"When the restoration of 'Tianlu Linlang' began, a colleague came to the literature restoration room to visit and study. He asked me, when do you see it fixed? I said, when it's fixed, I may also retire. More than 8 years have passed, and the "Tianlu Linliang" restoration project has finally been announced, and I am about to turn 60 years old. ”
"Tianlu Linlang" is dedicated to the state before the restoration
On January 7 this year, the National Library of China held a press conference for the successful completion of the restoration project of the Qing Palace's "Tianlu Linlang" collection of precious ancient books. After the meeting, Zhu Zhenbin, chief expert of the project and senior restorer of the Guotu Ancient Books Museum, said with emotion.
People use the phrase "the hand that repairs the heavens, the eye of the lice" to describe the stunt of ancient book restoration. Zhu Zhenbin said that he was not so godly in this line of work, and it all depended on "stability."
People often say "paper lives for a thousand years", but restorers understand that books can also age and hurt.
For 42 years, Zhu Zhenbin sat firmly under the shadowless lamp, salvaging the ancient books of "injury and illness" in every struggle, and silently continuing the miracle of "paper life for a thousand years".
Partially restored "Tianlu Linlang" special collection
Repair the old as old
In August 1980, Zhu Zhenbin entered the Beijing Library, the predecessor of the National Library of China. At this time, the ancient book restoration talents of the Beijing Library withered away and did not receive any yellow. To this end, some people of insight have thought of Zhang Shida, the first generation of ancient book restoration experts who have retired to recuperate in Jiangxi and are known as the "national hand" of modern and modern ancient book restoration, and want to invite him to the museum to cultivate talents for the restoration of ancient books.
At the age of 16, Zhang Shida apprenticed in the Liulichang Yaoyatang Ancient Bookstore, which was the most prestigious ancient book restoration in Beijing at that time, and later opened the "Qunyuzhai" bookstore in Liulichang, and came to the Beijing Library in 1956 to engage in the restoration of ancient books. "At that time, many cultural celebrities and scholars came to Mr. Zhang to restore ancient books, and Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Feng Youlan, Zheng Zhenduo, and Li Yihao were all guests of Mr. Zhang." Zhu Zhenbin said.
The Beijing Library selected three young people to learn from Zhang Shida, including Zhu Zhenbin. At the Sixth Guest House of the State Council on Xiangchang Road near Zhushikou on Qianmen Avenue, Mr. Zhang, who is in his eighties, settled down. The three of us lived with him, learning the art of ancient book restoration while also taking care of the teacher's living. Since then, Zhu Zhenbin has begun a three-year learning career with his teacher Zhang Shida. At that time, Li Zhizhong, an expert in edition bibliography, was very happy to hear about this incident, and specially published a message in the Beijing Evening News to pay respect and congratulations to Zhang Shida for his eighty-year-old age and still leading apprentices.
"Whether a book is repaired or not is not whether it is repaired as new, but whether it is still ancient."
A sentence often said by the teacher has become the "guiding light" of Zhu Zhenbin's more than 40 years of ancient book restoration career. This restoration concept is also reflected in Zhu Zhenbin's recently written book "Exploration and Practice of Ancient Book Restoration": "Before I start to repair the book, I will always carefully examine what traces of time and experience cannot be erased in the restoration process, and how to repair the ancient books still maintain a kind of 'taste' of old clothes." Such an awareness and concept is vividly reflected in the restoration process of the Yongle Canon, one of the "Four Special Collections" of the National Library.
Zhu Zhenbin's first encounter with the Yongle Canon dates back to the beginning of 1983. At the end of 1982, a cadre of the Shandong YeXian Cultural Center found an ancient book in a relative's house, thought it was similar to the Yongle Canon, and wrote a letter explaining the situation to the Beijing Library at that time. The Beijing Library attached great importance to the news and sent two experts from the ancient book and rare book group to Ye County to understand the situation, appraise and dispose of it. In the spring of 1983, this ancient book, which was confirmed as the first volume (two volumes) of the True Character Rhyme System of the Yongle Canon (Jiajing Banknote Book), was purchased by the Beijing Library and sent to the restoration team.
Zhu Zhenbin described the Yongle Canon he first saw: "It was a book with no head and no feet. The page does not have the "heavenly head" in the upper part of the page and the "foot" in the lower part, and all the blank parts are cut out. "The reason for this is that the Yongle Canon uses the finest white cotton paper, so the blank part may have been cut by local women to make patterns and shoes."
