Master Archaeologist

Chapter 67 Is it reasonable to have five of the four heavenly kings?
"These people are all full-time bamboo slip protection personnel of our Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center."

Ronghua proudly puffed out his chest, pointed to the staff who were peeling bamboo slips from the mud and said, "They are all young, and two of them joined the job only last year."

"Although they had no exposure to any archaeological-related work before entering the job."

"But now they have become the backbone of the bamboo slips restoration room!"

Although it is said that some colleges and universities have specially set up a major in cultural relics restoration, the enrollment level is very worrying, basically no one cares about it, and even most college students do not know that there is such a major.

In fact, the Jingzhou Cultural Relics Protection Center, or most cultural relic restoration institutions across the country, usually recruit people from the fields of chemistry, physics, biology, archaeology, museology, and fine arts.

Like the team that restored the painted lacquer coffin before, several people in it were from the Academy of Fine Arts, and they were responsible for the work of painting, powdering and gilding.

Mr. Fang Beisong, a leader in the field of bamboo slip restoration in China, also graduated from Analytical Chemistry.

There are very few people who have actually graduated from the restoration of cultural relics and joined various cultural relics restoration institutions, and most of them are still in the Palace Museum.

"The cultural relic restoration personnel in our center are all trained by themselves."

"Among the more than 60 skilled cultural preservation workers, more than 40% are under the age of 95, and [-]% are born after [-]."

"We adopt a master-apprentice system to train talents, and each department has a master who leads an apprentice."

"Under the words and deeds of the old masters, the old will lead the new, so that the work of cultural relics protection can be passed on from generation to generation."

Ronghua is really proud that the Jingzhou Cultural Relic Protection Center has a set of inheritance skills that are independent of other cultural relic restoration institutions and unique to Jingzhou, and are carried forward.

China's modern cultural relics restoration technology did not appear out of thin air.

The earliest is actually a group of cultural relics "counterfeiters" and restorers inherited from the Republic of China period.

Although there was no such thing as restoration of cultural relics in ancient China, there are indeed a group of people who have been studying how to restore cultural relics.

What is a little bit disgraceful is that the goal of this group of people is to manufacture fake antiques and seek profits from the real ones.

Just like the group of people who issue false certificates and print counterfeit money in modern society.

But it is undeniable that in order to be able to create enough fake cultural relics, these masters of counterfeiting have a very high level of "restoration" of cultural relics.

The restoration of cultural relics and the antique industry began to appear in the Spring and Autumn Period.

By the Tang Dynasty, fake works such as copying predecessors' calligraphy and paintings had appeared.

By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, it had become extremely popular, especially the imitation of bronze wares, most of which were based on real Shang and Zhou wares, and the shapes and decorations of the wares were quite realistic.

Even now, many unearthed bronze wares have been identified as imitations from the Song Dynasty.
By the end of the Qing Dynasty, China's "cultural relics restoration" was flourishing. Almost all ancient cultural relics were imitated, and four major factions had formed, and a large number of professional antique masters emerged.

It was called Jingcheng School, Suzhou School, WF School and Xi'an School by the antique merchants at that time.

Among them, the Jingcheng School is dominated by the masters of the Qing Palace Building Office. After the Revolution of [-], they went out of the palace to repair ancient artifacts near the Qing Palace for a living.

Later, a group of apprentices they taught entered the Palace Museum after the founding of the People's Republic of China and became the first generation of professional cultural relic restoration personnel.

The Suzhou school is because Suzhou has become a base for antique work since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and its heritage is deep enough.

During the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, Suzhou's famous antique bronze craftsmen became even more famous at home and abroad!
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, these masters of the Suzhou School and their apprentices were quickly recruited by some museums in the south of the Yangtze River, among which the Nanjing Museum took the lead.

Later, in the restoration of cultural relics, the Nanjing Museum and the Huizhou Museum were the sources of the "Southern School".

The WF School mainly flourished in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and later basically merged with the Jingcheng School, and belonged to the "Northern School".

Not to mention the Xi'an school, as the ancient capital of thousands of years, Xi'an is the most professional in engraving fake inscriptions on utensils, and the falsification of inscriptions also started in Xi'an.

Later, he was naturally recruited by museums in Shaanxi and the Central Plains, and became the first generation of professional cultural relic restoration personnel in the Central Plains and Guanzhong.

Only, only the field of cultural relics restoration in Hunan and Hubei, that is, the Hubei Museum and the Jingzhou Cultural Relic Protection Center, was created entirely by their own rags!

The restoration of lacquered woodware in the Jingzhou Cultural Heritage Center was indeed learned from the Palace Museum at the beginning.

But soon Jingzhou people relied on a large number of Chu bamboo slips and lacquered woodware unearthed in Hubei, and developed a cultural relic restoration technology based on modern scientific methods.

Forcibly opened the fifth road among the four major factions in China, and quickly climbed to the top, becoming the number one bamboo slip restoration technology in China and even in the world!

It has firmly occupied the top spot in the restoration of bamboo slips and lacquered woodware, and has secured the second place in the field of domestic cultural relics restoration. It is only inferior to the Forbidden City Cultural Relics Hospital in terms of comprehensiveness in the field of restoration.

And all of this has only taken more than 40 years. No wonder Ronghua is very proud.

"For the restoration and restoration of bamboo slips, our Jingzhou Cultural Heritage Center is the authority."

Ronghua raised his eyebrows proudly, pulled Chen Han closer to the blue water tanks filled with mud, and said, "These water-filled bamboo slips must be extracted very, very carefully."

"Although the appearance is still intact, the internal structure of the bamboo slips has been destroyed."

"And the soft ones are like overcooked noodles, which may break into several sections with a slight force."

"When cleaning and stripping these bamboo slips, everyone often joked that you must not shake your hands."

"With this trembling hand, the national cultural relics have increased again."

National cultural relics have increased again?

Chen Han was stunned for a moment, and immediately understood.

With a shake of the hand, one bamboo slip broke into two, three, and the number of cultural relics increased!

This interesting statement made Chen Han laugh, and asked with a smile: "After that, after cleaning the bamboo slips from the mud, what should we do next?"

Chen Han was very tactful and didn't propose to try it himself.

Or chat with these staff who are carefully peeling bamboo slips from the mud.

If it disturbs them and really increases the number of national cultural relics, it will be a sinner.

Anyway, for this visit, Chen Han made up his mind to only bring his mouth but not his hands.

He didn't touch anything, didn't touch anything, and only communicated with Ronghua.

Otherwise, if there is a slight mistake, it will be bad if the happy things turn into bad things.

Ronghua was very satisfied with Chen Han's cautious and sensible appearance.

It is a qualified way for a visitor to not be fussy and not to disturb the staff.

"Next, of course it needs to be cleaned." Ronghua grinned, and pulled Chen Han out of the stench-filled cubicle, into the large workshop of the bamboo slip restoration room.

And in this large workshop, three or five staff members wearing blue gloves and holding wolf hair brushes are busy with each rectangular white box.

(End of this chapter)