環保大行動:雲岡石窟“洗塵”記

DATONG, China — The colossal Buddhist statues in the cliffside caves outside this northern Chinese city, carved from golden sandstone by Turkic-speaking nomad conquerors in the fifth and sixth centuries, were so covered in coal dust that when visitors blew on them, black clouds rose up.

[qh]

中國大同——在這個中國北部城市外的崖邊洞窟中有多尊巨型佛像，它們是講突厥語族語言的遊牧民族在五、六世紀在金色砂岩上雕刻而成的。佛像上覆蓋着厚厚的煤灰，訪客一吹，就會飄起黑色的煙塵。[qh]

Called the Yungang Grottoes, the relics had survived the rise and fall of dynasties, modern wars and the Cultural Revolution. But the scourge of a more prosperous China — industrial pollution — had been eating away at the sandstone.[qh]

這個被稱爲雲岡石窟的遺蹟歷經朝代興衰、現代戰爭，以及文化大革命，而留存下來。但中國的經濟繁榮帶來的後果——工業污染——卻不停地在侵蝕這些砂岩。

[qh]

Chinese officials and preservationists have embarked on an ambitious effort to protect them that could become a model for saving antiquities at other sites. They have not only cleaned the statues here and created a vast park, but also shut down nearby coal mines and removed or regulated other sources of air pollution.

[qh]

中國的官員和保護工作者已經開始採取雄心勃勃的舉措，保護雲岡石窟，使之在古蹟保護方面成爲其他遺址的典範。他們不僅清洗了雕像，建造了一個大型公園，還關閉了附近的煤礦，並清除或控制其他空氣污染源。[qh]

"You don't know how bad it was before," said Huang Jizhong, the head engineer at the Shanxi Province Cultural Relics Bureau and former research director at the grottoes. "The contrast is very dramatic."[qh]

“你不知道以前有多糟，”山西省文物局總工程師、前雲岡石窟研究院主任黃繼忠說。“對比非常明顯。”[qh]

Vast parts of China have some of the world's worst outdoor air pollution, and ancient sites across the country are falling prey to its effects, officials and scholars say. Among the antiquities damaged by acid rain are the giant Buddha at Leshan in Sichuan Province and an 800-year-old thousand-armed statue of Guanyin, a revered Buddhist figure, at Dazu, according to Chinese news reports. A professor in Guangzhou, a provincial capital in the south, warns that acid rain is also eroding the red sandstone buildings there from the Ming dynasty.[qh]

官員和學者表示，中國廣大地區的室外空氣污染堪稱屬於世界最嚴重的行列，全國各地的古蹟都深受其害。根據中國的新聞報道，被酸雨腐蝕的古蹟包括四川樂山大佛和已有800年曆史的大足千手觀音像。中國南部省會城市廣州的一名教授警告稱，廣州的明代紅砂岩建築也遭到酸雨腐蝕。[qh]

Even the terra-cotta warriors of Xi'an, a symbol of Chinese civilization, may be under threat. Lee Shun-cheng, an engineering professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has called for glass walls to be built around the warriors, now protected only by a roof.[qh]

中華文明的象徵——西安兵馬俑——可能也面臨威脅。香港理工大學工程學教授李順誠(Lee Shun-cheng)曾呼籲在兵馬俑周圍建造玻璃牆，現在保護兵馬俑的只有頂棚而已。[qh]

Experts working on the Yungang Grottoes, in the heart of China's coal country, are now advising officials seeking to preserve sites elsewhere. Mr. Huang visited the mountainside relics at Xiangtangshan and Yaowangshan, both in heavily polluted areas of northern China, and told officials there to shut down or move cement factories. In some cases, officials complied, and where they could not they built glass enclosures around the statues, Mr. Huang said.[qh]

雲岡石窟的專家正在爲那些尋求保護遺址的官員提供建議。雲岡石窟位於中國煤炭之鄉的中心地帶。黃繼忠參觀過位於響堂山和藥王山山腰上的這片遺蹟，這兩座山都位於中國北部污染嚴重的地區。黃繼忠建議當地官員關閉或搬遷水泥廠。他表示，官員們有時會遵從建議，而無法關閉工廠時，就在雕像周圍建造玻璃圍牆。[qh]

At the Dazu rock carvings in Chongqing and the Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, in central China, preservationists are using moisture-monitoring devices that were invented at Yungang.[qh]

在重慶的大足石刻和中原河南省的龍門石窟，保護工作者均在使用雲岡石窟首創的溼度監控設備。[qh]

