Zheng Xinmiao and Shan Jixiang have successively served as presidents of the Palace Museum, and recently, the two published "Taihe Full - Zheng Xinmiao Said the Forbidden City" and "Habitat in Beijing - Awakening Industrial Heritage" respectively in the China Encyclopedia Publishing House.
The Forbidden City is a cultural symbol of China, a cultural heritage of the world, and one of the few cultural languages in China that can go global without "translation". During Zheng Xinmiao's tenure as president, he opened the century-old overhaul of the Forbidden City, carried out a seven-year clean-up of cultural relics, broke the isolation of the Forbidden City on both sides of the strait, and put forward the concept of "Forbidden City Studies". After stepping down as president, he was still engaged in research related to the Forbidden City. Based on a large number of precious historical materials, combined with many personal experiences, "Taihe Full - Zheng Xinmiao Said forbidden city", for readers to show a real three-dimensional Forbidden City.
Before becoming a "family member" of the Forbidden City, Shan Jixiang did 20 years of urban planning work and 20 years of cultural heritage protection. As an urban planner, a World Heritage promoter and an old Beijinger, he brings readers the book "Habitat for Beijing – Awakening Industrial Heritage", which highlights the Chinese urban story of how Shougang Park transformed from an old factory building into a Winter Olympic Park.
On April 22, the two directors of the Forbidden City walked into the Dongcheng District Library in Beijing to talk about the Forbidden City and cultural heritage with the theme of "The President of the Forbidden City talks about the Forbidden City and cultural heritage", and share their thoughts and insights as guardians of cultural heritage and book creators. This is also one of a series of online activities planned and launched by the Beijing News Book Review Weekly Cultural Living Room during World Reading Day.
Zheng Xinmiao (center) and Shan Jixiang (left) at the 2022 Dongcheng District "World Book Day" theme event and "Forbidden City and Cultural Heritage" book launch, which was hosted by the Propaganda Department of the Dongcheng District Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Dongcheng District Culture and Tourism Bureau, and the China Encyclopedia Publishing House. (Courtesy of the organizer)
In addition, at this event, the Dongcheng District Physical Bookstore Development Alliance was officially established, and at the same time, Dongcheng District launched five "City of Books" slow life visit punching routes, such as "National Tide Fashion", "Book Ying Centennial", "Guofeng Quiet Lane", "Yaji Liuyun", "Old City Wenhua", covering Wangfujing Bookstore, Codeword Bookstore (Wangfujing Pingpu Bureau Store), PAGEONE (Beijing apm Store), Sanlian Taofen Bookstore (Art Museum Store), More Reading Club (Dongcheng Longfu Temple Store), Shanhai Sihe by Jetlag Books, There are 38 physical bookstores and street libraries, including the Shuxiang Shiye Theme Block and the Meihou Huangshi Jingshan Citizen Cultural Center.
The Forbidden City is a cultural whole
In the sharing session of the new book, Zheng Xinmiao was deeply touched: "The Forbidden City cannot be finished and written. "The reason why the new work is named "Taihe Full" is because these four words are actually a plaque written by emperor Qianlong of the YiheXuan in NingshouGong District." "He" is the core value concept of traditional Chinese culture, and "Taihe" is "Yamato", which is the highest realm of "He". The Temple of Taihe is the most important building in the Forbidden City. Today we give it a lot of new things through critical, inherited and creative transformation, so "too much and full" also reflects a concept today. The Taihe Hall is not a simple ancient building of the Forbidden City, but also carries the wisdom and traditions of our national culture.
"Taihe Full - Zheng Xinmiao Says the Forbidden City", by Zheng Xinmiao, China Encyclopedia Publishing House, January 2022
"Why should the maintenance of the Forbidden City restore the appearance of Kangqian's prosperous world?" Why does the cultural relics cleaning of the Forbidden City treat many trivial things as treasures? It is to value the connection between them. Zheng Xinmiao stressed that the Forbidden City is a cultural whole, and the ancient buildings of the Forbidden City, the cultural relics of the Forbidden City, and the Palace Museum itself are actually linked. The ancient buildings of the Forbidden City are not a place to hide treasures, but because these cultural relics are placed in the Forbidden City, if they are stripped out, the value of some cultural relics will be affected. For example, in the square in front of the Taihe Hall, there are several lines of white color on both sides, which is actually the sequence in which the civil and military officials stand when the Forbidden City holds major ceremonies. For example, the military aircraft department is very famous, but the table material inside is very general, it is an elm table, why is this? Zheng Xinmiao said that this is actually the embodiment of the concept of hierarchy. Including each meal, as you can see from the archives, there are specific criteria.
