Only More Than 100 Pieces Of Ming Dynasty Costumes In The World Have Been Repaired, Which Has Become A Thorny Problem

Looking around the world, today's clothes of the Ming Dynasty in the Confucius Mansion have a different meaning: they are not from archaeology, but passed down from generation to generation by the Confucius family. According to incomplete statistics Ming Dynasty costumes There are only more than one hundred pieces. By chance, Shandong Museum has obtained more than 30 of them. The rest are distributed in the National Museum, Qufu and Japan. However, whether it is a national museum, Qufu, provincial museum or Japan, their collections of Ming Dynasty costumes are now facing the problem of "difficult protection". This kind of difficulty can be solved not only by money, but also by the cooperation of multiple research departments. It would be a pity for the whole history to lose these "living fossils".

　　1

　 two months

And a lifetime

Song Dong, a member of Shandong Museum, saw the news of "Five hundred years ago lace underwear unearthed from an ancient Austrian castle". However, after seeing these two so-called underwear pictures, Song Dong turned his eyes to several Ming Dynasty costumes in the computer.

In the 15th century, Europe had entered the Renaissance, while China was becoming more and more brilliant under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

"The same era, the same earth, but the difference is so huge. Because he knew that hundreds of pieces of Ming Dynasty clothing were stored in the warehouse in the same building as his office (in the cultural relics field, clothing is based on "piece" theory, such as a pair of shoes, which should be written as "two shoes" when logging in to the warehouse). If you take out any set of these clothes, you can clearly tell the world how powerful the Chinese silk industry was in those days.

"There is such a gap between being in the dark and being in the bright," said Song Dong.

In fact, At that time, Song Dong had only been involved in the research on the clothing of the Confucius Mansion in the Ming Dynasty for two months: "He was an ordinary staff member in the museum exhibition department before." But these two months made Song Dong have a strong interest in the clothing of the Ming Dynasty: "You don't know, once you really go deep into it, you will find that it is all about culture. It can be said that the clothing of the Ming Dynasty is the 'living fossil' of the Ming Dynasty. How people lived in the Ming Dynasty and what kind of cultural composition it was can be reflected in it."

Because of this, Song Dong is very worried, because he knows that there are only more than 100 sets of Ming Dynasty costumes in the world today, and these more than 100 sets of costumes are now facing the same problem, that is, "damage".

For Song Dong, perhaps two months only allowed him to understand the clothing of the Ming Dynasty, but he has already determined that doing a good job in this exhibition is to contribute to the protection and restoration of the clothing of the Ming Dynasty.

　　2

　　 Sitting and walking

All in clothes

At the mention of these three words, "standing as loose, sitting as bell, and walking as wind", perhaps most people first think of traditional Chinese martial arts.

"In fact, that's not true at all. This is what traditional clothes require of people." Song Dong, who once tried to wear a set of imitated civilian clothes for scholars in the Ming Dynasty, sighed.

The stiff Taoist robe forced Song Dong to straighten his neck at all times: "Otherwise, it will hurt your neck." The loose belt and tight front require the wearer to straighten his chest and stomach, The long lower hem lets the wearer walk with a straight chest and head up: "The distance of each step must be well controlled, and you can't drag your feet. In a word, you will understand what it means to stand loose and walk like the wind when wearing this dress. When you sit down, if you can't straighten your waist, the whole person will look very untidy, which is called sitting like a clock."

Maybe many people will think that people wearing such clothes are simply against themselves, but in Song Dong's view, this is exactly the ancient people's emphasis on etiquette: "Why is it designed like this? It is to ask you to observe etiquette, know etiquette and observe it, which shows that people in the Ming Dynasty attach importance to etiquette."

According to historical records, after the end of the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, reformulated the costume system, focusing on the costumes of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and redesigned a set of distinctive costumes of the Ming Dynasty.

"In fact, every design of the clothes in the Ming Dynasty is very cultural. Take the collar as an example, this kind of firmness is to make you not turn back and whisper. You can imagine that everyone should stand well in the court. If you whisper, the collar will remind you that it is impolite to do so. This is a true portrayal of the culture at that time."

In addition, the use of colors and patterns in the clothing of the Ming Dynasty, And the production process also has a very strict process: "For example, if you buy a pure cotton T-shirt and leave it at home, in 50 or 60 years, the clothes may be finished, but now we are very lucky to get more than 30 sets of clothes 500 years ago, which is a rare treasure for studying the life, culture and economy at that time."

　　3

　 Hiding in Yan Shenggong and his wife

Baby in the bedroom

As a descendant of Confucius, Yan Shenggong of all generations has been rewarded and cared for by the royal family. As a representative of respecting Confucian culture, Yan Shenggong of all generations enjoys the treatment of first or second rank civil officials, and is respected as the first of all civil and military officials.

The old collection of clothes from the Confucius Mansion is the representative of the emperors who respected Kong Shouren in all dynasties.

In the late 1950s, two suitcases from the Ming Dynasty were handed over to the Qufu Cultural Administration Commission at that time: "These two suitcases contained clothes worn by the Confucius family during the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were probably less than 100 pieces, most of which were clothes of the Ming Dynasty."

