Wang Jun, who was once highly praised for "The Chronicle of the City", has now been transferred to the Palace Museum for six years.
On the day he reported to the then dean Shan Jixiang, he clearly proposed his research plan, he wanted to delve into the temporal and spatial pattern of the Forbidden City, and then interpret the value of Beijing City.
Now that the first step of this plan has been completed, the just-published "Yao Feng Shun Yu", with an exploration of the architectural layout of the Yuan Dadu and the Yin-Yang French style, unveils the planning ideas rich in ancient spaces.
Next, he will continue to follow the historical context and continue to unravel the code of Beijing's urban construction in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Today, Movable Type Jun shared with book lovers a recent report by China News Weekly to Mr. Wang Jun, a researcher at the Palace Museum. The reporter asked him, if you see Mr. Liang Sicheng in the future, what do you want him to say to himself? Wang Jun said, "It is enough for a reader to survive for a while. ”
Wang Jun: It is enough for a reader to survive
—
Xu Pengyuan Wen
Published in China News Weekly on March 21, 2022, No. 1036
Wang Jun, graduated from the Department of Journalism at Chinese min University in 1991, was a senior reporter at Xinhua News Agency and deputy editor-in-chief of Lookout Newsweek. In September 2016, he joined the work of the Palace Museum and is now a research librarian of the Palace Museum and the deputy director of the Institute of Forbidden City Studies. He has long been committed to the research of Beijing Urban History, Liang Sicheng's Academic Thought, Urban Planning and Cultural Heritage Protection, and has authored "City Chronicles", "The City in the Interview Book", "Picking Up The Year", "The Gap of History", and has won the National Excellent Bestseller Award, the National Library Wenjin Book Award, the China Publishing Group Award, the China Architectural Book Award, the Annual Commendation of the Hong Kong Branch of the American Institute of Architects, the Cultural Heritage Excellent Book Award, and the Chinese Good Book • 2015 Annual Jury Special Award. Among them, "City Chronicle" was selected as the "Sixty Books of Sixty Years" in 2009 by China Reading Newspaper, and was translated into English and Japanese for publication.
"Sometimes I feel very emotional, I have really done one thing in my life, and sometimes I can't help but think, everyone has their own life, I am such a life." 」 Near dusk in the Forbidden City, tourists are gradually dispersing, in the quiet, Wang Jun made such a summary of himself.
This is his sixth year as a researcher at the Palace Museum, after 24 years as a journalist. Thirty years, two very different professional identities, but because of the common theme of "Beijing City", constitute a coherent life path.
The year Wang Jun graduated from university and was assigned to the Xinhua News Agency branch was 1991. It was also the starting point of China's rapid urbanization, and as the capital built on the foundation of the ancient capital, Beijing ambitiously embarked on a large-scale demolition and transformation of the old city. Wang Jun, who ran to build a city, thus broke into a smoke-filled era construction site, from looking back at the "City Record" of the construction of the new capital in the 1950s and 1960s, to reflecting on the contemporary Chinese city-building movement,"The City on the Interview Book" and "Shi Nian", he strives to record all the changes that are taking place, and also thinks and looks for the ideal appearance of a city. Seeing the old houses fall down and the old alleys disappear one by one, he often falls into pain and anger, and when he is most bored, he always wants to go to the Forbidden City to see, to comfort and relieve the depression in his heart with "the sky is on the sky, the Forbidden City is still there".
Wang Jun, "Yao Feng Shun Yu: Yuan Dadu Planning Thought and Ancient China" (Life, Reading, And Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, 2022)
In 2016, Wang Jun was transferred to the Palace Museum. On the day he reported to the then dean, Shan Jixiang, he clearly proposed his research plan, he wanted to delve into the temporal and spatial pattern of the Forbidden City, and then interpret the value of Beijing City. Now that the first step of this plan has been completed, the just-published "Yao Feng Shun Yu", with an exploration of the architectural layout of the Yuan Dadu and the Yin-Yang French style, unveils the planning ideas rich in ancient spaces. Next, he will continue to unravel the code of Beijing's urban construction in the Ming and Qing dynasties along the historical context, and the title he has already thought of is "China in the Forbidden City".
"I think God gave me this task." Wang Jun told China News Weekly.