At that time, Zhu Zhenbin, who had just joined the work, was not yet qualified to repair ancient books of this level, he only helped the teacher Tofu lay a hand, but the "first experience" of the restoration of precious ancient books still left a very deep impression on him.
After repeated deliberation, the final restoration team selected Qianlong Koryo paper to repair these two volumes of the Yongle Canon. Koryo paper is a two-layer paper that is too thick and needs to be uncovered before it can be used. Due to the large size of the paper, it takes several people to open the paper, and if you don't pay attention to the paper, it will be uneven, and I was the little apprentice who held the paper at that time. This help allowed Zhu Zhenbin to have a perceptual experience of the restoration of the Yongle Canon and precious ancient books, which laid the foundation for him to participate in the overhaul of the Yongle Canon.
The Yongle Canon is a large tome of the imperial literature of the Ming Yongle Dynasty, once known as "the largest encyclopedia ever recorded in the world", the original is dead, and the surviving copy of Jiajing is the world. "There are not many original ancient books in the Ming Dynasty, royal things are even rarer, the scattering of the Yongle Canon is due to fire and war, and it is not badly regarded, and most of the 224 volumes of the Yongle Canon in the national library are original documents. Many of the Ming Dynasty inscriptions passed down from generation to generation are not ming dynasty, but there is absolutely no problem with the Yongle Canon. Zhu Zhenbin introduced.
Nearly 20 years later, the overhaul project of the Yongle Canon was started in 2002. Due to the integrity of the Yongle Canon, the literature restoration team decided to keep the binding in its original state during the restoration, and could not take apart the spine and divide the pages into single sheets for repair as in the case of restoring ordinary ancient books. "If the book is taken apart and repaired, the book cover and the spine will be destroyed, and it will be more difficult to restore it."
In the restoration of the Yongle Canon, the conservators of the national map creatively invented the "method of digging up the patch", tearing the patch paper according to the shape of the broken page, dipping it in paste, reaching into the middle of the folding page, and "digging" it up little by little to repair it. "In line with the principle of 'minimal intervention', we have retained the original appearance of the Yongle Canon, which is slightly inferior in flatness but exudes the unique smell of old books." Zhu Zhenbin said.
"Scars are also part of the history of the Yongle Canon." Why? This starts with the tortuous experience of this huge production.
In 1860, the Anglo-French army invaded Beijing, and part of the copy of the Yongle Canon, which had been idle in the Hanlin Courtyard since the Qianlong period, was doomed in this catastrophe. "In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance and the Boxers fought in the foreign embassy district of Dongjiaomin Lane, just next to the Hanlin Temple. The Hanlin Courtyard was ruined, and some of the remaining copies of the Yongle Canon were burned, some were robbed, and some were even thrown directly into the stables. ”
On the pages of the Yongle Canon, dappled water stains, pokes, and even traces of fire are common. And these, all of which were faithfully preserved during the restoration process.
Today, when you come to the exhibition "The Return and Reconstruction of the Yongle Canon" in the second exhibition hall of the National Museum of Classics, and carefully read those huge yellowed pages, you can still see the dots of "scars" on them, telling the history that is painful and cannot be forgotten.
Restoration stunts
"When we started the project in August 2013, we didn't expect the restoration work to encounter so many difficulties. As the project unfolded, it was found that its damage was much more serious than originally expected. ”
What Zhu Zhenbin said is the "Tianlu Linlang" ancient book restoration project that has just been completed and is praised by the industry as a "landmark restoration".
"Tianlu Linlang" is the essence of the Qianlong Emperor's collection, but this set of surviving Qing Dynasty imperial collections has undergone several catastrophes and ill-fated in the long river of history, and has been seriously damaged.
The national map is the second largest unit in the world, with a total of 279 volumes and more than 3500 volumes. Among them, the Song and Yuan engravings account for a relatively large proportion, and most of the most precious ancient books in the "Later Compilation of the Bibliography of The King Ding Tianlu Linglang" are preserved.
Many of the books in "Tianlu Linliang" are very serious, and many books cannot be opened, so they cannot be cataloged. It was not until April to June 2013 that the Guotu Ancient Books Museum completed the collation of the uncopied "Tianlu Linlang" ancient books, and conducted a preliminary investigation of the damage of this ancient book in the collation.
