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Xiao Xianjin: Founder of Sanxingdui Museum
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Xiao Xianjin, the first director of Sanxingdui Museum, is currently the honorary director of Sanxingdui Museum, the deputy secretary-general of China Yinshang Cultural Society, and the second Sichuan Dayu Cultural Research Committee of Sichuan Historical Society. National advanced workers in the cultural and cultural system, advanced workers in the cultural system of Sichuan Province, and advanced workers in the cultural and cultural system of Sichuan Province.
On September 6, 2020, the "Ancient Shu Civilization Protection and Inheritance Project - Archaeological Excavation of Sanxingdui Site (2020) Launching Ceremony" was held in the archaeological excavation greenhouse of the Guanghan Sanxingdui Site Sacrifice Area, from the left of the picture is Xiao Xianjin, Chen Xiandan, Chen De'an (Xiao Xianjin, courtesy photo)
Founded Sanxingdui Museum
Xiao Xianjin, the founder of sanxingdui museum, is also its first director; in the history of sanxingdui cultural relics protection and research, it is an inextricable name.
Since the discovery of two large Shang Dynasty sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui in 1986, thousands of strangely shaped and priceless cultural relics have been unearthed. As more and more cultural relics are excavated, the protection and development of cultural relics cannot be delayed. Where should so many artifacts be placed? It became the most concerned issue of the Guanghan Municipal Government at that time.
In the 1980s and 1990s, people's awareness of protecting cultural relics was still very weak, and after archaeological excavations in many places, they generally adopted the practice of enclosing land in urban areas, allocating some money to build a cultural management office, and keeping cultural relics, which is more "worry-free" for the preservation of cultural relics, but also makes cultural relics and the public have no connection.
Xiao Xianjin, then head of the cultural section of the Guanghan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Education, personally experienced the shock of the excavation site of cultural relics at the Sanxingdui site. In the face of these strange styles and strange shapes of national treasures, he was shocked and thought of building a museum so that these cultural relics could be displayed in front of the world. He reported his idea to the Guanghan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, and also specifically mentioned the important role of cultural relics protection and research in unveiling the ancient Shu civilization, and the construction of the museum can greatly promote the research and protection of cultural relics and the cultural dissemination of the ancient Shu country.
At Xiao Xianjin's suggestion, the Guanghan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government listened to his opinions after weighing the pros and cons, and decided that the government would allocate 2 million yuan and build a museum as soon as possible in the urban planning building area. The urban area of Keguanghan is still 7 kilometers away from the Sanxingdui site, and the land demarcation area in the urban area is very limited, which is not a good choice in Xiao Xianjin's view. After much thought, he decided to use the funds allocated by the government to buy a piece of land to build the museum.
To the west of the Duck River in the north of the city is the Sanxingdui site, and downstream there is a Jinyan Park built on the river and is very close to the city. The construction method and garden design of this park made Xiao Xian realize that the Sanxingdui Museum is not only a simple venue, the entire park should have its own design, and it cannot be too far away from the Sanxingdui site.
Aerial view of Sanxingdui Museum and Duck River (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Museum)
As soon as this idea came out, it caused many people to oppose it. Xiao Xiansheng hoped that the museum would be built around the site, but the Sanxingdui site was located on the West Duck River in Guanghan City, which was far from the city and overgrown with wild grass at that time, and there was no other road except a narrow machine cultivation road.
For a time, the site selection of the museum was deadlocked, and the Guanghan Municipal Government organized an inspection delegation to visit museums in Nanjing, Shanghai and other places. After returning, the delegation took a domestic site museum as an example at that time and questioned Xiao Xianjin: "That museum is far away from the city, the transportation is inconvenient, and the door can only rely on finances to raise it." With this precedent, the Sanxingdui Museum should be built in urban areas or suburbs with developed transportation. ”
"There is no road, there is always a way to build it!" We have built not only a museum, but also a complete Sanxingdui garden-style museum, and we can take the road of combining museum and garden. Xiao Xianxian carefully analyzed that the reason for the museum's lack of popularity was that it did not pay attention to the audience experience in the grasp of details. For example, there are few trees in the park, so that people who visit in the summer can only be exposed to the sun in the hot sun, and the visiting experience is not good.
Xiao Xianxian insisted on his own opinions and insisted on building the museum on the duck river not far from the site. This was contrary to the government's planning of the area, but he still bought the land next to the site under pressure. "After the money went to the northeast corner of the Sanxingdui cultural site to buy 100 acres of river beach land, it ran out." Remembering the financial pressure of building the museum at that time, Xiao Xianxian sighed. But he always had a belief in his heart that even if he borrowed money, the museum could not be built hastily.
In such a dilemma, Xiao Xianjin had a bolder idea - to build the Sanxingdui Museum into a large-scale expo area in the form of a garden scenic spot, equipped with antique sacrifice platforms and large performance venues for modern cultural and sports activities, classical-style annex buildings and catering and entertainment facilities, lawns, water lakes, rockeries, water wheels, and children's playgrounds. This concept was very advanced, and there was no museum built in China at that time with scenic regulations. Of course, during this period, there were also experts who opposed Xiao Xianjin's "adventurous advances", but the young man still took a firm step forward.