"All these things share something in common: they suffer from the air and the water," Mr. Huang said. "So these places can draw directly from the Yungang experience."[qh]

“這些東西有共同之處：它們都受空氣和水的影響，”黃繼忠說。“因此，這些地方可以直接借鑑雲岡的經驗。”[qh]

A large part of the problem is coal. Burning coal emits sulfur dioxide, which further oxidizes in the atmosphere and then combines with water to produce sulfuric acid.[qh]

問題的很大部分在於煤。燃煤過程釋放二氧化硫，而二氧化硫在大氣中進一步氧化，然後與水汽結合產生酸雨。[qh]

In the 1980s and 1990s, as the coal industry here in Shanxi Province powered growth throughout China, the impact of acid rain and air pollution on the statues in the Yungang Grottoes was "severe," said Liu Xiaoquan, a senior manager at the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute. A national highway ran in front of the grottoes, where 51,000 statues stand in 254 niches and caves. Up to 20,000 coal trucks passed each day. Villagers burned coal for cooking and heating.[qh]

雲岡石窟研究院高級管理人員劉曉權表示，20世紀八九十年代，隨着山西省的煤炭工業爲全國各地的發展提供動力，酸雨及空氣污染對雲岡石窟雕像的影響“非常嚴重”。一條國道從雲岡石窟前穿過。雲岡石窟的254個洞窟中有5.1萬尊雕像，而每天經過的運煤卡車最多達兩萬輛，村民們也要燒煤，來做飯、取暖。[qh]

Restoration efforts, prompted by a bid for Unesco World Heritage List status, started in the late 1990s. Officials moved the highway in 1998 and barred coal trucks from using it. About 10 small coal mines were ordered shut, Mr. Huang said. Officials also moved six villages from the area, a total of 4,750 households, over the reported objections of some villagers, who said the compensation was too low.[qh]

爲了使這裏的雕像進入聯合國教科文組織世界文化遺產名錄(Unesco World Heritage List)，相關部門從20世紀90年代晚期開始努力展開修復工作。1998年，官員們遷移了高速公路，並禁止運煤卡車經過雲岡石窟。黃繼忠表示，大約有10家小型煤礦被要求關閉。官員們還將六個村莊遷出該地區，其中涉及4750戶家庭，有報道稱，一些村民拒絕搬遷，他們稱賠償金太少。[qh]

Workers used soft brushes to remove the coal dust that coated the statues. Many of the Buddhas now appear in the golden glory envisioned by their creators. On some statues, vivid paint added during later dynasties is visible again. The biggest Buddha, a seated statue 56 feet tall, has a thin layer of gold paint on its face.[qh]

工人們利用軟毛刷清掃雕像上覆蓋的煤灰，很多佛像如今金光閃閃，就像其創建者想象的那樣。後來的朝代在一些雕像上添加的鮮豔塗料又變得清晰可見了。最大的佛像——56英尺（約合17米）高的坐像——面部有一層薄薄的金色塗料。[qh]

The grottoes were designated a World Heritage site in 2001, and further work began in 2008, including the banning of tour buses from the nearby national highway, expanding the park that includes the grottoes to six times its original size and planting trees. In a courtyard is a shiny copper statue of Tan Yao, a monk from the Northern Wei dynasty who oversaw the building of the first grottoes for the imperial rulers.[qh]

2001年，雲岡石窟列入世界遺產名錄。進一步的保護工作於2008年開始施行，包括附近的國道禁止旅遊巴士通行，將石窟羣所屬的景觀區擴建至原規模的六倍，以及植樹種草。一座庭院裏坐落着曇曜的銅像，熠熠發光。這位北魏時期的高僧負責爲帝王們督建了首批石窟。[qh]

The numbers of Buddhist pilgrims and other tourists have grown. On a recent afternoon, dozens of nuns in gray robes arrived on tour buses. The park has 1.5 million to 2 million annual visitors, up from half a million a year less than a decade ago, Mr. Liu said.[qh]

慕名前來朝拜的佛教徒與遊客人數逐年增長。不久前的一個下午，數十名身着灰袍的尼姑乘坐旅遊大巴到達。劉小泉表示，景觀區每年接待150萬到200萬遊客，而不到10年前，每年僅爲50萬。[qh]

The most intense preservation and restoration work is underway at four of the most stunning caves. Workers are building wooden roofs to shield the statues from rain. After that, experts from the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, another sanctuary of Buddhist art, are expected to restore some of the paint. The last time the cave was painted was in the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from the 17th century to the early 20th century.[qh]

