Guarding cultural relics for the rest of your life

The picture shows Xie Chensheng. Profile picture

Biography

Xie Chensheng, born in July 1922, is a well-known cultural relics expert in mainland China, honorary president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, and member of the Expert Committee for the Protection of Famous Historical and Cultural Cities. In 2009, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage awarded Xie Chensheng the honorary title of "Outstanding Figure in Chinese Cultural Relics and Museum Undertakings", and the China Cultural Relics Conservation Foundation awarded Xie Chensheng the "Lifetime Achievement Award for the Protection of Chinese Cultural Heritage". He is a deputy to the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and a member of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consult

"The protection of cultural relics is the first, and there is no research without protection." Xie Chensheng remembered Zheng Zhenduo's words for a lifetime.

Xie Chensheng is the main participant and author of a series of cultural relics laws and regulations in New China, and also a witness and party to many major decisions on the mainland's cultural relics undertakings. He has said many times: "I have always believed that to protect cultural relics is to protect the country." He participated in the drafting and revision of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, and actively promoted the inclusion of the cultural relics work policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization, and strengthening management" into the law. After retiring in 1994, he appealed for the protection of cultural relics, worked selflessly, and spared no effort.

On May 2, Mr. Xie Chensheng drove to hexi.

"I have always believed that to protect cultural relics is to protect the country"

Xie Chensheng has said many times: "I have always believed that protecting cultural relics is to protect the country. He participated in the drafting and revision of many cultural relics laws and regulations, and when compiled, they can form a distinctive personal "cultural relics monograph".

After the founding of new China, Zheng Zhenduo was appointed director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, and Xie Chensheng became a member of the founding Cultural Relics Bureau. He was bent on taking the road of research, and Zheng Zhenduo said: "You should engage in cultural security work, this matter is more important than research." Xie Chensheng remembered it in his heart, and he mentioned it more than once, "Until now, I am also carrying out the tasks he has given me." ”

Under the guidance and help of Zheng Zhenduo, Wang Yeqiu, Pei Wenzhong, Xie Chensheng drafted the first batch of government decrees and regulations on the protection of cultural relics in New China, that is, the "Interim Measures for Prohibiting the Export of Precious Cultural Relics and Books" and the "Interim Measures for the Investigation and Excavation of Ancient Cultural Sites and Ancient Tombs" promulgated by the Central People's Government in 1950.

In 1959, the Cultural Relics Bureau began to draft the Interim Regulations on the Protection and Management of Cultural Relics, and Xie Chensheng and his colleagues wrote several drafts before and after, which were issued by the State Council in 1961. Article 1 of the Regulations clearly stipulates that "all cultural relics of historical, artistic and scientific value shall be protected by the State".

"Protection first, rescue first, rational use, strengthen management"

In 1977, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics began to brew. As the main drafter, Xie Chensheng solicited opinions from many parties, changed his draft several times, and repeatedly revised it, which lasted for 5 years, and finally passed and promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in November 1982. Cultural relics protection units "when carrying out repairs, maintenance and relocation, they must abide by the principle of not changing the original state of cultural relics" and so on have been solemnly written into the law.

In 1987, in the drafting process of the State Council's circular on further strengthening the work of cultural relics, Xie Chensheng insisted on writing that "strengthening the protection of cultural relics is the foundation of cultural relics work and the premise for giving play to the role of cultural relics." In 2002, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics was promulgated, and Xie Chensheng participated in the revision of the law as a consultant throughout the process, and for the first time wrote the sixteen-character policy of "protection first, rescue first, rational utilization, and strengthening management" into law.

"Since the founding of New China, our policy on cultural relics work has eliminated interference from all sides, and the guiding ideology has always insisted on putting protection first, relying on the masses to protect cultural relics, and relying on the legal system to protect cultural relics." In 2019, Mr. Xie Chensheng sighed in an interview, "In the past 70 years, the correct policy of cultural relics work has not changed, how difficult it is!"

"Guarding the soul of national culture, leaving a victorious trace for the country and the future generations"

Xie Chensheng is not only the drafter of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, but also a staunch enforcer and defender. In the 1990s, it was he who initiated a joint proposal by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to protect the cultural relics of the Three Gorges. Shan Jixiang, president of the Chinese Cultural Relics Society, was most impressed by Xie Lao's painstaking efforts to protect the ancient city of Beijing. He also bluntly said several times that the protection of Nanjing's urban cultural heritage cannot be "thick in the present and thin in the past, suspected of being poor and loving the rich". Later, whenever the protection of cultural heritage encountered challenges, everyone would say "find Xie Lao and think of a way". The phone number in his home has become a "cultural security hotline", where to be demolished, where the old city has been destroyed, many cultural security volunteers will tell him at the first time...

Many reporters have been to Xie Lao's unpretentious house in Anzhenli, Beijing. Simple concrete floors, mottled walls, the most ordinary desks, sofas, the beds are always piled up with mountains of newspapers and books. In the winter, I wear Chinese cotton clothes, and I don't like to turn on the air conditioner in the summer... Everyone also remembers the deafening and inspiring view that Elder Xie said, "It is better to protect more than to be mistaken."

The last time the reporter met Xie Lao in public was on December 9, 2018, when the Professional Committee of the Historical and Cultural Street of the China Cultural Relics Society held its annual meeting. It was a very windy day and the air was cold, and many experts and scholars of cultural relics conservation gathered together to share their experiences in historic district preservation and community renewal. Elder Xie also came, sitting in a wheelchair and listening carefully. During the intermission, everyone came forward to salute him, and more people looked at the old man's innocent face from a distance...

In 1993, Xie Lao was diagnosed with cancer, but he learned to live peacefully with the disease. Surgery, chemotherapy, leaving the hospital to continue running... This state of affairs continued until 2018. In recent years, his health has been good and bad, and it has always been everyone's biggest concern. Shan Jixiang said that the Chinese Cultural Relics Society will give Xie Lao a birthday every year, and he will not be able to wait for this day in the future.

"The country and the mountains have left a trace of victory, and my generation has come back." This is his favorite verse. In 2010, he wrote an article exclaiming: "Guarding the soul of national culture, leaving a victorious trace for the country and the future generations, is an important step that we must take in the process of rejuvenation of this ancient nation." "Now that the Si people have passed away, the best memorial for him is to protect the cultural heritage of the motherland without complaint or regret like him."

People's Daily ( 2022-05-06 12th edition)