Forbidden City (video screenshot)
The emperor also drank bean juice? This is of course a legend. However, Zheng Xinmiao saw a record in the Qing Palace archives that once some new things were paid tribute from other places, and the Internal Affairs Department issued the same standards to the emperor and concubines. For this reason, the Yongzheng Emperor lost his temper and thought that these things could not be used by the concubines, because there was a hierarchy in it. In the Forbidden City, many seemingly ordinary things, including a piece of clothing, reflect the concept of hierarchy and the system of rules and regulations. From the perspective of architectural level, the Taihe Hall is the highest level of building in the Forbidden City, how should we appreciate it? Zheng Xinmiao said that the Taihe Hall is the representative of the three major halls of the Forbidden City. The Ming and Qing Dynasties Imperial Palace inherited the traditional three-fold city system of miyagi, inner city and outer city, and its main buildings were arranged in conjunction with the Zhou Li Kao Gong Ji, which is the most consistent example of this record in Chinese history.
Zheng Xinmiao, former vice minister of the Ministry of Culture, fifth president of the Palace Museum and honorary president of the Chinese Poetry Society (video screenshot)
After entering the 21st century, with the deepening of the understanding of the overall protection of the Forbidden City, the Palace Museum has set up two major projects. One of them is the "Overall Renovation and Protection Project of the Forbidden City", which was officially launched in 2002 and lasted for 18 years. This maintenance plan is divided into two stages: from 2002 to 2008, the main buildings on the central axis and beyond will be repaired; from 2009 to 2020, when the Forbidden City is completed on the 600th anniversary of the completion of the Forbidden City, the environmental remediation and overall protection of the ancient buildings will be fully completed, and the maintenance and management of the ancient building will be institutionalized, standardized and digitized, and a virtuous circle will be entered. Zheng Xinmiao particularly emphasized the significance of the overhaul of the Forbidden City: "This reflects our country's attitude towards the protection of world cultural heritage, and also shows that our country is rich and strong, and we have the strength to protect it." He proposed that carrying forward and inheriting historical and cultural heritage is meaningful to the development of our society and to our cultural construction today, and they carry and embody the wisdom of our national culture.
Industrial heritage is a historical testimony to the culture of the city
"To hand over a magnificent Forbidden City to the next 600 years in its entirety" is a solemn promise made to society by Shan Jixiang during his tenure as president of the Forbidden City. After stepping down as dean, "Slash Old Single" told the story of China in the World Heritage Site through the "Ten Thousand Miles Walking Single Ride" program and a series of books.
Industrial heritage is a testament to the city's history and is also being integrated into the new era of urban life. In the new book "Habitat in Beijing - Awakening Industrial Heritage", Shan Jixiang, as an urban planner, a world heritage promoter and an old Beijinger, transforms the 751 industrial heritage from an old factory building to a Winter Olympic Park through Shougang Park, and transforms the 751 industrial heritage into a cultural and creative gathering place, combining realistic visits with concept traceability, telling the story of Chinese cities with the protective reuse of industrial heritage.
"Habitat in Beijing: Awakening Industrial Heritage", by Shan Jixiang, China Encyclopedia Press, January 2022
Shan Jixiang pointed out that industrial heritage carries the changes in human society and also records the history of cities. To protect industrial heritage is to preserve the memory of the times. On the mainland, since the Western Movement in the second half of the 19th century, especially in different historical periods after the founding of the People's Republic of China, valuable industrial heritage has been left. These industrial heritages are concentrated in old industrial cities, which not only witness the unusual development process of our modern industrialization, but also contain rich historical and cultural values, and are typical representatives of advanced productive forces. In April 2006, China's first consensus document on the protection of industrial heritage, the Wuxi Proposal, was released, and the issue of industrial heritage protection in the mainland has been on the agenda ever since.
