"There are so many clocks and watches in the Forbidden City, a person's life cannot be repaired."
This week, it snowed again in Beijing. The Forbidden City is once again covered in white, and these moments, the clock will remember.
In August last year, the ancient clock repair team went to Chengde Summer Resort to continue the joint restoration work started before the epidemic, and the documentary "I Repair clocks and watches at the summer resort" completely recorded the trip.
Since 2019, the restoration team has repaired more than 20 ancient clocks and watches in Chengde. These clocks have been exhibited as joint restorations and are currently on display at the Qianqing Palace.
"Zhong Ming Shengshi: The Forbidden City and Chengde Mountain Resort Tibetan Clocks and Watches Joint Exhibition" is to repair clocks everywhere, and the same is true at the summer resort. Coinciding with the eve of the exhibition, the workload is also heavier than usual, and overtime is almost every day.
The recent work of the ancient clock restoration team is to cultivate the clocks of the Heart Hall, and the upcoming documentary "New Things in the Forbidden City" will have an episode to record the restoration process of the 10 clocks and watches of the Yangxin Hall.
The clock group first became popular because of the 2016 documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City". To this day, there are also audiences who fell in love with the clock group because of this documentary, go to the Forbidden City to "punch in", and Wang Jin and his apprentice Qi Haonan will warmly receive them.
Wang Jin and Qi Haonan were apprentices
Six years is enough time to change a lot of things. For the watch group, the most obvious change is the number of people.
The reason why the watch group in the documentary has been paid special attention to, in addition to the particularity of the clock itself as a cultural relic, the crisis of "no one to succeed" is also heart-wrenching - at that time, the watch group only had Wang Jin and Qi Haonan's master and apprentice, which was somewhat dangerous for a craft that relied on intergenerational inheritance.
Wang Jin turned sixty last year, was rehired by the Forbidden City after retirement, continued to work in the watch group, and dedicated his life to the four square world. The fourth generation of restoration master Qi Haonan also changed from "apprentice" to "master", and now, there are three "fifth generation heirs" in the clock group, with a total of seven people in the whole group.
The restoration of clocks and watches is the only intangible cultural heritage in the Forbidden City that has been stretched down and has not been broken. Even when puyi, the last emperor, was expelled from the palace in 1924, watchmakers remained in the palace and carried out daily restoration work. Nearly a hundred years have passed, and generation after generation of restorers have completed this inheritance in an almost sacred way.
Everyday life outside the lens
Xiang Wan is the youngest restorer in the Ancient Clock Restoration Group, born in 1990. In the second year of the documentary broadcast, she majored in sculpture and entered the watch group through school recruitment.
The interview place was in the Forbidden City, and after the end, Xiang Huan went home, and her family asked her how she had done, and she replied: "I don't know, anyway, even if I didn't get in, I also entered the palace twice, and I also went to a place that no one else has been." ”
After joining the company, Xiang Wancai went to see "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City". "When I watched, I was on the number with my colleagues, who is this, who is that."
Some young people only came up with the idea of working in the Forbidden City after watching the documentary. Xiao Qiu is one of the "lucky ones". When "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" was broadcast, she was a junior in college, and in order to have the opportunity to meet Wang Jin, she chose the Forbidden City cultural creation as her internship.
After the documentary was broadcast, Wang Jin was called the "male god of the Forbidden City" and became popular all over the Internet for a time. Xiao Qiu first met him through the introduction of colleagues. "I walked through the parking lot on the east side of the Forbidden City with Teacher Wang to the Cultural Protection Science and Technology Department in the west, and I was very nervous all the way, and after arriving, Teacher Wang told me, or you can take a picture."
Xiao Qiu and Wang Jin's first group photo
With the contact of work, Xiaoqiu and Wang Jin gradually became acquainted, because she liked the watch group, and she also met a large group of friends. These friends have a WeChat group, Wang Jin is also in this group, he will occasionally post his photos taken in the Forbidden City in the group, he will also chat with everyone, and everyone affectionately calls him "Master".
What was going on with "chasing the stars", it took Qi Haonan and Wang Jin some time to figure it out. Qi Haonan has accompanied Wang Jin in recent years and received many people who have come to visit. "There are more people who like clocks and watches, more people like Teacher Wang, and there is a little girl who came to see us, and she really cried when she saw Teacher Wang."
However, they treat these fans more like juniors. When they are not busy, the two will take the "children" who come to the Forbidden City to walk around, and when they encounter those who ask for a group photo, they almost never refuse. Before the epidemic came, once Wang Jin and Xiang Wan went out on the bus together, and were recognized by the passengers on the bus, and carefully asked: "Are you Teacher Wang who repairs clocks and watches in the Forbidden City?" Wang Jin smiled and said, "Yes yes yes." ”
The documentary is only about ten minutes long, and it is a window that peeks into the watch group, too small to be small. In contrast, real work is much more interesting and boring.
