the gate hall, and if he looked closely, some of the components still had clear Song Dynasty characteristics. He recorded the surprise of that moment in the circle of friends: "The mysterious and magical Jindongnan, today can still find almost unknown Song Jin architecture!" On the same day, he sent the picture to Li Lin, the deputy mayor in charge of cultural relics work in Gaoping City, who had known each other for many years and had been searching for monuments together more than a decade ago. Li Lin turned around and told the news to Xu Yitao, professor at peking university's School of Archaeology and Literature and director of the Department of Cultural Relics and Architecture.
On the occasion of the National Day holiday, Xu Yitao and four colleagues and students drove straight to Jincheng, all of whom were members of the research group of the National Social Science Foundation's major project "Research on the Chronicle of Architectural Historical Materials of the Two Song Dynasties". From October 2 to 3, 2021, they set up ladders and flew drones, and comprehensively carried out historical data collection, shape records, three-dimensional scanning, wood sample collection, aerial photography, interviews and other work. The day after leaving, heavy rain that had occurred once in decades fell from the northwest of Shanxi to the southeasternmost city of Jincheng, but fortunately did not endanger the Yuanrong Temple.
Yuanrong Temple is not left out of the cultural relics household register. On the gable of the gate hall, there is an iron plaque with the words "Immovable Cultural Relics of Gaoping City", but the name on the sign is "Nakamura Spring and Autumn Building". In the 2011 "Three Pu" results "Jincheng Cultural Relics Overview", it is recorded that this "Nakamura Spring and Autumn Building" refers to the Dongduo Hall in the Yuanrong Temple, which is in the Style of the Qing Dynasty. The more ancient gate hall was ignored by the census takers.
The Yuanrong Temple in the Song and Jin Dynasties, referred to by the Spring and Autumn Tower of the Qing Dynasty, has been shortened by more than 500 years, and has not been rated as a cultural protection unit so far.
From 2007 to 2011, China conducted the third national census of immovable cultural relics. Li Lin, vice mayor of Gaoping City in charge of cultural relics work, told China News Weekly that census enumerators had come to Yuanrong Temple at that time, but no one knew the name, so it was registered under the name of the "Spring and Autumn Building", a side hall rebuilt in the Qing Dynasty. Xu Yitao speculated that because the gate hall was wrapped with brick walls during the Ming and Qing dynasties, it did not look as "ancient" as the Spring and Autumn Tower, so it was skipped. For whatever reason, since it has not been rated as a cultural protection unit, Yuanrong Temple has not received special attention for more than a decade. During this period, the roof of the Spring and Autumn Building quietly collapsed.
The first to notice the collapse of the Spring and Autumn Tower was villager Meng Hongsheng, whose home has been close to the west side of the Yuanrong Temple for more than 30 years. When his family built a new house in 1999, the apse was still standing, and out of reverence for the ancient temple, the new house did not dare to exceed the apse. His memories of the times are very vague, vaguely remembering that the apse collapsed more than ten years ago, and the roof of the Spring and Autumn Building collapsed in the past two or three years. As the nearest neighbor, the key to the main entrance of Yuanrong Temple was entrusted by the village committee to keep it in his hands.
(Villager Meng Hongsheng hid the roof snouts of the apse of Yuanrong Temple in a hole in the wall for more than a decade.) Photo / Reporter Ni Wei)
In the 1990s, Meng Hongsheng's father opened a mill in the gate hall and put it into a machine to process grain, which has not been used for at least a decade in recent years. As he spoke, he remembered something, turned to a hole in the wall, and moved the bricks from the opening of the cave down one by one, revealing a basketball-sized glass snout (a sacred beast ornament at both ends of the roof ridge). More than a decade ago, he picked it up in the rubble of the apse, afraid of being taken away, and hid it in a hole in the wall. "I don't know if it's useful?" He asked the visitor.