有四座蔚爲壯觀的石窟正在進行力度最大的保護與重建工作。工人們在修建木質頂棚，以防止雨水侵襲石像。完成後，從另一處佛教藝術聖地——敦煌莫高窟——請來的專家將重新畫上部分彩繪。上次石窟着色還是清朝的時候，而清朝統治中國的時間爲17世紀到20世紀初。[qh]

Workers are also trying to make digital recordings of all the artwork. Those would help with construction of three-dimensional renderings of the caves that visitors and scholars can view.[qh]

修復工作者還在努力對這裏全部的藝術作品進行數字備份。這將有助於構建石窟的三維渲染圖，供遊客與學者查看。[qh]

A mine run by the Datong Coal Mining Group, a state-owned enterprise, is still operating within sight of the grottoes. But the company has closed some shafts, and "they do well with dust and pollution control," Mr. Liu said.[qh]

在雲岡石窟的可見範圍內，仍有國有企業大同煤礦集團公司旗下的一座煤礦在運行。不過，劉小泉表示，公司已經關閉了一些礦井，而且“他們在煤粉灰和控制污染上做得不錯”。[qh]

On a recent morning, two photographers were setting up lighting equipment inside the first cave to take photos for the research institute. The cave has a stone pagoda in the center, typical of a sculpture in the middle period, said Ma Yexia, an official guide. A nearby twin cave also has a pagoda, though its base has been eroded by water that once filled the bottom of the cave. The water was pumped out sometime after 1949, when the Communists took over, Ms. Ma said.[qh]

不久前的一天上午，兩名攝影師在第1窟裏調試燈光設備，以便爲研究院拍攝圖片。這座窟裏的正中雕有一尊方塔，官方導遊馬葉霞（音）稱，這是典型的中期雕刻作品。附近的雙窟也有一座塔，不過它的基座因爲洞穴底部以前充盈的流水而遭侵蝕。馬導遊稱，共產黨1949執政後，抽乾了其中的水。[qh]

Running water, which can damage sandstone carvings, has been a danger for centuries. During the Jurchen Jin dynasty, in the 12th and 13th centuries, a river that ran in front of the caves threatened the statues, and a great warrior ordered the river to be redirected, she said.[qh]

流水能侵蝕砂石雕像，多個世紀以來一直是個威脅。馬導遊說，在十二三世紀的金朝，流經石窟前方的一條河直逼這些石像，於是一位偉大的將軍下令河水改道。[qh]

Cave numbers 16 through 20 have the oldest statues, built by the monk Tang Yao. The simple Buddhas here were carved from rock at the rear of the caves. Ms. Ma said one enemy was the rainwater, which makes the sandstone brittle and more vulnerable to the wind. The wall surrounding the entrance of cave number 20 has collapsed, leaving the sitting Buddha there exposed.[qh]

第16到20窟擁有最古老的雕像，爲高僧曇曜督建。這幾座窟裏的佛像頗爲簡樸，從後方的岩石中開鑿而出。馬導遊表示，雨水構成了一大威脅，會讓岩石疏鬆，更易於被風化。本應環繞第20窟入口的前壁已經坍塌，讓端坐其中的佛像暴露在外。[qh]

The oldest caves were used by the early Tuoba rulers of the Northern Wei to help spread the idea they had the divine right to rule over the conquered locals, Ms. Ma said. The Tuoba eventually moved the seat of their dynasty south to Luoyang, in present-day Henan Province. There, they built more grand Buddhist statues at the Longmen Grottoes. Officials at Longmen, which is also a Unesco site, have been carrying out preservation efforts similar to those at Yungang, following what is becoming standard practice for local governments that have sought international recognition.[qh]

馬導遊說，最古老的石窟被北魏前期的拓跋氏帝王用來宣揚，他們擁有天賦神權來統治被征服的當地人。拓跋氏最終將都城南遷至位於今天的河南省境內的洛陽。在那裏，他們開鑿了龍門石窟，建起更多宏偉的佛像。龍門石窟同屬世界遺產，那裏的管理者也在進行與雲岡類似的保護工作。這種做法正在成爲慣例，爲那些尋求國際認可的地方政府所遵循。[qh]

What Chinese officials have been unable or unwilling to control are the stratospheric levels of air pollution. Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that acid rain hit 135 cities in early 2013. Of those, 23 were severely affected. Mr. Huang said, "The current air pollution still poses a threat."[qh]

不過，嚴重的空氣污染，官方還沒能控制，或者說不願控制。官方媒體新華網曾報道，2013年上半年，有135座城市屬酸雨城市，其中23座屬重酸雨城市。黃繼忠說，“當前的空氣污染仍然構成了威脅。”[qh]