On the first day of "entering the palace", Xiang Huan started to repair the clock. Her master Qi Haonan was repairing an English bell, and after moving from England to Guangzhou that year, Guangdong Bay wanted to be dedicated to the emperor to wish for his birthday, so according to the emperor's preference, he installed a circle of eight immortals outside the clock, fixed it on the turntable, and cycled back and forth, taking the meaning of "the meaning of the immortals wishing for life". According to the "Living Record" of the Office of Manufacturing, this bell was painted by a Western technician in the eighth year of Qianlong, and the Qianlong Emperor approved it and made the bell at the place, and it was not completed until the fourteenth year of Qianlong.
Xiang Huan appeared in the documentary "I repaired the clock at the summer resort"
Although the mechanical part is not involved, the process of repairing the Eight Immortals is equally difficult. However, this is already the most familiar job for Xiang Wan. "Some immortals have their heads fallen off, some have their arms off, and each immortal has a different degree of damage." In her first month in the watch group, she was busy repairing the Eight Immortals on the British clock.
Unlike other work that can be done by deduction, there is no standard formula for repairing clocks, and the problems of each clock are different. This may be the reason why the turnover rate of the Palace Museum Watch Group has been 0 since its establishment – this job is always fresh and always brings challenges. It's been almost five years since Xiang Wan came to the watch group, and she still feels that she is "learning something new every day" and that working here is "quite happy".
Five years in other fields of work is not a short time. But in the watch repair group, five years is just "just beginning". Even Qi Haonan, who has been working for more than twenty years, feels that he has not learned enough.
Although fun, the practice of the basics is still boring and day-to-day. Just one step of "filling teeth", Xiang Wan has been practicing repeatedly for a long time.
Screenshot of the documentary "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City"
Clocks and watches are extremely mechanically sophisticated instruments, and every time a gear goes wrong, it will affect the overall rotation. "Tooth repair" is the repair of the gear. Grinding the broken perforations on the gears, punching them, then inserting a steel or copper nail and grinding them into the shape of a tooth – a delicate, repetitive task like this is almost a daily task of watch restorers.
"If there are more people, we will repair more, and if there are fewer people, we will repair less." In any case, the clocks and watches in the warehouse can never be repaired, and there is no such thing as "repairing".
In Qi Haonan's impression, there are about 200 pieces of ancient clocks and watches in the warehouse that are seriously damaged. Under the erosion of time, even the repaired clock must be continuously maintained. The ancient clocks and watches currently exhibited in the Watch Hall will also gradually enter the maintenance and maintenance links.
The daily life of the watch group outside the lens is a long time of time in which one clock after another is connected to these clocks.
Clock repair, a relay
When there were only two masters and apprentices in the watch group, Wang Jin and Qi Haonan, they did not talk about the division of labor, as long as they stepped into this gate, they had to learn everything.
Repairing clocks and watches is not the same as repairing other cultural relics, such as enamel, mounting, inlay, machinery... Repair techniques can never be learned, and every time you encounter new problems. If it encounters an unfamiliar field, the watch team also has to "second" professionals from other restoration groups to help complete it.
After the expansion of personnel, the watch group no longer needs to borrow people from other groups. When Qi Haonan talked about this change, his tone was filled with a sense of relief: "My two apprentices, one is studying sculpture, the other is studying painting, my sister is studying jewelry identification, and I know more about things like clock inlays and enamel stones, so now we basically encounter any problems and can solve them by ourselves." ”
However, this does not mean that they can "do their part". Clock repair is a craft, the biggest difference between craftsmanship and work is that it needs to be mastered independently, and there is no counterpart profession, "the master takes the apprentice, and the outside cannot be learned." ”
If the time is too tight, everyone will take the form of a division of labor to ensure that the task is completed most efficiently. But the ultimate criterion for everyone is the ability to repair independently.
Qi Haonan in the documentary "I repair cultural relics in the Forbidden City"
The changes of the times are reflected in the concepts of generations of restorers. Qi Haonan studied automation at university, and at that time, "watch restorer" was still an unpopular profession, and no one knew what to do. The teacher mentioned in the class that he was the only one in the class (later found out to be the whole country). His idea was also simple: "Learn a craft, at least you won't die of hunger." Qi Haonan entered the watch group in 2005, and in the 29 years before that, the youngest member of the ancient clock restoration group was Wang Jin.
No one expected that after so many years, working as a clock restorer in the Forbidden City has become a somewhat remarkable thing in the eyes of the outside world. After the documentary was broadcast, the bullet screen was full of questions from enthusiastic netizens: "Does Master Wang still accept apprentices?" The kind that went to college. ”
The bullet screen of station B that was swiped by "job search messages"
The people who entered the Forbidden City also changed. "Their demands are different from mine at that time, and today's young people are more flexible in their ideas, not limited to just work, they all have their own topics, go deeper into their respective research directions, unlike us who work with our heads down all day." Qi Haonan said.
