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Restoring ancient texts a painstaking art

By Liu Jun (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-26 09:48

Bending over a brown scroll unfolded over a huge desk, Hu Yuqing meticulously picked on the edge of a new piece of paper that she had glued to the old scroll with a pair of tweezers. She spread the feathery fibers of the paper, which are less than 0.5 cm long, onto the scroll evenly.

"This ensures that the new material won't be stuck to the old scroll abruptly, which will exert too much pressure on the fragile scroll and cause further damage," she explained.

The scroll, full of neat rows of fingernail-sized Chinese characters, is part of a Buddhist scripture hand-written in the Tang Dynasty (AD618-907). Scorched for unknown reasons on both ends, the scripture is one of the precious Dunhuang scrolls stored at the National Library in Beijing.

Hu Yuqing and her 29 colleagues at the Rare Books Restoration Center of the National Library have repaired 5,000m, or half of the Dunhuang scrolls in the library over the past 18 years.

Hu is one of fewer than 200 professionals in China who can restore ancient texts. Despite a shortage of funding, Hu and her colleagues have devoted themselves to restoring the ancient classics, whose mere existence has helped preserve Chinese civilization for some 3,000 years.

In an unprecedented national survey last year, researchers discovered that one third of 30 million classics of historical value, either written on paper or silk, or carved on bamboo slips or other materials, was in urgent need of restoration.

A major boost for the preservation of classics came last March when the State Council issued the first List of National Treasures. The Dunhuang scrolls were included in the 2,392 items of utmost value. The scrolls were first discovered in 1900 in a hidden cave at the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes of Northwest China's Gansu province, a holy site of Buddhism on the ancient Silk Road.

Of the more than 50,000 pieces of the Dunhuang scrolls in museums, libraries and private collections around the world, some 16,000 are designated national treasures at the National Library.

A palm-sized piece of darker brown paper covered a hole in the scroll Hu was working on one recent day. It was glued on there during a previous restoration by a restorer who had used a piece of a less valuable book to repair the hole.

"There is a certain communication that I have with my predecessors as I repair the damaged scrolls," Hu said.

She has done one-fifth of the restoration work of the scrolls since joining the team in 1987. "It was dull at first, but you get used to it," she said.

According to Du Weisheng, 56, the senior member of the team, the oldest Dunhuang scrolls at the library are more than 1,600 years old. "After our restoration work, they can last for at least another 500 years, " he said.

An army veteran, Du joined the library staff in 1975. He has done restoration work on all four major treasures at the library: the Dunhuang scrolls, the 900-year-old Grand Buddhist Scriptures from the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), the 600-year-old Yongle Encyclopedia and the 200-year-old Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Branches).

However, restoring ancient texts is far more than just patching and mending. "It takes learning in many fields for someone to succeed in this career," said Zhang Ping, 55, former head of the restoration center.

The General History of All Eight Banners, a book dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), before (left) and after insect holes were patched. Photos courtesy of Rare Books Restoration Center. [China Daily]

For example, a master in ancient text restoration must be a connoisseur of paper and fabrics to know what materials to use for repairs. A restorer should also have the expertise to recognize when a book was published from its edition and printing style, Zhang explained.

When the pages of a book are loose or damaged, a restorer must be able to read ancient Chinese well to sort them out in sequence. When the pictures are damaged or indistinct, it helps if he or she knows how to paint to add strokes and colors where they are needed, Zhang said.

"We treat ancient works like doctors their patients. We need to diagnose before deciding on what steps to take. Many classics are the sole copies extant. An error could cause an irrevocable loss. The longer I work in this profession, the more I feel like I am skating on thin ice," said Zhang, who joined the library some 20 years ago as a carpenter.

With a microscope, Meng Xiaohong of the Rare Books Restoration Center studies the fiber content of a Peking Opera performace list used about 100 years ago in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) imperial court. [China Daily]

Du was equally cautious. "It can take me two days to restore one stroke of a written character. That bit of information, however insignificant, could be invaluable to researchers."

Meng Xiaohong is one of the youngest members of the team. In her early 30s, Meng came to the center two years ago with a Masters degree in chemistry from the China University of Mining and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Unlike her colleagues who work with tweezers, glue and paint brushes, Meng was armed with two microscopes and a computer. She analyzes tiny scraps of paper fibers from ancient books. Her report on the physical and chemical condition of the fiber help the restorers find similar materials and, more importantly, find ways for duplicating them.

In repairing the Yongle Encyclopedia, a collection of some 7,000 ancient works, the team couldn't find the same fiber for a book cover. In the summer of 2002, Zhang rode her bicycle all over the city before spotting a similar material at Ruifuxiang, a store selling silk and clothes.

If they could replicate old paper, such an arduous search would be unnecessary, Meng said.

Speaking with an evident passion for her work, Meng compared the aim of her job to the famous armless statue of the Venus de Milo: "You must respect history and beauty, even if it means broken beauty."