Today, the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology released the latest results of the sichuan ancient architecture survey, under the arrangement and guidance of the Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Ancient Construction Center of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has systematically and scientifically investigated more than 100 ancient buildings in Sichuan, recorded and uploaded 83 vr data of ancient buildings, and formed a thematic database of "Sichuan Handi Yuanming Architecture".
In this survey, the construction age of 23 ancient buildings in Sichuan was also reconfirmed or defined, and the applicable wooden building fault yardstick in Sichuan was established. It is worth mentioning that in the course of the investigation, the archaeologists used a "secret weapon"...
Qingbaijiang District Mingjiao Temple Juehuang Hall investigation
The craftsman is gone
Infrared camera captures "inscription" on beam
Cai Yukun, deputy director of the Ancient Construction Center of the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, introduced that the ancient construction center used a "secret weapon" in the field investigation, which is an infrared camera. Although infrared cameras have long been available, it is the first time that infrared photography technology has been used for the investigation of ancient buildings.
Interestingly, the infrared camera used in this ancient construction survey was modified from an ordinary digital camera.
In 2012, the price of an infrared camera was 300,000-500,000 yuan, very high, when the 23-year-old assistant librarian Li Lindong remembered that during his study at the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University, he had heard the teacher say that as long as the digital camera was slightly modified, you could get an infrared camera that could capture the hidden information of ancient buildings. He experimented with the modification of his idle digital camera at home, and it felt that the effect was not bad. In August 2012, Li Lindong, Cai Yukun and Zhao Yuanxiang, three professional and technical personnel, came to the main hall of Bao'en Temple in Meishan with the modified infrared camera.
This hall was built in the Yuan Dynasty, descendants have carried out many repairs, even the entire roof has been replaced, although experts speculate that the indoor beam frame is a Yuan Dynasty component, but because of the age, the ink and color paintings on the component have long been blurred, with the naked eye or ordinary digital cameras have been unrecognizable, what they have to do this time is to try to find the inscription that has not been found before with an infrared camera.
The so-called inscription is the text written by the ancients on the building components with a brush, which usually has the function of praying for blessings and notes, and will indicate the name of each donor and the donated property. The line of inscriptions seems to be a three-dimensional "inscription", recording the origin and repair of each ancient building.
That day, the three people used the infrared camera to shoot the roof beam, after the tripod was fixed, through the frame, you can clearly see the black handwriting on the roof beam, which is the old brush word filtered by infrared - because the ink and stain absorb infrared light are different, the ink stain is deeper in the imaging of the infrared camera, distinguished from the surrounding stains, and the inscription is revealed! This discovery made everyone happy, and the local cultural management staff who visited with the three people also lamented that this was the first time in many years of cultural protection work that these secret inscriptions were found in the main hall of Bao'en Temple.
Chengdu Cultural Park Octagonal Pavilion Survey
Use infrared photography technology
Find the "birth certificate" of the national security grade Yuan Dynasty architecture
With the first successful experience, the professionals of the Ancient Construction Center have successively carried out infrared photography of several other early ancient buildings in the province, and have also found many text messages on the surface of building components that have not been noticed before.
In 2015, Zhao Yuanxiang took an infrared camera to the hualin temple hall in Yanting County again to investigate, photographed a large number of ink book inscriptions, according to the architectural shape, inscription and carbon fourteen dating results, Cai Yukun and Zhao Yuanxiang published "Sichuan Yanting newly discovered Yuan Dynasty building Hualin Temple Hall", which made it clear that the main structure of this building was built in the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1311 AD), nearly 300 years earlier than the twenty-first year of the Ming Wanli calendar (1593 AD) published in the cultural relics at that time. This survey report published in the authoritative journal "Cultural Relics" in China is also the first academic report published in China to use infrared photography technology for the investigation of ancient buildings. Thanks to the investigation results of the ancient construction center, the main hall of Hualin Temple was quickly upgraded from the earliest county protection to the provincial protection, and finally upgraded to the national key cultural relics protection unit, and the cultural relics itself has received due attention and better protection.
Zhao Yuanxiang conducted an investigation at the Juehuang Hall of the Ming Sect Temple in Qingbaijiang District
"In August 2018, we came to Lushan Qinglong Temple, when the main hall of Qinglong Temple was a Yuan Dynasty building that was included in the architectural history textbook, but we had already questioned this. In the past, the cultural relics department recorded that the inscription of the main hall of Qinglong Temple was '□□□□□ years old and second Dechai February Mid-spring carved Shuo 26th Star Zodiac Jichen re-erected a treasure hall of Qinglong Temple', and according to the "癸海" year, it is speculated that the first few words that could not be seen clearly were 'Dayuan zhisan', that is, the main hall was built in the third year of yuan to zhi (1323). However, according to the conventional format of the ancient chronology, it is obvious that the "next engraving" in the previously identified 'February Mid-Spring Lower Carving' should actually be the stem branch of the Shuo Day. The February of the third year of the reign of Cha Yuan should be 癸海朔, but will the word '癸海' be mistaken for '下刻'? We think that the predecessors probably recognized "Ding Hai" as the 'next moment'. This time through the infrared camera shooting, a few words that could not be seen clearly actually appeared, and the full text of the inscription was originally: 'Wei Daming Orthodox Eight Years Old Age Second DecaThree February Mid-Spring Ding Hai Shuo Twenty-sixth Star Zodiac Jichen Re-erected a Treasure Hall of Qinglong Temple". The inscription proves that this is a Ming Dynasty building, and the example of this building also shows that the Sichuan Yuan Dynasty architectural style previously thought in the history of Chinese architecture was actually still used until the Ming Dynasty. Zhao Yuanxiang said.
Cai Yukun introduced that the ancient construction center used ancient architectural chronology and infrared cameras to reconfirm and revise the architectural age of a number of ancient buildings in the province, including the main hall of Hualin Temple and the hall of Qinglong Temple, which are distributed in various districts and counties in the province, a total of 23 places. Driven by the publication and promotion of a series of achievements, scholars of ancient architecture research inside and outside the province have begun to adopt this technology, and have found many historical information that is difficult to identify with the naked eye alone.
Chengdu Daily Jinguan News Reporter Duan Zhen Photo courtesy of Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology Editor Wang Ling Proofreading Wang Juan