The addition of these young people has allowed the ancient clock to repair this craft and usher in a new future.
In "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City", Wang Jin introduced a clock on display to the audience at the Clock Hall. "In the case of its full recovery, its feeling is not the same as the way it is now, and these clocks are very beautiful after they have just been repaired." You see now, just so statically placed here, looking a little painful, it took so much effort to repair. ”
Only in the few documentaries can you see these clocks moving. Qi Haonan also felt very sorry, "After repairing it, I can see it, and no one else knows." People ask you what you do, I said repair the clock, everyone can only think of the supermarket door to change the battery, change a strap place. ”
The project that Qi Haonan's apprentice Xiang Huan is doing is a 3D display of clocks and watches. On the basis of learning restoration techniques, she is trying to make more people appreciate the "come alive" appearance of these clocks.
Technological innovations have also brought cultural relics closer and closer to their original appearance. Qi Haonan's sister Liu Xiaoyu is doing a project related to enamel, including the proportion of pigments, firing tools, etc., as the subject deepens step by step, trying to restore the original appearance of each clock.
The restoration of cultural relics follows a number of basic principles that take into account future advances in restoration technology. For example, when restoring, it is necessary to ensure the "minimum intervention" and "reversibility" of cultural relics, and after the next generation and the next generation of restorers have a better way, they can remove the previous restoration traces according to the restoration records, and then use new restoration techniques. Therefore, every clock contains the fruits of restoration of generations.
If reversibility and minimal intervention are not guaranteed, repairs are not allowed, even if they can be restored. "The same is true of many foreign things, showing the current state of the cultural relics, it may be a broken clay pot, a few fragments are placed there, and there is a better way to repair it in the future."
Clock House
This is also the importance of archives. Most of the clocks handled by the first and second generation of restorers have not left any records, relying on the memories and word of mouth of the teachers, if you encounter a clock that no one has ever seen, it is all experience to find the traces of the repair. Because of the inability to locate, sometimes you have to take more detours.
Now, each clock has a separate file that records the person responsible for each repair, and the complete repair plan, including what it was like before the repair, what the process was like, what parts were moved, what the state was after the repair, and so on. Before each watch is restored, the improvement of the archives and the addition of video records will reduce the burden on the next generation of restorers.
Advances in technology are also changing the way restorers work. In the absence of the internet and electronic devices, memory is the only thing you can rely on. When repairing each clock, it must be disassembled in an all-round way to find the problematic part, and the large clock even has thousands of parts. Therefore, in addition to practicing clock repair, teachers and masters also need to exercise memory.
Parts removed from a watch
When Wang Jin was still an apprentice, probably in the 1980s, after he sorted and coded the dismantled clock parts, the master would come over, sort out the chaos, and then let him reclassify it. There are now so many devices that can be used to help with recording, and restorers don't need to do these tedious and difficult exercises anymore.
However, technological advances have never been a substitute for labor. "For example, punching a hole, the previous master would use his hands to grind little by little, and now although there is a machine, you can find a good drill to go in, but sometimes it still feels not good, Brother Qi said, you still use your hands to grind slowly." 」 Xiang Wan said.
Perhaps this is the reason why the watch group still follows the "teacher system": dealing with history and dialogue with cultural relics still depends on people to complete it. For them, inheritance is an obligation. As Wang Jin said: "Cultural relics cannot be passed out, and these ancient clocks and watches can only be made by the museum itself." ”
This is also the significance of the joint restoration team set up by the ancient clock restoration group and local museums - by training restorers everywhere, more and more ancient clocks and watches are giving new vitality.
Here, each generation of heirs is paving the way for the next generation. They spent hundreds of years bringing the dusty, mutilated ancient clocks back hundreds of years.
One session at a time
Every time Xiang Wan repairs a clock, the question he thinks is, "Where will I see it next time?" Maybe in a certain showcase, maybe decades later, in the hands of her apprentice, or maybe this is the only thing in this life--"Whether I can see you again or not, it's up to me." ”
Dealing with cultural relics is a phase and a meeting.
Because of this, every time you encounter a clock, it is a kind of fate for the restorer. The bronze gilded village water clock that appears in "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City" is the collection of the Qianlong Emperor. It stayed in the warehouse for more than a hundred years, and it was not until 2015, when the Forbidden City held an exhibition of restoration achievements for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the hospital, that it had the opportunity to "see the sky again" and came to Wang Jin.