The Yuanrong Temple is buried and is closely related to the area in which it is located. Shanxi is the province with the most densely preserved ancient buildings in China, southeast of Jindong is the most densely populated area of ancient construction in Shanxi, and Gaoping is the county-level city with the most dense ancient construction in Jincheng. The density of ancient buildings in Gaoping City is rare in the country, and there are currently 1574 immovable cultural relics registered, an average of 1.7 per square kilometer. The ancient wooden buildings of the Song and Jin dynasties in Gaoping City exceed the sum of the contemporaneous buildings south of the Yangtze River.
The census of cultural relics in this city is therefore particularly difficult. More than a decade ago, when the "three censuses" survey was conducted, according to Li Lin's words, sometimes there were no cars, and the enumerators walked around the village to ask questions. "At that time, there was a shortage of professionals in the cultural relics department, many people did not know the ancient building, and many of the census takers were veterans." Li Lin said, "It is already very good that Yuanrong Temple can be registered in the 'Three Pus' list. He also said that sometimes census takers "did not dare to write" when they saw early buildings, because the cultural protection strength was lacking at that time, and being known to be precious would attract thieves of wooden components.
The staff of the village committee said that the cultural relics grid members would conduct daily inspections of the Yuanrong Temple. The village is equipped with cultural relics conservators and cultural relics grid members, of which the conservators are mainly responsible for the national security unit, and the grid members are responsible for other cultural relics, including the Yuanrong Temple. The annual subsidy for cultural relics grid members is 3600 yuan, which is borne by the jincheng and Gaoping governments at 30% and 70% respectively.
Repairs should be slow and not urgent
On December 14, 2021, Zhang Jianjun entered the gate hall of Yuanrong Temple for the second time and kept photographing the details of the wooden components with his camera. "You look at this bucket, bent out a little bit below, like the cross-section of a railway track, which is typical of the Song Dynasty. Look at this again, the curvature is relatively small, straight, is the Jin Dynasty. ”
The existing form of The Yuanrong Temple is a courtyard. The first thing you see after entering the door is the gate hall, which is basically intact. Opposite the courtyard across the gate hall is the apse, which is also the largest main hall, which has collapsed. There is a duo hall on the east and west sides of the apse, both of which have partially collapsed, and the Middle East Duo Hall is the Spring and Autumn Tower, which was expanded during the Qianlong Qing Dynasty. Between the Duo Hall and the Gate Hall, there is a connection between the East and West Side Halls, the East Side Hall is still there, and the West Side Hall no longer exists.
His analysis is very accurate, and the doudou is also one of the most important evidences of Xu Yitao's generation. Of the eight doudou in the gate hall, six are in the middle and late Song Dynasty, and two are in the Jin Dynasty, indicating that two were replaced during the reconstruction of the Jin Dynasty. In addition, the two main beams of the scientific name four rafters were cut into a square shape, which was also a common practice in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the shape of the log was basically maintained after the Jin Dynasty.
These subtleties are codes for ancient architecture. The Peking University team judged that the gate hall of Yuanrong Temple should have been built in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, and large-scale reconstruction was carried out in the middle and late Jin Dynasty, and the arch under the eaves was all replaced, but part of the Song Dynasty structure was retained. When the Ming and Qing dynasties were rebuilt, the roof tiles were completely replaced, and the roof form was changed from the complicated mountain type to the relatively simple hanging mountain style. Xu Yitao told China News Weekly that the evidence of the ancient construction of the broken era is the use of cross-verification of form, scale, literature, materials and carbon fourteen dating. After returning from Gaoping in October 2021, the results of the laboratory tree species testing have been produced, and the materials used in Yuanrong Temple include elm, pine, poplar, etc., and the tree species detection and shape dating also corroborate each other.
