Riding the wind of rebirth

Old Wang, a thin man wearing glasses and a white shirt, also came up and shook hands with Zhou Zhi: "Hello, Comrade Zhou. We always thought those windows were made of some kind of mica. But Director Li called and relayed that you think they are made of sea moon shells. This discovery is remarkable. Director Li ordered me to immediately contact Professor Ruan, who is leading an investigation team nearby, and to come over as soon as possible. If it is confirmed, we will immediately take effective protective measures to protect this place."

"Comrade Wang, you can arrange for people to protect it first." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "The characteristics of the moon clam are quite obvious. You'll understand when I go over and explain it to you later."

"Then hurry up and lock the main door here first," Old Wang immediately instructed his men. "The passageways in the alley and the main hall also need to be prepared. You go and get ready. I'll stay with Professor Ruan and Comrade Xiao Zhou."

Before long, everyone returned to the courtyard, where several college students were sweeping dust off the windows. Their eyes lit up when they saw the three beautiful women behind their advisor.

"How is the situation?" Ruan Yisan asked.

"We've cleared... a window has appeared. Professor, could you... take a look?" A college student's face turned red, and he spoke somewhat haltingly.

If you only look at Mai Xiaomiao, it probably wouldn't be that bad, but Zhang Xinyi and Ye Xin, after applying light makeup, now have such great power.

Professor Ruan hadn't noticed any of this, but Zhou Zhi saw it as an opportunity and asked Zhang Xinyi, "Xinyi, you just said that Professor Ruan was lying on the road, what was the reason for that?"

“Hey! That’s the most shameful thing that happened to Old Ruan all his life.” Ruan Yisan said, “I was in a hurry back then. At that time, a highway was planned, which would destroy several ancient towns such as Zhouzhuang, Tongli and Luzhi.”

“Back then, the construction of the road in Wuzhen damaged part of it. It took a long time for my department and the province to get the road construction stopped. When I heard that it was going to be repaired again, I got angry and said that if anyone repaired this road, I would lie on the road and let the bulldozers crush me to death.”

Zhou Zhi found it amusing, but also quite admirable. If it weren't for the person in front of him, many ancient towns in China might not have been preserved. So he smiled and said, "I'm afraid it's impossible to protect ancient towns through this method, right? We need to find a reason why we must protect them. By the way, Professor Ruan, how was Wuzhen preserved back then?"

"Isn't Wuzhen the hometown of the famous writer Mao Dun?" Professor Ruan revealed a smug smile. "The ancient town itself is very well preserved, with a cross-shaped street layout. Wouldn't building a highway destroy the ancient town? Getting from Shanghai to Wuzhen back then was very inconvenient. You had to go to Tongxiang first and then change vehicles, or go to Nanxun and then change boats. It's not that the road can't be built, but we need to plan it out. The road can't be like a razor blade, cutting straight through the middle of the town, can it?"

Professor Ruan became agitated as he spoke: "But I couldn't persuade the local officials, so I went to the capital to find relevant departments. I finally found the Ministry of Culture and the head of the Urban Construction Group of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at the time. After learning that it was the former residence of Mao Dun, the Ministry took it seriously and sent a letter to the provincial CPPCC, stating that the surrounding environment of the former residence should not be damaged. After that, I rushed back to the province and asked the provincial CPPCC to forward the document to the county government at the time. Only then was the road construction project able to be re-planned."

"Impressive!" Zhou Zhi gave Professor Ruan a thumbs up. Who says professors have to be bookworms? This roundabout strategy was quite effective.

"Are you already working? Or..." After seeing his student, Professor Ruan looked at Zhou Zhi and his group and felt that this kid was even younger than his graduate students, including the girls behind him: "I just heard Xin Yi say that you are also from Tongji University? Which department are you in? You are about the same age, right?"

“Professor Ruan, I am from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Tongji University.” Zhang Xinyi introduced herself: “I am a senior this year, and Ye Xin is from East China Normal University, also a senior.”