Copper gilded village water clock (after restoration)
In Qi Haonan's mind, Master Wang Jin was a "standard." "Master has cultivated for so many years, and he has only repaired more than three hundred pieces, and I have repaired more than a hundred pieces so far, which is far from enough, and there are still more things that I have never seen."
At present, the number of existing clocks and watches in the Forbidden City is about 1500 pieces, and each clock is disassembled, which is a different structure. If there are any regrets in Qi Haonan's career, it may be the clocks and watches in the warehouse that will never be seen. "Some pocket watches are very well preserved, they have been in the storeroom, and they have never been repaired." I've been here for seventeen or eight years, and I haven't taken off my pocket watch much. ”
With a "may never see you again" mentality, for watch restorers, even for the daily work, there is a little bit of awe. Xiang Wan's wish is simple, he hopes that after retirement, he will one day see the clock he has repaired and have no regrets about it.
"If you want to meet a deceased person, even if you haven't seen him for a long time, you can still find him." But the clock is not your will, it will go, it will go to the storeroom, to other cities, to the display case, this is no way. So when you get along with it, you will cherish it more. ”
In the process of repairing clocks and watches, restorers often accidentally find the imprints left by predecessors, or the traces of previous restorations, or the reprocessing of clocks and watches at that time after they were transmitted to China, and even some fingerprints left on the parts, are the scales of the years. For them, the process of restoring cultural relics is also a process of dialogue with history across time and space, which is a very special life experience.
When the restorer dismantled the clock, he found ink that appeared to have been left by his predecessors
Wang Jin remembered all the clocks he had repaired, some of them even remembered the year. When visiting the clock house, he seemed to be looking back on his life: "This was probably built in 1981 with the teachers and masters, I was only 20 years old at the time, and I gave the masters a hand." ”
Some of the clocks were seen goodbye at the exhibition, some had the opportunity to touch them again, and once, Liu Xiaoyu was repairing a clock, and Wang Jin passed by from behind and said, "This is the bell I met when I was still an apprentice." ”
Watch restoration is one of the few jobs that still retains the "master-apprenticeship system". Passing on a craft sounds a bit mysterious and will remind many people of what they have seen on TV.
Before entering the watch group, Qi Haonan also felt that "master" was a term full of majesty. His impression of the "master-apprentice system" all comes from the TV series "The Great Dye Factory". "If you want to learn something from Master, and you have to pat yourself on the back, Master still has to keep a hand, not teach you, or make you bad, that's what you thought before you came."
TV series "The Great Dye Shop"
Later, when I saw Teacher Wang, I found that it was not like that at all. Just like you see in the documentary, he is that character, so we can say whatever we want. ”
This generation of masters and apprentices is also a little different from the previous generation of masters and apprentices. Due to the small age gap, Qi Haonan's apprentices were more like partners with him. "They also have a lot of things in them that I need to learn." His apprentices all called him "Brother Qi", and titles like "Master" and "Master Gu" in martial arts dramas would not appear in daily life.
New restorers are growing, and Wang Jin is retiring. After being rehired by the Forbidden City, there was no "eight o'clock work, five o'clock work" rule, and he had more time to appreciate the royal palace where he had stayed for half a lifetime. In Xiaoqiu's group, you can often see Wang Jinfa's photos of the Forbidden City, red walls, green tiles, blue sky, white snow, the people of the Forbidden City come and go, and the scenery changes only with time.
Wang Jin posted a photo in the group yesterday: "There are many people today. ”
Although Xiaoqiu eventually failed to work in the watch group, she would pay attention to the latest restored clocks of the watch group on Weibo, and then draw a hand-drawn archive to accompany her love in her own way. The WeChat group she created is still very active, and whenever there is a new message in the watch group, they are always the first to discuss it. Wang Jin, like their "big parents", will "report" to everyone in the group every day when he leaves work.
Xiao Qiu's painting of the "Copper Gilded Writer's Clock"
In the blink of an eye, Qi Haonan had been in the watch group for almost twenty years. About 2013, Qi Haonan had the idea of changing careers. "At that time, Master and I sat in a corner, and I sat all day, feeling a little numb, and I wanted to try something else." After Wang Jin's retention, Qi Haonan gave up this idea.
Now, he has grown into the "backbone" of the current watch group. In the documentary of the summer resort, there is a bullet screen that sighs, "When I was repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City, Brother Qi was still an apprentice, and now he has become a master." ”
Xiang Wan, who is post-90s, has decided to work in the Forbidden City until retirement. Waking up at 6 a.m. every morning when she first started working was a difficult task for her. And now, she has fallen in love with the early morning, enjoying the quiet and empty Forbidden City that tourists can't feel.
"Walking on the road, seeing crows flying, magpies flying, woodpeckers pecking trees, I think all this is so cute, I can't see enough." 」
Text | Zhang Jiaqi
Edit | Zhao Ordinary