Luo Zhewen (1924-2012), a master of the protection of ancient Chinese buildings.
Member of the 6th, 7th and 8th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. When he was young, he made a great wish to "restore the old view of the long dragon", and since then he has been campaigning for the protection of the Great Wall for many years. He was the first person to investigate and measure the Great Wall for the study of the Great Wall, and the first person to organize the restoration of the Great Wall and write a monograph on the Great Wall after the founding of New China. In this article, Luo Zhewen's son tells the story of his father's relationship with the Great Wall and devoted his life to it.
In the midsummer of 2003, a piece of news attracted attention at home and abroad: "Luo Zhewen, an expert on the Great Wall of China, crossed Lop Nur, known as the 'Sea of Death', and set a record for the oldest person to arrive in the middle of Lop Nur." "My father was in his eighties. This is a scientific and cultural investigation participated by my father, a group of well-known figures in the scientific and cultural circles went out of Yumen Pass, along the Silk Road, lasted nearly a month, and visited a series of historical and cultural relics such as the ruins of the Great Wall of Han Dynasty and the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, and gained a lot. Years later, I met a journalist who participated in the expedition and told me an anecdote from my father's trip. Before entering the middle of the lake, it was too dangerous for everyone to think that my father should not go in. When my father found out, he firmly disagreed, so everyone came up with a way to quietly advance the departure time by an hour. However, the next day, when everyone touched the car lightly, they found that the father was already sitting in the front seat of the car with a smile.
After walking out of Lop Nur, my father gave an interview, and reported: "The experts of the Great Wall of China have solved the three major misunderstandings of the Great Wall in history: first, they have clarified the misunderstanding of the starting point of the Great Wall, the starting point of the Great Wall is not limited to the past said 'from Shanhaiguan in the east to Jiayuguan in the west', Jiayuguan will be extended a lot to the west, and the starting point of the Qin, Han and Ming dynasties is also different; The second is the function of the Great Wall, which has always been considered to be a defense against plunder, but in addition, the Great Wall also has the function of protecting communication and trade and travel. Third, in the past, people believed that the Great Wall was used by the Han people to defend against other ethnic minorities, but in fact, the Great Wall is the crystallization of the common labor and wisdom of the people of all ethnic groups in China. ”
Yanmen Pass Great Wall.
The reason why my father's expedition attracted so much attention from the industry was not only because he ventured into the "Sea of Death" as an elderly man, but also because this "first person on the Great Wall" released cutting-edge information about the study of the Great Wall after the investigation. So, how did you get the title of father?
It turned out that at a meeting of the China Great Wall Society in 2004, Wang Dingguo, a veteran revolutionary, lamented the progress made in the protection and utilization of the Great Wall in recent years, and counted the role played by his father, and also put forward the term "first person". For example, they were the first to investigate and survey the Great Wall for the study of the Great Wall, the first to organize the restoration of the Great Wall after the founding of New China, and the first to write a monograph ......on the Great WallIn the end, everyone agreed that these "firsts" were unmatched. To this end, the Great Wall Society of China also made a plaque of "the first person on the Great Wall" to give to his father.
My father's relationship with the Great Wall is inseparable from the guidance of my wife Lin Huiyin. When the Great Wall was inscribed on the World Heritage List, my father said with emotion, "I can finally explain to my wife." ”
When he was still in Lizhuang, one day Lin Huiyin told his father about Biansai's poems, during which he said: "On the top of the mountain in our north, there is also a type of brick and stone building style that is different from the civil structure - the Great Wall. Inside and outside the Great Wall is our hometown, and after driving out the invaders, we have to go to conduct a special investigation. At this time, his father, who grew up in a southern ravine, had no concept of the Great Wall, and he had only heard of the Great Wall mentioned in the lyrics of "The Ballad of the Great Wall" and "March of the Volunteers" that circulated during the Anti-Japanese War. However, Lin Hui's emotional description has buried the seeds of the Great Wall in his father's heart.
In the autumn of 1947 at Tsinghua University, Lin Huiyin found his father and said: "Now that I have returned to Beiping, I can carry out the investigation of the Great Wall." Badaling, near Beijing, is an important site of the Great Wall, so you should first go and inspect it to see how it goes. With the entrustment of his wife, my father stumbled up to Badaling in a variety of ways such as cycling, riding, riding a donkey and walking all the way, and in the extremely difficult road conditions at that time. That day, when he climbed over a mountain beam, he was shocked by the spectacle that appeared in front of him: the Badaling mountains in late autumn were red and the forests were dyed, and the majestic Great Wall was hovering in the mountains like a giant dragon against the backdrop of the red glow, which was simply picturesque. My father couldn't help but sigh: "It's so majestic, it's so magnificent!" "As a son and daughter of China, there is no reason not to be proud of the creation of our ancestors. When he climbed the Great Wall, the Great Wall under his feet had mostly collapsed and was desolate. At this time, he wrote a poem and made a grand wish to "restore the old view of Changlong". From this day on, my father's life was associated with the Great Wall. Due to the influence of the Liberation War and the current situation at that time, the Great Wall investigation ended here, and the Great Wall research plan drawn up by Lin Huiyin was not carried out as expected.
In 1952, my father, who had already entered the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, gladly accepted the task of repairing and opening part of the Great Wall. My father proposed that the restoration work should be carried out in the two important sites of Juyongguan, Badaling and Shanhaiguan, and the organization should obtain approval. Subsequently, my father led the team to lead the donkey to Badaling. After three months of meticulous surveying and mapping, my father formulated a detailed restoration plan, and in accordance with the advice of his mentor Liang Sicheng, he clarified the restoration principles of "renovating the old as the old" and "keeping the original state", and later these basic guidelines were written into the regulations on the protection and management of cultural relics and the protection of cultural relics. A year later, on the National Day, the restoration of the Juyongguan Badaling Great Wall was completed and opened to Chinese and foreign tourists. My father also presided over and participated in the maintenance and restoration of Shanhaiguan, Jiayuguan, Jinshanling, Mutianyu, Simatai, Jiumen and Yumen Pass.
Luo Zhewen and other experts went to the foot of Zhaoyin Mountain in Beiwusutu, Hohhot City, Inner Mongolia to inspect the Great Wall of Northern Zhaobei in the Warring States Period.
In the 50s of the 20th century, my father published the first monograph on the Great Wall in China's history, "The Great Wall"; In 1977, the idea of establishing the Great Wall Studies was first proposed. In 1984, as an expert, my father participated in the activity of "Love My China, Build My Great Wall", which attracted attention at home and abroad; In 1987, under the active advocacy and promotion of his father, the China Great Wall Society was established and the inaugural meeting was held in the Great Hall of the People. In the same year, my father drafted the text of the Great Wall's application to the United Nations for the World Heritage List, which was approved as one of China's first world cultural heritages. ......His father has climbed countless sections of the Great Wall, and he has climbed many dangerous sections of the Great Wall no less than 100 times, and everyone affectionately calls him "the first patron saint of the Great Wall".
This article is excerpted from the 6th issue of "Zongheng" in 2023, and the text is abridged.
Editor: Tang Lei.