Recalling the scene of that year, Xiao Xianxian said: "After people are satisfied with their material life, they will yearn for spiritual pursuits. It's like a little kid who will always grow. He saw the future of the Sanxingdui Museum with such a vision.
When the ambition is out, action must be taken to raise funds. Xiao Xianjin rushed to Beijing and repeatedly communicated with the leaders of the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Cultural Relics Bureau, the Ministry of Culture, and other units to strive for subsidy funds. However, to build the Sanxingdui Museum into a first-class museum, the funding gap is still very large. Thinking left and right, Xiao Advanced's heart was crossed, and he finally made a decision - to borrow money from the bank. The loan to build a museum was unprecedented in China at that time, but Xiao Xian had his own plans in mind, and he wanted to break out of a new road, "Dare to be the first in the world!" ”
After many efforts, sanxingdui museum was finally successfully completed. At the opening, Xiao Xian went to the Guanghan Municipal Government to report on the project funds, and the expenditure of 31 million yuan shocked everyone present.
After the Sanxingdui Museum was completed, it was originally handed over to the municipal government or provincial government to take charge of its daily operations. However, at that time, the Sanxingdui Museum, which was saddled with a bank loan of 20 million yuan, was also a considerable financial expense. For a time, the Sanxingdui Museum became a "hot potato".
Even so, Xiao Xianjin still faced the difficulties, and he believed that the construction of spiritual civilization was necessary for the development of the whole society. Talking about this topic today, he still can't hide his excitement: "The museum is a carrier, a collection." "Sanxingdui Museum is a hope and a feeling for Xiao Xianjin.
The construction of the Sanxingdui Museum made Xiao Xianxin painstaking, and then the related matters related to the exhibition of cultural relics also made him pay a lot of painstaking efforts. At that time, although the Sanxingdui Museum was very large, it belonged to a local museum, and according to the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics", there was no qualification to exhibit and store the original cultural relics. However, Xiao Xianxian hoped that everyone who came to the museum could appreciate the charm of the ancient Shu civilization and finally won the opportunity to display the original cultural relics after several twists and turns.
On October 26, 1997, the Sanxingdui Museum was completed and opened, comprehensively displaying the cultural relics of Sanxingdui, and in the first year, it created a ticket revenue of 4 million yuan, which solved the original headache of the debt problem of the Sanxingdui Museum. Since then, Xiao Xianxian has devoted himself to the construction of the Sanxingdui Museum.
Since the completion and opening of the Sanxingdui Museum in 1997, Xiao Xianjin and other first-generation Sanxingdui people have built a modern thematic museum, which has opened a new era of the precious Sanxingdui culture in the mainland.
Bronze altar excavated from the No. 2 sacrifice pit of Sanxingdui site (Courtesy photo)
Building a "habitat" for cultural relics
To build a national museum in a small city, vision, aesthetics and pattern are indispensable.
Different from the cultural management office at that time, the function of the museum was more comprehensive, which could not only preserve cultural relics, but also receive tourists to visit. In addition to their unique style and value, these excavated cultural relics also represent a history that has not been documented; and the museum next to the ancient site has built a bridge between modern society and ancient times.
The architectural style of the museum directly affects the degree of public interest in it. For the museum to fit into the site without being obtrusive, it is necessary to break the boundaries between the two. Xiao Xianjin believes that since the site is located next to the remote ancient ruins, the architectural style should not be too modern, but should rely on the imagination of the designer, integrate ancient and modern aesthetics, highlight the mysterious and simple temperament of Sanxingdui, and create a museum with unique regional characteristics. He compares this place to the "habitat" of cultural relics, "excavated cultural relics, has been far away from the background of its existence, then it needs another habitat; it can not destroy the sense of beauty, present artistry, but also build a new cultural context, as far as possible to restore the meaning of cultural relics at that time."
Learning from the lesson that early museums did not pay attention to the feelings of visitors, Xiao Xianjin believes that the construction of museums should be carried out around "people", and the museum is not only a place to list cultural relics and popular science knowledge, it is also a place to promote thinking and enhance aesthetics. Therefore, in terms of formal style, he tends to use artistic methods to show the beauty of historical precipitation.
In the collection of architectural styles, a total of 11 units submitted articles in Chengdu and Chongqing. Today, the design of the building is ranked third, and it was not optimistic at the time. "The first-place scheme is the most vocal, that is, directly designed 3 mounds, they feel that this is in line with the style of sanxingdui. The third place was snubbed because it was a bit abstract. Xiao Xianxian felt that the first place plan was too straightforward and less charming. After discussion, it was finally decided to use the third-ranked solution - a spiraling building with abstract meaning.
In order to preserve the visitor's emotional connection with the ancient Shu people's cosmology and natural view to the greatest extent, the Sanxingdui Museum adopts the design concept of "accompanying" the site. Under this idea, a step-by-step tour route gradually introduces visitors from the complicated modern life to the ethereal realm of the demigod, and finally returns to nature with the shock of ancient culture, making "architecture, cultural relics, exhibitions, and gardens" present a seamless effect.