The three stone tablets preserved in the Yuanrong Temple also provide clues to explore his origins. The three stone tablets are clearly engraved with the name of Yuanrong Temple, but they were omitted by the census takers during the "Three Pus". One of the stone tablets erected in 1911 mentions that the "Third Year of The Central Unification (1262)" has been recorded in the Yuanrong Temple. "Zhongtong" was the era name of the Great Mongol State before the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty.
Xu Yitao believes that it is not surprising that the previous missed judgment or misjudgment of the Yuanrong Temple, the error of cultural relics is common throughout the country, and even the national security has many examples of wrong judgment and correction.
"In the future, we must apply for state security, no matter whether it is five or ten years, we must definitely declare it." Standing in the Yuanrong Monastery, Li Lin, vice mayor of Gaoping City, said, "But it is not that the national security is not important, but in our Shennong Town and Zhongcun Village, it is when the national security is treated!" ”
In November 2021, after the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics came to inspect and survey, the protection of Yuanrong Temple was immediately put on the agenda, but it is still time to start repairing. Rushing to start construction is not in line with the regulations, but also encounters many problems. For example, whether the roof is maintained on the top of the hanging mountain rebuilt in the Ming and Qing dynasties, or the restoration of the peak of the Song and Jin dynasties, such questions are still in doubt. There are no eaves on either side of the hanging peak, and the eaves on the top of the hill are protruding on all sides like an umbrella cover, and the specifications are higher.
"The greatest logic of building an ancient building is to preserve its historical value." Xu Yitao said, for example, the Yuanrong Temple, the main body was rebuilt in the Jin Dynasty, but there is a Northern Song Dynasty legacy, "If all of them are repaired according to the Jin Dynasty, won't the value be repaired?" ”
He has seen too many "destructive restorations" of cultural relics with a new appearance, but in fact, they are completely different. "For example, the bricks on the ground are 30% damaged, and according to the concept of protecting cultural relics, it is necessary to study piece by piece, which must be replaced and which can be partially repaired." But where the engineering team had this time, they all shoveled and laid new bricks, guaranteed the construction period, and earned material money. For yuanrong temple, he hopes to become a case of research repair, which should be slow and not urgent. Li Lin is well versed in the temperament of cultural relics. For the lower-grade cultural relics below the national security and provincial security, his attitude is that first of all, it is guaranteed that it will not collapse, and the more serious diseases can first "hold up the umbrella", "rather not move, do not do it blindly.".
The Chongshou Temple of the Northern Song Dynasty was "repaired" by the people, which still makes Zhang Jianjun grumble. In the 1990s, people were allowed to carry out normal religious activities at religious sites, and Chongshou Temple, which had been dormant for a long time, became lively again. Somehow a group of people came from nowhere to start building the temple, and they hated that the gray green tiles were not in the grade, and replaced them with glazed tiles. Liang Fang painted brightly colored paintings, and the old paintings left over from the Ming and Qing dynasties were all erased, and there has been no trace since then.
Masters in the folk
In fact, the temple that was "repaired" was Zhang Jianjun's home.
Zhang Jianjun's WeChat name is "Chongshou Temple", which is a famous ancient temple in Zezhou County, Jincheng, which brings together the Tang Dynasty Scriptures, the Song Dynasty Hall and the Northern Wei Statue Monument. In the history of architecture, the main hall of Chongshou Temple is a nodal witness to the transformation of southeast Jindong architecture from local practices to the official practice of "Building French Style". In 1975, Zhang Jianjun was born in the temple. Before liberation, Grandpa took his family to live in the Chongshou Temple box room and became a temple watcher, and the Zhang family completely moved out after 2008. During the Cultural Revolution, someone ran in to demolish the temple, and if his grandfather hadn't confronted them with stones, the temple would have been demolished.
On May Day 2004, Zhang Jianjun was playing mahjong at home, and two ancient construction enthusiasts came to Chongshou Temple from East China to investigate, and he pushed the mahjong to explain. Later, he became a long-term guide for the two, following them to the countryside every year. "At that time, I was really stimulated," he said, "and people from other places came to see the ancient buildings in Shanxi from afar, and we locals didn't know it, and we felt ashamed." He decided to make the search for monuments a serious matter.