The results of the survey are shocking: "We divide the damage of ancient books into five levels, of which the five levels are the lowest and the first level is the highest. According to the existing situation of 'Tianlu Linliang', the first and second levels are its 'normal', serious damage accounts for about 1/10 of the total, and more than 300 ancient books are in urgent need of rescue repair. Zhu Zhenbin said.
In addition to the serious damage, the materials involved in the restoration are also very complicated, which increases the difficulty of achieving the effect of "the whole old as the old" after the restoration. Zhu Zhenbin gave an example of the heavily damaged precious ancient book "Book of Han" Yuan Dade engraving: There are four kinds of paper materials used in this ancient book alone: the pages are ordinary bamboo paper, the lining paper is mixed paper, the protective pages covered with the Qianlong Three Seals are rice paper, and the book coat is powder wax paper.
Restorers first consider repairing ancient books with old paper of similar materials. In the paper warehouse of the national map, there are various types of old paper "inventory". Zhu Zhenbin said that the restoration of ancient books of the national map has a hundred years of history, and some of these old papers are accumulated over a hundred years of work, and the other part is the teachers and masters with a sense of mission who have collected them from the past flea market.
During the restoration process, if a suitable old paper is not found, the restorer will use a new handmade paper with continuous texture, thin thickness, tenacity, and strength that is almost the same as that of the original ancient book, and treat it as a "substitute". At this time, in order to make the color of the paper and the ancient books more coordinated and matched, the restorer will color the new paper. "The pigments used in dyeing are all natural." In the national map document restoration room, there is a "medicine cabinet", and the names are written on the small drawer grid one by one, including chestnut shells, acorn shells, chinese medicines such as gardenia and yellow barberry, and even tea leaves. These are the dyes used when dispensing paper.
Zhu Zhenbin is repairing the "Tianlu Linlang" special collection
In the process of restoration, when encountering some ancient paper whose production skills have been lost, the restorer will also try to find the most "perfect" solution through repeated exploration. For example, the material of the "Book of Han" - powder wax paper, which is widely used in the Qing Palace collection of materials from the Tang Dynasty, it cleverly integrates the two materials of water-absorbing "powder" and waterproof "wax", which is smooth and fine, conducive to writing, and lustrous and timeless. Its production process reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty and was lost in the early 20th century. In recent years, there have been attempts to recover lost processes.
In the past 8 years, the restorers have searched for literature records, continuously tested the ratio, and finally copied the material that is different from the new imitation powder wax paper, and is close to the original book clothing process and has the same appearance. The imitation of the new powder wax paper was also successfully applied to the restoration of the "Book of Han" book coat.
Today, the once devastated collection of "Tianlu Linlang" books, the wind bone is still back in people's sight. "These restored yuan inscription books, under standard storage conditions, there is no problem in preserving them for another 200 years." Zhu Zhenbin said confidently.
Passing on the torch
The national census of ancient books that has lasted for more than ten years has been basically completed, 2861 ancient book collection units across the country have completed the census registration work, and more than 2.7 million ancient books have "identity cards". Zhu Zhenbin introduced, "According to statistics, the number of ancient books in the national public collection unit is about 30 million, and if you add the folk collection, it may exceed 50 million volumes." ”
The vast number of rare books and rare books should be properly preserved and managed, and a large number of professional ancient book restoration talents are urgently needed to take care of them. Before the launch of the "Chinese Ancient Books Protection Program" in 2007, there were less than 100 professionals engaged in the restoration of ancient books across the country. "At that time, some insiders joked that those who repaired ancient books were 'more precious than giant pandas.'" Zhu Zhenbin said.
It is often said that the bench should sit cold for ten years, and the article does not write half an empty sentence. This sentence is also very appropriate for the restoration of ancient books.
