遺存深山的中國瑰寶

南京大學建筑學院副院長趙辰教授7年前看到的浙江慶元縣后坑木拱廊橋時說，它就像一個“斷了假肢的殘疾人”，如今這座古橋的維護工作，已經被聯合國教科文組織授予亞太地區文化遺產保護卓越獎。

慶元今年5月15日舉行了隆重的頒獎儀式，聯合國教科文組織亞太地區文化管理辦公室文化遺產項目主管帕翠西亞·阿爾伯特女士為后坑橋修復項目頒發了聯合國教科文組織亞太地區文化遺產保護卓越獎，這是聯合國教科文組織針對亞太地區文化遺產保護設立的最高獎項。

2001年夏天，專門研究建筑歷史的趙辰教授到浙江省慶元縣考察木拱廊橋，他發現建于1671年的后坑橋“破爛到難以形容的地步”，木拱架的幾根拱骨因為是又長又粗的木材，早在1987年就被人偷走，當地文物部門只能用自來水鐵管支撐。

“趙教授當即在橋頭給浙江省文物部門的領導打電話，他在中午的大太陽下打了一個小時的手機，幫助慶元爭取了財政撥款，后來又打電話來問資金有沒有到位。”當時陪同考察的慶元縣博物館工作人員吳其林說，“他是救活后坑橋的及時雨。”

后坑橋得到了浙江省和慶元縣20萬元撥款，加上當地村民集資2萬多元，終于2002年完成了修繕工作，爾后北京大學世界遺產研究中心為后坑橋維修項目成功申報了2005年度聯合國教科文組織亞太地區文化遺產卓越獎，闕維民教授說，這是對歷代造橋工匠、當地政府和村民以及參與保護者的嘉獎。

慶元縣竹中村村委主任許貴洋為后坑橋捐了200元錢。他指著廊橋的一道大梁說：“上面有我高祖父的名字，他當時捐了500兩銀子，為此還賣了一些田地。這里的村民聽說政府出錢修橋，捐錢都很積極，大家說這是給老祖宗爭光的事！”

采用木拱結構并在橋面上蓋建廊屋的木拱廊橋，是中國特有的橋梁建筑。趙辰教授解釋說，木材屬于線性桿件，一般只能制成框架結構，難以彎曲成拱型，因此拱橋一般都用石料建筑。而中國的木拱廊橋則能用木材拼出接近拱型的結構，符合力學原理，非常巧妙。但是木拱廊橋建筑始于何時至今眾說紛紜，珍藏于北京故宮的千年名畫《清明上河圖》就畫有一座木拱橋。有專家認為這就是木拱廊橋的原型，但也有學者認為它和木拱廊橋只是“親戚”關系。

目前，中國還有上百座木拱廊橋分散在浙江省南部和福建省北部，其中浙江省南部的慶元縣境內分散著20多座，這些廊橋如今都得到了當地村民的保護。慶元縣舉水鄉月山村62歲的村民吳錫培每天都要和老鄰居們到村里的廊橋上走走，看看有沒有人在橋上抽煙點火。他們常去的如龍橋已經有400多年的記載歷史，是上百座廊橋中年紀最大的一座，并于2001年被評為全國重點文物保護單位。

防火是保護古老木橋最重要的工作，吳錫培今年1月17日晚上在橋上遇到村里的一個精神病患者在橋上走動，吳錫培怕他在上面放火，就到家里拿了一包餅干送給他，哄他從橋上走下來。村民也會幫古橋小修小補，甚至集資大修。70歲的村民吳安全說，“我們年輕的時候看到廊橋漏雨了，都會爬上去蓋幾片瓦。”

在如龍橋的房梁上，筆者看到了從明朝清朝以來重修的記錄，上面都用毛筆寫上了捐資人的姓名和金額，其中有鄉紳，有富裕農戶，也有當地縣官的名字。“中國文化鼓勵修橋鋪路，這里的村民認為在村里的河流上修建廊橋，可以阻擋河水把村里的幸運帶走，因此都很愛護廊橋。”吳其林說。

古老的廊橋一直是這里的村民的精神寄托。吳錫培說：“這是老祖宗傳下來的，現在又評上了國家文物，我們照看它，對得起祖宗，也支持了政府。”舉水鄉鄉長陳觀貴則告訴筆者，就連水牛耕田回來，也喜歡從廊橋上走，“大概是木橋面走起來比水泥橋面舒服吧。”