(On December 14, 2021, Zhang Jianjun, the discoverer of Yuanrong Temple, introduced the characteristics of the temple's internal components.) Photo / Reporter Ni Wei)
He spent more than two months of salary to buy a Canon card machine, take pictures of Gu Jian, nibble on professional books with a hard scalp, and record architectural terms one by one against physical objects. His search focused on the southeastern Jin Dynasty, that is, the cities of Jincheng and Changzhi.
Now, he is already a member of the "Sifei" group, a well-known cultural relics and monuments enthusiast group in China, and Liang Song, who discovered yuanrong temple with him this time, is also one of the core members.
Xu Yitao, professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Archaeology and director of the Department of Cultural Relics and Architecture, said that the government and full-time manpower are not enough, and some people are not professional, highlighting the importance of non-governmental forces that have both enthusiasm and certain professional knowledge. "Some people do not have utilitarian appeals, but also the spirit of research, do some records and post them on the Internet, is not equivalent to a database." He did not hesitate to appreciate, "This is also helpful for our investigation and research, and sometimes we also look at their materials." ”
These non-governmental people have gradually grown into a force in the protection of cultural relics in Shanxi, and have already made several commendable achievements.
A group of local cultural relics enthusiasts set up a WeChat group called "Shangdang Construction Society", which is the ancient name of the qin dynasty and the southeast of Jin. In 2017, a group friend Zhang Bo threw a piece of news into the group, saying that Gaoping Beishi Town was undergoing street renovation, where there was a Yuan Dynasty residential gatehouse that might not be able to be saved. Zhang Jianjun and the members of the "Sifei" group immediately sent an appeal to the circle of friends, and that night, the matter was concerned by the cultural relics department at the higher level. The next day, he rushed over to see and found that the gatehouse was safe and sound, and the neighborhood was cleaned up. For the first time, he felt that a group of small people could also attract official attention.
After the end of the national "Three Censuses", he found a jincheng "Three Pus" catalogue and occasionally looked through it, and found several errors in the generation. After his reflection, several of them were later rated as provincial insurance. "The 'Three Censuses' have only laid a foundation, and they must be gradually revised and perfected." Li Lin said, "At this time, the civilian forces such as Teacher Zhang Jianjun are very cattle. ”
Also in 2017, Zhang Bo told Zhang Jianjun that he also knew about an early building called Yuanrong Temple, but forgot which village it was in. This name was in Zhang Jianjun's mind from this moment on. It wasn't until this year, when he saw someone post a photo of the Yuanrong Temple on the Internet, mentioning the specific location, that he finally found it.
Zhang Bo is a native of Gaoping and works in environmental protection in Taiyuan. He was also a cultural relics lover since he was a child. In 2012, the year after the end of the "Three Censuses" survey led by the cultural relics department, the Gaoping Municipal Housing and Construction Bureau organized a census of ancient buildings with the purpose of finding out the bottom of ancient people's homes. Zhang Bo, who took the initiative to participate in the investigation as a volunteer at the end of the examination, recognized the characteristics of the beam frame structure of the Yuanrong Temple in a bunch of photos taken.
"There are also folk cultural protection groups in other parts of Shanxi, and the group in southeastern Jin is not large, but it is the most successful." Lian Da, a lover of ancient construction and a painter living in Dalian, told China News Weekly that he has been searching for ancient buildings in Shanxi for nearly 20 years. He believes that this group of cultural protection enthusiasts in Jindongnan has solid knowledge and is not a general love, "so there is this rescue discovery, filling the loopholes and gaps in the work of the cultural relics department."