Inherent confusion
In 2017, Wang Jun investigated at the Changqing Kerr Temple in Litang, Sichuan. Photo/Courtesy of respondents
Wang Jun grew up in the Guizhou mining area, surrounded by endless mountains. When he was a child, he often led his family dog to climb the mountain to play, always wondering whether there was a grassland on the other side of the mountain, whether there was Tiananmen. When I finally climbed to the top of the mountain in junior high school, I found that the other side of the mountain was still a mountain. Today, when times have changed, he likes to use the freedom of "independent and spiritual exchange with heaven and earth" to describe the state of standing alone in the mountains, but what first came to his mind was endless loneliness, and at that time he only had one thought - to study in Beijing. The dream finally shone into the reality of this teenager, and he became a freshman in the 1987 class of the Journalism Department of Chinese Min University.
"At that time, I didn't know anything about Beijing, I didn't know anything about the old city of Beijing, and when I went to the Forbidden City, the plaques on the three major halls were 'Jianji Suiyou', 'Yun Zhi Zhong', 'Emperor Jianyouji', I don't know what it means." Recalling his first acquaintance with Beijing, Wang Jun used the word "barbaric" to describe himself. In his opinion, it was an innate confusion. "This body of knowledge is very foreign to me. I remember living in the shed when I was a child, and when I woke up, I saw the newspaper on the ceiling, and the words in big blackface could not be understood. After reading the book, I finally understood it, which scared me to death, a string of 'hits'. So my generation is actually very desolate inside, because when we open our eyes, we see a broken world, a world of fighting. When we were young, we read, and our own culture was hollowed out. ”
The innate deficiencies in cultural enlightenment continued to accompany Wang Jun in the future. In 1990, Beijing made a decision to renovate dangerous old houses throughout the city, and in the following decade, a total of 4.36 million square meters of demolition work was completed; in 2000, a five-year plan for the renovation of 3 million square meters was released again, and Beijing ushered in another wave of urban renewal. This is the work content that Wang Jun has always focused on since entering the news industry, and it has also been internalized into self-consciousness in his heart. "I'm facing a major event, which is whether the city of Beijing will be erased from the earth. I have an obligation to document it, and I also specifically want to prevent this from happening. "But whenever he expounded the value and protection of the old city in depth, he was always limited by the lack of knowledge structure." I think about a question all the time: Why should I do this, and where is the value of Beijing City? ”
It seemed that as fate had destined, Shan Jixiang, then director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, gave Wang Jun a chance at this time. Because of the interview acquaintance, Wang Jun and Shan Jixiang have maintained a relationship of mentorship and friendship for many years. In 2012, after Shan Jixiang became the director of the Palace Museum, he proposed the idea of transferring Wang Jun to the Forbidden City for research. However, Wang Jun did not agree immediately, because he still had one more thing to do in his heart. "The thing I was most worried about at that time was that everyone bought a commercial house, and the house price suddenly went up, and there were more than two hundred million people who didn't have a house to live in." How to solve the housing problem for them, I hope to be able to provide advice to the country. ”
In 2015, Wang Jun launched "The Gap of History", which reconstructs the historical experience of more than 100 years from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China and contemporary China from a macro perspective, and puts forward the core thinking of "rebuilding land rights and rebuilding contracts", hoping to promote the reform of the tax system and land system at a higher level. With the publication of this book, Wang Jun's wish three years ago was finally granted, so he replied to Shan Jixiang that he could go to the Forbidden City to report.
In 2017, Wang Jun (center) explains the architecture of the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City. Photography / Zheng Ming
In the years since, Wang Jun has plunged into the study of ancient construction systems and cultural genealogies. In accordance with the instructions of Zhang Zhongpei, the old abbot of the Forbidden City, he read through the pre-Qin and Han Chinese documents and archaeological reports involving the court system, and also read all the contents related to the astronomical calendar in the Twenty-Four Histories himself. These efforts were finally embodied in the new book "Yao Feng Shun Yu", in which he skillfully opened up the time code and Taoist pursuit hidden in the space of the Yuan Capital with the key of classics, and then understood Chen Yinke's "Hu Han distinction is not in race, but in culture" in the "Brief Treatise on the Origin of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", and also understood Zhang Zhongpei's view of ancient China's "from cultural pluralism to national unity and pluralism".