Shan Jixiang said that on the one hand, industrial heritage records the development trajectory of the city and is a historical witness of urban culture; on the other hand, with the acceleration of urbanization, the protection of industrial heritage is also facing practical difficulties. But among them, there are also excellent cases that combine the protective reuse of industrial heritage with the construction of urban culture.
As the largest industrial enterprise in Beijing, in order to protect the urban environment and prepare for the new situation of the 2008 Olympic Games, Shougang obeyed and served the overall development of the capital, proposed to build a new factory site in the Caofeidian area of Tangshan, Hebei Province, and completed a major transfer from mountain to sea. Shan Jixiang said that in this process, Shougang's contribution to the city should not be indelible. He confessed that his brother was once a furnace foreman at Shougang Ironworks, and after entering the Iron and Steel Institute in 1977, he entered the Shougang Design Institute. Such an experience has made Shan Jixiang have a deeper memory of Shougang.
Shan Jixiang noted that many industrial heritage protections in the world have only begun to be protected after decades or even hundreds of years of industrial heritage have long been extinguished and stagnated, and they have been very broken. From this point of view, Shougang can be included in the protection before the flame is extinguished, which can more completely protect the entire production process and is a complete industrial heritage park. Here, Shan Jixiang compares Shougang to the Volklingen Steel Works in Germany, which has become a World Heritage Site, and believes that in many ways, it reflects the glory of the industrial age.
Shan Jixiang at the event site. (Courtesy of the organizer)
Here, Shan Jixiang mentions a word "awakening industrial heritage". He was very pleased that Shougang did not have any large-scale demolition or destructive transformation before the fire was extinguished, but quietly slept. Shan Jixiang said that industrial heritage and ancient buildings, closed and shelved, will accelerate their decay, rust, only into today's people's real life, use it, love it, cherish it, it can have vitality, can live, Shougang has gradually shown the brilliant charm of the industrial age.
In March 2020, because of the filming of "I Am a Planner", Shan Jixiang came to the Shougang Three Blast Furnace with the program team. In the past, the three blast furnaces were the meritorious blast furnaces representing Shougang's production capacity. Such a steel building, built entirely for steelmaking, after the fire was extinguished, how did this steel monster that once flowed with molten iron become a public space for people to linger in urban life?
In the main plant area of Shougang, there are a large number of industrial relics related to the iron-making process, such as the original three blast furnaces, cooling towers, thermal power plants, refined coal workshops, milling workshops, etc., which carry a large number of collective memories related to the production links, and implement protective reuse of these industrial heritages and transform them into museum display spaces, marking the complete transformation of these industrial heritages from industrial to urban. The protective reuse project retains the core industrial structures such as the main blast furnace part of the three blast furnaces, the hot blast furnace, the gravity dust collector and the dry dust collector, retains the original structure and external style of the blast furnace to the greatest extent, reorganizes the internal space, forms different functional areas such as display, exhibition, viewing platform, glass observation deck, etc., and continues to tell the "Shougang Story" to the world in the form of a museum, and displays and inherits the century-old Shougang industrial imprint.
In May 2016, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee moved to Shougang. The connection between the Winter Olympics and Shougang has added a "golden business card" to Shougang. Among the Facilities of the Winter Olympics in Shougang, there is one facility that everyone is very familiar with, that is, the ski jump known as the "Crystal Shoe", and at present, the only one left in the world after the Winter Olympics has been retained, which is undoubtedly a symbol. In Shan Jixiang's view, compared with ancient buildings such as the Forbidden City, the application of these industrial heritages can be more open.
Shan Jixiang said that in Beijing, Shougang is an important industrial heritage and an urban memory. Today Shougang has become the venue of the Winter Olympics, and gradually become a large-scale industrial heritage park, providing an attractive cultural environment and a large-scale cultural facility for our Beijing citizens, the people of the whole country, and especially for the youth. He proposed: "Our city needs cultural diversity, we need the superposition of our history, the deeper the superposition, the more cultural layers are superimposed, the more attractive the city is." "Therefore, the development of our industry in the past hundred years should also be protected, so that we can face the future with more cultural confidence."
Reporter 丨He An'an
Editor 丨 Zhang Ting
Proofreading 丨 Lucy