The design team abandons any particular approach and turns to the most essential connection. The concept of "heap" comes from the waves, and after using this image, if the building breaks through the ground, with obvious local colors, a set of free spiral curves sway upwards, and the main form of the museum appears more free and mysterious. Standing in front of the Sanxingdui Museum, close your eyes, you can imagine the King of Shu holding a golden staff, wearing a golden crown, sitting on it, and the priest dancing in front of a large number of sacrificial objects...
In addition, the shape of the Sanxingdui Museum pursues the artistic combination with the landform, historical sites and cultural relics modeling, integrating the original meaning and modern viewing, aiming to show the Sanxingdui culture and Sanxingdui civilization. When it comes to the original intention of building a "museum-garden combination" museum, Xiao Xianxian believes that simply building a museum seems too boring, but if the museum has an environment, it will be much richer, "at that time, it was out of such a consideration," Xiao Xianxian said.
Walk from the front of the museum to the backstage
Xiao Advanced not only established a unique museum, but also boldly innovated in planning and setting up exhibitions. He believes that the exhibition of cultural relics in the modern sense should try to restore the scene at that time and let modern people feel the solemnity of the sacrifice, but the museum must be clear about its own positioning, enhance the audience's aesthetics and take into account science and education at the same time. Due to the age, nationality and education of visitors, it is also necessary to consider the diversity of the audience, not too obscure, not too simple and sloppy.
As a result, Xiao Advanced changed the previous museum's neat and uniform placement of cultural relics, through flexible layout, roundabout streamlines, transparent exhibition shelves, etc., so that cultural relics are staggered and staggered, giving birth to a stage-style effect. At the same time, he also creates a mysterious and long-term exhibition atmosphere through unique lighting design, large block collision and background music.
As the treasure of the town hall, the bronze sacred tree embodies Xiao's advanced aesthetic on display. In the dim light, several marble pillars supported a starry sky that belonged to the sacred tree. The sacred tree is covered by a transparent and bright glass cover, placed on a circular solid pedestal, and the top of the glass cover is connected to the starry sky by a shape symbolizing the worship of the sun. In addition to the light of the starry sky, the top of the sacred tree has a direct illumination lamp, the bottom is supplemented by a number of fill lights, in this silent and dark space, the bright heavenly tree spans time and space, once again showing the appearance of divine beauty, leaving the viewer with endless reverie.
In addition to the innovation in the cultural relics exhibition, Xiao Xianjin also added a "memorial performance" that simulated the ancient sacrifice scene in the museum planning, based on the prototype of the Sanxingdui cultural relics "altar" and many character statues, with the help of the archaeological example of the Chengdu Yangzishan altar in the ancient Shu era, to construct a simulated scene of the ancient ritual interpretation of the sacrifice ceremony. In this way of mobilizing synaesthesia, the museum is injected with new humanistic connotations.
"The great affairs of the country are in the worship and the rong". Sacrifice is the most important event in ancient society, which also explains the ideology of the ancestors. "These excavated cultural relics have already shown their greatest value at that time - sacrifice," Xiao Xianxian said, "time has changed, we can not speculate on how much spiritual inspiration these cultural relics carried at the moment of sacrifice ceremony." The ancient Shu ancestors who bowed down to the scene of the solemn and sacred sacrifice, with the highest ceremony of the country, expressed their inner worship of God, which was the power of faith."
The tall altar, the towering altar, and the fire of the heavenly canopy not only express the spiritual pursuit of the ancient Shu ancestors of "the unity of heaven and man", but also reveal their rich sense of life and broad cosmic feelings.
In 2004, Xiao Xiannian retired from the position of director of the Sanxingdui Museum and has since become the honorary director. In 2006, Guanghan City established sanxingdui research institute, and Xiao Xianjin was hired as the president of the research institute to continue the academic research related to sanxingdui. "The research work of the institute is relatively more extensive." Xiao Xianjin said that it is mainly some academic research related to Sanxingdui, such as holding a national or even international Sanxingdui academic conference, "replacing the journal with books" for the research on Sanxingdui cultural relics, and compiling relevant academic papers on cultural relics excavated from Sanxingdui into books. In addition, it is to carry out relevant academic research on the protection and utilization of Sanxingdui ruins, and the management and development of Sanxingdui Museum is also one of the contents of the research of Sanxingdui Research Institute.
Xiao Xianjin, who is 77 years old this year, believes that the discovery of sanxingdui No. 3 sacrifice pit to No. 8 sacrifice pit has ushered in new opportunities for the development of Sanxingdui Museum. He said: "The 'Shangxin' of new cultural relics will not only put forward new requirements for the exhibition and management of the new museum, but also expand the breadth and depth of the work of the institute." The display of new cultural relics and the application of new technologies can not only make the immersive experience of tourists better, but also increase the reputation and popularity of Sanxingdui Museum, so that Chinese culture can go to the world. ”