Ideal model of cultural protection
Xu Yitao felt that the discovery of Yuanrong Temple had achieved the first half of a virtuous circle: private people found, reported to the government, and after the government verified, academic forces intervened. If it can then be repaired on the basis of value discovery and the value of cultural relics is solidified, the second half will be completed and become an ideal cultural protection model. "It's a particularly fortunate thing." Xu Yitao said.
Around 2000, Xu Yitao spent a long time in southeastErn Jin for a long time in order to write his doctoral dissertation, "Five Dynasties, Song and Jin Temple Architecture in Changzhi and Jincheng Areas". Later, he became acquainted with Li Lin and provided academic support for the protection of many cultural relics in Gaoping.
(The four-sided boxy rafters of Yuanrong Temple were typical of the Song Dynasty, and the beams in the shape of logs above were the Jin Dynasty practice.) Photography / Li Qiang)
"Regarding the age, we say that others don't believe it, we have to rely on experts, and the weight of speech will be different immediately." Li Lin recalled that in the past ten years, the status of cultural security work has been significantly improved, "Before we called experts, experts are rare you? Now, we have formed a very good interactive relationship with the people and the academic community, and when we get a message, we immediately take action. ”
Zhang Jianjun also felt his growing influence, and he found early artifacts in almost every county under Jincheng. Gradually, there are also many people from the cultural relics departments of local governments in the WeChat circle of friends, who can directly reflect to them. Sometimes, he posts a new discovery on a forum, and a few months later, the ancient building is equipped with special protection. What does it mean to discover an early building? This means that they will be designated as higher-level cultural security units and receive repair funds in a timely manner, so as to avoid collapsing and disappearing in obscurity, which is nothing less than a "life-saving grace".
However, Xu Yitao saw that the working methods of non-governmental people also have different counter-effects on the protection of cultural relics, and sometimes the effects are counterproductive. "The formation of public opinion pressure has forced local governments to urgently repair in response to public opinion without the premise of insufficient research and rational planning, resulting in improper repairs, and over the years, Southeast Jin has learned a lesson in this regard." He reminded, "Whether it is the people, the media or the government, once the sudden repair of ancient buildings is promoted, it is dangerous and harmful to the historical value of cultural relics." ”
He believes that the problem has deeper roots. "Our national security assessment system is not entirely value-centric, mixed with many other factors, such as territorial management capabilities, management costs, regional balance and so on." When applying for the seventh batch of national security, he helped Changzhi Changzi County to compile 27 wooden building declaration materials from the Song and Jinyuan periods, but most of them were not selected, and even the halls with Inscriptions and Inscriptions of the Jin Dynasty Such as the Chengtang Temple in Xishangfang were not selected. In other provinces, it has long been regarded as a treasure of early architecture, but in Shanxi, many of them are invisible because of too many.
Shanxi folk cultural protection people are not only sad about the situation of some cultural relics, but also understand the difficulties of Shanxi. Zhang Bo said that there are too many ancient buildings in his hometown of Gaoping, "the situation of collapse and rain leakage, realistically speaking, still exists in large quantities." However, cultural protection pays attention to science, needs time, needs technology, needs personnel, and needs money, and it is not achieved overnight. ”
In addition to the intellectual interest in cultural relics and ancient buildings, the actions of local cultural conservators also contain feelings for cultural relics in their hometowns.
On December 14, 2021, on the way back to Jincheng from Yuanrong Temple, the sky was blue, and under the sky was a bare land in winter, spread far to the foot of the mountain. A tower with a pen tip like a pen stands in the ground. "That's the Kuixing Building, when I was in the fifth grade, I walked here from our village, played on the tower, and walked for more than a dozen miles." Zhang Jianjun said suddenly, and then pointed to the mountain behind the Kuixing Building, "See no, that hanging pot is a real view, there is a monument of the Yuan Dynasty." There is also a north-facing moya grotto on the mountainside, where a classmate of mine had an accident. ”
The car had sped by, leaving the tower and the temple behind, and he was still talking eloquently, caught up in the memories of this monument.