On April 18, Yang Liqun restored ancient books at the Ancient Books Restoration Studio of the Yunnan Provincial Library. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
Kunming, 28 Apr (Xinhua) -- Unveiling the upper and lower two layers of hardwood planks, Yang Liqun carefully pulled out a piece of Yiwen paper that had been repaired, and the original gap had been filled, and the paper had returned to its original softness.
"We are very confident in repairing yi documents." Yang Liqun, 64, works in the Yunnan Provincial Library and is a restoration instructor at the Yunnan Provincial Ancient Books Conservation Center, leading a group of apprentices here for many years to "treat diseases" for various ancient books.
His recent "consultation object" is 5 volumes of Yi ancient books, a national intangible cultural heritage, part of the Epic of the Yi people, which records the origin of all things in the legend of the Yi people, due to serious damage, it is in urgent need of rescue repair.
"Most of the ancient Yi books are leather paper, and after years and months of storage in caves, eaves and other reasons, it is easy to appear flocculated, and if you are not careful, you will crack." Yang Liqun said that after the restoration plan was determined in March this year, the restoration team composed of 8 people officially started the restoration work.
On April 18, Yang Liqun was restoring ancient books. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
A pair of tweezers, a watering can, a brush, a couple of brushes of different sizes... In the ancient book restoration studio, such equipment is set in a manual set and placed in several large pockets of each person's apron. Zhong Chuyu, a "post-90s" girl who joined the team last year, is also equipped with a camera responsible for taking photos and archiving each ancient book.
"At first, the restored ancient books were in front of me, and I couldn't believe it myself." She said.
The restoration of ancient books is generally divided into preparation of materials, repair of book leaves, smoothing of book leaves, cutting of book leaves, binding restoration and other steps. Prior to this, Yang Liqun and many other experts need to conduct a comprehensive analysis according to the damaged parts, degree and paper characteristics of the book leaf, and finally select the appropriate repair method, such as patching, digging lining, clamping, etc.
"What kind of restoration method is used depends on the paper quality of the original book. It's like a silk clothing, if you use "really good" to patch, it will certainly not look good. Yang Liqun said that in addition, the restoration of ancient books also needs to follow the principle of repairing the old as old and least interfering, and try to realize that the restoration process is reversible.
Yang Liqun was born into a family of ancient book restorers, and his parents were the first batch of ancient book restorers in the Yunnan Provincial Library. When he was in junior high school, he followed his father to learn ancient calligraphy and painting restoration and mounting. In 1979, at the age of 21, Yang Liqun entered the Yunnan Provincial Library and worked with his mother to restore the rare books in the library, mostly ancient Chinese books.
Yang Liqun (right) restores ancient books on April 18. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
Yunnan is a major province of ancient books for ethnic minorities in China, with a stock of more than one million ancient books. For a long time, a large number of ancient books have been scattered among the people, eroded by the years, and urgently need to be rescued and restored. More than 10 years ago, Yang Liqun turned the object of restoration to ancient books of ethnic minorities, including Yi, Tibetan, Dai, and Dongba Classics.
Among them, the Nagra Cave Scripture, which took 4 years to be successfully restored, was a sensation.
In 2010, the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Library's Ancient Books Expedition Team learned from a local medicine collector that it had seen some Tibetan scriptures in a cave about 100 kilometers from Shangri-La. The expedition team immediately took action and eventually unearthed more than 10 kinds of Tibetan scriptures and more than 2,000 pages, which were later called "Nagra Cave Scriptures".
How to carry out rescue restoration of this batch of Tibetan scriptures? The problem was thrown to Yang Liqun and others. "It's a mess, either completely glued to like a brick, or mixed with dirt, and there are traces of fire." Yang Liqun recalled.
In view of the fact that there was no similar precedent for the restoration of ancient Tibetan books in China at that time, some people suggested that they should be put aside first and then restored when the conditions are ripe. At this time, Yang Liqun, who had not slept for several nights, took the initiative to ask for help and proposed a preliminary repair plan.
But he then found that the patch paper matching the original book was difficult to trace. "In order to prevent insects and moths, ancient Tibetan paper was made with wolf poison weeds, but this traditional papermaking process is likely to be lost." To this end, Yang Liqun and his colleagues visited Fujian, Tibet and other places, and finally confirmed this conjecture.
There was no paper replenishment, and Yang Liqun simply made it himself. After determining that the customized skin paper in Anhui would be used as the basic paper, he traveled to Shangri-La and other places many times to find the wolf poison grass, mash its roots, and extract the original solution and add it to the pulp used in the supplement.
This is the "artificial pulp supplement calligraphy" that was later recognized and widely used in the industry. With the joint efforts of many parties, the Nagra Cave, which is of great research value, was finally restored. Yang Liqun said: "The restoration of ancient books is not only to repair holes and repair paper, but also to protect a period of history and civilization, and I dare not slacken off." ”
And this is just a microcosm of his decades of dealing with ancient books of ethnic minorities.
"If you like this line of work, you don't feel bitter, and you will study it as soon as you have time." Yang Liqun often jokingly calls himself a "batter maker". But it is not easy to be a good craftsman, and he has two criteria for recruiting apprentices: one is to be fixed, and the other is to be responsible.
"In layman's terms, in our line of work, we must have a reverence for ancient books, but we must not be afraid of it." Over the years, in the ancient book restoration training courses held in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, Yang Liqun has encouraged the trainees to directly get started and accumulate practical experience. At present, he has trained 863 trainees and trained more than 30 backbones of ancient book restoration. Among them is his daughter, 36-year-old Yang Luyuan.
"When I was a child, in order not to cause damage to ancient books, the most my father told me was: Don't touch it, don't touch it, stay away from it!" She said, "I didn't expect that I would still be related to ancient books after many years." ”
With the addition of his daughter, Yang Liqun was happier than anyone, as if he saw what he looked like back then. "It's not enough for us alone, I hope to cultivate more repair forces and continue to grow this team." He said.