විශිෂ්ට චීන ගොඩනැගිලි වල කුඩා ලී ආකෘති හදන වං

Retired engineer devoted to making replica of ancient Chinese buildings

A retired engineer in Shanghai has been devoted for over a decade to making wood miniature replicas of ancient buildings in China, highlighting the wisdom of ancient Chinese architects by using the traditional tenon structure.

Wang Zhenhua, the retired engineer, has put his devotion to his craft to the ultimate test by attempting to carve intricate wooden miniature of China's most renowned buildings.

Wang's latest masterpiece - the miniature of the Zhaozhou Bridge, a stone arch bridge in north China's Hebei Province, recently became popular on the internet. The delicate bridge was made with pure tenon structure.

"It is built with 7,169 modules, adopting a standard module construction concept. This small open-shoulder arch, if I shrink it 50 times according to the prototype, it will be too small and invisible, and will not look good visually. So I enlarged it by 6 mm, so that it looks closer to the prototype," Wang said.

It took Wang three years to complete the miniature of Zhaozhou Bridge. The work is 1,280 mm long, 280 mm wide and 260 mm high, and can fully support a child weighing 15 kg to walk on it.

Wang, aged 66, was born in Shanghai. He has been fascinated by carpentry since he was a child. Later, Wang studied mechanical design and became an engineer after graduating from college. In his spare time over the years, Wang has devoted himself to studying the architectural ideas of Liang Sicheng, a master of modern Chinese architecture, learning the essence of mortise and tenon structure architectural design.

In 2010, 52-year-old Wang rented a house in the suburbs of Shanghai and began to study miniature building techniques. The first work was the miniature of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

Wang said he was lucky that he was supported by his family.

"I said I wanted to do and study miniature building, and integrate the mortise and tenon joint culture into it. My son said he believes in me, as I have always been a person who either doesn't do something or does it to the extreme, so he supports me," Wang said.

After officially starting his work, Wang discovered that there are many tricks involved in making miniature replicas of ancient buildings, and the creation of each work requires multiple steps.

"Doing this work is a test to your ability, your design ability, visual correction ability, material application ability, fixture making ability and modification ability. This is a very difficult process, so my work is composed of difficulties," Wang said.

After scrapping three versions of the model, the 81-fold miniature of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was completed in five years. This miniature is composed of 7,108 parts, the smallest of which is only 1.5 mm. Each part of the building can be disassembled, and the doors and windows can be opened and closed freely.

The miniature model of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest was Wang's first perfect work, and it won the gold medal at the 2016 World Handicraft Industry Expo. Later, he set a new goal for himself, which was to combine the miniature mortise and tenon structure with mechanics. Three years later, he made the miniature of the Zhaozhou Bridge.

Wang did not stop his efforts. In recent years, he has traveled back and forth to Yueyang in central China's Hunan Province many times to prepare for the miniature of the Yueyang Tower, one of the most well-known ancient towers in China.

"On the miniature of the Yueyang Tower, I wanted to better reflect my latest ideas and concepts about mortise and tenon joints, because the ideas in each of my works are different. For example, the Zhaozhou Bridge is a structure built with modules, and the Yueyang Tower is the embodiment of a higher-level mortise and tenon joint," Wang said.

In addition to making daily works, Wang also shoots short videos and posts them online to introduce knowledge about ancient Chinese architecture and miniature construction techniques. Wang hopes that in this way, more young people can know about the mortise and tenon structure and pass on this old technique.

"I still work 10 hours a day. My biggest wish is to pass on the legacy. I have set a 10-year goal for myself. As long as my eyesight and health permits, I will keep making the miniature the Yueyang Tower, the Yellow Crane Tower, and the panoramic view of the Forbidden City, and pass on the architectural soul of the Chinese culture," Wang said.

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