The clothes in these two boxes are now stored in the Shandong Museum, Qufu Cultural Management Council and the National Museum respectively: "The Shandong Museum handed over more than 30 of them from Qufu at that time, and all of them are well preserved. The Beijing Calendar Museum transferred about 6 of them at that time, which is now the number of national museums, and the rest belongs to Qufu."

Song Dong certainly understands the value of these clothes today: "Well, even in the imperial mausoleum like Dingling, the clothes unearthed have been carbonized and damaged. The clothes of the Ming Dynasty are basically unearthed all over the country, and the color information dug out has been lost. Most of them have the phenomenon of de fibrosis. After all, these clothes are made of silk and hemp, which means protein, which will deteriorate and decay. So the Confucius Mansion can preserve these clothes There are so many clothes of the Ming Dynasty. It's really not easy. " It is understood that these two boxes have been hidden in the bedroom of Duke Yan and his wife. "It's really not easy to keep these clothes so well."

According to the survey of Shandong Museum, there are no more than 100 pieces of Ming Dynasty costumes handed down in the world at present, most of which are in Shandong Museum and Qufu. In addition, in Japan, South Korea and other places, there are a small number of costumes given by the Ming Dynasty to these countries.

However, unfortunately, there are not many scholars studying clothing in China at present, Moreover, most archaeologists do not attach much importance to the study of clothing: "Because there are too few objects, we can't study them. In fact, we also understand the importance of clothing, but we can't help it. What we dig out is basically afraid to move, and it becomes a piece of debris. There are relatively few of them in existence, so it is impossible for people to move at will." {page_break}

　　4

　 Show or not

That's a question

From August 9, the provincial museum will display more than 100 pieces of Ming Dynasty Confucian costumes, and Song Dong is one of the leaders of this exhibition.

In order to organize this exhibition, Song Dong and Lu Jian, the clothing keeper of the Ming Dynasty, had several arguments on their views. "In fact, this is a very normal business discussion. As an expert in warehouse keeping, she certainly hopes not to show up, because the temperature and humidity in the warehouse are very strict, and there will be no big mistakes in the preservation. But I think that since we have these cultural relics, we should open them to the public, let them visit these things, and read from them the Chinese Ming Dynasty Culture and lifestyle. " This is a pair of contradictions between cultural relics protection and cultural relics display. Protection and inheritance are equally important.

On August 7, at the provincial exhibition site, Lv Jian arranged the exhibition nervously and carefully. She carefully checked every piece of clothing, and repeatedly demanded to reduce the light intensity. "In fact, I don't object to the exhibition, but I always feel that it will be safe in the warehouse, at least not damaged," Lu Jian told reporters.

However, the damage still occurred. During the exhibition arrangement, a piece of common clothes fell off several pieces of black slag after being hung on the booth due to carbonization. Both Lv Jian and Song Dong felt heartbroken. The staff carefully replaced the common clothes. The fallen dregs were also cleaned up and put back into the warehouse together with the common clothes. The dregs will be handed over to the Cultural Security Department for sampling and research.

"The current situation is like this. These clothes are in urgent need of dyeing research, weaving research, and production research, and need to be copied and repaired." But Song Dong understood what it means to repair a Ming Dynasty dress.

　　5

It's not money

Things

"It's not about money to repair these things." Lv Jian told the reporter straightforwardly that the girl born in 1985 came to work in the provincial museum after graduating from Renmin University with a master's degree in history.

In her opinion, at present, the global clothing of the Ming Dynasty is facing the problem of repair: "It is not that they are improperly stored, but that these clothes are made of protein. Damage is inevitable, and the key is repair technology."

"Even if the country and leaders attach importance to it, and allocate tens of millions every year, it is difficult to repair these clothes," Song Dong said.

First of all, it comes from the dyeing of clothing, which is different from the chemical colorants we see today, The dyeing of ancient clothing is mainly based on plant dyeing: "The most important value of these cultural relics is color information, which requires a special research institution to analyze the color of clothing, and then produce pure natural plant dyes. With the mastery of traditional plant dyeing technology, the vulnerability and decay characteristics of textile cultural relics will be less terrible."

The subsequent difficulty is to repair, "At present, the darning technology of the Ming Dynasty has been basically lost. Maybe only some regions in the south where the weaving industry is developed still have people who can use this technology. We must find such people or institutions, such as some professional colleges and universities studying silk, and cooperate with them to re study the darning method of the Ming Dynasty, so that we can start to repair these clothes Service. "

Even if these two problems are solved, researchers need to carry out repeated experiments on how to successfully imitate the same clothes as those in the Ming Dynasty, from dyeing to darning: "So we are also very anxious about how to do these things well, how to pass on these things, and don't let these information break or lose in our place."

Song Dong's anxiety is understandable, Because he can't find any way to learn: "Even in Japan, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty gave a set of gifts to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the current situation of that set of gifts is not optimistic. One of the reasons why we hold this exhibition is to let the audience have a glimpse of the style while the clothes are not damaged much, and another selfish idea is to attract the attention of the whole society and let competent research institutions follow me We will work together to study a safe way of research, protection and repair, and continue to pass on this batch of things from the Ming Dynasty. "