"But Zhouzi is from Sichuan University. He's a genius; he completed his undergraduate degree in two years, his master's in one year, and is now doing his doctoral research. However, like me, he's also in the Chinese Literature department, specializing in Middle Chinese phonology." "That's impressive. And how come young Zhou is so knowledgeable about ancient architecture?"

“Ancient books and historical sites are hard to separate,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “I have some knowledge of collecting from my family, and later I was given some guidance by Mr. Wang and Mr. Qi. I also know a little about furniture. But when it comes to understanding ancient architecture, Xin Yi, Xin Xin, and I all participated in the preliminary investigation of the Three Gorges rescue protection organized by the Yu Tang Cultural Relics Protection Foundation. We conducted field surveys and collected data on the ancient buildings along the route that were to be relocated.”

"Yu Tang Cultural Relics Protection? How did you get involved?"

“Back then, the Yu Tang Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation wasn’t as famous as it is now. It was called the Three Gorges Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation. It’s not easy to get into the foundation now, but back then they were looking for people everywhere. They wanted college students majoring in related fields, literature, and history from Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, and Hunan. Our hometown is right on the Yangtze River, so we decided to join.”

"Not bad, not bad." Ruan Yisan had an even better impression of Zhou Zhi and the others. It seemed that they were all people who loved ancient architecture and knew its value, so they could be considered like-minded.

At this moment, Old Wang returned after arranging the manpower. Looking at the window that had been cleared out, he said, "This is a seashell? We always thought it was mica."

“In fact, mica was a very precious material in ancient times,” Zhou Zhi said. “Although with the advancement of modern technology, it is not difficult to obtain mica flakes, and mica flakes are widely used, it is still extremely difficult to truly restore the ancient methods and use traditional techniques to extract mica flakes suitable for windows from raw mica ore.”

"Therefore, the ancient supernatural tale 'Stories of Emperor Wu of Han' describes the divine chamber built by Emperor Wu of Han as having 'mica windows,' which could be compared with glass windows and coral windows, and were 'bright and clear.'"

"However, the story of Emperor Wu of Han is, after all, a tale of the strange and cannot be considered historical fact. Emperor Jianwen of Liang, Xiao Gang, wrote in his 'Letter of Thanks for the Screen:' 'The window made of mica is ashamed of its beautiful color; the fan made of glass is ashamed of its shadow,' clearly listing mica and glass as window decoration materials. It also explains their respective characteristics: mica has good light transmission but its color is monotonous and bland, while glass has bright colors but low transparency."

"However, compared to common window materials such as paper and silk, mica windows have an excellent feature: heat insulation. Their heat insulation effect is more than a thousand times that of paper windows, hence they are also known as 'thousand-layer paper'."

"However, mica is produced in the northwest and southwest, and in the coastal areas, seashells are still the most common material for making windows."

"However, according to ancient records, the so-called 'oyster shell window' is divided into the 'oyster theory' and the 'sea moon theory'. The Qing Dynasty scholar Xu Ke compiled the 'Qing Dynasty Anecdotes' which states: 'Ming tiles are made by grinding oyster shells into thin, semi-transparent sheets, sandwiching bamboo strips, and embedding them into windows. They were commonly used before the invention of glass, and were most often made in the south.'"

The Qing Dynasty's *Zhaoqing Prefecture Gazetteer* also mentions: "Oysters come from the sea off Yangjiang… Their shells are processed and used as window screens, thin and translucent, called 'bright tiles.'" This shows that historically, there was indeed a practice of grinding oyster shells into thin sheets and inlaying them into windows to create bright tiles.

"The earliest appearance of the characters 'Haiyue' (海月) alongside window making can be traced back to Liang Kejia's 'Chunxi Sanshan Zhi' (淳熙三山志) from the Southern Song Dynasty." (End of Chapter)