Why should we protect ancient buildings?

Ancient buildings have historical value, scientific value and artistic value. These values can be recognized and applied because cultural relics carry historical information, which is the basis for us to know, study and appreciate ancient buildings and the core of cultural relics value.

The importance of historical information lies in that it can be continuously studied and understood, and there will be new interpretations. We can study savvy today, and future generations can also study savvy and use people's literature and materials.

The mastery of materials is becoming more and more comprehensive, and scientific and technological means are becoming more and more developed. The cognition of future generations will be richer and deeper than ours, and new discoveries will be made continuously. As long as the original objects of cultural relics exist, the understanding and interpretation of their information will never end. When the original does not exist, the interpretation of the information will be terminated. People can copy a cultural relic, but what they keep is only the information we already know. The information we have never known has been inadvertently lost, so it is impossible to find anything new. Because of this, we say that cultural relics are non-renewable.

The evaluation criteria of world heritage especially emphasize the protection of the authenticity and integrity of cultural heritage. China's Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics also stipulates: "The principle of not changing the original state of cultural relics must be observed in repairing, maintaining and moving immovable cultural relics." Are based on the same principle.

The authenticity and integrity of cultural relics are particularly important, because people can deepen their understanding of the information contained in a cultural relic. Cultural relics that are unknown in this era do not mean that there is no way to understand them in the next era. In 1950s, the dating of antiquities by carbon 14 method can be used to date cultural relics more accurately (here only refers to biology). However, the premise of adopting this method is that there must be original historical works. If the original is not preserved, it is impossible to know its exact age.

There is a longxing temple in Zhengding, Hebei. Its Mani Palace has the characteristics of the Jin Dynasty in appearance and shape. It was restored in the 1980s. At that time, cultural relics were restored by strict methods. Each part has a number when it is disassembled, and then it is restored in turn. At this time, it was discovered that the inclined arch of the temple was inscribed by the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty who built the temple at that time, with their own names and year numbers, thus accurately proving the construction age of the Mani Palace. It is conceivable that if you don't pay attention to the preservation of the original during maintenance, these materials will be lost, and the exact construction date of Mani Palace may always be a mystery.

It is necessary to maintain the authenticity and integrity of cultural relics, but it does not mean that they are completely "the same". In my opinion, "old-fashioned" is a common saying in cultural relics protection. It means good, but it is not accurate enough. These four words were first put forward by Professor Liang Sicheng of Tsinghua University. What he said at that time was not just these four words, but two sentences: "Cultural relics and historical sites should be kept as they are, not renovated; To prolong life, don't rejuvenate. " The purpose of "turning over the old as the old" is to "turn over the old", not to "create the old". Its core idea is to "prolong life", delay the time when historical information is destroyed, and let real historical information spread to future generations.

Therefore, the protection of cultural relics should be "original, original and original", that is, keep the original state, original appearance and original objects, so as to preserve all historical information. It is very important to preserve the original site as historical information. As we all know, Zhangfei Temple was moved because of the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir, but it was a last resort, and it was by no means a common practice of cultural relics protection. Others think that it is difficult to protect cultural relics in remote places, so it is not advisable to move valuable houses and ancestral halls together for centralized exhibition, because it is a pity that only the information of buildings is protected but the information of location is lost. Through the appearance of this building, we can ask why there are such gorgeous houses and beautiful buildings in remote villages now. This is an ancient traffic artery? Is it an ancient goods distribution center? Is there a tradition of doing business here? Do wealthy businessmen often buy houses? Or did the locals get famous and return home with clothes on? If the building stays in the village, the historical information of the village will attract people to study and make new discoveries. Once the building is moved, no one will ever know this information again. This is why the Ministry of Culture, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and other departments spent 28 years and spent hundreds of millions of yuan to vacate the Gongwang Palace.

While protecting the original site, we should also preserve the historical environment of cultural relics, that is, the surrounding landforms. Because the environment in which the cultural relics are located is also full of historical information, they complement each other with cultural relics and historic sites, and * * * tells the vicissitudes of history. For example, the Summer Palace is wonderful not only in the garden itself, but also in its environment. It borrows the scenery of Yuquan Mountain and Xishan Mountain. There is a graceful Yuquan Mountain pagoda outside Xidi Sixth Bridge with Xishan as the background. It is this environment and the Buddha Pavilion that together form a fascinating picture. It is through the information of this environment that we appreciate the superb artistic techniques of gardeners and admire the outstanding achievements of ancient garden art in China.

To sum up, the protection of cultural relics and historical sites should protect all their historical information, and the utilization of cultural relics and historical sites should also be limited to not destroying historical information. Only in this way can these historical information be fully utilized by us and future generations.