Wang Jun felt that when he wrote "City Record", his soul was revived, and now when he wrote "Yao Feng Shun Yu", he found cultural roots. "This book was so important to me, and through the writing of this book, I finally solved the inherent confusion and finally felt that I was really a Chinese. One day I went to heaven to report to Mr. Chen Yinke, and he said, 'Little fellow, you are a Chinese,' and I didn't live in vain, and I didn't come to this life in vain. ”
Honor the way of Taishi
Today, on the Douban page of "City Record", you can still see such reader comments: ""City Record" is the kind of book that is tight in the chest and nose after reading for a while, it is impossible to read it in one go, but it is impossible to put it down. Although Wang Jun has always said that "Yao Feng Shun Yu" is also a book written in the style of a journalist, in terms of full quotations and notes, it may not be regarded as a suitable choice for mass readers. This is a bit like the feeling that Wang Jun himself has given to the outside world in recent years, because the readers who know him because of the "City Record" have not heard much about him for many years, and he seems to have completely bid farewell to the past that was facing the public and speaking outright, sitting inside the palace walls and burying his head in the pile of paper.
However, Wang Jun himself did not think so: "I have not given up anything, I am blessing all my previous things." "Every industry in ancient China had its own karma ancestors, and my karma ancestor was Taishi. Taishi is a journalist, a must-read, (and) knowledge of astronomy, geography, and personnel, and the knowledge system is universal. So I don't think I'm a transformation, I'm doing one thing, respecting the way of Taishi. He said.
The Ming Dynasty bone plates collected by the Shaanxi History Museum are decorated with a portrait of Sima Qian, and the back of the plaque is engraved with a book: "(Vacant) History, Tao Tang Dynasty to Lin toe, Articles Through the Ages, Ren Grandmaster!" Compared with "Spring and Autumn", it is absurd. Yang Xiongqi wrote eighteen thousand, and Liu Xiang 's "Saying Garden" fifty articles. Biao Gu father and son exquisitely described the work, just heard the museum honored the former sages. "History of the Dragon Gate", who is comparable? ("History of The Dragon Gate" is another name for "History" in the Ming Dynasty))
The most famous Taishi in history is naturally Sima Qian. In the "Book of Baoren An", which was passed on to future generations, he told about the injustices he had endured in order to practice the responsibility of Taishi: "I want to investigate the time of heaven and man, through the changes of ancient and modern times, and become the words of a family." ...... Then the servant pays the responsibility of the previous humiliation, although he is killed, how can he repent! In this regard, Wang Jun has a relationship with him. At that time, his investigation of Beijing's real estate market and his opposition to the demolition of the old city caused a lot of trouble because it touched too many interests, and even encountered death threats. "Some people obviously say that killing people is not a head-scratcher, and I said that you better not kill people, killing people is not good." In the face of China News Weekly's talk about these experiences, Wang Jun's tone was calm and still unyielding, "Every year we fight vicious battles and confront the forces that demolish the city of Beijing." ”
Wang Jun said that at that time, he would often dream that the alley was demolished, which was very painful. In one dream, he took the "Whole Map of The Capital City of Qianlong" and conducted a survey in the most representative YuanDadu Hutong South Street, but found that it had been razed to the ground. In that sense, he sometimes felt how nice it would be if he had never written about it. "I really don't want to have a book like 'City Record', because 'City Record' is about the demolition of Beijing City, and if these things don't happen, there would be no such book." I wish all my books were not available. ”
Within the ancient city of Beijing's Jinzhongdu, the 800-year-old Mishi Hutong was included in the demolition range in real estate development Wang Jun photographed in November 2007
When he finished writing "City Record", Wang Jun had another dream, dreaming that Beijing's overall plan was to be revised, and there would be no more demolition and construction in the old city. This dream gradually became a reality for more than a decade, although it came much later — only 1/4 of the old city, which accounts for 5.76% of Beijing's divisions. In 2005, the Beijing Urban Master Plan (2004-2020) clarified the strategic goals of protecting the old city as a whole, focusing on the development of the new city, and adjusting the urban structure; in 2017, the Beijing Urban Master Plan (2016-2035) emphasized that the old city could not be demolished again; in 2020, the "Detailed Control Plan for the Functional Core Area of the Capital (Block Level) (2018-2035)" once again required the strict implementation of the old city can no longer be demolished. Wang Jun said that this is also a realistic condition for him to come to the Forbidden City to do research in a down-to-earth manner.
At the same time, Wang Jun believes that the situation in recent years can only be regarded as partially good. The most fundamental driving force ultimately comes from the local masses, and only by restoring the growth mechanism of "unified regulation and self-construction, and flowing water is not corrupt" and handing over the decision-making power to the masses can the real rejuvenation of the old city be realized. "Public participation is the great mechanism, and the great mechanism will shape the great urban form." Wang Jun said.
