Gudaizhongbiao Restoration Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The existing ancient-clock restoration technique derives from the Clock-Making Office (Zuozhongchu) of the Qing palace's Imperial Workshop (Zaobanchu); it has been transmitted in one continuous line without interruption or outward leakage, forming the Palace Museum's present ancient-clock restoration technique. In the Qing dynasty, China already used mechanical clocks as timekeeping instruments; the earliest clock producers in China were the Qing palace's Imperial Workshop Clock-Making Office and the folk clock workshops of Guangzhou. Until the end of the Qing dynasty's rule, the original Clock-Making Office craftsmen remained within the Forbidden City engaged in the restoration and maintenance of the Qing palace's clocks. In 1925, the Palace Museum was founded, and the original Clock-Making Office craftsmen were again retained by the Palace Museum to restore clock cultural relics.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Restoration of Palace Museum clocks relies not only on knowledge of the clocks' mechanical structure, operating principles, and historical background, but also involves various techniques such as openwork carving, raw-lacquer making, raw-lacquer repair, and gilt seal-engraving. The Palace Museum's ancient-clock restoration technique mainly includes such technical steps as structural investigation, disassembly, cleaning, decontamination, derusting, drying, pivot-tip insertion, tooth repair, welding, riveting, filing and grinding, assembly, gear meshing, spring tensioning, mainspring running, splint joining, and verification of the minute and hour hands, plus hand-sleeve replacement and adjustment. The Palace Museum's ancient clocks often have exquisite appearances and complex mechanical structures, so during restoration one must attend to detail and beauty, finely restoring and treating every component to ensure the restored clock presents its optimal effect. Ancient-clock restoration has always followed the core principle of "not altering the original state of the cultural relic," meaning minor repairs for small damage, while major repairs must preserve the relic's original appearance; at the same time, according to the clock's original design and style, appropriate materials and techniques must be selected for restoration to maintain its original beauty and style. In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi reign, the Qing palace established the Imperial Workshop to specially undertake the manufacture of various imperial-use objects. Out of affection for clocks, the emperor established the Clock-Making Office under the Imperial Workshop; the Clock-Making Office once manufactured several imperial-made clocks, while continuously restoring and daily maintaining the Qing palace's clocks.
The unbroken line from the Clock Workshop
The Imperial Workshops set up a Clock Workshop in the nineteenth year of the Kangxi reign, which both made court clocks and maintained them; the craft passed on through successive institutions and is still practised daily in the Palace Museum.
From structural survey to reassembly
A clock is surveyed, taken apart, cleaned, de-rusted and dried; teeth are replaced and parts soldered, riveted and filed; on reassembly the pins are re-cut, the train set up and the hands checked and adjusted until the movement runs true.
Without altering the original state
The guiding rule is that the original state must not change: minor faults are patched, major repairs still preserve the original appearance, and materials and methods follow the original design and style.
Openwork carving and lacquer alongside horology
Beyond the mechanism, cases and decoration call for openwork carving, lacquer work, repairs with raw lacquer and gilded incised inscriptions, so the restorer must know horology, carving and lacquer together.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The transmission subject of the ancient-clock restoration technique is the Palace Museum; the Museum's clock-restoration line concentrates technicians from the time of the Clock-Making Office, and its process procedures and acceptance standards are all perpetuated within the Museum. After the fall of the Qing court, the original craftsmen still remained within the Forbidden City; when the Palace Museum was founded in 1925, they transferred into the Museum's cultural-relic restoration posts—this transition kept the line unbroken. Over more than a century, the Museum's restoration objects have been mainly the former Qing palace collection, but also include earlier imported European mechanical clocks. Beyond Beijing, similar objects are also held by clock shops and private collectors in the Tianjin–Shanghai area, thus forming a radiating pattern centered on the Palace Museum.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The ancient-clock restoration technique refers to the traditional craft of protectively restoring ancient mechanical clocks. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, these craftsmen continued to work on ancient-clock restoration at the Palace Museum, while also cultivating a group of highly skilled clock-restoration experts, transmitting the craft to the present day. The Palace Museum's ancient-clock restoration technique accommodates the differences and fusion of Chinese and Western cultures, displaying the flourishing scene of court Sino-Western cultural exchange in the Ming and Qing periods, becoming a bridge of Sino-Western cultural exchange and a vivid testament to cultural diversity, with high artistic-aesthetic, scientific-research, and historical-cultural value. Wang Jin (as recorded in the official archive of the associated inheritor): male, Han ethnicity, born in August 1961, from Beijing. Representative inheritor of the ancient-clock restoration technique, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project of the fifth batch. With over forty years of practice, he has restored several hundred pieces of cultural-relic clocks, including the Swiss "Magician" clock, the British "Elephant-Drawn War Chariot" clock, the Swiss "Bird-Song" vase clock, and the British gilt-bronze umbrella-turning flower clock. He has led research projects at the Palace Museum such as "Maintenance of Several British Clocks in the Palace Collection and Study of Their Escapement Mechanisms" and "Research and Fabrication of the Design and Structural Principle of the Gilt-Bronze Embedded-Stone Lifting Pagoda Clock Movement." He has participated in international exchanges many times, emphasizing the absorption of modern scientific achievements to elevate ancient-clock restoration technology. He values the transmission of the craft, and has taken on the apprentice Qi Haonan.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Jin 05-2900
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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