Zhu Zhenbin used his own experience as an example, "I followed the teacher to apprentice for three years, and when I arrived at the group, I started with simple tasks, and I couldn't touch the precious ancient books for five or six years." At this rate, the teachers and masters have retired, and the young talents have not yet grown. ”
The "original" but slow progress of the inheritance method is difficult to understand the urgent need for the restoration of ancient books. To this end, the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books has explored an innovative model of "trinity" of training bases, colleges and universities, and training institutes. Among them, the Institute focuses on the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage skills in the restoration of ancient books, and makes full use of the scarce expert resources to specially cultivate the backbone of ancient book restoration. Since 2013, 32 state-level ancient book restoration technology training institutes have been established across the country, taking the opportunity and platform to carry out precious ancient book restoration projects so that restoration talents can be trained in actual combat.
Zhu Zhenbin is a mentor at the National Center for the Restoration of Ancient Books and the Jiangsu Institute of Learning. Located in nanjing library, Jiangsu Institute of Transmission is the third largest collection unit in China in terms of ancient books. Why choose to "collect disciples" here? Zhu Zhenbin said that this has a lot to do with his teacher Zhang Shida.
In 1957, when the philologist Zhao Wanli was collecting rare books in the national key libraries to compile the "Catalogue of Chinese Engravings", he found that one of the "treasures of the ten town halls" of the Nanjing Library, the Southern Song Dynasty engraving "Collected Works of the Old Man in the Pan Room", had been damaged. Therefore, Zhao Wanli negotiated with Nantu to bring the book back to the Beijing Library, and asked Zhang Shida to repair it and configure the Nanmu book box. After the restoration was completed, in the middle of the first leaflet was written the text "Zhang Shida Loading in January 1959". Zhang Shida once recalled: "The Nan wooden box was made of Nan wood from the former Forbidden City Office, and the Text was written for me by Mr. Zhao Wanli, and after writing it, I pasted it myself." ”
A few years ago, Zhu Zhenbin's colleague went to the Nanjing Library on a business trip and came back and told him, "I saw a book that your teacher repaired." Since then, Zhu Zhenbin has had the idea of seeing this precious ancient book restored by the teacher with his own eyes.
"In the past, the restoration of ancient books did not leave traces of restorers, nor did they repair archives. Even the precious ancient book "Zhao Cheng Jinzang", which began to be restored in 1949, only a brief 'flowing account' was left. This "Collection of Old Men in the Chamber" can be said to be the only ancient book found so far that has traces of a restorer. Taking the opportunity to "collect apprentices" at the Jiangsu Institute, Zhu Zhenbin realized his dream. In the Nanjing Library, he saw this ancient book, "it really seems to be an intimate dialogue with Mr. Zhang across time and space, which is too precious." ”
The first task of the Jiangsu Institute since its opening was to restore Gu Yanwu's manuscript, which was listed with the "Collection of Old People's Writings of the Pan Room" as the "Treasure of the Ten Town Halls", the "Book of National Interests and Diseases in Tianxia County". Zhu Zhenbin, who participated as a mentor, said, "I feel that this is a continuation of Master's footsteps, and it is a very wonderful fate. ”
Zhu Zhenbin recalled the scene when he first saw this Gu Yanwu manuscript. It is a 60-volume "tome", most of which are in good condition, but 4 of them are very badly damaged, and the pages are curled and rotten like tobacco leaves, making it difficult for the library's restorers to get started. At Zhu Zhenbin's suggestion, the institute found a similar degree of damage, but not as good as the precious manuscript of this book for the students to "preview" and experience in advance.
Since then, Zhu Zhenbin has tailored a restoration plan for the "Book of National Interests in Tianxia County", and led the 7 restorers of the institute to carry out partial reinforcement according to the established steps. Every year, he spends several months in Nantu, answering questions for the apprentices on the practical problems encountered in the restoration process and helping them solve difficult "difficult diseases".
After four or five years of study, the restoration of the Book of The Diseases of the Tianxia County is about to be completed, and the ancient book restorers of the Nanjing Library have also gained experience in restoring precious ancient books in actual combat, and can "go out of the master".
In addition to the institute, today's ancient book restoration talents also include innovative models such as training courses and joint training with domestic universities. "After more than ten years of hard work, the professional team of ancient book restoration in the country has grown from less than 100 people before 2007 to more than 1,000 people now."
Speaking of this, Zhu Zhenbin, who is about to turn 60, showed a happy smile. The dream of a "paper life millennium" is about to be realized in the passing of the torch. In the long river of time, the life of ancient books will be eternal.
Source: Beijing Daily | Reporter Sun Leqi
Editor: Wang Qiong
Process Editor: Dan Guo