慶元縣2006年的人均GDP只有全國平均水平的一半，縣委書記蔡小華說，廊橋是祖先留下的寶貝，政府有義務維護它，這幾年政府給修廊橋的費用已經有兩三百萬元，縣政府每年都與各鄉鎮簽署保護廊橋的責任書，并且鼓勵鄉村老人協會保護村里的廊橋。同時政府還發動民間集資，光在縣城重修被火燒毀的一座廊橋，就收到了上百萬元的捐款。

專程考察了如龍橋、后坑橋等四五座木拱廊橋的阿爾伯特女士表示，這里的廊橋保護符合聯合國教科文組織提倡的原則，“當地民眾尊重歷史工程原理和天然材質建筑藝術，廊橋也成為美麗的鄉村文化景觀不可或缺的一部分，當地政府也保證了廊橋能繼續成為周邊鄉村公共集聚的場所，因此，與廊橋息息相關的根深蒂固的當地社會文化傳統，也能得以長期保持下去。”

Corridor Bridge Honored with 2005 UNESCO Heritage Award

Feng Yuan， Tan Jin， Wei Wei

At the sight of a wrecked timber-arched corridor bridge， Professor Zhao Chen compared the sorry-looking corridor bridge to a broken artificial limb of a physically challenged person. The piteous scene startled the expert， vice president of Architecture College of Nanjing University. He was in Houkeng Village， Qingyuan County of southern Zhejiang Province. It was a hot day in summer， 2001.

This is how Professor Zhao， a specialist in the history of Chinese architecture on a field study trip in Qingyuan County， ran into the corridor bridge built in 1671. To his great astonishment， he found the severe damage was beyond verbal description. Several timbers that used to serve as the arches for the bridge had been stolen in 1987 and the bridge was buttressed up only by a few iron tubes as replacement.

It was there and then that Professor Zhao made a telephone call to a leader of the cultural heritage administration of Zhejiang Province. The call lasted for an hour and Zhao finally got what he wanted. The administration agreed to allot an amount of cash to conserve and protect the ancient bridge. The Qingyuan County Museum official Wu Jilin was with Zhao that hot day. He remembers that Zhao later called to see whether the fund had come as promised. Wu comments that Zhao is the savior of the Houkeng corridor bridge.

The provincial and county governments sent in an amount of 200，000 yuan. Villagers chipped in to raise 20，000. In 2002， the corridor bridge was repaired. With the help of the Research Center of World Heritages of Beijing University， the bridge was honored with the Award of Excellence in the 2005 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation. A ceremony was held in Qingyuan on May 15， 2007 to celebrate the award. An UNESCO official came to issue the award and inspect five corridor bridges in Qingyuan.

The corridor bridge， which looks like a house built on timber arches， is a very Chinese architectural structure. Professor Zhao explains that linear timbers are usually good for square structures and that it is very difficult to curve timbers into arches. That explains why most ancient bridges were built with stones. But corridor bridges in Chinese were built on timbers spliced together in arching shapes. Smartly crafted corridor bridges conform to mechanical principles.

At present， China has about 100 timber-arched corridor bridges in Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces. Qingyuan County alone has more than 20. All of them are under protection now.

Local villagers are very enthusiastic to take responsibility for these bridges. They believe the conservation and protection of these bridges have something to do with the honor of their ancestors.

Xu Guiyang， head of the village committee of Zhuzhong Village， donated 200 yuan for the Houkeng Corridor Bridge refurbishment project. He is very proud that his great grandfather sold some real estate to donate 500 silver dollars to have the bridge repaired. The great grandfather’s name can be seen on a beam on the corridor bridge. Corridor bridges in Qingyuan all have the names carved in memory of those who raised money and took part in building.

Qingyuan， an inadequately developed county with GDP less than the national average in 2006， has had trouble in raising money to protect and conserve all the corridor bridges. The county government has assigned about 2 million yuan over years for corridor bridge protection projects. Local people play the major role in protecting these bridges. They patrol these bridges regularly and donate to have these bridges rebuilt. The 2005 UNESCO award recognizes the local effort for the architectural heritage.

(Translated by David)