American journalist Jane Jacobs expressed a similar view in The Death and Life of America's Great Cities: "Monotonous, inactive cities can only breed seeds of self-destruction." But vibrant, diverse, and focused cities nurture seeds of self-regeneration, and even if some problems and needs go beyond the limits of the city, they have enough power to perpetuate this regenerative capacity and ultimately solve those problems and needs. ”
Start by reading Liang Sicheng
Liang Sicheng at home no. 12 of The Shengyin Institute of Tsinghua University, photographed by Zhang Shuicheng in 1962
The scholar Yang Dongping once called Wang Jun "Beijing's benefactor" in an article. Wang Jun did not dare to accept this title, and only hoped that he could become a filial piety child in Beijing. But it is undeniable that many old buildings have indeed gained survival under his efforts, such as cai yuanpei's former residence at No. 75 Dongtangzi Hutong, Lu Xun's former residence at No. 11 Badaowan, and Dongsibatiao Hutong... Of course, there were more that could not be saved, and the most painful one for him was the former residence of Liang Sicheng Lin Huiyin at No. 24 Beizongbu Hutong, where he followed Liang Congjie, the son of Liang Lin, to this courtyard at the end of 1998.
For Wang Jun, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin have irreplaceable significance. To a large extent, "City Chronicles" is an epitaph he wrote to Liang Lin and his wife, because the bloody struggle and painful prophecies they made for the protection of Beijing city decades ago have become a status quo that they cannot bear to see. He saw Liang Sicheng's "myocardial infarction" and "high blood pressure" appear again and again in the city, and he felt more and more the pain of the skin that "demolishing a city tower is like digging up a piece of my flesh, peeling off the city bricks of the outer city like peeling off my skin".
"They are too important to my life, I have gone far, Mr. Liang and Mr. Lin are accompanying me." When it comes to Liang Sicheng, Wang Jun is always full of respect. Earlier this year, he also wrote in an article entitled "Starting from Reading Liang Sicheng": "Liang Sicheng's bumpy fate in the study of the history of Chinese architecture has repeatedly reminded us that if we want to know Chinese architecture, we must calm down, have a sympathetic understanding, seek truth from facts, and do not mix any attempts to sell fame and reputation, and do not do any extreme reputation. ”
He has always wanted to write a biography of Liang Sicheng, and has been preparing for nearly twenty years, but he still has not written it. On the one hand, because he was busy with the work at hand, on the other hand, he wanted to find the answer to a question first--the fate of Chinese culture in the 20th century. "Because it is precisely because they have a simple emotional and rational understanding of Chinese culture that they have encountered major setbacks in life." I had to answer what Chinese culture was in order to express their lives most profoundly. ”
This is another intention of his choice to devote himself to the study of the Forbidden City. In the exploration of beijing's urban planning in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Liang Si has become the basic path provided by the study of Chinese architectural history, and has also played an important guiding role. "The greatest contribution of Mr. Liang and Mr. Lin is to interpret the modular system of "Construction French" and "Engineering Practice" through architectural archaeology. Another aspect, which Mr. Liang also proposed, is the distribution of environmental ideas—that is, politics, patriarchy, customs, etiquette, Buddhism, feng shui, etc.—to the plane distribution of architecture. This research system of "structural technology + environmental thinking" can be seen everywhere in the book "Yao Feng Shun Yu".
The University of Pennsylvania Fine Arts Library in the United States holds the pottery book of "Constructing the French Style". This is a gift from Yang Tingbao to Professor Paul P. Cret (1876-1945) in 1926. From 1924 to 1927, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin studied under Professor Paul Crane. Wang Jun in August 2014.
Wang Jun said that he can't wait now, and when he finishes the book "China in the Forbidden City", he will immediately devote himself to the writing of "Liang Sicheng's Biography". If there is time later, he wants to write another book, "Death in the Alley", which has been brewing for many years, to explore the problem of dangerous houses since the 1950s. "In a period of peaceful development and economic growth, the best houses in urban centers are dying, which is something that has not been encountered in the history of Chinese cities, nor has it been encountered in the history of human cities, which is a world-class topic."
Other than that, Wang Jun had no other wish. Over fifty years old, he now deeply appreciates what Confucius called "knowing the Mandate of Heaven." "I really know the Destiny of Heaven, know what the Tao should be kept in this lifetime, and think more and more clearly."
The reporter asked him, if you see Mr. Liang Sicheng in the future, what do you want him to say to himself? Wang Jun said, "It is enough for a reader to survive for a while. "At this moment, evening has fallen, and the tourists outside the Forbidden City have dispersed.
END
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